Creamy Shrimp Corn Chowder
Creamy and dreamy and not as heavy as a traditional chowder but still packed full of flavor, our Creamy Shrimp Corn Chowder is one of our new favorite cozy comforting winter soups!
This is a good one, friends! I have been working on this slightly healthier chowder recipe for a long time now, and finally have it dialed in! Our Creamy Shrimp Corn Chowder is a new favorite in our house. It’s creamy without heavy cream and it is just bursting with flavor and juuusst the right amount of bacon that doesn’t overpower the plump delicious shrimp! It’s a cozy comforting winter soup that has everything you need for a well-balanced, absolutely tasty meal!
Ingredients Needed
- Shrimp – You can use fresh or frozen, just be sure that they’re peeled and deveined.
- Bacon – Just enough to add a great salty smoky flavor, but not too much that it overpowers the tender shrimp. Plus just a lil’ bit of that bacon grease with the butter is *chef’s kiss.
- Corn – Again not too much to overpower it and make it just a corn chowder with shrimp, especially since we use it to help make this creamier without adding heavy cream!
- Flour and Butter – To saute those veggies in and to help thicken the soup.
- Garlic, Onion, and Celery – A staple start to most delicious soups!
- Red Pepper – Just a touch for color and a bit of sweetness.
- Potatoes – Skip the russets for this one, you want to use a waxy potato that’ll more easily keep its shape like red.
- Milk – We use 2% to keep this creamy chowder recipe just a little bit healthier while still being creamy, but you can of course use whole or heavy cream (or a combo of any) to add even more richness, but we think it’s just right with 2%.
- Chicken Stock – Or vegetable. Have you made your own, yet?
- Soy Sauce – Just a touch adds an amazing level of umami!
- Spices – Ground Mustard, Celery Salt, Paprika, Cumin, Salt, and White Pepper all work together to create a wonderfully seasoned chowder that compliments all of the chowder’s components!
Helpful Tools
(Amazon affiliate links)- You can find all of my kitchen essentials here!
Dutch Oven – Or your favorite large soup pot!
Blender – This is to create that creamy corn that helps add some creamy texture to the soup.
Ladle – To help serve that delicious creamy chowder!
What makes it a Chowder vs. Soup
Chowders are made with cream or milk and it is thickened with either flour and milk or cream while soups have a water or broth base. Chowders will also often have seafood, vegetables, and potatoes while in soups you will find just about anything like pasta, grains, vegetables, and meats. Bottom-line, it comes down to the broth. Chowders = milk/cream and Soup = water/broth and ultimately a chowder can be referred to as a kind of soup, but soups aren’t typically called chowders – the exceptions being Manhattan Clam Chowder and Rhode Island Clam Chowder.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Crisping up the bacon is your first step to prep for this amazing chowder. You don’t want too much bacon because the shrimp is the star of the show here, just 4 slices is enough to add a great salty smokiness without outshining the shrimp. Also, be sure to keep at least a tablespoon of that bacon grease to add your butter to, too!
Creaming the corn is our trick to creating creaminess in this chowder without adding heavy cream! Just add 1/2 of the corn and 1/2 a cup of milk to the blender until creamy. You could also use a can, but it’s so easy to make your own from scratch with just 2 ingredients!
Once you have your bacon and creamed corn ready, then the rest of this chowder comes together really easily! Add that butter to your bacon grease, saute onions, then add the garlic, celery, red pepper, and flour and give it all a good mix so it’s all well coated.
Then it’s just a matter of adding the cream corn, slowly adding the milk and stock then the potatoes and corn and soy sauce. Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer until those potatoes are nice a tender. The final step is to add the crumbled bacon and shrimp in the final minutes of cooking!
The shrimp will only take about 2 minutes to cook in your simmering chowder, and then it’s ready!
Finish with some fresh parsley and you have an absolutely flavor-packed Creamy Shrimp Corn Chowder!
It’s just as delicious to eat as it is beautiful to behold!
Recipe Tips
By using some of that bacon grease, you’ll build in so much extra flavor to the base of your chowder. It’s definitely a step you don’t want to miss!
Of course, adding that crispy crumbled bacon to your chowder while it cooks with the shrimp will make it not crispy and crumbly anymore, so you can either add it all into the chowder or just add some of it and use the rest as a nice crispy garnish.
This is a key step to getting that creaminess without adding heavy cream. While you can use canned creamed corn, we prefer to let the flavor of the corn and the milk shine on its own!
We’ve made this recipe with both frozen and fresh shrimp. See recipe notes for using frozen. While it’s of course still delicious with frozen, we do prefer it ever so slightly with fresh.
Waxy potatoes like red or yellow are best for a chowder because unlike starchier potatoes (like Russets), they have a higher moisture and sugar level which means that they hold their shape better in a chowder.
A bowl of plump shrimp with a lil bit of salty smoky bacon, sweet corn and red bell pepper, and some hearty potato. All in an incredibly flavorful creamy broth, seriously, our Creamy Shrimp Corn Chowder is SO good.
You Also Might Like
- Dutch Oven Chicken and Dumplings Soup
- Creamy Curried Cauliflower Soup
- Roasted Potato Parsnip Soup
- Rhode Island Clam Chowder
- Healthy Leek and Potato Soup
- White Bean Kale Potato Soup
Beautiful, delicious, hearty, and comforting. Everything you could want and more in a cozy chowder!
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
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Creamy Shrimp Corn Chowder
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb shrimp peeled and devined
- 2 cups red potatoes diced
- 3 cups corn divided
- 1 cup white onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic
- 4 strips bacon 1 tablespoon grease reserved
- 3/4 cup celery chopped, approximately 2 large stalks
- 1/2 red bell pepper chopped
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 1 1/2 cup 2% milk divided
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 cups chicken stock
Instructions
- Cook Bacon: Cook bacon over medium heat in a Dutch oven (or your soup pot) until crispy. Set aside to cool. Drain the grease from the Dutch oven, but keep 1 tablespoon of the grease in the pot. Crumble bacon when cooled and set aside.
- Cream Corn: Add 1 1/2 cups of corn to a blender with 1/2 cup of the milk and blend until corn is creamy. Set aside.
- Saute Veggies: Return heat to medium and add butter to melt. Add onion and saute for 2-3 minutes until translucent. Add garlic, celery, and bell pepper and saute for another 3 minutes.
- Add Flour: Add flour to the veggies and stir well to combine until all of the veggies are coated. Add paprika, ground mustard, celery salt, cumin, white pepper, and salt and stir well to combine.
- Add Corn and Milk: Add creamed corn, mix well, and then slowly add the milk, whisking as you add to thicken.
- Add Stock: Slowly add stock, whisking as you add to thicken. Add soy sauce. Once all of the stock is added, turn the heat up to high and add corn and diced potatoes. Bring the pot to a boil and then turn it down to a strong simmer. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes, until potatoes are fork tender (see recipe notes).
- Add Shrimp: Add the shrimp and crumbled bacon and let cook for 2 more minutes.
- Serve: Garnish with some fresh parsley and enjoy!
You have ground mustard listed in the ingredients list, but it’s not included in the actual instructions part of the recipe. I assume it just goes in with all the other spices when you add them?
Hi Vincent! Yes, you are correct. Sorry about that – it’s updated to be more clear now. 🙂
This creamy shrimp corn chowder is an absolute winner in my household! The combination of succulent shrimp, sweet corn, and creamy broth is pure comfort in a bowl.
Oh I love to hear that, Savita!! Thanks for sharing!
Oh my, this chowder recipe is delicious! I just love the creamy texture this brings making it so enticing!
This creamy shrimp corn chowder is so flavorful and incredibly delicious.
I love it so much!
Wonderful to hear, DK! Thank so much for taking the time to leave a review!