Slow Cooker Seafood Chowder Recipe

There's a lot to love about any great seafood chowder, but when it comes to this recipe from chef and recipe developer Christina Musgrave of Tasting with Tina, there are four highlights in particular to note. First, the taste, which is just delicious, especially with a hunk of cornbread, some fresh crusty bread, or some thick southern-style biscuits on the side.

Second, there's the fact that when it comes to the seafood you use, you have wide latitude to be creative — or for it to be convenient based on what you have on hand. You can toss in shrimp, mussels, clams, a favorite fish, and on it goes. Want to make things easier? "Most grocery stores will have a bag of frozen mixed seafood," says Musgrave, "and it will contain items such as shrimp, mussels, clams, calamari, crab and so on. It's all good for this recipe! It's very flexible."

Third, there's the fact that the hands-on prep work will take you all of 10 minutes at most, as the slow cooker does the work cooking this one.

And fourth, there's the little secret you can keep to yourself that it was that easy, as your diners will never know how easy it was to whip up this delightful and actually rather fancy-seeming rich, creamy soup. Don't worry, we'll never tell, so gather your ingredients — whatever you choose them to be, on the seafood front — and let's get cooking! Well, prepping and slow cooking, that is.

As noted, there is a lot of flexibility on the seafood front with this one, but shrimp, mussels, and scallops are all good ideas here. A bag of frozen mixed seafood should suffice, as long as you make sure it's thawed by the time it needs to be added into the slow cooker. As for the more must-have ingredients, you'll need diced potatoes, a couple of cups of corn (we use frozen, but canned or fresh is fine too), some diced celery, chicken stock, salt and pepper, some half-and-half, and some freshly chopped scallions to be added at serving.

And if you want to add a bit of heat, a touch of cayenne pepper or some red pepper flakes work great in here.

Start this recipe off by getting all of your ingredients ready, so measure out 2 cups of corn, peel and dice your 2 pounds of potatoes (or scrub away at them and then dice the potatoes, if you prefer them with the skin left on), chop the celery, measure out your stock (you can wait on the half-and-half for now), and ready the salt and pepper. You can also prep your seafood, which may involve peeling and deveining shrimp, chopping fish, and so forth. You can keep your seafood in the fridge for now, as we won't need it until a bit later (as we noted earlier, it should be thawed by the time it needs to go into the slow cooker).

Get it all ready, because it all really is up to the slow cooker from here on out!

Okay, time to cook! Combine the potatoes, corn, diced celery, chicken stock, a half teaspoon salt, and the same amount pepper all in the slow cooker. Stir it all around a bit, then cook it on high for 4 hours.

As the end of that time draws near, get the seafood medley ready and measure out a cup of half-and-half, and go ahead and chop the fresh scallions so it's done for later.

Just two (very) easy steps to go! Once the four hours have passed, add the thawed seafood and the half-and-half and stir them in well, then re-cover the slow cooker and let it do it's thing for another half hour until the seafood is cooked through (sometimes mixed bags of seafood are fully cooked, and sometimes they are not, so take note of what you're using).

"The only thing I'd say is if you are iffy [whether] your seafood is cooked, use a food thermometer to make sure it's reached the appropriate temperature to consume," says Musgrave. You can easily find safe internal temperature info online.

Once the 30 minutes have passed and the seafood is cooked, go ahead and serve the chowder with chopped scallions on top. And enjoy it the same day you make it, as it's definitely best fresh, Musgrave tells us.