Or in non-Rhode Island speak, have you eaten yet? Yep, it’s state night and we’re sticking with our “island” theme for the week. Okay, it’s not an actual island as Mr. N now knows, but we’ve already done Hawaii, and besides we miss New England.
As for Rhode Island, well we knew right away what meal we’d whip up for this adventure. Any guesses?
Alright, how many of you guessed Rhode Island Clam Chowder? If you did, yay! You’re right. Now, how many of you knew that Rhode Island Clam Chowder is not a red chowder, not a white chowder, but traditionally a clear broth chowder? That’s right, tourists often go for and favor the traditional New England white clam chowders, but Rhode Islanders can be found digging in on a version that puts the clams center stage.
Now a true Rhode Island Clam Chowder uses quahogs, but we couldn’t find any so we’re making due with chopped canned clams in clam juice. 
If like us, you have to go the canned clam route, make sure to get them in the juice. You’ll need that for the broth, but we’ll get to that in a bit. First we started by heating a bit of butter and olive oil in a large stock pot. Next we gathered our chopped onions, celery and fingerling potatoes. 
Mr. N took care of chopping up a few slices of bacon for us (with a little help). 
Then, once our butter was melted and oil was hot, we tossed in the bacon, celery and onions as well as a bit of sea salt to bring out the flavors. 
After about eight minutes, when the veggies were softened and bacon a bit crispy, we added in the potatoes, clams, clam juice and some dried thyme. We then added enough water to just cover the ingredients. 
We brought the chowder to a boil, covered and simmered it for about 30 minutes. We then scooped out the soup and served it with a bit of fresh ground pepper and a side of toasted bread with sage pesto. 
And there you have it, the traditional, clear broth, Rhode Island Clam Chowder – a 40 minute meal. The results of this recipe totally surprised us. We were a bit nervous that the clams would be too over-powering for the kids, and as I mentioned to Kelly yesterday, I’m not big on chunky soups (she posted one that might convert me though). The kids, however, both ate their soups (well, Miss A at the clams) and gave it 2 spoons. They wouldn’t be too excited to eat it again, but they thought it was okay. As for Mike and I, we were a little confused about giving a soup 4 spoons – it is after all a soup – but ultimately this soup earned it. The full four spoons! The clam flavor was definitely center stage, but not over-powering, and the hint of thyme was perfection. 
Now if only we had some stuffies and a cabinet, our meal would be complete. Maybe next time. So if you’re in the mood for some clam chowder, we suggest you become a Rhode Islander for the night. Besides, it’s fun to drop your “r’s” every now and then.
And speaking of fun, we’ve finally jumped on the Facebook bandwagon. If you’re on Facebook, stop by and “like” us. We’d appreciate the love, and if you’re on FB we’ll make sure to “like” you back.
Oh, and while you’re in a “liking” mood, stop on by Yummly and vote for fellow blogger Geni’s Red Velvet Vampire Cupcakes that are up for an award. If you aren’t familiar with Geni, she’s a fantastic baker with a great sense of humor. Her posts always make me smile, not to mention several of her meals now regularly show up on the table around here. I’m still dreaming about her sweet potato soup!
Okay, that’s enough chatter for tonight. I’m off to grab a pumpkin muffin topped with some jimmies (anyone?).
Print this recipe: Rhode Island Clam Chowder
Eat, Play, Love 
This is the chowder I grew up on, living in extreme south eastern CT, might as well have been Rhode Island. I sometimes get wild and crazy by tossing in some scallops right at the end. Jeet? Ayup…
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Scallops sound like a fantastic addition to this! Thanks for the idea. 🙂
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I have been catching up on everything that I have missed while traveling in Europe. Do you know what I enjoy most about your delightful blog…it always puts a smile on my face. When you are old and don’t want to cook anymore you are going to have children that will make you meals from all over the world and the meals will bring back wonderful memories. Sp precious and special.
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Thank you so much Karen! You made my night! I may have even gotten a little teary eyed. 😉
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So glad you’re on Facebook! I’m still pretty new to the fan page thing as well. This soup sounds delicious, Kristy. It’s cooling down a bit here in CA, so this would be a wonderful dinner. Look, now as I say that tomorrow is going to be 100 degrees. I really wouldn’t be surprised!
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You know it probably will. That’s always how it goes isn’t it?! LOL.
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Kristy
You have a fabulous Creamy chowder steaming !! I’ve used the canned clams and juice and they do make a fairly good NE chowder.Love it:)
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Thanks! I was a little nervous about going the canned clam route, but it pleasantly surprised me. 🙂
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Sounds like a great soup – filled with lovely flavors and all things good – I never knew Rhode Island had it’s own chowder!!
Mary oxo
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Definitely all things good. 🙂
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What a refreshing take on the chowder, Kristy, nice to see that there is no cream used in the recipe (I just find it’s too rich for me!). Welcome to Facebook, hope you get ‘liked’ a lot. Sadly I am slowly phasing out, it’s just a little creepy the way they track you on line.
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Yeah, I know what you mean about the creepy factor. Totally understandable. 🙂 And I too love that this soup doesn’t have the cream. 🙂
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It’s raining and cold here today, and a bowl of this would be perfect right now! Looks amazing, Kristy. x
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I have a feeling we’ll make this one a lot this winter. 🙂 It’s comforting on a rainy, cold day (and not too bad on the waist line!). 🙂
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Mmm, clam chowder sounds really good right about now – and I’ve never had it RI (broth) style. Sounds very interesting – and how much do I love that you include your whole family in cooking!
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Thanks Courtney! It’s a lot of fun. Some days the kids are happy to help. Others not so much. Although lately, they’re much more apt to walk into the kitchen and ask to help. I love every minute of it! It makes things so much more entertaining. 🙂
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what a beautiful and delicious looking soup. I have to pick and chose my soups because hubby has to have like the perfect texture and chunkiess to his. He is so picky sometimes but I swear this would top his list of ones he loves
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LOL. I can totally relate to your husband. I’m the same way when it comes to soups (very picky). This one though – YUM!
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You may be the first non-Rhode Islander I know of who knows that Rhode Island-style chowder exists. You may also be the first non-New Englander I know of who knows what “jeet” means. (The rest of the exchange goes “No. Joo?” (No, did you?); “No. Sko.” (No, let’s go.)) Cheers from the Ocean State!
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I love it! I’m going to have to remember (and use) this exchange sometime. 🙂 Thank you so much for stopping by and the wonderful compliment. I now have 2 Rhode Islanders that approve of this, so it must be a good one. I know we sure enjoyed it. It’s by far my favorite chowder!
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I love how focused the kids always are when they’re helping out. Love this recipe too. And good to see you on Facebook.
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LOL. They sure can be focused. When they want to that is… 😉 Thanks Greg!
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I didn’t know Rhode Island had their own clam chowder! Good to know 🙂 It looks delicious, and it must be quite impressive to have gotten 4 spoons!!
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It’s sooooo good. And that’s coming from a non-soup lover. 😉 I’ll certainly choose this over tomato-based chowders from now on. And while I’m not ready to entirely give up the white clam chowder, I do like this version better. 🙂
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Ha-ha, the “jeet” is too funny….hadn’t heard that before. Thanks for the mention Kristy! There’s nothing like a hearty clam chowder and I have to say, this version looks fantastic. I have never made my own clam chowder though we’ve certainly enjoyed it many times in Maine. I love all of your delicious additions including the bacon, celery and thyme. Mmm…. (I thought the red potato pieces in the soup were red grapes at first!). I don’t think I’ve seen you and/or Chef Dad give very many 4 spoon designations before… I better make this one!
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That’s exactly what we were laughing about last night. We typically have only given 4 spoons to dessert recipes (and a few main and side course dishes). That’s why were really confused about giving this four spoons. We’re not usually huge fans of soups as a main course. This one though – wow! And I love that it’s fairly healthy too. 🙂
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This looks great! I like how this version uses a clear broth, I’m not a creamy type of person when it comes to soups. Mr. N must be so excited to be in the kitchen, especially using a big knife to chop up some bacon!
I noticed that you were on FB yesterday and liked your page! Congrats and hope you get many more fans!
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Thanks Lisa! I usually only like cream-based soups, that’s why I was so excited that I liked this one. It’s actually a relatively healthy soup that I really enjoy! Thanks for liking us on FB. 🙂
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Four spoons?! This must be quite the soup! I’ve actually never tried clams – wouldn’t even know what they are in French… must look them up, and actually, I didn’t even know Quahog(s) were a real thing. I thought it was just the name of the town in Family Guy, lol :p I love thin soups though – thin, brothy style, chunky soups are so awesome… Really satisfying, and I’m a massive fan of celery so I’m happy to see that going in too!
Great stuff – looks wonderful, and that bread on the side… oh my god. I want some of that so badly right now too :p
By the way – did you ever try cutting bacon with scissors (or meat shears)? I personally find it way easier than using a knife!
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LOL! I didn’t know quahogs were a real thing either. And I don’t think I’ve ever met a celery fan. You just fascinate me. 😉 Celery is one of those things that I love in certain instances, but can’t stand in others. If you come across canned clams or quahogs, you’ll have to give this a try. I think you’ll really enjoy it. As for the bread – it’s to die for. Mr. N and I both are major fans. We took a baguette, sliced it and spread around some sage pesto – basically olive oil, garlic, fresh chopped sage, parmesan, pine nuts, salt and rosemary. It’s not terribly tasty room temp, but heated up – OMG!
And I totally thought of you the other day. I woke up from a dream where I was just frantically screaming about a few bats that I found in my house. I thought of how you endured that terror in your kitchen and decided that you handled it rather well. I was a basket case in my dream. LOL. 🙂
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Oh – and I’m going to try that sheer technique next time. Great idea! Thanks! 🙂
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Safer for kids too I guess… depending on the scissors used, but as long as you don’t have scissors like two samurai swords screwed together in the middle then it should be better 😀 Can you by “part baked” baguettes where you are? I used to buy “cook it yourself at home” garlic bread, frozen, until I realised that it was just a part-baked baguette with grooves cut into it and a load of garlic mixed with herbs and butter smooshed into the grooves. So good. Actually I made a post about that a long time ago. Yum… and damnit – now you made me start drooling over garlic bread again :p
I think I bought some canned clams once… it was not a good experience. Talk about bad advertising. If I lived closer to the store I’d have taken them back. They looked *nothing* like the picture on the can and were like chopped up calamari in some funky sauce. Nothing like I thought clams were like at all :s
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Oh ick! Isn’t that awful when you buy something and it’s not at all what you expected. Calamari in a funky sauce doesn’t sound too at all. 😦 But back to the bread – because that’s good stuff. Yes, this actually was one of the part-baked baguettes. Love those! I bought a few more today and made another fun little garlic sauce to stuff into it. I’m on a bread kick lately. I’ll have to check out your garlic bread post again. 🙂
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Awesome 🙂 Did you try out my “(Maybe) The Best Bread Ever” post? – If you give it a try you definitely won’t be disappointed I think 🙂
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Ah! I knew the state as soon as I read the title!
This post made me all misty-eyed (in a good/nostalgic way). I have no interest in going back to live in lil’ Rhody again, but there’s something about the food/language/culture of the place you grew up that always sticks with you.
(*drooling* over the idea of some good stuffed quahogs)
And…
for the record…
broth chowder is the BEST in the world!!!
all that cream-based or tomato-laden stuff is for the birds! 😉
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Honestly Beth I don’t know if I’ll ever have the tomato-laden stuff again. This is way better!!!! Maybe we can meet up in RI again someday – that was a fabulous dinner if I recall. 😉 Or any where else for that matter – it’s been way too long. 🙂
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This is really new to me; sounds fabulous! I love chunky soups…okay, I love all types of soup!! I’m even more excited with the 4 spoon ranking! I think this will definitely get on my menu round for next week.
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You’ll have to let me know your thoughts. I was so surprised by how much I like this soup. It’s definitely going in our rotation for soup night. Make sure to have some good bread to go along with it. It’s a wonderful complement to the dish. 🙂
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I’d never heard of this version of the classic chowder but will definitely make some. I suspect there’d be more clam flavor being there is no tomato nor cream to mask it. I’ve never seen quahogs here but I think cherrystones would work. Thanks for sharing a great recipe!
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Sure thing John. You’ll have to let us know if you try it and like it. It’s easily one of my favorite soups. Make sure to have some bread to go along with it. 🙂
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Your soup looks like clam perfection. Mr. N just might be a chef someday…I mean the paid famous kind. Cuz we already know he is quite the chef.I can’t tell you how much it means to me for the nice complements and huge shout our! You have made my day!
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Glad to have made your day Geni! I enjoy your blog so much. 🙂 And you know, Mr. N just may be a paid chef someday.
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Geni is great and I voted for her.. but I definitely have to Like you on FB. I took the plunge two weeks ago and I’m still getting use to it lol. Now about this clam chowder.. it looks great. I’ve never tried it before.. can you believe that? But I;m willing to. And Mr N definitely is an artist because he cooks and makes beautiful art.. he may take over for you :).
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You know Kay, he just may someday. 🙂 Well, if you ever get over to RI, make sure to give this a shot. I can’t wait to get back there someday.
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What a wonderful comforting bowl of yumminess!
Off to like your page right now.
Have a super day.
🙂 Mandy
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Thanks Mandy! That’s exactly what it was – a big bowl of comfort. 🙂
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One of the best chowders around, I love it, its so full of flavour. Its nice you have clams in cans there which is good specially if clams is out of season and you are craving for it.
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You’re not kidding! I was so happy to find them. I didn’t feel up to driving around to a million grocery stores that day. 🙂
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I don’t know where I’ve been – I’ve never even heard of Rhode Island Clam Chowder before! It sounds delicious, though!
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It definitely is – I even prefer this to the white clam chowder (and I like that too!). 🙂
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This was one of my all-time favorite soups–fantastic and one of the most surprisingly good things we’ve made since we started cooking around the world.
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