Camp Seafood Chowder
Canned crab and squid in a thick corn-and-potato base. Heavy to carry, worth it at a drive-in site.
- calories
- 610
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 44
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 50 min
- water
- 700 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Dutch oven
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
|---|---|---|
| Dried onion flakes | 1/3 cup | stands in for a chopped red onion |
| Dried celery flakes | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried sweet red pepper | 1/3 cup | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| All-purpose flour | 1/2 cup | |
| Canned chicken broth | 2 cans (10.5 oz each) | |
| Water | 1 1/2 cups | |
| Dehydrated diced potatoes | 1 1/2 cups | the boxed hash-brown kind rehydrates in the pot |
| Dried diced carrot | 1/2 cup | |
| White pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried thyme | 1/2 tsp | |
| Bay leaves | 2 | |
| Evaporated milk | 2 cans (12 oz each) | shelf-stable until opened |
| Cream-style corn | 1 can (16 oz) | |
| Hot sauce | 1 tsp | |
| Canned crabmeat | 2 cans (6 oz each) | drained and flaked |
| Canned squid or calamari | 1 can (4-6 oz) | drained, cut into rings if whole |
Method
- Set a deep pot or Dutch oven over a moderate fire or a stove on medium. Add the oil, then the onion, celery, and pepper flakes with a splash of water. Let them soften for about five minutes.
- Stir in the garlic powder and the flour. Keep it moving for a minute so the flour cooks and stops tasting raw.
- Pour in the broth and the water slowly, stirring the whole time so no lumps set up. Add the potatoes, carrot, white pepper, thyme, and bay leaves.
- Bring it to a boil, then pull it to the edge of the fire and simmer uncovered about 20 minutes, stirring often. The bottom scorches if you walk away.
- Add the evaporated milk, corn, and hot sauce. Bring it back to a bare boil.
- Stir in the crab and squid and cook five minutes, no longer. Squid gets rubbery fast.
- Fish out the bay leaves before you serve it.
The original is a home kitchen chowder built on fresh shrimp, fresh crab, and a fridge full of chopped vegetables. None of that survives a weekend outdoors, so the fresh seafood is gone and canned crab and squid do the work instead. The vegetables come dried, which means they rehydrate in the broth you were already boiling rather than costing you a cutting board and a knife.
The flour is what makes this a chowder instead of soup with things in it. Cooking it in the oil for a minute before the liquid goes in is the step people skip, and it is the reason a pot ends up pasty. Evaporated milk holds up to heat far better than fresh milk and needs no cooler until the can is open, so plan to use both cans in one sitting. This is a heavy meal by weight — four full cans — which is why it belongs at a site you drove or paddled to, not one you walked to.
Packing
Cans go in the bottom of the food crate. Put the flour, dried vegetables, and spices in one bag together so the base is a single pour. Bring a can opener you have actually tested.
Variations
- Swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth and the seafood for two cans of white beans if you want a meatless pot.
- A pouch of smoked oysters stirred in at the end adds depth without another long cook.
- No dried potatoes: use a can of whole potatoes, diced, and cut the simmer to ten minutes.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/seafood-chowder