Have you ever been to the Northwest? I haven’t, but it’s on my bucket list. The closest I’ve come is a visiting on a culinary journey. Well, I’m continuing that journey today with this Seattle-Style Smoked Salmon Chowder. It’s full of typical chowder ingredients like potatoes, onion, and cream. And it also has one that I rarely see cooked: smoked salmon. but I love salmon in all forms except canned, so I’m willing to bet I will like this chowder. Let’s find out!
A smoked salmon chowder loaded with tender potatoes, cream cheese for creaminess, and capers for a little added zing! This tastes just like the stuff they serve at the Seattle Pike Place Market!
The Ingredients
This smoked salmon chowder has a long-ish list of ingredients, but they weren’t too difficult to find. Of course, I had a few things on hand like the capers, spices, and tomato paste. I did have to buy the vegetables and seafood, though, and that was where I had some trouble.
The recipe calls for thick-sliced smoked salmon, but I couldn’t find any that mentioned that on their packaging. I just bought one and hoped for the best. It ended up being quite thin, but that didn’t seem to be an issue with the finished chowder.
I had selected unpeeled, raw shrimp when I ordered my groceries. I was okay with peeling them and thought I would use the peels to make a seafood stock. Well, they were out, and I ended up with peeled, cooked shrimp, so I had to use chicken stock. Both worked out, though. The shrimp just need to be warmed through, so using pre-cooked shrimp saved me a few minutes of cooking time.
The Process
Making this smoked salmon chowder was very straightforward, and I didn’t have any difficulty. The instructions were very easy to follow!
First up was the prep work. I forgot to break it out in my time, but I think it took about 12 minutes. I usually do just enough prep work in order to get the cooking started, then I finish up as I cook. However, this recipe moves fast, so I decided to get most of the prep work out of the way first. The only thing I did once I started cooking was to chop the smoked salmon and shrimp.
The recipe took me 39 minutes from start to finish, and I chose not to chill it before serving. I did have leftovers the next day, though, and I didn’t notice much of a change in the flavor. I think the potatoes absorbed some of the flavors but that’s the only difference I noticed.
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