Fish Chowder is such a great easy fish recipe that’s can’t-stop-eating-it good! A thick and hearty creamy white fish soup, I adore this combination of tender potatoes, carrots, sweet corn and peas with big flakes of fish.
A wonderful fish recipe for Easter – or anytime! Just imagine that moment when you dunk in a hunk of warm crusty bread…..
Fish Chowder Soup
This is really just a Fish Soup but I like to call it a “chowder” because the immature child within believes it sounds a heck of a lot more interesting to say “we’re having Fish Chowder for dinner tonight” rather than just “fish soup”.
Who’s with me on this? 😂
Well, whatever we think this should be called, it doesn’t matter! What matters is that it’s utterly delicious, and I think it’s a great easy fish recipe that’s a little different to the usual pan frying or baked fish recipes that can be made with many types of fish.
Best fish for fish chowder
“Meaty” firm types of fish are ideal for fish chowder, such as: Snapper, barramundi, tilapia, basa*, cod, ling, monkfish, marlin, latchet (gurnard), leatherjacket, Spanish mackerel, shark (flake), salmon.
Avoid delicate fish such as whiting, garfish, John Dory, flat fish (flounder, sole) and flathead as they tend to fall apart in soup.
Avoid lean fish like Swordfish, tuna, kingfish, normal mackerel. These tend to be a bit dry unless cooked with care if it’s not the super fatty bit like the belly which is hard to get outside of Japan! So best not used in soup.
* Popular economical fish in Australia, this is actually a type of catfish found in South East Asia.
I’m using Barramundi fillets, a popular fish here in Australia. I like how big and meaty the fillets are – 1 fillet usually weighs around 300 – 400g (10 – 14 oz).
What goes in Fish Chowder
Pretty straight forward list of ingredients (notes below):
Just some notes on a few of the items:
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Wine – optional, but it does add that little extra something something to the soup broth. It’s pretty traditional to use white wine in a seafood broth base. Can be skipped.
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Vegetables – feel free to switch with vegetables of choice, just add them according to the cook time. Potato and broccoli is great (it basically ends up looking like Potato Broccoli Soup with fish in it), or try Corn Chowder type soup with fish added. Anything goes here!
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Best broth for fish chowder – in order of preference:
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homemade fish stock – reserved for special occasions around these parts!
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high quality store bought fish stock ie not standard supermarket brands like Campbells. Read: pricey!
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clam juice – US product, not sold in Australia, hope it comes to our shores!
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chicken broth /stock – yes really, try it and be amazed how good it is in this recipe. This is what I use for everyday purposes – and it’s how this recipe is made.
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Just to be clear, there is no denying that the best seafood soups are made with homemade seafood broths and any respectable seafood restaurant will use house-made broths. But there’s also no denying that it’s not practical for most people to manhandle giant cauldrons of fish heads on any given night, and that’s the basis on which I give my recommendations!
How to make it
Chowder is a great straightforward recipe – sauté onion and garlic, deglaze the pot with white wine, add flour to make a sludge then basically tip everything else in.
The broth for Fish Chowder is thickened with the flour – no need for cream unless you want to add richness (I do not miss it).
I used to sear the fish first before making the broth, believing that this gave an overall better flavour. But actually, for fish soups, I think it’s best to just plonk the uncooked fish straight into the broth so all the fish juices leech into the soup as it poaches.
If you’ve been around since Easter of last year, you’d be forgiven for thinking the ingredients in this recipe are somewhat familiar. In fact kudos to you for picking it up! Because this Fish Chowder is in fact pretty much my favourite Easter Fish Pie – in soup form. 🙂
Try this soup with Quick Cheesy Garlic Bread…. wait until you SEE it in the video below. Makes my knees weak every single time!! Otherwise, try one of these:
Soup Dunkers
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Fish Chowder Soup
Ingredients
- 40g / 3 tbsp butter , unsalted
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 small onion , finely chopped
- 2 small carrots , halved, cut into 0.5cm / 1/5" slices
- 1/2 cup (125ml) dry white wine (can skip)
- 1/4 cup (35g) flour (plain / all purpose)
- 3 cups (750 ml) milk , any fat %
- 2 cups (500 ml) fish stock, clam juice OR chicken stock, preferably low sodium (Note 1)
- 2 cups potato , 1.5 cm/ 0.5" cubes (~1 large potato)
- 1 cup corn , frozen or canned (drained)
- 0.5 tsp salt , plus more to taste
- Finely ground black pepper
- 600 g/1.2 lb white fish fillets , skinless, cut into 2cm / 4/5" pieces (Note 2)
- 1 cup peas , frozen
Garnish/serving (optional):
- 1/4 cup green onions , halved and finely sliced (garnish)
- Crusty bread for dunking
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat.
- Add garlic and onion, cook for 5 minutes until translucent but not golden.
- Add carrots and stir through.
- Turn heat up to high and add wine. Stir then let it simmer rapidly until it's mostly evaporated.
- Add flour and stir for 30 seconds - it will become sludgy!
- Slow pour in broth while stirring to dissolve paste, then stir in milk.
- Add potato, corn, salt and pepper. Bring to simmer then turn heat down so it's simmering gently.
- Cook, stirring every now and then, for 8 minutes or until potato is almost cooked.
- Add fish and peas, simmer for 3 minutes or until fish is just cooked (should flake easily).
- Adjust salt and pepper to taste. If soup is too thick, add a touch of water or milk.
- Serve, garnished with green onions and crusty bread on the side for dunking!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More hearty soups
Life of Dozer
Dozer! I said FISH chowder, not PELICAN chowder!!!
I made this fish soup using salmon. Added prawns and squid. Used store bought chicken stock as that was all I had in the pantry. Result was delicious. I shall be making this again!
Used this recipe as a guideline rather than slavishly followed, but it was superb, thanks Nagi. Campbell’s fish stock isn’t that expensive ($2.00 for 500ml at Coles this week) and is indispensable for seafood dishes IMO.
Fantastic!
Had everything to hand except the fish – so partner picked up some snapper on the way home that evening.
I also had some celery and a zucchini that needed using – so in they went as well – and they were great!
Only other variation was that it took me nearly double the cooking time (instead of 8 mins it took around 15) to get the potatoes nicely cooked – but suspect that depends on the variety of spud and the size of the dice.
Will be making this throughout winter – utterly delicious comfort food! (and feel the urge to add some green prawns along with the fish next time!)
Thank you once again Nagi 🙂
That was so delicious and so simple and fast. The only other soup like this that I have made was a chowder with salmon from my Chefs Plate order. As a family we are trying to incorporate more fish into our diet and this hit the spot. Thank you Nagy.🇨🇦🇨🇦 I used CANADIAN haddock🤣🇨🇦🇨🇦
I used Seafood Marinara, a handful of green prawns and some Snapper. Just my husband’s favourites. For lunch Good Friday, with Smoked Cod for dinner.
Good morning from Malta 🇲🇹
I just want to know if doing the Fish Chowder soup with coconut milk will be a mistake. Milk being a problem for me.
Thanks!
Hi Margaret, I was intrigued by your question. I often swap in coconut milk with different recipies so I think this might work well and maybe a few Thai referenced tweaks…might try it myself, as I am veering off animal protein these days. Good luck!
Made this last night and was “souper” delicious! I was out of white wine (appreciated “can skip” comment)…and I used frozen cod (not thawed). I used fish stock/clam juice. This will be my go to chowder!
Hey … soup was great… great flavor an texture for a chowder…
Served it up with some BBQ oysters a clams….with sourdough… Thank you 😎
Super easy, and delivers on flavor!
This is the first chowder I’ve ever made. It’s always seemed so daunting. Today I happened to have some extra fish that needed to be cooked up, and I looked for a chowder recipe and found this one. I couldn’t believe it only takes 35 minutes to make a chowder, but my kid saw me watching the chowder video and said we should try it, so we did. The chowder was DELICIOUS. We used snapper and flounder and had no peas on hand, but everything else was according to recipe, and it turned out great. We all loved it!
Made as directed without corn and boyfriend had 3 bowls! With the corn he probably would have had 4! Thank you.
I’ve made this a number of times now. I love both soup and fish so its my sweet spot in winter. The recipe is very flexible to adjust. Skip corn, add celery or fennel, add thyme, bay leaf or parsley. Add some spices such as a little smoked paprika or chilli. My suggested improvements are sweat the onions carrots garlic veg in the butter longer slower with a little salt, Cook the potatoes for at least 15 mins before adding the fish. A little extra flavor is good. Smoked paprika, thyme parsley bay leaves, chilli, fish sauce
Amazing recipe and quick and easy thankyou delicious
My go-to recipe. I used frozen peas/carrots/corn mix and thawed marinara mix instead of just fish. But the potatoes did take much longer than 8 minutes to cook.
I have been traumatised over the years by too many undercooked potatoes. These days I alway par cook potatoes before adding to a dish. The easiest way to do this is a few minutes in the microwave so the potatoes go into the dish hot and partly cooked, rather than cold. It always works.
It depends on how large you cut your potatoes. Nagi may have cut hers smaller than you. That said, everyone’s stove/oven heat is a bit different. Recipes are a guide as everyone’s results are going to be a bit different.
Made this for dinner tonight and it was excellent! Will definitely make again. Not sure what you mean by “normal” mackerel Nagi, but I made it with school mackerel (not Spanish mackerel) we caught ourselves off the north west coast of WA where we are currently camping and it was great! Threw in a couple of handfuls of prawns too. Thanks for yet another tasty recipe.
Tastes great! Unfortunately had to use chicken stock cubes and also realised didn’t have flour so used potato starch instead which worked well, but I think a bit thicker than would with flour. Used ling fish. Very simple and tasty! Thanks Nagi
I couldn’t get high quality fish stock so, unfortunately, I had to substitute it with Campbells fish stock. Still turned out delicious and I can’t wait to try it again when I can get the good stuff.
I love your recipes and this is another winner. I used halibut and no milk. Just chicken broth. I used organic toasted sesame oil when serving and Italian parsely and fresh thyme. Thank you❣️
Yum! Made this for Good Friday dinner. Needed to cook the carrots and potatoes for twice as long but otherwise perfect. I used a combination of verjuice and water instead of wine and it worked well. Didn’t have fish stock either so used chicken stock. Great recipe. Will make again.
Simple to make and delicious.