Every summer brings a bounty of Alaska seafood to our kitchen, and while we have a lot of beautiful sunny days, the rainy days always show up too and when they do we whip up this delicious, hearty Alaskan Seafood Chowder to warm ourselves up!  We vary the recipe based on what we have fresh and/or what we have in terms of leftover fish from the night before–grilled fish works particularly well, but smoked is always a good choice too.

Ingredients:

Alaska Seafood – Razor Clams, Grilled or Blackened Halibut or Salmon, King/Dungeness/Tanner Crab, Smoked Salmon, Side Striped Shrimp, Sea Bass or other Rockfish, Ling Cod, Yelloweye Rockfish.
(Above seafood can be added directly to chowder raw, grilled, blackened, seared or poached to your liking)
3 Cups Milk, warmed slightly
4 Medium Boiled dice potatoes WITH potato water (3 cups)
1/2 Medium Onion, diced finely
1/2 Pound of Bacon
3/4 Cup Instant Potato Flakes
3 Finely Diced Scallions
Paprika
McCormick California Magic Lemon Pepper & Lawry’s Seasoning Salt with Black Pepper

Preparation:

Step#1:  Dice potatoes, boil in pot of 4-5 cups water with kosher salt. Leave in water after fork tender.
Step#2:  Slice bacon into bits, fry, remove from oil, add sliced onion and saute in bacon oil.
Step#3:  Heat 3 cups of milk on low in microwave or stovetop until lukewarm.
Step#4:  Combine above ingredients into one large dutch oven pot or crockpot. Season with lemon pepper and seasoning salt.
Step#5:  Add cooked bacon and 1/4 cup of instant potato flakes. Stir, cook on low and allow to thicken.
Step#6:  Add seafood in any and all forms of any and all types.
Step#7:  Add additional instant potato flakes, 1/4 cup at a time, to thicken as needed.
Step#8:  Top with finely chopped scallions and a sprinkle of paprika