A Weeknight Fish Chowder Reminiscent of the Shore

What’s for Dinner answers that universal question, offering recipes for simple, relatively quick dishes that use ingredients you can pick up on the way home.

A bare-bones fish chowder, made with little more than milk, potatoes and a good amount of thick-cut bacon, is one of those classic recipes that seems foolish to mess with. Made with a fish you’ve just caught, it’s the New England ideal, with rich, creamy milk and a fish stock you prepared from the head and bones of the day’s catch.

But then there are the fish chowders I’ve made with less-pristine ingredients: day-old fish, supermarket fish stock, regular sliced bacon. These chowders are good, too, but less authentic and more open to flavorful tweaks.

For example, in this recipe, I tried to keep the simplicity of the original while increasing the flavor profile. So I stirred in a little vermouth for brightness (you can use white wine instead) and a touch of hot smoked paprika for smoky complexity and a mild heat.

Of course, if you can use just-caught fish and homemade fish stock here, it will be all the better. But even when made with supermarket ingredients, it’s got the richness and balance of the classic recipe. And it’s easy enough for a weeknight meal reminiscent of the shore.

Recipe: Smoky Fish Chowder