Cheesy Catfish Chowder

  4.6 – 52 reviews  • Seafood

I’m constantly trying to think of new ways to fix the enormous pond in our backyard that is home to many nice catfish. One of our favorites is this.

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 45 mins
Servings: 8
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

  1. 2 tablespoons butter
  2. ½ small onion, chopped
  3. 1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth
  4. 1 cup water
  5. ½ cup chopped celery
  6. 1 cup sliced baby carrots
  7. 2 medium potatoes, cubed
  8. 3 cups milk, divided
  9. ⅓ cup cake flour
  10. 1 teaspoon celery salt
  11. 1 teaspoon salt
  12. ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
  13. 1 ½ pounds catfish fillets, cut into 1 inch pieces
  14. 1 ½ cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Instructions

  1. In a Dutch oven over medium heat, melt butter and saute the onion until tender. Pour in chicken broth and water. Mix in celery, carrots, and potatoes. Cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups milk and cake flour. Mix into the Dutch oven.
  3. Mix remaining milk, celery salt, salt, and pepper into the Dutch oven. Stirring occasionally, continue cooking the mixture about 10 minutes, until thickened.
  4. Stir catfish into the mixture, and cook 5 minutes, or until fish is easily flaked with a fork. Mix in Cheddar cheese, and cook another 5 minutes, until melted.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 347 kcal
Carbohydrate 21 g
Cholesterol 78 mg
Dietary Fiber 2 g
Protein 24 g
Saturated Fat 9 g
Sodium 968 mg
Sugars 6 g
Fat 19 g
Unsaturated Fat 0 g

Reviews

Bryan Franco
Delicious, I made it without carrots and used a 6 oz. block of Cabot White Cheddar cheese, grated. I also substituted milk with Lactaid. It was so creamy and delicious! Definitely a keeper!
Martha Brown
Followed the recipe as is. It was very good. Light and filling and flavorful.
Thomas Young
I use this recipe a lot as a base for my catfish chowder. I don’t use celery but when it’s cooked I add chopped baby spinach once the heat is turned off and leave it to blanch for 10 minutes. I also use paprika when I add the salt and pepper along with oregano and parsley. Once I used apple wood cheddar cheese and that was the most popular version. My family likes to put Fritos on top to have some crunch. Also if you want to extend the amount serve it over white rice. My mother in law has me cook this about once a week.
Kimberly Reynolds
No potatoes so added chopped regular size carrots and corn. Very tasty.
Elizabeth Crosby
I found it thickening quicker and more solidly than I preferred to ?I added another cup of milk and another can of broth. But it was nicely tasty!
Natalie Sanders
I thought this sounded so good, but the first try following the recipe was fairly bland. A second try with added red bell pepper, jalapeno, and a healthy dose of cajun seasoning wasn’t much better.
Lisa Dunn
Fantastic dish! Would work well with any hearty white fish. Halibut and Cod come to mind. Easy to make, even with all the steps and ingredients.
Shannon Anderson
I made this as part of a meal train for a neighbor who is ill. It had a GREAT texture and flavor before I added the cheese. Totally plan to make it for myself soon and leave out the cheese or use mozzarella, the only cheese I can stand. I left out the water and subbed chicken stock. Definitely adding to winter meal rotation.
Krystal Mclean
This is one of my favorite go-to recipes, since it’s an easy one pot meal…all you really need outside of the soup pot is the bowl to mix the flour and milk, and a cutting board. My variation: I increase the chicken broth to 20 oz. (2 cans of campbells)and add a chopped up parsnip. It adds an interesting contrast of flavor, and makes it more filling.
Amy Savage DDS
This was Great! I did make some changes with the spices to suit my taste! I will use this as a base recipe! Super creamy and cheesie!! Oh i also did add about of corn as well!!
David Hurley
It was great. The one change I made was I put in Cajun season in it.
Shane Jimenez
Great soup but i made some changes as well. First off I cooked my potatoes in the chicken stock (quartered and peeled). I sauteed the onions and celery separate while the potatoes cooked. When the potatoes were still firm but not soft I added a complete small carton of heavy whipping cream and the done celery and onions. After this I added baby carrots (left whole)and I used 4 pieces of cod (each piece cut into 4 pieces) loin instead of catfish (didn’t have any. I also added cajun seasoning and some mesquite seasoning. When I add the cheese I will also be adding some chopped red pepper so it can still be slightly firm when eaten. I want to try topping with bacon next time like one reader suggested.
Jessica Harris
This was just okay as far as fish chowders go. I have another recipe from this site that I like better, but I wanted to try this one because of the cheese. It wasn’t bad, just not good enough to make again.
Sean Bauer
Took a leap of faith and tried this out with 4 Swai fillets I bought on a whim and WOW am I impressed! Only changes I made were to increase the celery salt, salt, and pepper to taste and add marjoram, basil, oregano, parsley (about 1/2-1 tsp of each), 1 fresh thyme sprig, 1 bay leaf, and a dash paprika to the spices. Also, I didn’t have any celery on hand so I used frozen peas instead and I used Mexican blend shredded cheese. It’s soooo good!!
Nichole Gonzalez
Very nice. I agree with another cook that suggested a dash of curry. It made the dish. I also added garlic, bay leaf, parsley, hot sauce and paprika. This recipe will be a good base for other seafoods or meat.
Andrea Ray
Wow. Just, wow. I’ve never eaten fish soups. I’m pretty particular about my fish and am always fearful of “fishy” fish, in smell or taste, thus the idea of fish in a chowder made me very nervous. I don’t even like clam chowder! But, I wanted to do something different with the catfish in the freezer so I thought I’d give this a try. Boy, am I glad I did!! It was so delicious! I cooked it exactly as is, only adding a pinch or so of garlic powder (I can’t help it..). Then, when I poured it into the bowls to serve, I added a dash of dried parsley and a sprinkle of creole seasoning (based on another review). Perfection! Interestingly, I couldn’t taste the fish at all! Just cheesy, creamy, potato-y, yumminess. Thanks! (Next time I’ll add a little more of the creole because I liked the little bit of spice but it’s totally not necessary..)
Mr. Christopher Guzman
I only had about 3/4 lb catfish and I felt it was plenty. I very nice chowder recipe. Not too heavy. I might try adding some corn next time or maybe a bit of curry. Update. Made this again, actually forgot I had made it before until went to review! Used 1/2 tsp curry and it was lovely. Also left out the water and used two packets of boulion with 1 c water. Only used 1/4 c regular flour.
Michelle Phillips
Great soup! Added some cajun seasoning and a splash of Tapatio and it was delicious!
Sarah Chang
My boyfriend had me rate this 5 stars which is a very big deal! I added some extra ingredients: a couple tablesoons of Cajun seasoning (didn’t measure), a bay leave, and a couple teaspoons of curry powder (also didn’t measure). The curry powder makes it – it’s what changed the vote from a 4 to a 5. Also cooked the veggies longer so they were soft. Excellent recipe!
Gloria Rosario
I’ve made this many times and it always turns out great! The only thing different I do is change the 1 1/2 cups of milk to a 12 ounce can of evaporated milk to make it richer. A no-fail, easy recipe!
Claudia Pennington
I thought the flavor of this was very very good, but it was pretty watery, I suppose being a chowder, I was expecting it to be a bit thicker.

 

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