Clams and Chourico

I grew up in Plymouth Massachusetts and lived on Cape Cod for 35 years. Heavy Portuguese influence throughout this region, including my mom in law, a 1st generation immigrant from Portugal. The only chourico or linguica – either of these Portuguese sausages are fine in this recipe- my family will use is Gaspar’s, of New Bedford MA. I now order it online from my new home in Georgia. It is worth the expense to order a bunch once or twice a year and freeze it! I use the medium spiced sausage usually, or the mild. Try both to see which you prefer.

The Portuguese chorizo was dry. It didn’t knock my socks off. The clams did have a nice flavor.

This was such an awesome recipe with full flavor, for sure!! I followed the recipe exactly, but in the end, I added about 2 table spoon of white sugar. My hubby and my son both really enjoyed. Thank you!!

Loved this! I followed the recipe exactly, including the part about drinking the leftover beer. 🙂 Looking forward to try to add shrimp next time.

This recipe just didn’t do it for me, not sure if changing the sausage would make a difference, or maybe it was the beer, will try again in near future if results are different I will update my review.

Super easy & super delicious. The only change I will make next time is to use a 14oz can of tomatoes as opposed to the 28oz can. Just my personal preference 🙂 Served with toasted sourdough bread (for soaking up the broth) & a green salad. The boyfriend & I both loved it!!!

The sauce was very nice but so thin. We tossed hot pasta to it to absorb the sauce.

I made this with mussels because when I got to market they were out of clams. I also used a hard turkey sausage. We really enjoyed it, and felt that the sausage made this much heartier. Next time I’ll add some chopped fresh fennel – and I think it will be perfect!

I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E! I served this meal over cappelini pasta as I couldn’t stand to see ANY of this delicious sauce go to waste. I followed the recipe exactly, with the exception of substituting mussels for the clams. My husband asked if he could just drink the sauce with a straw! A+++ Super quick and EASY, but appears really gourmet. Great recipe!

This was fabulous!!!! I used fettucine noodles, pre-diced red onion to save time, Winn Dixie’s best chourizo, and substituted chicken bouillon cube for the bottle of clam juice. The beer i used was YuengLing Lager. Served with hot crusty bread. Will be making again!

Made this for my son’s birthday, awesome with nice crusty bread! Cook up some pasta the next day for any left over sauce!

I made this pretty much like the recipe is written but I substituted chardonnay for the beer (I don’t like the taste of beer). It probably tasted more delicate than it would if I had used beer but it was still very delicious.

Great recipe. I pulled it up as an alternative cooking clams in white wine. Make sure you use a brown beer or similar. Like another poster said you can skip the cornmeal step if you purchased your clams already cleaned up at a fish market. In my view the olive oil does not add much to the overall flavor and I reduced it to two tablespoons which was more than enough to fry the garlic. The sausage will add enough oil of its own to fry everything else. Finally, you do end up with a LOT of broth.

Outstanding recipe!!! I started by steaming 50 small clams separately and using that broth instead of bottled. I added 1lb each of fresh squid,shrimp and scallops simmered for 5 minutes and then added spices and steamed shelled clams. What a seafood sensation. Plenty of toasted sour dough bread along with a nice chianti.

Excellent! I followed this recipe as written, except using petite diced tomatoes instead of crushed, and chicken broth instead of clam juice. I used Redhook ESB for the beer. Nicely done, thanks for the recipe!

This was very good. It cooked up very fast too. I agree with previous reviewers – Portuguese chourico is absolutely a must. I had to go on a bit of a mission to find it locally but it was definitely worth it. I can imagine that the flavours would not have developed correctly without the chourico. This was delicious. It was a bit soupy though – lots of liquid left over after simmering the clams. I’m not complaining and neither is my fiancee; however plan on lots of crusty French bread so you can sop up all the broth. This is a good meal for a chilly day, lucky for us it was raining up here yesterday. It is a bit heavy so I’d hesitate to serve this on a hot summer day. Overall, delicious. I’ll be adding this to my meal rotation. Thanks for sharing!

This is a really great clam recipe. The cornmeal is to get the sand out of the clams, so unless you’re harvesting your own you can probably skip that step. This is also great with mussels. Spanish or Portuguese chourico is the key, you can’t use the Mexican kind.

This was terrific! Unique and flavorful. It’s pretty easy to make, depending on your knife skills. The presentation is impressive, too. Overall, pretty romantic and cozy – it would make a good date night if you’re not afraid of the garlic! The only thing I will change in the future is to add seafood stock in place of the clam juice. It was a tad too salty for me, and I think that was mostly from the high sodium content of the clam juice. I used precooked Spanish chorizo, and it worked wonderfully. All that simmering makes it tender. Great recipe, thanks so much for posting it.

i agree with another poster to use “portugese” churico…. and not the kind you find pre-packaged in the market. go to a portugese or spanish meat market for the homemade stuff. it really does make a big difference. great recipe!

Kev, anything you make is worth 5 stars to me!!!!!!!!!! 🙂

Great recipe and was an instant hit. One major note is to use pure Portuguese chourico, not spanish or mexican, for a truly delicious flavor!