Garlic Butter Clams with White Wine Cream Sauce
The BEST steamed clams ever! So garlicky and buttery, served with a heavenly cream sauce!
I have made this so many times I have officially lost count.
It first started as a test recipe for Valentine’s Day, but it has now been a favorite for date night! It’s restaurant-quality clams with the most heavenly white wine cream sauce.
A cream sauce so wonderful and delightful that you have all the crusty bread to sop up ALL THAT GOODNESS. Yes, the clams are equally fantastic, cooked so perfectly, but the true hero is the “dipping sauce” essentially.
No judgment please. It’s just that good.
Garlic Butter Clams with White Wine Cream Sauce
The BEST steamed clams ever! So garlicky and buttery, served with a heavenly cream sauce!
Ingredients
- 3 pounds little neck clams
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 medium shallots, diced
- â…› teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
- 1 cup clam juice
- ¾ cup dry white wine
- ½ cup heavy cream
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
Instructions
- Soak clams in cold water for at least 30 minutes; drain well.
- Melt butter in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic, shallots and red pepper flakes, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in chicken stock and wine. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until slightly reduced, about 1-2 minutes.
- Stir in clams. Reduce heat to low; cover, with a tight-fitting lid, and cook until the clams have opened, stirring once, about 8-10 minutes. Discard any unopened clams.
- Remove from heat; stir in heavy cream and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley and chives, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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I am going to try your recipe tonight. But the recipe leaves out the chicken stock and how much to use. Can you tell me how much stock to use?
Thanks
My mom wanted clams and white wine sauce for Christmas I made this recipe and it was total HIT! I’m making it again for Valentine’s Day but adding mussels. So good!
Delicious! Made the recipe as is and added 4oz cherry tomatoes at the end, no chives. I loved it, thank you!!
Any determination on how much clam juice is needed for this recipe? Also, if I used mussels instead would the cooking time be less? This recipe sounds great.
You’ll need 1 cup clam juice (or chicken stock).
Do not mince the garlic
Just crush two cloves otherwise it is overpowering. Do not use chicken stock, use the juice of the clams. Salt in unnecessary since clam juice is salty. KEEP IT SIMPLE!!!
clams
I am going to make this but I would like confirmation on the clam juice and how much to add to recipe. It is in the picture but not listed on ingredients. Thank you.
this would work beautifully with mussels too!
Picked up some fresh clams from local fish market today. Â These were perfect! Served with lots of crusty bread and a lovely Chardonnay.Â
Could you add angel hair to the sauce after you have eaten the clams?
Excellent, Delicious over linguini Yum!!
Delish
Lovely flavor really delish. Making again for Saturday night dinner. Really love it.
Terilyn
Just great that’s all I have to say just great
I had clams for the 1st time back in November 2021, this on the back of our 1st break since COVID – north of England where the sea food is exemplary. The clams were accompanied with new potatoes, fillet of hake and samphire, all doused in a beautiful light white creamy sauce- delicious! Having hankered after the same flavours and dish, I went all out to replicate and what a success it was, your sauce recipe was absolutely wonderful, deliciously tasty yet delicate enough for the clam flavours not to have been overwhelmed – thank you x Can’t wait to try it out again only with a bigger party – such a show off! Â
Chungah’s recipes are ALWAYS amazing, but this one was not the typical 5/5, but I’m going to blame myself AHAHA. This dish did not have explosive flavor that I thought it would have. It was almost tasteless and I’m not sure how that would even be possible with these ingredients.Â
I saw someone else’s review where they mentioned that they saw clam juice in the picture on this recipe, and they were wondering if clam juice would’ve been a good addition. Next time, I’ll add clam juice and chicken stock, go half-and-half on each. Maybe that would boost the flavor and give emphasis to the clam flavor. I added fettuccine noodles to this dish, which gave this a good boost.Â
I don’t know if anyone else struggled with this, but it took almost a half hour for my clams to open up and that was after I put them on medium heat. If I make this dish again I really need to watch them, because the clams got a little rubbery, but that was my fault for not taking the clams out right away after they opened!
I hope I do better with this dish next time, super fluke for my favorite website!!!
My go to now!damn delicious!!
Thank you for helping me make my first clam dish! Â
Delicious! This recipe is a keeper!
Excellent
This looks really yummy. Would you serve it with a fettuccine / linguine noodle..
Really great recipe! We totally enjoyed it. I noticed the picture showed clam juice with no mention of it in the recipe. It would make a difference in taste compared to using chicken stock. Is clam juice what you normally use?
Tempting!!!! Thank you for sharing such an amazing recipe. I am definitely going to try this weekend.
What if access to fresh clams is not an option?
Delicious!
I used this recipe as a staring off point and added kale, oyster mushrooms, and prawns to the 2lbs of steamer clams I was able to find fresh at the grocery stores nearby. I also substituted dried chives which I added along with the red pepper flakes. I took a gamble and made this for our anniversary dinner and was absolutely blown away by the flavor! A wedge of lemon and some crusty bread made the perfect meal, I basically ate it like a soup. I recommend this recipe 100 times over! Thank you!
You can buy canned whole baby clams. They should work and I would also use the juice or jarred clam juice for more flavor.
Delicious!! Highly recommend trying.Â
This looks heavenly! Â Where do you purchase your clams? Â Thank you!