Mushroom chowder is an incredibly delicious comfort food. Make this creamy soup, which is rich, earthy and full of home-grown flavor!

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you if you click through and make a purchase. See my full disclosure here.
Mushroom chowder is a delicious adaption, based on a staple of my homestead cooking which I named “Random Chowder”. Random Chowder, among a few other recipes, lives at the core of my homestyle cooking: made from scratch and consistently delicious, even when I mix up the ingredients now and then. The secret to it’s consistent deliciousness lies in a few ingredients that I always use, but most of all, the quality of the ingredients. When you use homegrown vegetables and meat, the result is so flavorful you’ll find it hard to stop eating!
Making Mushroom Chowder

Cooking here at my homestead can be a little challenging at times. Without a kitchen, it can be adventurous too, especially in winter or stormy weather. I normally try to keep my cooking very simple, to avoid having to run all over the place to find ingredients.
My freezers are in the trailer, my fridge and canned goods in the yurt and my pots and pans could be anywhere, catching or storing rainwater. My dish washing station is on an old trailer that holds an IBC tote with my water supply. Many of my things are still packed away in boxes in the depths of a trailer somewhere, so I do without them for now.
But some dishes are just so amazing that I don’t mind running around a bit to make them. And I make enough for a week’s worth of dinners. Random chowder is one of them. And believe me, I don’t get tired of it, it’s just so good. In fact I hate it when I run out!
Now, mushroom chowder is a dish that I developed when faced with the blessings of a huge supply of winecap mushrooms that I have been growing in my garden. This year I harvested close to 25 pounds and put several bags into the freezer, dried a few, and cooked up the rest. And my favorite dish for adding mushrooms, is random chowder. In fact, the addition of mushrooms makes random chowder so distinctly special, that I actually gave it its own name: Mushroom chowder!
You might wonder: What the heck is Random Chowder?
In this homesteading life, you start to think different about food and meals. No longer do I make a list of ingredients to shop for in the grocery store for a meal I have planned to make that evening. Now I work the other way around. In the summer, I go into the garden and pick what is ripe. In the winter, I go into the pantry, see what canned or stored goods I can find that are easy to reach, then I do the same with the freezer and looking at those items, I decide what to make with it. Which in my case is almost always a soup. I love soups, especially in winter.
And this is how random chowder got it’s name. I have always loved chowder, and used to make corn chowder or clam chowder regularly, but I don’t have clams usually and not always corn. But pretty much everything that I can put in a stew, tastes even better in a chowder. So whatever I can find randomly in the garden or in the pantry, will go into my chowder. And it ALWAYS turns out amazing.
Enter Mushrooms

The most amazing chowder though is one that includes Mushrooms. Fresh or frozen or dried. Lots of them! It gives the chowder such a deep, umami flavor, that is hard to achieve with other ingredients. Add to that chopped home-cured bacon, some pork shoulder or rib meat, some leeks or onions, greens and potatoes, and you’ll arrive at a chowder that is fit for a king! Incredibly delicious! I mean, REALLY INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS! If you try this, I should point out that you’ll not want to run out. So make extra and it actually gets better each day as the flavors meld. Soo amazing!
Well, you probably want to know how to make this chowder, so here is the recipe:
How to make Random Chowder with Mushrooms:

Warning: I never make it the same way from one time to another, so you’re getting my latest version here, but realize that if your ingredients don’t match exactly, it will still turn out amazing! It just always does, even if you don’t have mushrooms, just substitute another vegetable such as corn or beans. This recipe will make about 8-10 servings as a main meal. And you should plan for leftovers, because it tastes even better the next day! It will keep for about a week in the refrigerator.
Equipment:
8 qt stockpot with a heavy bottom – Use stainless steel if possible or enamel. I like the Tramontina brand ( if you buy this brand, get the ones made in Brazil!)
Turner or large spoon – Use one that is appropriate for your pot, but I like my stainless steel one in a stainless steel pot.
Cutting board and knife
A few bowls – Use to hold your chopped ingredients, so they are ready to add while you cook.
Ingredients:
If you want incredibly delicious random chowder or mushroom chowder, you’ll want to include any items that I marked essential. It does not mean that they can’t be substituted, but I find that the result, if you leave them out, is a less flavorful to ‘meh’ chowder.

Butter or lard – I mostly use home-rendered lard in my cooking, because that is what I have in the pantry.
Mushrooms – Use any mushrooms that you like. I use winecaps, because that is what I grow in my garden. But Portobello or Button mushrooms will work just as well too, or Lion’s mane, oyster mushrooms, or any wild edible mushrooms if you can get those. Although I’m partial to winecaps, they all make incredibly good chowder.
Onions – I always like to go heavy on my onions. Alliums are so good for your health and they really go well with mushrooms, so don’t skimp here. Onions or leeks are essential in my incredibly delicious random chowders.
Leeks (optional) – I did find a few leeks in my food forest when I was making my last batch, so I added them. When I have a lot of leeks growing, I often use them instead of onions in my chowder. They are really yummy in a creamy soup!
Smoked bacon chopped – This is one of the essential ingredients, although I’ve substituted with ham before and it was still really good. But the smokey bacon flavor is just really perfect for an overall superior chowder. I prefer my homegrown and home-cured and smoked bacon here, but there are some pretty good brands out there if you look. Homegrown just has so much better flavor. If you’re considering raising pigs for meat, I highly recommend it. They are such cool animals and homegrown pigs make great bacon.
Large garlic cloves – And yes, garlic!! I use this heavily, but 4 cloves should be sufficient for a great flavor if you’re a timid garlic user. And some garlic is essential for an incredibly delicious chowder.
Bone broth, meat juices or ham stock – Use any rich, concentrated bone broth or ham stock. If you use ham stock, it adds a great flavor and seasoning, but taste it at the end before you add more salt. If you’re roasting some meat for this recipe, use the juices instead if you have enough. I always add at least a pint of water before roasting, that will make some nice rich broth for the soup.
In this recipe I’m using the juices from the roast and some frozen concentrated ham stock. Rich homemade stock or meat juices is an essential ingredient in incredibly delicious chowder.
Milk – My milk these days is fresh goat’s milk. But use what you have, they all work, just be sure to use full fat milk for a creamy and flavorful chowder. Skinny milk doesn’t work well here. And, you might need a little more than 2 quarts if you want it pretty soupy. Whole milk is essential for this recipe to be incredibly delicious!
4 large potatoes – I love potatoes and those are pretty much one of the essentials in a great chowder. Lately, I have also used sweet potatoes, but prefer regular “earth apples” (a German nick name for potatoes) for this recipe.
Approximately 2 pounds of meat of your choice cut into cubes (optional, but highly recommended) – Alright, here you can use what you have or not use any. But in my chowder, meat is a huge plus if I have it. Leftover pork, beef, chevon, lamb, chicken. I’ve used them all, depending on what was in my freezer (and what I didn’t have to dig too deep for, lol). I’ve also used home-cured ham, which works great in chowder. Just be careful about adding salt later, you might not need any if you use home-cured ham.
For this recipe, I had a couple of racks of ribs that kept getting in my way in the freezer, so I took them out and braised them together with a small pork shoulder roast. I probably had a bit more than 2 pounds of meat, but I like to go heavy on meat and well, this was such tasty meat! And no matter what kind of meat you choose, they all make incredibly delicious chowder.
A bowl full of fresh leafy greens, or a small bag (about 1-2 cups) of frozen – While the amount is very much adjustable according to your preference, I like a good amount of green bits floating in any soup. In this recipe I used sweet potato leaves. They were my most prolific green this past summer, given that all my cabbage type plants, chards, and mustards were stripped of any green parts by bugs this year. I’ll have to address that next year for sure! Live in a new place and learn! Anyway, I’ve used kale, collards, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, stinging nettles, lamb’s quarters, sorrel, purslane, chard and beet greens in the past. They all make incredibly delicious chowder.
Corn (optional) – My corn harvest turned out dismal this season and so I have just 2 bags in the freezer. I’ll save those for now. But I love corn in my chowder. If I have plenty, I’ll add it for sure.
Hot peppers (optional) – These are not optional in my kitchen, lol. I’ll use either fresh chilies or my fermented hot chili paste or fermented jalapeños when I don’t have fresh ones in the garden. Powdered cayenne or jalapeño powder works too.
Sweet peppers (optional) – I love peppers in most dishes and chowder is no exception. However, if I don’t have abundant peppers in the garden or freezer, I skip them.
Sour cream, and/or heavy cream (optional but delicious) – I rarely add these, because I don’t grow it here on my homestead. Goat’s milk doesn’t separate as well as cow’s milk and so I use what I have, which is rich, full-fat goats milk. But let me tell you, it is ‘udderly’ delicious even without the cream, and my fatty pork adds a lot of richness to the chowder too. However, the cream raises your chowder into the realm of luxurious though, which I like occasionally and will employ it if I happen to have some leftover cream on hand, but it’s not essential for an incredibly delicious chowder.
Flour (optional) if you want it thicker. I don’t add it. – Ok, I used to add flour always until a couple of years ago. I got tired of waiting for my chowder to get thick and so I decided to just not thicken it one day. And to my surprise, I loved it that way. I don’t miss that thickening at all. But you might prefer it, since chowders are usually thickened, so go ahead and add it, it’ll be incredibly delicious either way.
Salt, pepper, nutmeg, paprika, thyme, oregano, cayenne, parsley – Use your favorite spices, but this is what I like. Although most of the time I forget the nutmeg and it’s still incredibly delicious. Careful with the salt if you’re using salted stock, bacon, ham or ham stock.
Other optionals:
Curry (optional) – I rarely use curry, but I have tried it in the past and it is actually really good. You’ll add some healthy turmeric that way and I think it goes best with a chicken based chowder.
Okra – I used okra for the first time this year in every dish I made, because it grew so prolific in my garden. I never grew okra in the garden before, but since I’m in the south now, I figured that’s a must grow item. And I discovered that I love it and it grew on me, so now that the garden is done, I miss it. There are a few bags in the freezer though, so I’ll be adding it occasionally to my meals. I think it helps make incredibly delicious mushroom chowder!
Beets (They will make your chowder pink!) – I love beets in most dishes, and they are actually great in chowder, I just don’t like that it turns the chowder pink. So I reserve my beets for stews such as my grandma’s Ukranian (Bessarabian) Borscht. I’ll post that ultra-delicious recipe sometime soon, so stay tuned and subscribe to my newsletter to get the updates for this blog.
Sweet potatoes (add later so they don’t turn to mush) – This was a first with my last batch of mushroom chowder. I never grew sweet potatoes before, but had a really great harvest this year, while my potatoes got decimated by blister bugs. So in lieu of regular potatoes, I’ll be learning to use sweet potatoes more. And I really like them, although maybe not quite as much as regular spuds, but they did taste great in my chowder too, and my chowder turned out incredibly delicious even with substituting those sweet potoatoes. One thing I’m learning is to add the sweet potatoes near the end of cooking, as they only take a few minutes to get done.
Parsnips, carrots, turnips, salsify, burdock, kohlrabi – These are all great in a creamy soup, so if you like them and grow them, do use them in your chowder. They all work well for an incredibly delicious chowder.
Green beans – I use green beans most of the time when I make chowder. Beans are just so good in a creamy soup. So to me they are pretty much a staple chowder ingredient, except when I have my pot full with too many other things already and they won’t fit. But beans do make a tasty contribution for an incredibly delicious chowder.
Use what is ripe or what you need to use up in your freezer – Well, be creative and resourceful! Chowder, fortunately, is one of those dishes, that make just about any ingredient taste incredibly delicious!
Step-by-step Instructions:
Pardon some of the grainy pictures, I’ll try to replace them eventually, but some of these were done after the sun went down, and I was cooking by headlamp. Not ideal for picture shoots!
01. Prepare your meats

Here I’m getting ready to braise a pork shoulder roast that I browned in my dutch oven, and added the potatoes to be roasted along with it. I’ll cover it with the lid and then it’ll slowly roast inside my grill for a few hours. All of it goes into the soup later.
Roast your pork, cook your ham, braise your ribs, etc., or chop leftover meat. I like to use slow braised pork ribs or shoulder roast, or a shoulder ham or ham hocks. Save the broth, grease and all, for making the soup. Ham broth adds the best flavor!
02. Chop all your vegetables and meat

Chop everything into cubes or bite-sized bits. (Frozen vegetables don’t need to be defrosted, just toss the chunk into the pot after you add the broth and it’ll defrost as it cooks).

03. Melt the fat
Melt the butter or lard in the large stock pot on med-low heat.
04. Cook the bacon

Add the bacon and render it on low heat, then turn up the heat a little and brown it.
05. Add the Onions and/or Leeks

Lightly brown the onions and/or leeks. Turn down the heat and cook till limp and translucent.
06. Add Mushrooms and Garlic

Turn the heat up a little and add the mushrooms and garlic. Saute till the mushrooms are are limp and shrunk.

07. Add the meat, broth and vegetables
Add the meat, potatoes, beans and other long cooking veggies first, along with the bone broth, ham broth or roasting juices.

Place the greens on top and don’t stir them in yet.

Cover and simmer on low for about half an hour or till the potatoes and other vegetables are soft.

08. Add Milk

Give it a good stir and then add the milk and heat on medium to a simmer. Simmer slowly for about 5-10 minutes.

I like to clip a clothes pin on the side of the pot, to keep a little space, which helps prevent the soup from boiling over when it starts to simmer.
09. Season to taste and thicken
10. If you like it thick, pour the heavy cream or some milk into a canning jar, add the flour, close tightly with a lid. Shake it vigorously to incorporate the flour. Pour through a strainer into the soup (or omit the strainer, I never use it and don’t care about a few little lumps). Stir well and simmer slowly, while stirring, for about 5-10 more minutes to thicken.
11. Add cream if desired
If you like it rich and creamy, add the sour cream now. It also adds even greater flavor and richness to an already awesome dish. Keep it on the medium heat till it comes up to just before simmering again. Be sure to stir so it won’t stick at the bottom. Once it gets to just before a simmer, immediately turn it off so it doesn’t curdle.
13. Serve your chowder

Serve, garnished with some fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped parsley if you have it, or use salt-cured parsley (this is what I do in the winter). And serve it with a crusty slice of country sourdough bread for dipping (A super tasty recipe will come soon. Stay tuned and subscribe to get my updates!), or a slice of my easy kamut sourdough bread, toasted and slathered with some real butter, salted schmalz, or salted pork cracklings.
Enjoy this incredibly delicious Mushroom Chowder!

There, now you have one of my favorite dinner recipes ever. I can promise you that it will turn out delicious if you follow my few basic rules! It just always does. I don’t use any thickener in mine anymore although I used to. So test it both ways. I’m sure you’ll like it either way. Don’t be afraid to substitute, omit, add etc. It’s a homestead soup, and that’s what we do. We use what we have and >Gourmet this and that< can’t hold a candle stick to this kind of homegrown random cooking! The secret to incredibly delicious homestead food is in real food ingredients and your blood, sweat, tears and joys that went into growing it!
Let me know what you think about my random chowder with mushrooms below in the comments. What are your favorite ingredients?
Join up to get updates on growing and using foods on the homestead. I’ve created a newsletter just for you, so you’ll never miss a new post or any homestead tips I pass along!
More homestead recipes:
Ancient grain sourdough bread – The easiest sourdough sandwich style bread you can imagine. No kneading required and it bakes up with a great dense but airy crumb that’s chewy and tastes amazing.
Sourdough starter – Sourdough starter from scratch using just flour and water. Learn how sourdough works and how you can use it to bake delicious breads without yeast!
Salt-cured herbs – Preserving delicate herbs for the cold season, using either fermentation or salt-curing. Keep a jar of your favorite herbs in the refrigerator. It preserves the fresh flavor and nutrients for a year or more.
Zwiebelkuchen, a German onion quiche – Delicious German fall tradition. Make some today, you won’t regret it!
Einkorn Zucchini Bread – Make this delicious zucchini bread that is moist, healthy, and doesn’t skimp on flavor! Delicious!
Dutch Babies Recipe – Here is a great breakfast recipe for any time! A simple oven pancake with so many serving possibilities, from sweet to savory!
Bonny clabber – What is clabber milk and its uses – Learn to make bonny clabber, the original cheese. Nature’s way of preserving milk. A tasty, creamy cheese that makes a really good frosting for Einkorn Zucchini Bread.
Make your own chevre cheese from scratch – How to make super versatile creamy, spreadable cheese that can be used as a dip, or spread, for baking, for savory or sweet shakes, fresh or aged. Replace store bought cream cheese with this healthy version!
Natural cheese making Process – Make your own mesophilic and thermophilic cheese starter and use it to make cheese the natural way. Make yogurt or sour cream from scratch with your own homemade starter too.

Hearty Mushroom Chowder: Rich, Earthy, and Incredibly Delicious!
Equipment
- 8 quart stockpot with a heavy bottom – if you don't have one, consider shopping Tramontina brand cookware.
- Turner or long-handled cooking spoon
- Cutting board and knife
- A few bowls
Ingredients
- 2-4 Tbsp butter or lard
- 1-2 lbs mushrooms
- 1-2 onions – essential!
- 2-3 large leeks – optional
- ½ – 1 lb bacon chopped – essential
- 4-6 large garlic cloves – essential
- 1 quart of bone broth or ham stock – or use the juice from roasting the meat. A rich, concentrated homemade broth is an essential ingredient.
- 2 quarts whole milk – essential! You might need a little more if you want it more soupy.
- 4 large potatoes – essential
- 1-2 lbs Meat of choice cut into cubes – kind of optional but highly recommended
- 4 quarts of fresh leavy greens – or a small bag (about 2 cups) of frozen.
- 2 cups corn – optional
- 4-5 hot peppers – optional, but recommended
- 1 cup of sweet peppers – optional
- 1 cup sour cream and/or ½ -1 cup heavy cream – optional but delicious
- ½ cup flour – optional, if you want to thicken it, I don't.
- Salt,pepper, nutmeg, paprika, thyme, cayenne, oregano, parsley
Find more optionals in the notes below!
Instructions
- Prepare your meats (Roast your pork, cook your ham, braise your ribs, etc.) or chop leftover meat. I like to use slow cooked pork ribs or shoulder roast best, or a shoulder ham or ham hocks. Save the broth for making the soup. Ham broth has great flavor. (I save some of mine whenever I cook a ham, just for making this chowder!)
- Chop all your vegetables and meat into cubes or bite-sized bits. Frozen vegetables don't need to be defrosted, just toss the chunk into the pot later and it'll defrost as it cooks.
- Melt the fat in your large stock pot.
- Add the bacon and render it on medium-low heat, then turn up the heat a little and brown the bits.
- Add the onions and leeks and lightly brown, turn down the heat and cook till translucent.
- Turn the heat up a little and add the mushrooms and garlic. Saute till the mushrooms are are limp and shrunk.
- Add the potatoes and beans and other long cooking veggies. Then add the bone broth and the meat and then the leafy greens on top. Don't stir. Cover, bring to a simmer and cook for about half an hour or till the vegetables are soft.
- Add the milk and heat again to a simmer.
- Season to taste.
- If you like it thick, pour the heavy cream or some milk into a canning jar, add the flour, and close tightly with a lid. Shake it vigorously to incorporate the flour. Pour through a strainer into the soup if you want to avoid lumps. (I usually dont, but then I don't care about a few little lumps). Stir well and simmer gently for about 5-10 more minutes to thicken.
- If you like it rich and creamy, add the sour cream now and stir well. It does also add some great flavor.
- Keep it on the heat till it comes up to almost a simmer again and then turn it off so the chowder doesn't curdle. And it's ready to serve.
- Garnish with some fresh chopped parsley if you have it, or use salt-cured parsley (this is what I do in the winter). And serve with a crusty slice of country sourdough bread for dipping (A super tasty recipe will come soon. Stay tuned and subscribe to get my updates!), or serve with a slice of my easy, everyday, no-knead kamut sourdough bread, toasted and buttered.
Notes
Other optionals:
Okra – I used okra for the first time this year in every dish I made, because it grew so prolific in my garden. I think it helps make incredibly delicious mushroom chowder! Beets (They will make your chowder pink!) – I love beets in most dishes, and they are actually great in chowder, I just don’t like that it turns the chowder pink. So I reserve my beets for stews such as my grandma’s Ukranian (Bessarabian) Borscht. I’ll post that ultra-delicious recipe sometime soon, so stay tuned and subscribe to my newsletter to get the updates for this blog. Sweet potatoes (add later so they don’t turn to mush) – This was a first with my latest batch of mushroom chowder. I never grew sweet potatoes before, but had a really great harvest this year, while my potatoes got decimated by blister bugs. And although I don’t like them quite as much as regular spuds, they did taste great in my chowder too, and my chowder turned out incredibly delicious even with substituting those sweet potoatoes. One thing I’m learning is to add the sweet potatoes near the end of cooking, as they only take a few minutes to get done. Parsnips, carrots, turnips, salsify, burdock, kohlrabi – These are all great in a creamy soup, so if you like them and grow them, do use them in your chowder. They all work well for an incredibly delicious chowder. Green beans – I use green beans most of the time when I make chowder. Beans are just so good in a creamy soup. So to me they are pretty much a staple chowder ingredient, except when I have my pot full with too many other things already and they won’t fit. But beans do make a tasty contribution for an incredibly delicious chowder. Curry (optional) – I rarely use curry in chowder, but I have tried it in the past and it is actually really good. You’ll add some healthy turmeric that way and I think it goes best with a chicken based chowder. Use what is ripe or what you need to use up in your freezer – Well, be creative and resourceful! Chowder, fortunately, is one of those dishes, that make just about any ingredient taste incredibly delicious!Pin this post:

Shop this post:
Tramontina brand 8 quart stock pot.
Leave a Reply