The broth is the real star of this Seafood Stew-rich with tomatoes, fennel, garlic, white wine, and a hint of smoky heat. Add your favorite seafood and plenty of crusty bread for soaking up every last drop!
You simply can't have too many seafood stew recipes in your life and this one is a real keeper! So delicious, bold flavours and easy enough to make. I cut onions and fennel rather rustic style and it turned out great!
For me, a great Seafood Stew is all about the broth-and this one is so good you’ll want crusty bread to soak up every last drop. Tomatoes, fennel, garlic, white wine, and a touch of fish sauce create a rich, savory base, while optional chorizo adds smoky depth and just a little heat.
The beauty of this recipe is its flexibility. Use whatever fresh seafood looks best-firm white fish, salmon, shrimp, mussels, or a combination. The broth can be made ahead, then simply add the seafood just before serving for an impressive dinner that’s surprisingly easy to pull off.
Think of this as a relaxed cousin of cioppino and bouillabaisse-with a rich tomato-wine broth, plenty of fresh seafood, and an optional touch of smoky chorizo. Here are some key differences…
- This Seafood Stew: A flexible, Mediterranean-inspired tomato and white wine broth with fennel, mixed seafood, and optional chorizo. It’s not tied to one traditional preparation.
- Cioppino: A San Francisco Italian-American seafood stew traditionally made with a tomato-and-wine broth and a mixture of whatever fresh seafood is available-often crab, clams, mussels, shrimp, and fish.
- Bouillabaisse: A traditional Provençal/French fish stew from Marseille, distinguished by its particular fish, saffron and other aromatics, and traditionally served with bread and rouille. It’s generally more specific and structured than cioppino.
Why you’ll love this Seafood Stew recipe!
The broth is incredible. Tomatoes, fennel, garlic, white wine, and a touch of fish sauce create a savory, aromatic broth you’ll want to soak up with plenty of crusty bread.
Use your favorite seafood. Make it with firm white fish, salmon, shrimp, mussels, or whatever looks freshest at the market.
Optional chorizo adds smoky depth. A little chorizo gives the broth richness and gentle heat, or keep it seafood-forward with a pinch of smoked paprika instead. Sometimes I’ll use plant-based chorizo!
Impressive yet surprisingly easy. It has all the flavor and beauty of a restaurant-worthy seafood stew without requiring hours at the stove.
Perfect for entertaining. Make the flavorful broth ahead, then add the seafood shortly before serving so it’s perfectly tender when your guests arrive.
Fresh and nourishing. It’s satisfying without feeling heavy, with plenty of seafood, tomatoes, fresh herbs, and a bright squeeze of lemon to finish.
Seafood Stew Recipe Ingredients
- Seafood: Use firm fish like halibut, tilapia, mahi mahi, or salmon, mussels, prawns. These types of fish and shellfish hold up well when cooked in a stew, ensuring they remain intact and contribute to the rich texture.
- Chorizo: This optional addition adds depth and smoky heat to the stew. Mexican chorizo and Spanish chorizo both work well here. Or sub a pinch of smoked paprika!
- Onion and Garlic: These aromatic ingredients infuse the stew with a deep, savory flavor.
- Fresh fennel: Its subtly sweet and licorice-like flavor adds a unique depth to the aromatic base of the stew. Feel free to substitute celery.
- Tomatoes: Fresh tomatoes bring brightness and acidity to balance the dish.
- Broth: A combination of tomato paste, white wine, chicken stock, fish sauce, and chili flakes enriches the broth, adding layers of flavor. The fish sauce imparts a subtle umami note. You can also substitute fish stock if available, or a combination of chicken stock and clam juice.
- Salt and Pepper: Essential for seasoning, helping to bring out the flavors of all the other ingredients.
- Flat Leaf Parsley: Adds a fresh, herbaceous flavor.
- Lemon: A squeeze of lemon juice brightens the broth, adding a zesty finish that enhances the seafood’s natural sweetness.
Please see the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and instructions.
How to make Seafood Stew
Step One– Brown the chorizo (if using) in a little olive oil. Set aside.
Step Two– Saute fennel, onion and garlic until golden. Add tomato paste. Turn heat up to high, constantly stirring, until paste darkens, about 3 more minutes. Frying the paste deepens the flavor of the dish.
Step Three- Add white wine and cook down by half. Add chicken stock, tomatoes, browned chorizo, and fish sauce and bring to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste, and chili flakes. Squeeze with half the lemon. Taste. You want the broth to taste rich and flavorful.
Step Four- Add fish, simmer a couple of minutes and add prawns, simmer a couple minutes, then add mussels. Remember, the larger the prawns, mussels, or fish pieces, the longer they take to cook, so look at all your seafood ingredients and determine which will take the longest to cook, putting them in first.
What to serve with Seafood Stew
Serve with a warm, crusty loaf of bread, or garlic bread, perfect for dipping and soaking up the rich, flavorful broth. A light, crisp green salad like our Caesar salad or this Little Gem Salad helps balance the richness of the stew.
Storage and Make Ahead
- To prep ahead, make the broth 1-2 days ahead of time. Store the broth in the refrigerator for 3-4 days in a sealed airtight container. Reheat the broth, and add the fish and seafood right before serving.
- Seafood stew is best eaten immediately when cooked, but leftovers will keep up to 3 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator or can be frozen for up to 3 months.
What is the Best Fish to use in Seafood Stew?
You generally want to use firm white fish ( along with shellfish) for most stews and soups, because they will hold their shape and not disintegrate in the liquid. Here are 10 of the best fish (and seafood) to use in soups and stews.
- sea bass
- halibut
- black cod
- haddock
- escolar
- ono
- red snapper
- salmon
- scallops
- shrimp
Chefs Tips
- Brown the tomato paste. Here is an amazing technique to build depth and flavor, and can be used in many other dishes. Add the tomato paste to the hot pan and stir constantly, sauteing on high heat for a few minutes. It will begin to darken. Cooking or frying the tomato paste like this really adds deep umami flavor.
- Mimicking Fish Stock. When I don’t have time to make a good fish stock, I use chicken stock and add a teaspoon of fish sauce. Clam juice works too, but I do not always stock this in my pantry- fish sauce works wonders!
- Smoky flavor. Smoky Spanish-style chorizo, or smoked paprika, would be mainly for seasoning the broth.
More favorite Seafood Stews!
I hope you enjoy this summery Mediterranean-style Seafood Stew! Please remember to rate the recipe below.
xoxo
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Seafood Stew Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 35 mins
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Category: 30 minute Dinner, Dinner, entertaining, fish, fish and seafood, Main, seafood, Soup
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
- Diet: Dairy-Free, Gluten Free, high protein, Keto, Low-Carb, Paleo, Pescatarian
Description
This easy Seafood Stew is loaded with fish, shrimp, and mussels in a rich tomato, fennel, and white wine broth. A flavorful, restaurant-worthy dinner!
Ingredients
- Optional: 6–8 ounces crumbled Mexican chorizo; see notes for Spanish Chorizo, or leave it out.
- 2 cups finely diced fennel (one large bulb)
- 1 cup finely diced onion (half a large onion)
- 4 garlic cloves, smashed and roughly diced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 4 cups Chicken Stock (or a good fish stock)
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce ( leave out if using fish stock)
- 2 medium tomatoes- diced ( or one canned tomatoes, diced and juices)
- 8 oz firm white fish like halibut, sea bass, mahi mahi, or black cod
- 1 lb mussels (or sub clams)
- 1 lb large prawns, raw, peeled and deveined (or sub scallops)
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or cayenne
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 lemon
Instructions
- In a large heavy bottom pot or deep skillet or Dutch oven, brown the chorizo in a little extra virgin olive oil. (Remove from casing and break up or crumble into small bite-size pieces). Once browned, set aside. Pour off the fat, wipe out skillet with paper towel.
- In the same skillet, heat the olive oil on medium-high heat. Add fennel, stirring often for about 3 minutes. Add onion, turn heat down to medium and saute both until tender, about 8-10 minutes. Add garlic, and sauté 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until garlic starts to turn golden. Add tomato paste. Turn the heat up to high, constantly stirring, until paste darkens, about 3 more minutes. You are frying the paste to deepen the flavor of the dish.
- Add white wine and turn heat down to medium-high, stirring until it cooks down by half, about 2 minutes. Add chicken stock, tomatoes, browned chorizo, and fish sauce and bring to a boil and let simmer.
- Add salt and pepper to taste, and chili flakes. If using chorizo, the broth may be salty enough- each chorizo is different. Squeeze with half the lemon. Taste. You want the broth to taste rich and flavorful.
- Add fish, simmer a couple minutes and add prawns, simmer a couple minutes, then add mussels. Remember the larger the prawns or mussels or fish pieces the longer they take to cook, so look at all your seafood ingredients and determine which will take the longest to cook, putting them in first.
- Taste, adjust salt and lemon to your preferences.
- Divide among bowls and Finish with the fresh parsley.
Notes
- Chorizo. If you can find cured Spanish chorizo, dice it thinly-you’ll only need 1/4th of a cup! This is my favorite, but it can be harder to source. Mexican chorizo works too. AND If you leave out the chorizo, a pinch of smoked paprika works nicely here!
- Serve with crusty bread. I like to cut a loaf of good quality garlic or rosemary bread into thick slices, arrange on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and fresh rosemary sprigs, and bake in a 400F oven until toasty, or even better, grill the bread.
- If you are going gluten-free, try adding a cup of cooked cannellini beans to the stew for added heartiness, instead of serving with bread.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 ½ cups
- Calories: 476
- Sugar: 4.6 g
- Sodium: 1007 mg
- Fat: 23.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 6.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 14.3 g
- Fiber: 2.9 g
- Protein: 49.3 g
- Cholesterol: 224.5 mg
Faqs
Cioppino is an Italian-American tomato-based seafood stew, while bouillabaisse is a French fish soup with a clear broth, flavored with saffron and other aromatics.
Crusty bread and a crisp green salad along with a crisp white wine, like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.
We recommend you freeze just the broth of seafood stew for future use, reheat, and add fresh seafood just before serving.
This was delicious, Added a variety of different seafoods and will certainly make again for guests. Thank you .
Glad to hear this Sally!
This was so delicious that we’re adding it into regular rotation, probably for our Friday night dance-party dinners. I used Trader Joe’s soyrizo (we’re trying to be healthier), swordfish, and Costco packaged mussels (juice and all). It made for a really quick meal, as well. It’s kind of sacrilege that I used packaged fish since I live in a fishing community, but this really was a great rif on a classic that we eat around these parts as much as we can.
Awesome to hear Kristin! Love your Soyrizio substitution, I often do that too!
You simply can’t have too many seafood stew recipes in your life and this one is a real keeper! So delicious, bold flavours and easy enough to make. I cut onions and fennel rather rustic style and it turned out great!
I agree! Glad you enjoyed this one.
I always wanted to try making this, and this recipe was easy, and absolutely delicious. I added a ton of different seafood; the flavor was off the charts!
So glad you gave it a try Mona!
This is a great recipe. I have now made the sauce in volume and frozen it in meal sized servings. I then quickly make a superb meal by adding the seafood after reheating.
Such a brilliant idea!
Wow, wow, wow. I made this for the first time and it was so delicious. No white wine in ours. The depth of flavour with the chorizo and fennel was incredible. Did small scallops, large shrimp, white fish and mussels and I will do it again!!
Sounds lovely Colleen!
Wonderful summer recipe. We used veggie sausage and some tamari in place of the fish sauce along with a melange of seafood (scallops, squid, and shrimp). Just excellent..thank you!
Glad you liked Lisa!
Holy heck. We edited this for what we had on hand (like a frozen leftover fennel/seafood broth) and it was PERFECTION. Thank you for this. We had a locally made chorizo, the end of a bag of frozen shrimp, fridge-stable mussels, fennel, and random thawed homemade broth.
I don’t have fish stock or fish sauce, will clam juice work?
yes!
Absolutely delicious, definitely a winner with the family and will be a on high rotation here. Thankyou so much.
Thanks so much and great to hear! 🙌
What a lovely meal! I have several recipes for seafood casseroles and stews and this is one of the best. The chorizo does no overpower the taste (well not the chorizo I used). I included squid rings but I reckon you could use other items as well such as crab, octopus and various shellfish.
Great to hear!
Made this for dinner with friends, it was a huge success. Definitely will make it again soon. Thanks !
Just made this for dinner and served it over angel hair pasta! I didn’t add the chorizo, but I will next time. It was delicious and my family raved about it. I added a little curry and some leeks. The fennel was such a grea Idea. We loved the flavor! This is a definite keeper!!!
Just made this but substituted the chorizo as am a pescatarian with paprika (put in with the fennel, onion and garlic). Absolutely delicious. Almost didn’t put the fennel in but so glad made the effort to go and get some. Made fresh fish stock first. Also used butter beans, as no cannelini, as coeliac. Truly delicious. Definitely shall be remaking this! Thank you.