Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you click on the link and make a purchase.
Chipotle Lime Braised Clams is the best summer dinner served with buttery garlic bread! Tender clams are cooked in a spicy chipotle sauce with corn and cherry tomatoes topped with lime juice and fresh herbs. It’s a total crowd pleaser that only takes 30 minutes to make from start to finish! Enjoy with Pasta al Limone and a cold Chelada.
There’s something about seafood that I crave every summer. It’s light but comforting and filling and it pairs so well with other summer produce like corn and tomatoes. Everything from Linguine con le Vongole, buttery Seafood Rolls, and Camarones a la Diabla comes together in about 30 minutes. It tastes like summer and will leave your heart (and your belly!) happy!
Ingredients You’ll Need for Chipotle Lime Braised Clams
- Clams – Little Neck Clams but Manila clams or even mussels would work as well!
- Chipotle in adobo – Clams and chipotles are the perfect match! It’s spicy, tangy and perfectly smoky.
- Lime juice – Adds freshness and helps to balance out the brininess of the clams.
- White wine – Used to deglaze the skillet and add flavor to the clams and pan sauce.
For the rest of the ingredients, please refer to the recipe index card below!
How To Make Chipotle Lime Braised Clams
- Saute onions in a medium pot over medium heat with olive oil until soft. Next, add in the garlic then increase the heat and pour in white wine, tomato paste, cherry tomatoes, chipotles in adobo and butter. Bring to a simmer then taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
- Add in corn and arrange clams in an even layer in the skillet. Cover the pot and continue cooking the clams for 5 – 7 minutes. They’re done when the clams have opened. Discard any that refuse to open.
- Squeeze lime juice over the clams, sprinkle with minced cilantro then serve immediately with buttery garlic bread.
Tips and Tricks
- Prepping clams – The big key with clams is scrubbing the outside so theyโre nice and clean. The ones I got had a good amount of sand on them and that would be in your dish; you definitely donโt want that!
- If your clams are exceptionally dirt – I usually only do this with mussels but if the clams you purchased are super dirty or sandy, you could soak them in a bucket of water with a tablespoon of all-purpose flour. The clams will purge their sand almost immediately.
Recipe FAQs
Clams oftentimes will be covered in sand and you don’t want that in your food. Soak them in water with a little bit of flour or scrub them until they are clean before cooking.
By steaming them! Clams don’t need to cook for very long at all. Just place them in an even layer in the skillet with some water or a sauce then cover and allow the clams to steam for a few minutes until their shells open.
Then there is a high chance they’re bad. If you purchased really fresh clams, you can try removing the clams that have opened from the skillet and continue cooking the unopened ones for a couple of minutes more. If they still won’t open, discard them.
More Summer Recipes
If you tried this Chipotle Lime Braised Clams Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Chipolte Lime Braised Clams
Equipment
- 1 (4-quart) pot or large skillet
Ingredients
Chipotle-Lime Clams:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 yellow onion, peeled and minced
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 3/4 cup white wine
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 chipotles in adobo, minced
- 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 ears corn, kernels removed
- Kosher salt
- 2 limes, juiced
- 1 pound 1 pound little neck clams, scrubbed
- 1 tablespoon minced cilantro
Instructions
To Make the Chipotle-Lime Clams:
- To a medium pot or braising pan, set over medium heat, add the olive oil. When the olive oil is warm, add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Next add the garlic cloves and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Turn the heat to high and then pour in the white wine, scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula. Mix in the tomato paste, chipotles in adobo and butter.
- Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for about 5 minutes, just until the flavors are married together; give it a taste and adjust the salt to your liking. I added about 1 teaspoon of salt. Add the corn and arrange the little neck clams in one even layer. If some overlap thatโs ok. Bring to a gentle simmer and cover the pan; cook the clams for about 5 to 7 minutes. This will depend on the size of the clams.
- Some of the clams I had were stubborn that refused to open. I knew they werenโt bad so I removed the clams that were totally open (so they wouldnโt overcook) and covered the pot until all of them opened. The clams I had were sort of large so I think this was the problem.
- Discard any clams that refuse to open (one of the clams in my batch were discarded). Squeeze the lime juice over the clams and serve immediately; serve alongside the buttery garlic bread.
Notes
Tips and Tricks
- Prepping clams โ The big key with clams is scrubbing the outside so theyโre nice and clean. The ones I got had a good amount of sand on them and that would be in your dish; you definitely donโt want that!
- If your clams are exceptionally dirt โย I usually only do this with mussels but if the clams you purchased are super dirty or sandy, you could soak them in a bucket of water with a tablespoon of all-purpose flour. The clams will purge their sand almost immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I love the sound of this recipe but I don’t trust myself to clean clams/mussels well. Do you think this sauce would work with shrimp, so that I don’t serve anyone sand? ๐
yes absolutely. i would just cook the shrimp first so they get nice color and them remove them and make the sauce. and then add them back at the very end (no need to cook them again). just so the shrimp aren’t boiled in the sauce. ๐
Not much of a summer person either (and currently suffering under 102ยฐF!!) but I do love the produce we find during these months. Thanks for this simple but subtle recipe, we eat alot of clams and mussels in France and I love this new chipotle/lime twist! Merci Adrianna!
Ooof yes France is going to be 108F today! I cannot imagine what it must feel like. I was in Paris last month and it was 90F and it was very intense! ๐ Thank you!
There are not enough raves to express how well received this dish was. I prepped all earlier in the day, and slipped in the Clams when ready to prepare our dinner. Certainly an easy dish to prepare, but the chipotle/lime flavors screamed of something so refined and balanced. While corn is sweet as it is during the summer, this dish will be made often. Thank you Adrianna, for sharing this “makeagainable” recipe.
Hi Jeff! This is amazing to hear–yay!
OMG! My all time favorite dish:-)
Every time we are i our house in Malaga, I am having clams 3-4 time a week:-)