Stuffed Baked Clams

Stuffed Baked Clams are filled with clams, bacon, cheese, garlic and shallots then baked to perfection. An elegant party appetizer!

Course Easy Appetizer Recipes, Main Dishes

Cuisine American

Keyword bacon, breadcrumbs, clams, shallots, shellfish, stuffing

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings Servings

Calories 101kcal

2 slices bacon diced small
1 pound Manila clams rinsed and scrubbed
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup white wine
2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 cup minced shallot
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
kosher salt and pepper to taste plus approximately 3/4 cup kosher salt to cook clams on
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese plus more for garnish
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley for garnish
lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small pan brown the bacon pieces. Strain and set aside.
Place clams in a saute pan. Add water, wine and garlic. Cover and cook over medium heat until opened about 3-5 minutes. Remove clams and set aside to cool. Reserve liquid in a bowl.
Once your clams have cooled enough for you to touch them, remove the clam meat from the shell. (Note: I like to do this over the bowl of reserved liquid so that I can keep the yummy clam juice.) Roughly chop the clam meat.
Separate the clam shells at the hinges. Rinse and reserve about 15 of the nicest shells.
In a bowl combine the chopped clam meat, bacon, shallots, bread crumbs, cheese and 3 tablespoons of the reserved liquid . Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mixture should be wet, add more liquid if mixture seems too dry or more bread crumbs if it seems to wet. Using about a teaspoon of the mixture, spoon the mixture into the reserved clam shells.
In a pie pan or a dish big enough to hold all of the shells, make a layer of kosher salt. Set the stuffed shells on top of the salt. Sprinkle with grated Romano cheese. Bake for 10 minutes then broil 2 - 3 minutes or until browned on top.
Remove from oven, sprinkle with fresh parsley, a squirt of lemon juice from lemon wedges and more cheese if desired. Serve.

Discard any that do not open after steaming, that means that they were dead to begin with and not safe to eat.

I like to serve these in the baking dish because I think the salt bed makes a beautiful presentation.

Nutrition information for estimation purposes only.