Bacon Stuffed Clams (Clams Casino)
Are your ready for my Bacon Stuffed Clams? Also called Clams Casino, these addictive little gems are one of my husband & my favorite appetizers, if not the favorite!
One of the top 10 recipes, I make that I hang my hat one, is my Clams Casino aka Bacon Stuffed Clams recipe. They are really good!
Over the years when my husband & I find a place that makes Clams Casino well, we have been known to order Clams Casino for dessert (really!). Or we just keep ordering another round and call it dinner. We can seriously never get enough!
I don't make these that often. They are "special". Stuffed clams are something I (and my husband) dream of BUT we control ourselves, lol! I make these Bacon Stuffed Clams twice in the summer, for New Years Eve and maybe one more time throughout the year.
When I Clams Casino, people go crazy. There are never any clams left and I think people would always eat more if I put them out, lol! It's one of top 10 things I make that I'd hang my hat on. After all, bacon is involved...BACON!!
Table of Contents
Ingredients needed to make Clams Casino
- Fresh Ingredients - Fresh Littleneck clams or a medium sized clam variety, bacon, a red or green pepper (or a combination of the two), parsley & onion.
- Pantry Staples - Butter, white wine, Panko breadcrumbs, S&P.
Variations
- If you leave out the bacon, peppers and onion in this stuffed clam recipe, and add in fresh parsley, it becomes Clams Oreganata which is a lighter version and more lemon and breadcrumb forward.
- If you don't enjoy peppers you can leave them out.
- If you like a little kick add in ½ of a minced jalapeno or some red pepper flakes.
- Adding some of the juice from the clams (what is left after they bake/cook) is a flavorful touch. It's optional. Add additional panko if the mixture seems wet if you do.
- Swap little neck clams for middle neck clams. However using large clams is not advised, they are too chewy for this. Plus Bacon Stiffed Clams are more of a 1-2 bite appetizer.
- Serve with a lemon wedge and little forks or spoons for easy eating.
Clam sizes vary, so you may end up with extra filling or possibly be short on filling. If you end up with extra, freeze it and use it tossed with pasta and a little pasta water. Yum!
How To Store Fresh Clams
- Fresh clams are best used within 2 days of purchase.
- Keep them in a breathable bag placed into a bowl (to catch any drips).
- Cover the bowl partially and loosely with a damp paper towel. Place it in the coldest part of your fridge. Remember colds "falls" so the coldest part may be a 2nd or 3rd shelf towards the back of the fridge.
Stuffed Clams Tips
- Rinse your clams well to remove any sand (see notes section of recipe card).
- You can choose to cook your clams any way you like best before stuffing them. However, I have found, hands down, the best result for me is cooking them on the grill. Every I grill the clams time its a 98% open rate. Place your clams in a thin pan on the grill or on a tray lined with foil to catch their juice.
- You can make your filling, minus the clams, and have it ready and waiting in your freezer. Simply thaw your mixture, buy fresh clams, cook them to open and stuff when the mood strikes.
- You can also make a huge batch of Bacon Stuffed Clams and freeze them. I freeze on trays, then place them in batched in vacuum sealed bags or freezer bags with most air pressed out. When ready to enjoy, remove however many you wish from freezer, place on baking sheet and bake until crisp.
Enjoy these!! My favvvv XO Colleen
More Seafood Recipes
This recipe was originally shared in 2009, under the name Clams Casino Recipe. I updated it and merged it to this post titles Bacon Stuffed Clams from 2016. Updated & merged February, 2026.
Bacon Stuffed Clams (Clams Casino)
Ingredients
- 24 little neck clams cleaned or middle neck clams
- 2 sticks butter melted
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 3 TBS red or green pepper chopped small
- 3 TBS Vidalia onion
- 2 TBS white wine
- 8 slices bacon cooked and chopped up or crumbled
- ½ cup Panko Japanese breadcrumbs
- Additional Panko for dusting
Instructions
- Combine butter, pepper, onion, wine, bacon and Panko in a mixing bowl and mix well. Refrigerate mixture for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Put the clams on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until clam’s pop open. (Remember: If a clam stays shut tight...discard it) or preheat your grill to high and place a tray or layered aluminum foil onto grill and grill clams removing them as they open.
- It is optional to catch the clam juice, if you do. Add some of that to your mixture for a little extra flavor.
- Either way you cook and open the clams, once open and cool enough to handle rip off the top shell and throw it away. Loosen each clam from the shell and check for any shell bits, and put the clam back (makes eating it easier).
- Mound a good bit of the chilled mixture and stuff onto each clam shell, fully covering the clam meat.
- Place clams on a baking sheet once filled, when ready bake for 10 minutes or so or until crisped.
Notes
To clean any sand from your fresh clams, put them into a deep bowl or pot filled with salted water for 20 minutes. Gently move them around a but after 10 minutes with your clean hands. If the bottom of the bowl/pot is free of sand after those 20 minutes, they should be good to go. If there is sand on the bottom, gently remove clams, drain and rinse the container and fill it up again with fresh salted water and place the clams back in. Do this as many times as needed until the clams stop spitting out sand.
My hubby would love this as an appetizer! He's all about shell fish kind of apps but unfortunately I'm not such a fan, but the bacon on top might just get me to try one!
I have loved stuffed clams since I was a kid! It remind me of so many holiday parties. I bet these are so flavorful with the addition of bacon!!
Woah, this is THE way to eat clams!!
My dad was a huge seafood lover. Clams were his favourite. He would have gone nuts for these.
These clams are perfect for grill season - I need to make this once I fire up the grill! These bacon stuffed clams look absolutely delicious 🙂
They look absolutely divine!! I'm comin' over.
Oh my soul those look good! Heading over now to find your recipe. My husband's going to think he's in heaven!