I ate at Legal Seafoods shortly after they opened maybe 35 years ago or so. Their chowder then was absolutely awful - thick glop with little seafood flavor, but a spoon could stand up in it.
Fortunately for them, they apparently changed their recipe.
On a vacation in Nova Scotia, I usually had 2 bowls a day in restaurants, diners, and roadside stands, and I was never disappointed.
The key to chowder is to understand that it's not meant to be thick and gloppy with lots of flour. It should be liquid like milk (maybe a little thicker because of the spuds) and abundant in potatoes, onions, and local seafood (although frozen or canned seafood are better in chowder than used any other way).
Here's a quick and easy recipe that you can experiment with:
Heat a large saucepan or small soup pot and render some diced salt pork (traditional) or add some neutral-flavored oil (eg canola). Add diced onion and diced potato and salt (not too much, especially if you used salt pork or you will be using canned clams) and sweat them over medium low heat with the lid on, stirring occasionally. Don't saute on high heat - you don't want them crisp. You might include some diced celery with the potato and onion, but I wouldn't brag about it.
When the onions are translucent, add fish or clam stock (eg, water that you steamed the clams in) or water to cover and a bit more. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and add the fish to cook. Add additional seafood in reverse order of how long it takes to cook each one. Add canned clams (if using) with their liquid whenever. When the potatoes are done (and presumably all the seafood too) add milk. Do not ever let the milk boil! Make sure it never gets past a simmer. If you think you have too much liquid, leave the lid partially open so that it cooks down. Add lots of ground black pepper.
If you think you deserve a treat, add a pat of butter (especially if you used no-fat milk), but not too much. Add a little, stir it in, and check the mouth feel before adding more.
You can serve immediately, but make sure you make enough to last until tomorrow, when it will be much better.
Almost any combination of seafood will work fine, especially firm white-fleshed fish (trraditionally cod, but haddock, halibut, red snapper, etc. are all fine, as are scallops and lobster). Clams of course, fresh are best, but canned will work. Remember, this is a fisherman's stew made from what's available and affordable. So I won't turn down chowder with lobster in it, but it's not very traditional unless you go waaaay back.
