We study ground states of interacting electrons in classically chaotic quantum dots using exact diagonalization and the self-consistent Hartree– Fock (SCHF) method. We find good agreement between both methods with respect to energies and charge densities. With increasing interaction the ground states show a crystal-type structure which originates from the interplay between direct and exchange interaction and the confinement. Corresponding capacitive energies exhibit fluctuations which are strongly enhanced with increasing interaction.