Textual Chef Textual Chef

Crawfish Boil

Whole live crawfish simmered in a massive pot of heavily seasoned, spicy water with corn, potatoes, and sausage - the definitive Cajun communal feast. Plan ahead: live crawfish should be purged in salted water for 20 minutes before cooking.

75 minMediumServes 6450 cal/serving

CajunDinnerStovetopStandardHigh ProteinLow CarbGluten-FreeDairy-FreeAlcohol-Free

Ingredients

  • 30 lbs live crawfish (or 5 lb frozen pre-cooked crawfish tails), purged and rinsed
  • 2 bags Zatarain's Crab and Shrimp Boil seasoning bag
  • 1/2 cup Cajun seasoning (such as Tony Chachere's)
  • 1/2 cup kosher salt
  • 6 lemons, halved
  • 4 heads of garlic, halved crosswise
  • 4 large yellow onions, quartered
  • 8 bay leaves
  • 2 tbsp cayenne pepper
  • 3 lbs small red potatoes, scrubbed
  • 2 lbs andouille smoked sausage, cut into 2-inch pieces
  • 6 ears of corn, husked, halved
  • 1 lb whole button mushrooms

Instructions

  1. 1

    Fill a 60-quart or larger boiling pot with a strainer basket about two-thirds full of water. Add 2 bags Zatarain's Crab and Shrimp Boil seasoning bag, 1/2 cup Cajun seasoning (such as Tony Chachere's), 1/2 cup kosher salt, 6 halved lemons, 4 halved crosswise heads of garlic, 4 quartered large yellow onions, 8 bay leaves, and 2 tbsp cayenne pepper. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat.

  2. 2

    Add 3 lbs scrubbed small red potatoes and 2 lbs cut into 2-inch pieces andouille smoked sausage to the boiling water. Cook for 15 minutes.

  3. 3

    Add 6 husked, halved ears of corn and 1 lb whole button mushrooms. Cook 10 more minutes.

  4. 4

    Add the purged 30 lbs purged and rinsed live crawfish (or 5 lb frozen pre-cooked crawfish tails) to the pot. Return to a boil and cook for 5 to 7 minutes until the crawfish are bright red and cooked through - shells will turn vivid red and the tails will curl tightly.

  5. 5

    Turn off the heat. Allow crawfish and vegetables to soak in the seasoned water for 20 to 30 minutes so the spices penetrate - this soaking step is what makes the boil flavorful. Taste occasionally and pull when the heat level is right.

  6. 6

    Lift the strainer basket and drain. Spread everything onto a newspaper-lined table or large trays. Serve hot; provide dipping butter and extra Cajun seasoning on the side.

Questions

How long does Crawfish Boil keep?

Refrigerate leftovers within two hours and eat them within two days (seafood turns fast). Reheat gently on the stovetop.

Can I halve or double Crawfish Boil?

Yes. As written it serves 6. Every ingredient in this entry carries precomputed half and double quantities, and the app's batch dial rewrites them inside each step. When doubling on the stovetop, use your widest pan or work in two batches so the food sears instead of steaming.

Serve it with

Cook this free in the app

Textual Chef is 4,504 plain-text recipes, free to read and free to cook from. No account, no paywall, no ads, no life stories. Open this one in the app and each quantity sits inside the step that uses it, so you read once and cook.

Every recipe is curated or public-domain sourced, written to one template and checked before it publishes. Nothing here is a scraped blog post.

Cook this free in the appNo download needed. It opens in your browser. The kitchen tools (planner, shopping list, pantry, import) are $5.33 a month billed annually; the first 30 days are free.

More Cajun entries

All Cajun recipes · All Dinner recipes · All Crawfish recipes