It’s a Crawfish Party!
Including a Crawfish Boil Recipe, Crawfish Dipping Sauce, where to purchase,
how much you’ll need per person, how to store, boil, and serve.
My husband and I have helped host at least one Crawfish Boil each year for the last 15 years! We love a good Crawfish Boil and so do our friends. Any time we’re up for a boil, we have no shortage of guests!
Tips for cooking crawfish
When getting your crawfish, you’ll want to get farm-raised live crawfish and be sure to have enough for everyone. A good rule of thumb is to plan for 3 pounds of crawfish per person. Naturally, this number depends on what else you serve and your guests. I find it to be an accurate estimation.
Just look at those beauties!
Sides
Next, you need to think about your sides. The standard is just some potatoes and corn on the cob but you can also have mushrooms, onions, garlic, lemons, artichokes, and some even put cut up hot dogs or sausage in the pot too.
We like to add lemons, onions, potatoes, garlic, corn, Brussel sprouts, sausage, and mushrooms. We also add a half cup of butter, this makes the crawfish release easier when peeling.
Sides can make or break a boil.
Equipment
Your equipment should be a large pot, depending on the amount you are cooking. A 60 or 80 qt. can boil up to 30 pounds at a time. If you are just cooking 10 to 20 pounds, a 20-quart pot is fine. You will also need a burner to put the pot on (unless you are doing it on the stove), and some propane so you can actually have a boil.
Seasoning
You’ll need to season the water. There are various kinds of seasoning from liquid to dry and it depends on what you like. Naturally, the more seasoning you add and the longer you allow the crawfish to sit in the spice the hotter they’ll be.
Crawfish Boil Recipe
- Heat the water to a boil and add spices. You’ll want about 5 gallons of water for each 10 pounds of crawfish.
- Add lemons, potatoes, garlic, corn, sausage, mushrooms and butter. You want to carefully watch the potatoes and slightly undercook them. This usually takes 10 to 15 minutes. Remember they’ll continue to cook after the crawfish are added.
- At this point, add your crawfish. This will make the water temperature drop. Bring the water back up and when the water is just about to boil turn off the heat.
- Add ice to the crawfish to stop the cooking process. I usually add as much ice as the pot will hold which is approximately 4 to 5 gallons of ice.
- This is an important step. Allow the crawfish to sit in the water bath to soak in the spices. We shoot for 45 minutes. The longer they sit, the more spices they’ll absorb and the hotter/spicier they’ll be.
- Serve! Cover a long table with newspaper. Dump the crawfish out on the table and spread them out so they’ll cool. Everyone will stand around the table and eat. Have bowls sitting around to collect the shells. Serve with bowls of melted butter and Crawfish Dipping Sauce if desired. However, they are delicious plain.
Or, you may want to build a table similar to this. It’s bar height and has removable buckets in the center. The buckets are for the shells, which can be easily removed when full.
Crawfish Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 cups mayonnaise
- 3/4 cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce or to taste
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a bowl and whisk until smooth. Make recipe a few hours before you want to eat it to give flavors time to marry. Refrigerate until ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 1 week.
Nutrition
More recipes to enjoy!
Call Me PMc Seafood Recipes.
Elaine Duet says
if boiled correctly there is no need for butter. I am from south Louisiana and have never added butter to a boil. not for crawfish or shrimp..
Lynda says
Is everything still hot after adding so much ice and letting it sit for almost an hour? I’d love to do this!
Deb@ Cooking on the Front Burner says
Looks like a lot of fun Paula! I’ve been to clam bakes but not crawfish… 🙂
Paula says
We do crawfish and shrimp, clam are hard to get here. All the same type ‘party’ though 🙂
Kelly says
*so much fun
Kelly says
Love how Cajun Crawfish ships great quality crawfish with all the spices – so convenient. This looks like so much and I love that table – it’s awesome!
Paula says
Thanks so much, it was much more convenient ordering this way!
Ashley | Spoonful of Flavor says
I love seafood boils. They always remind me of summer. With the holiday weekend coming up, this would be perfect!
Paula says
I agree, then if they’re are any left over you could through them in a mac and cheese with a side of burger… or should that be the other way around?
Lisa @ Cooking with Curls says
That looks like so much fun Paula, and that table is awesome!!
Paula says
Thanks Lisa!
Carrie @Frugal Foodie Mama says
This is so cool! We have done the boils with shrimp before, but never with crawfish… mainly because they are not readily available here in WV. 😉 So this service sounds perfect!
And that table! How clever is that??
Paula says
Oh the table is a must-have now! Plus it’s fun just to stand around, eat, talk and drink 🙂
Claire @ A Little Claireification says
Hahahaaa – I love the picture of that one crawfish!! We absolutely LOVE a good crawfish boil and that is SO awesome that Cajun Crawfish will ship them. Wow. Totally keeping that bookmarked! Ok, last – I am SO jealous of that table. How perfect is that?? Love. Pinned this!
Paula says
I should have done a tutorial on the table, but alas so many project I don’t think about until after the fact!
Heather @ Sugar Dish Me says
That is really awesome Paula! Now if I could just find someone to affordable ship me fresh salmon…
Paula says
🙂 Salmon is so good for you, I’ve tried and tried to like it.
Alyssa says
I have never had crawfish before, but it looks really good, so I need to try it! Plus a crawfish boil looks like a lot of fun!
Paula says
They are really fun. Crawfish tails are tiny, you have to eat a TON!
Chrystal @ YUM eating says
I LOVE boils! It’s one thing about the south that I miss. A lot of my friends would go crawfish hunting and it always amazed me at the amounts of free food one could get. I doubt I would ever be able to move back, but at least I know I can create a boil party whenever I want. I never really got into crawfish. I prefer shrimp and crab legs, although they were free from the earth 😉 It’s so much fun and folks get be messy and no one cares!
Paula says
oh yeah, I would never go catch them myself 🙂 I don’t know if they are many ‘in the wild’ here in the hills. But, that would def be an adventure!
Julie @ This Gal Cooks says
OMG, I would have had to keep one as my pet cause I am weird and like little critters. LOL. I made something like this recently – Low Country Boil. We had the potatoes, corn but used sausage and shrimp and old bay seasoning. So freaking good. I never would have thought to make it if Ken hadn’t had he Low Country Boil while in South Carolina for work!
Paula says
We’ve done shrimp boils like this a couple of times, but mostly do crawfish, only once or twice a year though. My boys always make friends with a couple of them and try to keep them. They last about a day! 🙂 I love this kind of entertaining.
Jodee Weiland says
This is great! I’ve always wanted to do this and didn’t know where to begin. Love this idea…thanks for sharing!
Paula says
It’s so much fun and so yummy. Thanks for sharing on facebook!
Jaren (Diary of a Recipe Collector) says
Love this post! I’m from Southwest Louisiana near the Gulf coast, and I always love to see the Cajun culture spread. And yes, gotta have the dipping sauce!
Paula says
Thank you so much! We love to entertain and a crawfish party is a relaxed way to to it.
Becca from It's Yummi! says
*wooosh* Here come the happy memories from the crawfish boil I had in New Orleans last year. Oh, YUM!
Paula says
They are big fun, right? 🙂
christene says
headed to destin may 3rd thru the 8 th need a great place to go to eat at a crawfish boil any suggestions welcomed please