Louisiana Crawfish Boil

Host a fabulous and flavorful crawfish boil at home with this top-rated recipe.

What Is a Crawfish Boil?

"Crawfish boil" refers to both a dish and the event where it's served. Seafood boils (usually shrimp, crab, and crawfish) are common in Louisiana and in areas along the coastal Southern United States. Traditionally, crawfish boils consist of heavily seasoned live crawfish cooked with sausage and vegetables such as corn and potatoes.

Crawfish Boil Ingredients

These are the ingredients you'll need for this top-rated crawfish boil recipe:

· Spices and seasonings: This flavorful crawfish boil is seasoned with garlic, bay leaves, dry crab boil, liquid shrimp and crab boil seasoning, and salt and pepper.
· Vegetables: You'll need red potatoes, oranges, artichokes, green beans, onions, and baby corn.
· Fruits: Oranges and lemons lend brightness and fresh, fruity flavor.
· Sausage: Cut your smoked sausages into ½-inch slices.
· Crawfish: Try to find live crawfish if you can! In a pinch, you can use frozen.

How to Host a Crawfish Boil

You'll find the full, step-by-step recipe with detailed instructions below. But here are a few helpful hints and tips to know before you start cooking:

1. You don't need a fancy table setting to host a crawfish boil at home. In fact, after cooking, the ingredients are traditionally dumped onto a table lined with newspapers.
2. This Louisiana crawfish boil recipe will serve about 10 people, but it's easy to double or even triple the recipe. Trust us: You'll probably need more crawfish than you think.
3. Live crawfish work best for this recipe. You can often find them at your local seafood market or fishmonger, but you can also order them online. Make sure to figure out where you're going to get your crawfish a few days in advance so you're not scrambling at the last minute.

Learn more: How to Eat Boiled Crawfish

How Long to Boil Crawfish?

Crawfish are usually the last thing you'll add to an already boiling pot of seasonings, vegetables, and sausage. Since it's easy to overcook crawfish, you only want to boil them for about 5 minutes. You'll know they're done when the shells turn bright red and the tails pull out easily.

Allrecipes Community Tips and Praise

"We make it right on the campfire in a big pot," says Paula Mercier. "I do throw in a couple pounds of raw shrimp and use frozen Cajun crayfish the local store sells."

We always include a stick of butter per batch as this helps with the peeling process," according to jaysmom. "Those tails come right out!!"

Editorial contributions by Corey Williams