Crawfish or Shrimp Boil Recipe

I always wonder what I should call my husband on the blog. Mr. Prairie Girl... nope. Mr. Southern Belle...not going to work. I'll just call him my man.

Well, my man is going to share his boil recipe with you. We usually have the block of families over in the fall and in the spring for a boil. Getting together and sharing a relaxed meal like this is so fun. Everyone brings something to share and the kids (there's a lot of them) run around and play. They love checking on the crawfish before we start cooking!

Use this recipe for shrimp if that's more your style or if crawfish are hard to find. This is his recipe for 40 lbs. Enjoy!

Crawfish Recipe What Ingredients you'll need to cook all 40lbs of crawfish: 35-40lbs live Crawfish (this is one sack of crawfish) 5lbs Red Potatoes (small or new potatoes). If not available quarter red potatoes. 4-5 Ears of Corn (Halved or Cut Into Thirds) 1 White Onion, quartered 8 Garlic Bulbs 6 Lemons, halved 2 small boxes of whole mushrooms 10 bags Zatarain's Crawfish Shrimp & Crab Boil In A Bag (1 bag / 4lbs crawfish) ~1/4 cup Cayenne Pepper 26oz canister of Salt (Morton Salt or other)
You'll need a large pot w/a basket. I have an 80qt pot, basket propane burner
For two batches, half recipe: Fill water to 1/4-1/3 mark (~7 gallons) in pot. To cook all 40lbs at once: Fill water to 1/2 to 2/3 mark (~14 gallons) in pot.
I typically cook 2 batches.
Directions below are for a half batch (~20lbs crawfish)

1. Fill pot to 1/4 to 1/3 mark (~7 gallons in 20 gallon pot)
2. Place the half the onion, ~2.5 lbs of potatoes, 3 squeezed lemons and 5 Zatarain's spice bags and halved corn (or cut into thirds) in the water.
3. Slice 4 of the garlic bulbs cross-ways. Meaning, you'll want to have 2 halves of a garlic bulb with all the cloves exposed. Don't separate out the garlic cloves. That will be important later. Place them in the boil.
4. Salt the water by outing the canister of salt in (half of it)
5. Add 2-3 tablespoons of Cayenne
6. Heat water to boiling. Boil for 15min.
7. Add 1 of the mushroom boxes. Boil for additional 10min
8. Sample potatoes to make sure they are soft (well cooked)
9. Pull out the basket from boiling water to add crawfish. Add 20lbs of live crawfish to basket. Place basket back in boiling water.
10. The crawfish will cool the water and it'll stop boiling. Bring water back to a boil or close to a boil (should only take 5-7min)
11. Turn off burner.
12. Add 10lbs of ice to cool the water to stop the crawfish from further cooking. They are cooked. Now, time to add some flavor.
13. Soak crawfish in boil 15min before removing. Soaking allows the crawfish to soak up additional spice. The longer the soak, the spicier the crawfish. Sample as you soak, to establish your spice preference.
14. Serve crawfish on a table covered with newspapers. Have a beer and enjoy!
15. Repeat for 2nd batch!