7, 7, 7, 3. That’s it.
That’s all you have to remember to host a successful shrimp and mudbug boil. But we’ll get back to that.
Where I’m from, if you were having a crawfish boil, you’d double dose the boiling water with the spice mix. You’d buy 3 pounds of bugs per person. And you most certainly wouldn’t add shrimp.
But I’m the only Mississippi girl where I work, and I’m most assuredly the only one who would consider 3 pounds of crawfish an appropriate serving size. So, you can think of this recipe as “crawfish for beginners” though it’ll still make you look like a fearless shellfish-wrangling superstar. Let’s get this party started.
First you’ll want to prep all your ingredients. Sure, cut the onions and lemons and have them ready to go. But the ingredient that requires the most prep is the crawfish.
They might be a little sluggish from their travels, and they could be a little dirty too. So a nice cool bath is just the thing they need. Fill a clean sink with cold water and gently dump the crawfish in.
Move them around a bit. They get cleanest by agitating them and lifting them out. It’s a bit like cleaning leeks. Moving, snapping shellfish-shaped leeks. You might want to wear thick rubber gloves, since crawfish can get cranky, and no one likes to get pinched. Lift them out and place them in a large bowl or storage container. If they come all the way to the top, they might crawl on top of each other and escape, so keep an eye on them. Moving on.
A crawfish boil can get messy, so I recommend doing your boiling outside. Start by filling an extremely large pot (like a turkey fryer) fitted with a strainer halfway with water; bring to a boil. Add onion, lemon, boil in the bag seasoning and a generous amount of salt. Cover and return to a boil.
Add potatoes, cover and cook 7 minutes.
Add sausage and crawfish, cover and cook 7 minutes.
Add corn, cover and cook 7 minutes.
Add shrimp, cover and cook 3 minutes. 7+7+7+3. Easy as can be!
Use strainer to remove shrimp and crawfish boil from the water. Serve with cocktail sauce, clarified butter and hot sauce. And beer, if you want to do it right.
To eat the crawfish, separate the head from the tail with one twist. Break off the top segment (nearest the head), then break open just as you would shell a shrimp. Pinch the tail gently, then pull out the meat. I prefer to go the extra mile and devein them as well, peeling them open and removing it. Add cocktail sauce, butter or hot sauce (or any combination). Eat and repeat. Oh, and don’t eat any crawfish with straight tails. If you find one of those, it was dead before it went in the pot.
Laissez les bons temps rouler, y’all!
Shrimp and Crawfish Boil
Ingredients
1 onion, quartered
1 lemon, cut into wedges
1 crawfish, shrimp and crab boil in the bag seasoning
Salt
2 pounds baby red potatoes
1 pound kielbasa sausage, sliced 1/2-inch thick
5 pounds live crawfish
4 ears corn, cut into thirds
2 pounds extra large shrimp, tail on, peeled and deveined
Cocktail sauce, clarified butter and hot sauce for serving
Directions
Fill an extremely large pot (such as a turkey fryer) fitted with a strainer halfway with water; bring to a boil. Add onion, lemon, boil in the bag seasoning and a generous amount of salt. Cover and return to a boil.
Add potatoes, cover and cook 7 minutes.
Add sausage and crawfish, cover and cook 7 minutes.
Add corn, cover and cook 7 minutes.
Add shrimp, cover and cook 3 minutes.
Use strainer to remove shrimp and crawfish boil from the water. Serve immediately with cocktail sauce, clarified butter and hot sauce.
Prep Time: 1 Hour | Total Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes| Serves: 8
Other crawfish-related links I approve of: