Seafood Boil (The Best Recipe!)

4.61 from 457 votes

Seafood Boil (The Best Recipe!)

Sample a taste of New Orleans cuisine with this seafood boil recipe! Fresh, delicious, and simply addictive, this traditional Louisiana seafood boil recipe has shrimp, crawfish, and Manila clams, all boiled together in a homemade Cajun seasoning and butter sauce.

Prep Time20

Cook Time10

Total Time30

Course: Seafood

Cuisine: American Recipes

Keyword: Seafood Boil

Servings: People

Author: Bee Yinn Low

Ingredients

1 lemon halved
1 lb (500g) shrimp head-on and shell-on, mustache and legs trimmed off
1 lb (500g) crawfish scrubbed and rinsed with water
1 lb (500g) Manila clams scrubbed and rinsed with water
water for boiling
2 ears corn cut off the cob into 2-inches (5cm) pieces
2 sticks unsalted butter melted
2 heads garlic peeled and minced
2 tablespoons Louisiana hot sauce

Seafood Boil Seasonings

4 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients of the seafood boil seasonings in a bowl. Stir to mix well. Set aside.
Fill a large stockpot halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add the lemon halves, followed by the shrimp, crawfish, Manila clams, and corn. Cover the stockpot and cook the seafood and corn until they turn red or cooked through for about 2 minutes. Drain the seafood and corn, and discard the water and lemon. Set aside.
While the seafood is cooking, in a big skillet over medium heat, add the butter and stir in the minced garlic. Sauté the garlic for 1 minute (not brown). Add the homemade seasoning and Louisiana hot sauce and stir well. Turn off the heat.
Transfer the seafood and corn to the spicy sauce, and stir to combine well. If you have a small skillet, mix the butter sauce and the seafood in two batches. Serve immediately.

Video

Notes

Adapted from Cultural Chromatics. This is a Vietnamese-Cajun version of seafood boil, which in my honest opinion, is so much better than the traditional.

I always use good-quality ingredients for the best results! No seasoning or sauce can compensate for subpar seafood.

I use a big pot to boil the seafood. If I don’t have a tall and deep pot, I’ll boil and cook the seafood in batches to ensure everything cooks properly.

I figure out how long it takes to cook each type of seafood. For example, shrimp and crawfish only take 5 to 6 minutes to cook, while clams take a bit longer. I start boiling the clams first before adding in the other seafood to make sure everything cooks perfectly.

If I have plastic bags, I mix the seafood and the sauce in the bag. Sometimes, I even serve it that way, usually in a 1-gallon plastic bag, for an easy and fun presentation.

Nutrition