Just think of it: Fresh Louisiana crawfish tail meat swimming in a lightly thickened butter sauce infused with spices and aromatics over a mound of white rice. This is the purest expression of Cajun cooking I know and love. It’s that time of year, and in case you missed it, here is my recipe.
Crawfish Étouffée in a rich stock is a classic Cajun recipe. (All photos credit: George Graham)
But the time-honored recipe for crawfish étouffée is under assault. There is a most disturbing trend in South Louisiana cooking these days that is gaining acceptability among traditionalists–cream of mushroom soup in crawfish étouffée. This is nothing short of sacrilege, and it must be stopped at all cost.
Don’t get me wrong. I love to experiment. I enjoy an occasional contemporary twist on a classic. A grits and grillades with gator meat recipe is a prime example of how far I am willing to expand the boundaries of Louisiana classics. But this can opener-enabled madness borders on the ruination of the entire culinary heritage of Cajun and Creole culture.
It is not the first time classic Crawfish Étouffée has come under attack. I recall the tomato paste assault some years ago that had to be rebuffed by the true bayou traditionalists. And now, the time-saving, tin-can cheapsters are pouring on the soupy extenders that rob flavor and render a pound of tail meat utterly inedible.
Stop it.
Crawfish Étouffée should always be a centerpiece dish to showcase the unique flavor and texture of Louisiana crawfish. Treated lightly, this buttery mixture envelopes the tail meat with a rich, flavor-filled coating of golden goodness.
From time to time, depending on the availability I do use frozen cooked Louisiana crawfish tails, but in season, there is no substitute for fresh-picked tail meat. When eating boiled crawfish at a restaurant I always save the shells and take home another 3-pound order. The next day, I remove and reserve the tail meat and wash all the heads and shells of excess spice. These shell pieces are simmered in a large pot of water to reduce down into an intense crawfish stock that is a key to the perfect étouffée.
Soup? No thanks. Not in my Crawfish Étouffée.
Pinch the tail. Suck the heads. Boiled crawfish time.
- 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter
- 2 cups diced yellow onion
- 1 cup diced green bell pepper
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 pounds Louisiana crawfish tail meat
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups crawfish stock or seafood stock
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Dash of hot sauce
- ¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 cup diced green onion tops
- 6 cups cooked Louisiana long-grain white rice, such as Supreme
- In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and add the onions, bell pepper, and celery. Sauté until tender and add the garlic. Lower the heat to simmer and stir to combine. Season the mixture with cayenne and add the crawfish tail meat stirring to combine.
- Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to incorporate and begin cooking the flour. Add some of the stock and continuing stirring until it begins to thicken. Add more stock until you get a stew-like thickness.
- Season to taste with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Serve over a mound of white rice garnished with chopped parsley and green onion tops.
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I made this tonight, and I have a couple of questions: I halved it since it was just my husband and I. I used two sticks of butter and had to keep adding flour, as there was a whole lot of butter not being soaked up and thickening. I used plain white rice as up north we do not have the Supreme brand; it made the Étouffée very bland. Does the brand of rice really make a difference? This is my first attempt at Cajun cooking, and while I was not totally disappointed with the outcome, I expected more. Where did I mess up?
JoAnne- First, the French term “étouffée” means “to smother”, and this dish is smothered in butter, thus my recipe calls for 4 sticks (1 pound) of butter. The flour is added sparingly to thicken only, so I am not sure why you had to add more than the recipe calls for. I certainly hope you used Louisiana crawfish, as that will make a huge difference in taste and texture. As for rice, I stand by the Supreme brand and urge you to source it; there is a reason why Louisiana products deliver on the authentic Cajun taste. I hope you will try the recipe again.
JoAnne. Not seeing your pot and watching what you did, it’s hard to tell where it went wrong, but YES, the type of rice you use will definitely make a surprisingly big difference. I don’t use the Supreme brand as George does, but I definitely use a local brand. The type of rice we have hear is specific in taste and texture that is different from everywhere else. When it comes to Cajun cooking there is SO MUCH more to it than the ingredients. Time, heat level, timing of stirring or adding water,pot covered or uncovered, even the type of pot you use can drastically change the outcome. Many times it’s not so much as the amount of any one ingredient as much as it is timing and technique. Because so much is depending on timing and technique, I have seen many many time where people try to follow a Cajun recipe and it doesn’t come out right. There is much more to it than looking at a list of ingredients. I have taught many people but It was hand on demonstration with explanation. I have taught people from different parts of the country as well as people from other countries.
I love it and have made it time and time again for friends, as most all my family live in Louisiana. I do however wonder what you personally would use to add a little bit more spice to it. I know the seasonings and roux need to be balanced so maybe add more spice when you boil the crawfish? What are your suggestions?
Joe- A perfectly balanced étouffée is not overly spicy. Have a bottle of hot sauce on the table so that each diner can adjust the spice level to their own preference. All the best.
Joe, you could add just a touch more straight cayenne to the pot when cooking. That way, you don’t accidently make it too salty (if you already liked the salt level) by trying to add some sort of Cajun seasoning mixture.
Also, if you have tails left over from a boil where the heat level was good, that can also help. I like that “touch” of boil flavor in a crawfish etouffee, so if it’s packaged tail meat, sometimes add just a third to half a cap of liquid boil. That’ll give a bit of extra spiciness as well without over-salting the pot.
George’s ingredients and style are pretty identical to mine, and he is 100% correct on his above rant about people throwing cream of mushroom and/or tomato paste in the pot. That’s not crawfish etouffee.
Joe, I agree with Nick and George. I would use straight Cayenne pepper flakes or power, but don’t make you make your étouffée overly spicy or salty. You will ruin it and not get the rich deep flavor of the crawfish. Save the spices for other Cajun dishes such as Sauce Piquant, Gumbo, and Sauce Brune with wild game.
How would you adjust to make it a crawfish, shrimp and sausage étouffée? My dad requested one with all three.
Katie- I would simply replace half of the crawfish with shrimp (small). As for the sausage, I would use 1 cup diced smoked andouille and saute it along with the onions. Let us know how it turns out. All the best.
Your blog, recipes, and comments are always spot-on and very professional. Thanks, I enjoy your thoughts.
Thanks, Bill.
I have been sick with a terrible cold and decided that I needed a meal. This recipe did not disappoint!! I paired it with some dirty rice I had in the fridge. Will definitely be my new go-to recipe.
I absolute love your recipes! Thanks for sharing!
I love crawfish etouffee and I’m planning to make this on Ash Wednesday. Thanks for the recipe!
The reason people add the soup is take the place of the crawfish fat taken out of the heads . You can only get this when you peel your own crawfish because you can’t buy it . The sale of it is banned by the Dept of Health, although I’ve never heard of anyone dying from eating it. If anyone ever peels their own crawfish and saves the fat for their etouffee, I promise they will never buy the tail meat already peeled unless they absolutely
have to. The fat is where the flavor is.
Also a little salt added to the rice pot while cooking the rice will take away the blandness talked about in one of the posts.
I had a lil sherry and lobster base to mine.
Looks good.
Hey Lily- And it tastes good, too. Give this recipe a try. All the best.
Hey T-Boy! You left out the can of mushroom soup
Hey N Cormier – I’m a purist when it comes to this classic recipe; no soup for me. All the best.
I agree…theres people that use cream of mushroom soup. My recipe is similar…. The one I use came from Don’s seafood cookbook in the 1960s.Again you cannot State enough how important crawfish fat is. Only by the packages that have the yellow fat visible in them. That is where all the flavor comes from. Without enough it will come out looking kind of Gray…. You want it to be yellow orange. There was a time when you could buy crawfish fat but the FDA made them quit selling it because apparently it went rancid when Frozen. Old recipes called for adding a tablespoon or two of crawfish fat to the pot.