Food Network: Crawfish Boil Recipe for 40 to 45 Pounds of Crawfish

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Crawfish Boil Recipe for 40 to 45 Pounds of Crawfish
Recipe courtesy Jay Francis

Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 (4.5 pound) bag Crawfish Crab and Shrimp Boil
5 pounds of #1 red potatoes, cleaned but not peeled
40 to 45 pounds live crawfish, cleaned
24 ears of corn, shucked and cut into halves

Special Equipment:
A 20-gallon crawfish pot with basket and lid, or equivalent pot used for frying turkeys
A lifting hook to lower the basket into the cooking pot
Propane burner
Heavy duty rubber kitchen gloves to protect against burns and spices
Heavy duty apron
2 large ice chests with drain plug

Cook's Notes:

Exercise extreme care when handling hot liquids and spices.

Instructions
Leaving the crawfish in the broth for a longer time results in more
spiciness. Sprinkling additional spice mixture on the crawfish after draining also will increase the
spiciness.

Crawfish Crab and Shrimp Boil: There are many manufacturers to choose from. This is a spice blend of
salt, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, lemon juice, and additional spices. Typically a
bag of spice mix costs about $5.00. The brand used for the show was Lousiana Fish Fry Products
Crawfish Crab and Shrimp Boil.

Instructions:
Place the cooking pot with its basket on the propane burner and fill with 11 gallons of water, about
halfway. This should be about the right amount of water to protect against spillage when the
potatoes or crawfish are added later. Add the 2 sticks of butter and 2/3 of the bag of Crawfish Crab
and Shrimp Boil, and the 5 pounds of red potatoes. Cover and bring to a boil. Cook potatoes for 15
minutes and, while the potatoes are cooking, rinse the crawfish.

Place the bag of crawfish in 1 of the coolers, or, on the ground and hose down the bag until the
water runs clear, about 5 minutes. Open the bag and pour the live crawfish into 1 of the coolers.
With the drain of the cooler open, continue to rinse the crawfish for 5 minutes or until the water
runs clear.

After the potatoes have cooked for 15 minutes, add the corn and continue cooking the corn and the
potatoes for 15 minutes more. Remove a potato and test for doneness, continuing to cook, if needed.
Remove the basket and dump the corn and potatoes into 1 of the coolers. Close the cooler in order to
keep the corn and potatoes warm.

Pour the crawfish into the cooking basket and lower the basket into the pot. Bring to a boil and
cook the crawfish for 15 minutes. Turn the heat off and allow the crawfish to simmer in the liquid
for an additional 15 minutes.

Remove the crawfish and serve with the potatoes and corn. Traditionally, the crawfish is dumped onto
a newspaper covered table (we used a door on 2 sawhorses). Additional spice mix can be sprinkled on
the crawfish, if desired.

Variation: Some cooks add 1 to 2 pounds of sweet onions, peeled and cut in wedges, and/or the juice
from 1 dozen lemons to the cooking liquid.

Variation: With proper ventilation, several pounds of shrimp could be cooked with approximately 1/2
to 1 cup of the spice mixture indoors. However, without proper ventilation the spice mixture fumes
will overwhelm the typical house.