Shrimp Boil
Finger-licking goodness here! A summertime classic shrimp boil that EVERYONE will love. Serve with lemon wedges and hot sauce!
Nothing screams summer more than a classic shrimp boil (also known as a low country boil), scattered on newspaper with cold beer, lemon wedges, hot sauce, and Old Bay seasoning.
The most important thing here is to find the biggest pot possible, about 8-9 qt is ideal. From there, you should be all set with your fresh ingredients – unpeeled shrimp, corn, sausage, and baby potatoes, which all gets cooked in a garlicky, lemony beer broth seasoned with Old Bay and Zatarain’s Crawfish, Shrimp & Crab Boil (the best kind of seasoning IMO).
When serving, go ahead and drizzle (generously) that oh-so-buttery Old Bay goodness. My favorite is having some fresh crusty bread on the side to sop up EVERYTHING here.
Shrimp Boil
Ingredients
- 2 (12-ounce) bottles lager or ale beer
- 1 (3-ounce) package Zatarain's Crawfish, Shrimp & Crab Boil
- 4 tablespoon Louisiana style hot sauce
- 1 large sweet onion, quartered
- 1 lemon, halved
- 1 head garlic, halved
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 pound baby red potatoes
- 3 ears corn, each cut crosswise into 3 pieces
- 1 (12-ounce) package andouille or kielbasa sausage, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 pounds large shrimp, unpeeled
for the butter mixture
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon Louisiana style hot sauce
- 1 ¼ teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
Instructions
- Combine 10 cups water, beer, Zatarain's Crawfish, Shrimp & Crab Boil, hot sauce, onion, lemon, garlic and bay leaf in a large stockpot or 9qt Dutch oven over medium heat. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered, until flavors have blended, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in potatoes; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Stir in corn and sausage; reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are just tender, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, until pink and cooked through, about 4-5 minutes; drain well.
- Serve immediately with butter mixture.
for the butter mixture
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, hot sauce and Old Bay seasoning. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
I wanted to love this because I LOVE shrimp boils. Unfortunately it turned out very bland for us. The broth smelled so yummy and delicious, but for some reason it just didn’t seem to season the food enough. The butter was the star of the show, and is what made the dinner edible. The butter definitely deserves 5 stars on its own!
Making this week. ..do you peel the half head of garlic?
Followed recipe to the T except the butter sauce- I doubled it and added lemon and more hot sauce – we like it spicy and lemony
I am a born and bred North Louisiananian. (My, that’s a lot of vowels!) I really just want to thank you so much for this recipe. It was so delicious! Dare I say Damn Delicious, LOL!
Of course this is the time of year where we have plenty of access to boiled crawfish, ready made or ready for you to make. But here in April 2024, due to problems with the weather, Crawfish are astronomicallly priced.
But with your recipe I was able to get all the delicious flavors of a real “boil,” using very affordable frozen shrimp for my local grocery. I could not add beer to my boil, because my husband’s beer is a craft IPA. And as delicious as the dinner would have been, he might have been miffed. So I just used a little extra plain water.
The only way is I varied from the recipe was that I left out celery, but I did include whole white button mushrooms. And when I tell you how well those mushrooms took up the flavors in your recipe, oh my goodness!
Again for anyone reading, please try this recipe! It is divine.
Also added sweet potato because we had some that needed to be eaten. They were great. Thanks for the recipe. This recipe is great! Could clarify the reduce heat from simmer part as mentioned. I just returned to a boil then cut the heat between additions.
Thanks!
How do you reduce heat from a simmer?
Delicious! We made it and was surprised how easy it was! We made it twice- once with beer and once with chicken broth instead of beer and couldn’t taste much of a difference. It was also a bit spicy for my family so we used less hot sauce. Thanks for this great recipe!
I followed the directions only change I made was I used fingerling potatoes mixed with small red and golden potatoes. Delicious and will be making again.
We made this for the 4th. Followed exactly as written. Everyone loved it . Will make again soon! I used large/jumbo shrimp and it felt like even at 5 min. By the time we drained and ate they were just a tad overdone , but didn’t hurt the fabulous flavor . I served with the butter (doubled it ) and baguette . Even the 2 year olds gobbled it up.
This was so easy to make and everyone loved it! I followed the recipe exactly as written using Tabasco for the butter sauce and a mix of Tabasco and Chohula for the water. I used delicious pink shrimp from Argentina and the corn I bought was sweet and delicious as well. I love the instructions, so easy to follow, using the times indicated. It was super easy to cook everything in 10 minute increments. It all came together perfectly. I served it with a baguette and it fed 6 people. Thanks for this easy, perfect recipe!
I have Zatarain’s Crawfish, Shrimp & Crab Boil in a liquid form. Do you think this would work and same and if so, how much to use. Thank you. This recipe is right up my alley.
Do you drain it before dumping it on the table?
Yes, you drain it first. (That direction is given at the end of step 4.)