A fusion between Asian & Cajun flavor which creates such unique and addicted boiling seafood. This Garlic Cajun Boiling Seafood will keep your lips smacking non stop.
So you're craving for a hot Cajun boiled craw fish but the nearest decent restaurant is like a thousand miles away, then what would you do? You make yourself a big batch of home style Cajun mix, don't you? This Garlic Cajun Boiling Seafood is a perfect recipe to accomplish at home whenever you feel craving for one. Also it is the closest one you can make at yourself to assemble the famous shabang Cajun flavor of LA Crawfish.
The name of this recipe has mentioned the main ingredients besides the almighty Cajun seasoning which is garlic.
You'll start with a lots of garlic and end with also a decent amount of additional garlic.
Why? Because I was attempting to kill a demon in my apartment with the ancient beliefs: garlic-anti-everything-bad.
Boohoo, just kidding. I name this Garlic Cajun Boiling Seafood recipe because I love garlic.
So we dive into those steps and ingredients and pay attention to details if you can, I have made many trial batches of this recipe in order to come up with the perfect amount for the ingredients.
Enjoy yourself and may the almighty sauce be with us.
What else can I use this Cajun sauce with?
Don't limit the use of Cajun sauce to just only boiling seafood.
I also use this amazing garlic Cajun sauce to make this Cajun Style Semi-dried Squid. This semi squid was one of the best sellers on our restaurant menu. The best part of any Cajun recipe is: pairing it with any kind of cold beer, then you're in heaven.
And if you want to make this into a sandwich, I also have this tasty Cajun grilled avocado chicken sandwich ready for you. Try it and you will fall in love with the sandwich so deeply. Cajun chicken layered with fresh avocado, lettuce, and tomato is the best new sandwich.
Ingredients used in this garlic Cajun boiling seafood recipe
- Old Bay seasoning. Your Cajun boiling seafood won't complete without this. In fact, any Cajun style recipe that omits this particular ingredient is not really qualified for the amazing taste, in my opinion.
- Lemon Pepper seasoning. I use the one from McCormick.
- Paprika or smoked paprika helps to enhance the unique color that always found in any Cajun recipe.
- Cajun seasoning. The name says it all, you need Cajun spice mix to make this recipe possible. It saves a lot of time if you just bought this ready-to-use Cajun seasoning.
- Or if you prefer making it yourself, it is a mixture of a lot of spices included: salt, garlic powder, white pepper, dried oregano powder, onion powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper, dried thyme powder, and paprika.
- Cayenne pepper brings the extra spicy to this garlic Cajun boiling seafood. Omit this if you can't handle too much spicy.
Crush your garlic - Don't throw them in food processor
The more finely the cloves are crushed (not cut or mince into pieces), the stronger the flavor will be. That said I strongly recommend you using one of the old-fashioned way to crush garlic: using mortar and pestle.
I bought a granite mortal and pestle ages ago and still using it. I love it so much so I had to take in on a plane with me when I move half across the globe 5 years ago.
You'll thank me later when you finally get to experience the wonderful fragrance of butter and crushed garlic. This is the secret makes this garlic Cajun boiling seafood recipe so delicious (and smell super duper good).
As mentioned above, I'm a garlic lover. I crushed and used garlic a lot in most of my recipes. You can see it here and here.
Other Cajun related recipes
I love Cajun flavor so much. This garlic Cajun mix boiling seafood is one of the recipes in my Cajun collection. I have so many awesome and delicious recipes that you must try if you're also a fan of Cajun.
- Cajun chicken penne pasta with smoked sausages
- Cajun tacos and quesadillas
- Crispy Cajun fried chicken and waffles
- Grilled Cajun chicken salad
Did you make this recipe? If so please leave a rating and let me know how it went in the comment section. Also, don't forget to tag me #cookmorphosis on Instagram and Pinterest.
Garlic Cajun Boiling Seafood
Ingredients
- 1-2 lb shrimps/clams/crawfish/mussels
- corn on the corb cooked, as desired
- sausages cooked, as desired
- new potatoes cooked, as desired
Cajun garlic sauce (seasoning mixture)
- 1 lb unsalted butter
- 7 oz garlic minced
- 0.5 oz cajun seasoning or 5 tsp
- 0.5 oz Old Bay seasoning or 5 tsp
- 0.5 oz lemon pepper seasoning or 5 tsp
- 0.5 oz paprika or 5 tsp
- 0.4 oz brown sugar or 1 tbsp
- 0.2 oz cayenne pepper or 2 tsp
Finishing mixture
- 8 oz unsalted butter soften, room temperature
- 3 oz garlic minced
- 0.5 oz Cajun seasoning or 5 tsp
- 0.5 oz Old Bay seasoning or 5 tsp
- 0.5 oz paprika or 5 tsp
Instructions
Make Cajun garlic sauce
- In a heavy bottom medium cooking pot or large cooking pan, melt unsalted butter over medium heat. When butter has melted completely, add the minced garlic and saute for 5 minutes. Be careful, DO NOT burn the garlic.
- Add the rest of seasoning mixture to the melted butter, constantly stir for another 5-8 minutes to prevent the mixture from scorching. (See Notes for storage instructions).
Cook seafood
- Add the corn, sausages, and potato (if you want) to the seasoning mixture, and let it simmer for 8 minutes. Make sure to come back and stir once a while to make sure the bottom DOES NOT burn.
- Continue adding shrimps or your choice of seafood to the seasoning mixture and simmer for 10 minutes. Then turn of the heat, cover the pot with lid and let them soak for another 5 minutes.
- Move shrimp and whatever adds on you have inside the pot to a large mixing bowl. When the seafood are still hot, immediately add the minced garlic and butter (in finishing mixture) and stir until the butter completely melted.
- Scatter with the rest of finishing mixture over (or just a portion of a mixture - depend on your tasting references) the seafood before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
- You can swap shrimp for any kind of seafood you like and remember to cook this over medium heat ONLY. Also, DON’T forget the finishing step. It’s where the beauty of this recipe is. Let me know how yours turns out ok!!!!
- Cajun garlic sauce can be kept in an airtight container, in refrigerator, for up to 2 months.
- I understand it's more convenient for some of us using teaspoon and tablespoon instead. So I updated the recipe and included an estimate amount of each ingredient in volume for your references.
Such great recipe haven't done it yet but on Saturday. For sure I will thank you !
Hi Gracey,
How was it? I would love to hear some feedback :).
Awesome recipe! Thank you! We’ll probably be doing this every month! Haha! Thank you! Thank you!!
Hi Carlo,
Thank you so much :). I'm really glad that you love the recipe.
Hola sorry I have a question do I cook the corn sausages and potatoes before adding to the garlic sauce? Wanna make this tonight
I want to make this but am confused. What's the difference between the sauce and finishing sauce? Are they 2 different things?
Hi Kathi,
The Cajun garlic sauce (seasoning mix) is used while cooking the seafood. You can understand it as marinating mixture.
While the finishing sauce is like an add-on or a 'garnish' which is used to add more flavor to the seafood.
You can skip the finishing sauce, if you like.
As for me, I want that extra garlicky and buttery taste to my garlic Cajun so that's why I included the finishing sauce in the recipe.
Hope this helps.
This recipe is absolutely amazing. Thank you very much for sharing! I made it tonight with snow crabs, shrimp, potatoes, corn, and boiled eggs and my husband raved! Absolutely exceptional!
Hi Niki,
I am super glad that you and your husband love it. Thank you so so much for trying out the recipe. I'm so thrilled now.
Just a bit confused - do we cook everything before adding to the boil? Precook the corn, potatoes and seafood?
Hi Marissa,
Yes, all add-ons (except seafood, unless you're using big ones like crabs) should be precooked before adding them into the seasoning mixture.
Thanks for the reply! What’s the best way to cook the potatoes before adding? I’m thinking boiling wouldn’t be ideal as it would be too mushy?
I have always boiled my potatoes as it's the fastest way to cook. To prevent mushy texture, my best choice of potatoes are always new potatoes because we don't need to peel or cut them into pieces. Just boil them at medium high temperature, whole, unpeeled, uncovered for 15-25 minutes. You can check their texture halfway of boiling process (around 12 minutes) by lightly piercing them with a fork. Then depend on your references of an ideal cooked potato, decide how much more time should you leave them in a pot.
However, if boiling potatoes is what you dislike then baking potatoes is another option to look at. For this method I would rather use Yukon potatoes. Pierce the skin of each potato with a fork to allow steam to escape during the process. Then wrap them in aluminum foil individually and bake at 400F for 1-1.5 hours. You want to under bake them a little bit rather than achieve a perfect texture here. When you ready to cook them with Cajun sauce, just cut them into large pieces, and proceed with those steps in the recipe.
Hope these help. Feel free to pop back with any more question, I'm happy to assist you with trouble shooting.
Oops sorry just seen this. Thanks
Is this 1-2lb of each or all together
Hi Cheri,
Thats the total lb all together for all ingredients. Hope this helps :).
So if I’m doing a 1lb of crawfish and shrimp would the ingredients be doubled?
So it means 2lb total, right? Then you don't need to double the ingredients. The recipe is good for at most 2lb of seafood. Unless, you want a lot of extra sauce on the side, then go for the double.
Im wanting to make this for my husbands birthday with shrimp crawfish and maybe even mussels.
Or even the store has a seafood party mix (shrimp crab legs mussels) i may use instead. Not sure. On the recipe im not good at the oz measurements what would it be in tsp etc measurements? And im needing it for serving 3-4 as he can eat the 2 servings himself. Also do you have a good recipe for swordfish i also want to make him to go with this
Hi Chassity,
I've just updated the recipe with tsp measurement. Please see the recipe above for references. Thank you for planning to use this recipe on your husband's special day.
As of now, there is no swordfish available on my blog. But I'll update one soon, I have a good recipe from my last restaurant so I can't wait to share. Please subscribe to my newsletter so you'll know when it is up. Thanks again.
Where can I find the tsp measurement recipe as I can only see the oz one
Hi Krishna,
I added the tsp measurement right after each ingredients, the 'or 5 tsp " part.
Quick question, if I've read this right, we make the Cajun Garlic sauce first. I'm a little confused about the finishing mixture. We don't cook the garlic or anything cz the hot seafood will? Do we just put the butter, garlic and seasonings from the finishing mixture as it is on the prepared seafood?
Thanks for the recipe!
You're correct. Just make sure the butter is soften at room temperature before incorporated into the hot boiling seafood; and then mix them well. Together with minced garlic and the rest of ingredients in finishing mixture, they'll create such pleasant fragrance for the feast.
Hi,
I am planning on making 3-5 lbs of lobster with this recipe for my birthday!! I was thinking i’d boil the lobster first and then add it to the mixture with the sides and everything. For what I’m trying to do what do you suggest? Also should I change the measurements?
Hi Maycie,
You're correct. If you make lobster/crabs instead, you must boil them prior adding into the seasoning mixture. You can actually undercook them a little bit (probably only need to boil them for 10-15 minutes), because they will get to stay in Cajun seasoning mixture for at least 15 minutes to absorb the flavor.
For 3lb of lobsters, I would x2 the recipes. For 5lb, I would x3.5. Plus, you also want to cut the tails into 4 or 5 pieces, the head in half, and crack open the claw as much as possible so they can easily soak in the seasoning mixture.
If you have any more questions, feel free to add them here. I'm happy to help as much as I could.
Is it possible to combine these spices in a large amount and put it in a container to use later on?
Hi Randy,
Definitely. You can make a huge batch Cajun garlic sauce, cook and let the sauce cool down. Next, store it in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to 2 months. I would recommend you break it into few small containers rather than store in one big one. That way, whenever you're ready to cook, just leave one container out at room temperature for few minutes to soften, then proceed with whatever you like.
I always have 1 jar of this Cajun garlic sauce (triple the recipe works for me) in my fridge so whenever I feel like missing eating Cajun flavor, I have one ready to use right away.
I made this and came out amazing but your directions are a little confusing. States to add seasoning mixture to the butter. I assumed it was the seasonings under the finishing mixture section. Once everything was cooked and added to serving platter I tossed with the section you had as seasoning mixture. Hope it was right.
Hi Liz,
I'm so glad you like the recipe and everything turned out awesome for you :). And you were right, it was a little bit of confusing in the recipe, so sorry about that. I have re-written the recipe for clear instructions. As long as it tasted good, its all that mattered. Thank you again for the feedback, it means a lot to me. Have a wonderful Holiday Liz!
How do we obtain the written receipt
Hi Artrice,
You can press the Print button either on the article or on the recipe itself. Then you can save as pdf file if you want or print it out :).
Hi, I want to try this recipe out.. but I am a little confused on what we boil the shrimp in? Is it in the seasoning mixture or do we add water?
Also, is this spicy at all? If not, what do you recommend to kick it up a notch. Thank you! So excited to try this out
Hi Jovette,
We boil or cook the shrimp/seafood in the seasoning mixture. For this recipe, please don't add water to the pot, if you need more 'liquid', add more unsalted butter instead.
This recipe is at medium-spicy level. You can turn it up a noch by increase the amount of cayenne or chili powder.
Yes, this garlic Cajun so delicious. You definitely should try it out. If so, let me know how the outcome goes :). Excited to hearing from you.
I want to try this recipe for my birthday party get together, I plan on making a large amount of seafood including crab legs, maybe some blue crabs, shrimps, potatoes, sausage and corn. Should I double the amount of your recipe or is the recipe amount that you used enough for a very large amount?
Hi Dana,
If you're usind crab legs and also blue crabs, I would recommend you partially cook them in boiling water (separate pot) first before cooking in Cajun seasoning mixture. And yes, double or even triple the recipe should be enough to cover 2-3 lb of crabs and 2lb of sbrimps. Let me know how it goes.
Tried cooking Cajun for the first time, it turned out superb!
Hi Lani,
Thats awesome! Thank you so much for giving the recipe a try.
I am making 6lbs of crawfish plus mussels for a total of 8 lbsJust wondering how much butter I would be using.3lbs of butter seems like a lot.
Regards
Lothar
Hi Lothar,
You'll need 3lb of butter for that a mount of crawfish and mussels. Just triple the amount of all ingredients in Cajun garlic sauce; because we rather have extra sauce but don't need it than need it but don't have it in the middle of Cajun feast, don't we? For finishing mixture (8 oz of butter), you can just use it as it is, no multiply needed. So total you'll need 3.5 oz of butter for everything. If you have left over, everything can be kept under refrigeration for up to 2 months :). So don't worry if you're gonna waste all of that butter.