Crawfish Boil Menu with Recipes

There’s nothing like a Memorial Day Weekend Crawfish Boil to kickoff summer! While we always remember what Memorial Day is actually about- honoring the memory of those who have fought and died trying to defend our country and our freedom- I think like many people, we do so by getting together with family and friends and celebrating America, and celebrating the sacrifices made for this freedom we cherish.

What a perfectly beautiful day it was, too! All week long they kept saying rain, rain, rain, and we ended up with 3 days of beautiful sunshine. But enough about the weather- let’s talk food. Many people brought appetizers and sides, which was wonderful (especially for those people who do not really eat crawfish- gasp!). Here is the menu that we made, outside of the brought items.

Click on the following links for recipes:

• The Crawfish Boil
• Corn Bread/Jalepeno Corn Bread
• Spinach and Strawberry Salad
• Berry and Peach Fruit Salad with Mint
• Southern Sweet Tea
• Bayou Zinger

The Crawfish Boil “How-to:”

The great thing about a crawfish boil is that you can do as little or as much as you want. If everyone is your group is ready to dive in, then you can really get away with just doing a big pot of ” the boil” and some beers/wine. Clean-up is super easy then, because you can just roll up your table of newspapers or plastic tablecloth and toss it. We weren’t sure if everyone at our party would love the crawfish though, and there were about 30 kids there, so we added sides to our menu (as well as burgers and brats, kept warm in crockpots, for the kids).

How many crawfish per person?:

We like to order our crawfish live from Louisiana Crawfish Company.  They ship them out the same day they’re caught, and ours have always arrived fresh the next day. We bought the 50lb party pack this year and had about 2 catering pans left over that we shelled the next day for gumbo and etouffee. We usually get about 2-3lbs per eating adult, but if you have a smaller group, feel free to make it part of your rsvp to get a more accurate number:

___ We love crawfish.

___ We like to taste a few.

___ We do not love crawfish.

For crawfish lovers, get about 3-5lbs per person, and maybe just 1lb per person for the tasters. Worst case scenario you have enough extra to make something fun the next day.

What you’ll need:

• Large pot with built in strainer and a propane or natural gas burner. You might pull out that old turkey fryer you used that one time if the burner sits low enough to the ground… Here are some setups similar to what we use. Otherwise just google “crawfish boil pot” and you’ll have lots of options, or ask around and see if you can borrow one.
• Strainer or stirring paddle. Many people use a stainless steel paddle. We like the wood one a) because we already had one for brewing beer and b) because it doesn’t get too hot.
• Table covered in a newspapers or a heavy duty disposable table cloth to dump the boil out on.
• Paper towel and garbage cans.

How to Cook Them:

Our printable Crawfish Boil Recipe with Instructions

How to Eat Them:

1. Hold crawfish in one hand.
2. Grab by the tail with the other and twist/gently pull tail.
3. Suck the seasoned water out of head and discard.
4. Peel shell off of tail. (I twist off little flipper at the end 1st to make it easier).
5. De-vein (optional). Grab bulk of vein at small of tail and it should peel off pretty easily.