If you love crawfish, and you love Asian flavors, get ready for the flavor explosion that is a true Vietnamese Cajun Crawfish Recipe. It's everything you love about a traditional Cajun crawfish, plus beautiful ginger, lemongrass and fish sauce notes. Strap on your crawfish bibs and let's do this!
If you've spent any time in Houston, you already know about the Vietnamese community's dramatic influence on the local food scene. One of the most popular fusion dishes in Houston brings bright Southeast Asian flavors to the traditional Cajun spice of a crawfish boil.
So today I am sharing my version of this remarkable seafood dish. It still has lots of garlic and Cajun spices, just like the original. But it's significantly enhanced by a butter sauce studded with lemongrass, ginger, fish sauce, limes and cilantro.
It's my favorite way to eat crawfish and I hope you love it as much as my family does.
Ingredients for this recipe:
Before we get to the step by step directions, a few notes about the ingredients:
Seafood: crawfish is the obvious choice here, but substitute shrimp if you're in a pinch. It's perfect with shell-on shrimp. For shelled shrimp, reduce cooking time.
Vegetables: potatoes, corn and onions are the traditional mix. But feel free to customize the veggie mix to your liking! Mushrooms, artichokes, fresh green beans and celery are good options.
Spice level: the butter sauce has a balanced level of heat. For a spicier kick, add extra cayenne pepper to the butter sauce, serve the boil with a bottle of hot sauce, or add Spicy Aioli to the buffet line!
Full ingredient list and measurements included in the printable recipe card below.
Step by step instructions :
1. Make butter sauce
To begin, make your butter sauce for the Viet-cajun seafood boil. Melt 2 sticks of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add chopped garlic, green onion, red chili, grated ginger, diced lemongrass, Old Bay or Cajun seasoning, white pepper and fish sauce to the butter.
Sautรฉ the vegetables for 5-6 minutes until they are tender and fragrant. Add 1 cup of seafood stock and lime juice and bring the butter sauce back up to a simmer for 2-3 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.
I like to use an immersion blender to emulsify the butter sauce at this point because it creates a far better dipping sauce experience for the seafood. So I use a stick blender right in the saucepan and mix for about 10-15 seconds, until the sauce turns a creamy orange color and is fully emulsified.
Then add in the diced cilantro. Taste again and adjust seasoning, as needed. Set aside.
2. Clean crawfish
Next, if using fresh crawfish, wash crawfish very well under running, cool water. (Anything called a "mud bug" will require a good cleaning!)
The recipe below is for 2-3 people.
Start by filling a stock pot or Dutch oven about ยพ full of water (for 6 pounds of crawfish I used a very large Dutch oven.)
3. Prepare boil
Add 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt, 2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning, 3 quartered onions, 2 bay leaves and a head of garlic cut in half to your pot of water.
Bring the entire mixture to a boil over high heat. Add tiny red potatoes and corn.
Cook 8 minutes (if your potatoes are larger, cut them in half, or plan to boil at this stage for 10-12 minutes and wait to add the corn until the potatoes have boiled about 5 minutes).
4. Add crawfish to the boil
I usually remove the corn and potatoes at this stage to make room for the crawfish. If your pot is big enough to hold both, go ahead and add crawfish.
Then bring the mixture back up to a boil. Once the pot is boiling, cover and cook 3-4 minutes, until the crawfish float to the surface and turn deep red.
5. Combine sauce
Next, transfer cooked crawfish, new potatoes, corn, onions and garlic to a second stock pot or large container with a lid and pour over the Vietnamese Cajun butter sauce. Shake to coat and let the ingredients soak up the sauce for 5-10 minutes.
6. Garnish and serve
Garnish with chives or parsley. Serve with extra sides of Viet-cajun butter sauce and spicy aioli.
I like to pour the crawfish and sides onto a large tray lined with parchment or newspaper in the center of the table, and dig in!
Hungry for more Cajun seafood?
FAQ's and Serving Suggestions:
This recipe feeds 2-3, and the equipment needed includes a large Dutch oven (or stock pot) for boiling the crawfish, corn and potatoes, a spider or strainer, and a second large pot or container with lid for steaming the hot crawfish in Cajun butter sauce, when finished.
Old Bay Seasoning, liquid crab boil, ground crawfish boil spices and even your own spice mix are all delicious in a crawfish boil. But I must note that after making seafood boils for years, I heard a Louisiana chef say that seasoning the crawfish boil water didn't do very much to season the crawfish - that was the job of the Cajun butter sauce. Seasoning the water just makes it smell delicious as your guests arrive. Ever since, I've cut way back on the crawfish boil seasoning I add to the boiling water. I want the water to be seasoned lightly, but I focus much more on adding flavor and spice to the cajun butter sauce, or in this case, the Viet-Cajun butter sauce. It's been a winning philosophy for me!
In the United States, Louisiana crawfish season begins as early as December and ends around July. Although you can find quality frozen crawfish and crawfish tails year-round.
My favorite day-after meal is to dice up the potatoes and onions and garlic, cut the corn off the cob, and make a crawfish hash with poached eggs for brunch. I usually make extra potatoes and corn just to be sure I have enough leftovers on day 2.
My favorite addition is jumbo shrimp to make a crawfish and shrimp boil with all the delicious sides. Crawfish bring a very particular flavor and shelling / eating experience to the party. But shrimp can do a lot of heavy lifting in filling up hungry bellies! There's just a lot more meat in a shrimp than a crawfish. Snow crab and Gulf shrimp will also add a lot of flavor to your Viet-Cajun crawfish boil.
In addition to the onions, garlic, corn and potatoes, other popular veggie add-ins include mushrooms, artichokes, celery and fresh green beans.
My rule of thumb: if serving the crawfish as an appetizer or with other hearty meats, 2 pounds per person will suffice. If crawfish is the main course and star of the event, 3-5 pounds per person is your best bet. For more details, see my full post on Buying Crawfish for a Boil.
Obviously you'll need a delicious sauce or two. This Vietnamese Crawfish Sauce is a remarkable mash-up of Cajun and Vietnamese flavors popular in Houston. And I love serving a spicy aioli sauce for dipping crawfish and potatoes. For a side dish, napa cabbage slaw adds freshness and crunch to the party.
The spice mix and cajun butter sauce you use will likely contain some level of heat. To dial it up, add an extra half teaspoon of cayenne pepper to your butter sauce, or another chili pepper. Adding more Cajun seasoning to the water will dilute the spice. But adding it to the butter sauce will keep it concentrated. Serving your crawfish with Spicy Aioli would add another spicy spark to your boil.
To store, keep butter sauce separate from your crawfish boil ingredients. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. To reheat, check out my recommendations in How to Reheat Leftover Seafood Boil.
Vietnamese Cajun Crawfish Boil Recipe
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 2-3
Ingredients
For the crawfish boil:
6 pounds crawfish
2 onions, quartered
1 head garlic
8-10 small red potatoes
2-3 ears of corn on the cob
2 tablespoons sea salt
2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning
2 bay leaves
Lime wedges, for serving
Viet-cajun butter sauce (for serving)
2 sticks butter
8 cloves garlic
ยฝ cup green onions (white and light green parts)
2 tablespoons diced red chili
2 tablespoons fresh ginger
2 tablespoons lemongrass
2 tablespoons Old Bay or Cajun seasoning
1 cups seafood stock
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 teaspoon fish sauce
ยฝ teaspoon white pepper
3 tablespoons cilantro
Instructions
- To begin, make your butter sauce for the Viet-cajun seafood boil. Melt 2 sticks of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add chopped garlic, green onion, red chili, grated ginger, diced lemongrass, Old Bay or cajun seasoning, white pepper and fish sauce to the butter. Saute the vegetables for 5-6 minutes until they are tender and fragrant. Add 1 cup of seafood stock and lime juice and bring the Viet-cajun garlic-butter sauce to a simmer for 2-3 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. I like to use an immersion blender to emulsify the butter sauce at this point - I think it creates a far better dipping sauce and soaking product for the seafood. So I use the immersion blender right in the saucepan and mix for about 10-15 seconds, until the sauce turns a creamy orange color and is fully emulsified. Add in the diced cilantro. Taste again and adjust seasoning, as needed. Set aside.
- If using fresh crawfish, wash crawfish very well under running cool water. (Anything they call "mud bugs" will require a good cleaning) Fill a stock pot or Dutch oven about ยพ full of water (for 6 pounds of crawfish I used a very large Dutch oven.)
- Add 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt, 2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning, 3 quartered onions, two bay leaves and a head of garlic cut in half to your pot of water. Bring the entire mixture to a boil over high heat.ย
- Add tiny red potatoes and corn. Cook 8 minutes (if your potatoes are larger, cut them in half, or plan to boil at this stage for 10-12 minutes and wait to add the corn until the potatoes have boiled about 5 minutes). Add crawfish. Bring the mixture back up to a boil. Cover and cook 3-4 minutes, until the crawfish float to the surface and turn deep red.
- Transfer cooked crawfish, potatoes, corn, onions and garlic to a second stock pot or large container with a lid. Pour over the Vietnamese cajun butter sauce.
- Cover and let the crawfish soak in the butter sauce for 5-10 minutes. Garnish with additional fresh cilantro leaves and lime wedges. Serve with extra sides of Viet-cajun butter sauce and spicy aioli.
Notes
After making seafood boils for years, I heard a Louisiana chef say that seasoning the crawfish boil recipe water didn't do very much to season the crawfish - that was the job of the cajun butter sauce. Seasoning the water just makes it smell delicious as your guests arrive. Ever since, I've cut way back on the crawfish boil seasoning I add to the boiling water. I want the water to be seasoned lightly, but I focus much more on adding flavor and spicy seasonings to the Viet-cajun butter sauce. And it's been a winning philosophy for me!
All of the crawfish I've seen in fish markets around our village are whole, in the shell, and already blanched and bright red. But since live crawfish have such a short cook-time (about 3-5 minutes) - reheating these blanched crawfish require the same process. So the pictures below show bright red crawfish at the beginning of the process, and if you're in the US using live or raw crawfish, your starting product will be a darker brown color when you first add them to your large pot of seasoned water at a rolling boil. Once they are cooked, they will float to the top of the pot a bright red color, and that's how you know they're cooked.
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 20
- Category: Easy Recipes
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: American, Cajun
jerry
this sauce! it's amazing. the flavors are out of this world. perfect sauce for seafood, sausage, potatoes. All of it!
Christina Jolam
Right? Couldn't agree more. So glad you loved it, Jerry. And thanks for coming back to leave a review!