Copycat Boiling Crab Recipe

"This recipe attempts to recreate the Cajun crawfish recipe served at Vietnamese restaurants in Little Saigon like The Boiling Crab, Claws, or The Crawfish House. It's what's known as Asian fusion, and the recipes are kept top secret. Buy 1-2 pounds of crawfish per person."
 
Download
photo by Julia L. photo by Julia L.
photo by Julia L.
photo by Apurva D. photo by Apurva D.
photo by swtanna90 photo by swtanna90
photo by food4meu photo by food4meu
photo by Gillian Spence photo by Gillian Spence
Ready In:
25mins
Ingredients:
14
Serves:
4-6
Advertisement

ingredients

Advertisement

directions

  • Pour live crawfish into a washtub or ice chest; cover with water. Drain. Repeat 3 to 4 times until crawfish are clean. Drain. Discard any dead crawfish and debris.
  • Cook crawfish by boiling in hot water with the Louisiana Crawfish Boil, quartered lemon, potatoes, corn and sausage (add potatoes, corn, and sausage 15 minutes prior to crawfish). While they are cooking make the sauce:

  • Melt the margarine over low heat in a large saucepan. Add garlic and saute until translucent.
  • NOTE: This will get salty fast with the Cajun seasoning and Old Bay, so add them in tiny, tiny amounts. Add Cajun Seasoning, Old Bay, cayenne pepper (start with 3 t. then add more for spiciness), lemon pepper, paprika, and liberally add Louisiana Hot Sauce. When you have the mixture right, add a tiny bit of lemon juice (roughly 1/4 lemon).
  • Simmer for 10 minutes and check for flavor. Add more cayenne, paprika, or hot sauce as desired.
  • Drain the boiling water (or ladle out the crawfish, sausage, and vegetables) and mix the sauce in with them. Serve with hot crusty french bread.

Questions & Replies

  1. Can we someone advise on the tsp amounts of each ingredient m/spices they used? That way we can kinda use it as a baseline and adjust accordinly. Thanks
     
  2. What size bag of the Louisiana crawfish boil are you using? I have to order online and I see different sizes available.
     
  3. I feel like a step is missing here. Do we add the sauce right into the crawfish pot with the water?? Or do we drain the water first?? Please help. Thank you!
     
Advertisement

Reviews

  1. This is probably the most authentic recipe. I followed it to the T for lobster tails and shrimp and it turned out just like the Whole Shebang at the Boiling Crab!
     
    • Review photo by Apurva D.
  2. I tried this recipe for the first time yesterday. I used two and a half pounds of shrimp, 2 ears of corn (halved), and 3 small red potatoes (halved). I used only two sticks of margerine. However, I definitely listened to the author's note about slowly building the seasoning to taste. At first, I added all the seasonings tsp by tsp, but after simmering and tasting, I just started throwing more and more in, without measuring, tasting and adjusting accordingly. I live in NJ and always eat Boiling Crab when I visit my family in California. In the end, this recipe is pretty authentic to the Boiling Crab one, from what I can remember.
     
    • Review photo by swtanna90
  3. Made it last night & it tasted like Boiling Crab's Sha-bang sauce. It is so good! I put in 2 Dungeness crabs, 2 corn and 1 lb of Trader's Joe Argentinian Shrimp (tastes sweeter than regular shrimp, almost like lobster). My boyfriend loves it so much. For the Cajun seasoning, I use Slap Ya Mama and I add a little bit of Slap Ya Mama Cajun Pepper Hot Sauce. For the seasoning, you just have to play with it, adding everything a little bit at a time and to your desired taste.
     
  4. I made this for my boyfriend and he more than approved! We eat at boiling crab frequently so are great judges. I used crab legs, shrimp, corn, and mini red potatoes and it was amazing!
     
  5. Tasted just like the Boiling Crab! Served it at a party with shrimp, potatoes and corn and everyone loved it! it tasted like the whole sha-bang (Boiling Crab). Soooo good!!!
     
Advertisement

Tweaks

  1. I’d add more garlic to give the sauce a little bit more texture. I did about half of the recipe and used 1.5 tsp of each of the seasoning.
     
  2. I didn't have any lousiana hot sauce so I used Tapatio, used more lemon juice instead of lemon pepper, and also added another type of cajun seasoning in addition to the Old Bay.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

I live in Long Beach, CA with my husband James, and our three dog babies. I love to cook, I started using the "Joy of Cooking" when I was 11 and still have it (though it's rather tattered!) to this day.
 
View Full Profile
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Find More Recipes