The Ultimate Seafood Boil at Home

Name: The Ultimate Seafood Boil at Home
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 lb (2 packs) Super Colossal Shrimp, peeled and deveined, tail on, thawed; 2 tails (1 pack) Wild cold water Atlantic lobster tails, thawed and split lengthwise; 1 lb (1 pack) Wild snow crab merus meat, fully cooked, thawed and kept cold; 2 lb Small red potatoes, scrubbed, halved if large; 4 ears Sweet corn, shucked and cut into halves or thirds; 1 lb Andouille sausage, cut into 2 inch pieces; 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup Old Bay style seasoning, plus kosher salt for the water, and 2 lemons, halved; 12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) Butter, melted with 6 minced garlic cloves and 2 tbsp Cajun seasoning for the finish

Nutrition

Nutrition FactsPer serving - 1/6 of the boil - 6 servings per recipe

860

Calories

70g

Protein

140% DV

45g

Fat

58% DV

44g

Carbs

16% DV

Fats, Cholesterol & Sodium	% DV*
Total Fat 45g	58%
Saturated 22g	110%
Trans 0g
Monounsaturated 14g
Polyunsaturated 3g
Cholesterol 435mg	145%
Sodium 2,050mg	89%

Carbs, Protein & Micronutrients	% DV*
Total Carbohydrate 44g	16%
Dietary Fiber 4g	14%
Protein 70g	140%
Selenium 112mcg	204%
Vitamin B12 10.6mcg	442%
Zinc 7.5mg	68%
Potassium 1,670mg	36%

* The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. Values are estimates and will vary with portion size and preparation.

Ingredients

Makes6 Servings

2 lb (2 packs) Super Colossal Shrimp, peeled and deveined, tail on, thawedFeatured
2 tails (1 pack) Wild cold water Atlantic lobster tails, thawed and split lengthwise
1 lb (1 pack) Wild snow crab merus meat, fully cooked, thawed and kept cold
2 lb Small red potatoes, scrubbed, halved if large
4 ears Sweet corn, shucked and cut into halves or thirds
1 lb Andouille sausage, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 cup + 1/4 cup Old Bay style seasoning, plus kosher salt for the water, and 2 lemons, halved
12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) Butter, melted with 6 minced garlic cloves and 2 tbsp Cajun seasoning for the finish

Preparation

Thaw the shrimp, lobster tails and crab overnight in the refrigerator, still sealed.
Split each lobster tail lengthwise through the shell and the meat.
Pat the shrimp dry and keep them cold until the last three minutes of cooking.
Scrub the potatoes and halve any bigger than a golf ball so they cook evenly.
Shuck the corn and cut each ear into halves or thirds.
Melt the butter with the garlic and Cajun seasoning over low heat while the water heats.

How to Cook

Season the water
Fill a 12 to 16 quart pot with 6 quarts of water. Add 1/4 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup Old Bay style seasoning and the juice of two lemons, then drop the squeezed halves in. Bring it to a hard boil for 10 minutes so the spices open up. Taste it. It should taste like well seasoned soup, not seawater. That works out to a little over 1 percent salt. Peeled shrimp take seasoning directly, with no shell in the way, so the heavy salt load of a shell-on Louisiana boil would oversalt them here.
Ladder in the starches
Add the potatoes and boil 12 minutes. Add the sausage and the corn and boil 5 minutes more. Test a potato with a paring knife: it should slide in with slight resistance, not fall apart, because the potatoes get another 5 minutes while the shellfish cooks. If they are still hard at this point, give them 3 more minutes before moving on. The sausage should be plumped and the corn bright yellow. Keep the water at a full rolling boil throughout, with the lid off.
Add lobster, then shrimp
Slide in the split lobster tails, cut side up, and start a 5 minute timer. At the 2 minute mark, add the shrimp and stir once so they are submerged. When the timer ends, the lobster shells are bright red and the meat is white and opaque, 140F to 145F in the thickest part, pulling away from the shell. The shrimp are pearly and opaque and curled into a loose C, about 120F inside. A shrimp curled into a tight O has gone too far, so pull the pot the moment you see the C.
Finish off the heat
Turn the burner off. Add the snow crab meat to the hot broth for 60 to 90 seconds, no longer. It is fully cooked already and only needs to warm through. Then lift everything out with a spider or drain it in a colander. Finishing off the heat matters because the shrimp keep cooking inside the hot pile after draining, which carries them up toward the 145F federal figure without turning them rubbery. Tip it all into a large bowl, pour over the Cajun butter, toss, and taste for lemon.

How to Serve

A boil does not have to mean newspaper and a hose. The classic dump onto a covered table is fun, but it also means cold food fast and butter soaking into the Sunday paper. A big shallow platter or two rimmed sheet pans do the same job, keep everything in reach, and let the butter pool where you can drag corn through it. Serve immediately: shellfish loses more in ten minutes on the table than in any other part of the process.

Use a large shallow platter or two parchment lined sheet pans instead of newspaper. Every potato and ear of corn gets butter contact and the table stays clean.
Warm any extra Cajun butter in a small pot and set it on the table with lemon wedges and a shaker of the same seasoning you used in the water.
Leave the tails on the shrimp as handles and put one empty bowl on the table for shrimp tails and lobster shells so plates stay clear.

What to serve it with. keep the sides simple and acidic, because the boil is already rich, salty and buttery. Four things that hold up next to Cajun butter:

Crusty bread. A baguette or sourdough, torn not sliced, for the butter and broth left on the platter.
A vinegar slaw. Shredded cabbage with cider vinegar, a little sugar and salt, no mayonnaise. It cuts the butter.
Something cold to drink. A crisp lager, a dry Riesling or iced tea with lemon. Heavy red wine fights the spice.
Grilled lemon halves and hot sauce. Char the lemon halves cut side down in a dry pan while the pot boils, then squeeze at the table.

FAQ

How Do You Make a Seafood Boil Where Everything Is Cooked Right?

Cook in order, longest to shortest. Season 6 quarts of water and boil it 10 minutes. Potatoes go in for 12 minutes alone, then sausage and corn for 5, then split lobster tails for 2, then shrimp for the final 3. Turn off the heat and warm the already cooked crab meat in the broth for a minute. Drain, toss with garlic butter, and serve. About 22 minutes of boiling, and the order is what makes it work.

How Much Salt Does Seafood Boil Water Need?

For 6 quarts of water, 1/4 cup kosher salt plus 1/2 cup Old Bay style seasoning gives roughly a 1 percent brine, which tastes like well seasoned soup. Traditional shell-on boils use far more salt because the shell blocks most of it. With peeled shrimp the seasoning reaches the meat directly, so a full Louisiana salt load would make the shrimp taste cured. Taste the water before anything goes in, and adjust there rather than after.

Can I Use Frozen Shrimp for a Seafood Boil?

Yes, and you should. Nearly all shrimp is frozen close to the point of harvest, and buying it frozen means you control the thaw instead of a store. Thaw it in the refrigerator overnight in the sealed pack, or in cold water for about an hour. Never add frozen shrimp straight to the pot: the water temperature drops, the ladder breaks, and the shrimp cook unevenly. Our guide to fresh seafood explains what freshness means for shellfish.

How Long Do You Boil Shrimp in a Seafood Boil?

Super colossal shrimp, 10 to 12 per pound, need about 3 minutes in a rolling boil. Jumbo shrimp need about 2, and anything smaller is done in 90 seconds. Watch the shape: a shrimp curled into a loose C with pearly, opaque flesh is done, and a tight O is overcooked. The internal temperature at that point is about 120F and climbs as the shrimp rest in the hot pile. The FDA describes done shrimp, lobster and crab as flesh that is pearly or white and opaque.