A shrimp boil is one of my favorite parties —–no dirty dishes. This is also a completely portable party. My favorite spot is on the beach. When we have a large crowd, we borrow an extra turkey fryer or two. The following recipe uses 1 large 34 quart turkey fryer with a strainer basket that goes almost to the top of the pot. One pot serves about 10-12 people.
First cover your entire table with freezer paper, shiny side up. Let the cooking begin!
Printable Shopping List and Instructions
Fill turkey fryer about 2/3 full of water. Bring to a boil and add 2 pkgs of Zatarain’s spice mix, 1/4 - 1/2 bottle Zatarain’s Shrimp and Crab oil, 1 cup of salt and garlic. Boil for 15 minutes
Add potatoes, boil for 7-8 minutes
Corn goes in next for 5 minutes (if corn is frozen you might need to turn up the heat for a minute to get your water boiling again)
Add kielbasa, cook for 8 minutes
Add onions, and squeeze lemon juice into pot and then toss the lemons into the water, boil 3- 4 minutes (oops picture is wrong - add the garlic at the beginning!)
Add shrimp and cook 5 minutes or just until shrimp turns pink.
Turn off the heat, immediately pull basket from the water and let drain.
Pour contents of basket onto your freezer paper covered table
Serve with sliced baguette sprinkled down the table and bottles of squeeze butter, cocktail sauce and spicy mustard. Remember NO knives, forks, spoons or plates allowed! This is all finger food and condiments are squeezed directly onto the table! When finished just roll up the paper and give everyone a finger wipe! A big thanks to our dear friends Jeff and Cathy for showing us how to have the best party ever!
Put on some Zydeco (zi-dee-coe) music and have a great time!
Yum! When’s the next shrimp boil?
Awesome! Sounds & looks fabulous!
How incredibly fun is that?! I’m doing this on my dining room table this weekend, to celebrate my daughter’s first week of Kindergarten. I think my kids will absolutely love it. I may have to replace the carpet next week, but oh well!
Holy smokes- that looks fun! And yummy.
What are u using as a heat element and where do u buy one like it?
I will wade in as the offical hand modeler and head cook. We use a propane gas burner (might be called a turkey fryer) that can be purchased at Sams, Costco, etc. It comes complete with the burner, pot, basket, handle to pull the basket out of the pot, etc. For a crowd the size in this blog we used two burners. All of this along with your favorite beverage, some Cajun music, a roll of paper towels and by golly you have a party! It gets really quiet when the food hits the table except for the compliments to my wonderful blogging chef! LOVE YOU LOU!!!!!!!!!
That looks so yummy! I may have to try a mini version in my soup pot (we don’t have a turkey fryer).
In SC they call it frogmore stew. So yummy!
Cheers! LA
that sounds fabulous cindy! i haven’t done that since i was at my grandmother’s in seattle. you are making me homesick! the dear hubby is deathly allergic to shellfish.
Ohhhh…I am jealous! That looks so yummy…I need to convince my husband that we need to have a party!
I tagged you for the ‘Great Tip Award’! You are so amazing, not only do you have great ideas but also how-to pics. I really am inspired by your blog. It looks like you guys had a blast at your shrimp boil.
Yuuuum. We used to go to crawfish boils like that. Yum, yum, yum!
The absolute best party you will ever have and we luckily know the best cooks!! FUN!!!!!
We followed the instructions at an Oklahome State University football tailgating party. Some things were a little vague, but here’s what we did and the results were awesome. We divided a hole garlic head into individul cloves and left the outside skin on. We put the garlic in first with the spices after the water came to a boil. We used some spicy sausage from Sam’s Club (I can’t remember the name but is comes in a package of 7 or 8 pieces about 9″ long). We used fresh corn on the cob, shucked and cut into 3 or 4″ pieces the night before. The corn was the best I have ever tasted. We used large frozen shrimp (deveined). We could have used whole shrimp, however we thought that having to dig out that tube of (the S word) would not be appreciated by our tailgating team. We did 2 batches of of the shrimp boil. On the second batch we added 1 gallon of water, 2 Zatarans dry and the other half of the liquid. I think the second batch was better and next time we plan on using 4 packs of spices and an entire bottle of the liquid. The proportions worked out about right. We used about 15 small red potatoes, 14 half ears of corn, one entire package of sausage cut into 1″ pieces, about 5 small onions (pealed and cut into 4 pieces with the top end left to keep the pieces connected) and we used 2 lbs. of large shrimp. We did not leave the shrimp in for 5 minutes….we watched them and removed them when they were pink. We used Bookbinders Coctail Sauce (also from Sam’s Club). To sum it up…this was the greatest tailgating ever. Next week we plan to grill Bobby Flay’s Cuban Style Burgers. The recipe is easy to find on Google. The only thing we change is that we make the burgers 1/2 pound in lieu of the 1/4 called for on the recipe.
Man does that look good. I always wanted to try this. Need a backyard first =)
What a great idea! Where’d you get the recipe? I kid, I kid…
Hope things are going well for you.
Jeff/Cathy
We did this for my cousin’s college graduation, only we boiled crawfish instead of shrimp. The cook also added a large bottle of McElhenny’s tobasco to each pot. It sure made the accompanying margaritas taste good too. What a BLAST!
[...] Love to make “To Do Lists”? I do. Toodledo is a great to do list site that I have started using. It has the ability to set priorities and due dates. Now if I would just get off Toodledo and actually check things off the list I might get something done… http://skiptomylou.wordpress.com/2007/08/27/shrimp-boil/ [...]
What a coincidence! I just had a shrimp boil last night too.
We just did this for 75 people yesterday. We used your website as our bible. It is the most comprehensive easiest to follow - THANK YOU! Us inlanders (way inlanders from Minnesota) don’t know how to do this sort of thing! But thanks to your site our party was a hit and everyone left saying they too were going to host a seafood boil.
Great!! Made it for my family and they all loved it!!
I am planning on doing a shrimp boil tomorrow night. I have never done one or been to one, but I think they look like alot of fun. I want to add some crab legs, the crab is already cooked. Can I just add it with the shrimp to warm it up? Looking forward to this.
Patty
We made this on our last camping trip. It tasted awesome! We are now making it when we go to the beach next week.
Thanks for all your info. Our shrimp/crab boil was a great success and everyone just raved about the taste of the food. They said they didn’t know corn on the cob could taste soooo good. We had about 20 people here and we had it set up in the front yard. People were driving by and wondering what was going on. We live in eastern Oregon and the people over here are not used to eating seafood, but they got their fill that night.
Thanks again for all your help.
Patty
[...] and the easiest! A Shrimp Boil [...]
I really want to try this. I don’t have a turkey fryer and would be doing it in a big pot on the stove. What changes to your recipe would I need to make in order to still get yummy results? Thanks for any advice. Jen
This is very cute! So how do you guys keep the flies off the food while people are eating? Anyone had a problem with this? Everytime we sit down for a picnic outside we FIGHT flies. It’s awful.
Thanks,
Julie
I just want to double check the total cooking time–would you say that it takes about 45 minutes?
Thanks
We found your recipe and tried it for a group of 9 over the weekend. You’re portions and timing were right on! It was such a big hit I cant wait to do it again. Such a great way to entertain a big group of people! Thanks so much for posting the detailed instructions.
Hello…I stumbled across your site searching for ideas on how to have a shrimp boil for my wedding on my property next summer. I have no idea how to plan something for 100-150 people. Any ideas? Are we taking on too much? Thank you for any advice!!!
I just stumbled upon this yummy treat and got inspired to do one for my hubby’s 40th birthday in May this year.
I once saw one on the tv show “Easy Entertaining” with Michael Ciarello except he covered the table with lots of newspaper. Your idea is better, ’cause you don’t get any ink in your food! ha ha
To the person wonering what to do about flies when you eat outdoors: here in Mexico we do two things: put half a lime studded with whole cloves, and hang transparent plastic bags filled with water. Nobody knows why it works, but it does, like a charm.
Congratulations on an amazing idea!!!
Greetings from sunny Mexico City!
You sure know how to have fun. I have relatives that are from the south like New Orleans and I am from Newport Beach Ca and i love making shirmp boil and i have learned to make other southern recipes please cont to share any thing southern how fun and so yummy I just love your blog its one of my all time favorties you are so creative and have the best and most fun ideas ever Keep it up Happy day you deserve it This would be so fun to do here in Henderson Nevada for out church ward I will have to show them your blog and share it with the Relief Society they will love it like i do . Amazing just awesome to say the least love and Blessings Cheyenne
wow..luv it..no plates..good good, great friends and family..
can’t beat that!
I’ve made this several times and each time it ROCKS!!! So simple and soooo good!!!
LOVE love love this idea.
Definately trying it when our weather warms up…
So, in August.
Can’t wait!!
We have done this several times always great in fact my wife bought the items home for one yesterday the new red potatoes are outstanding in flavor
We alos have topped it off with small clams,corn is better fresh but you got to use what you can get
This is now my most favorite site, and I can’t WAIT to give this party a try as soon as the weather is nice enough! Thanks so much for such great content. . .and a beautiful site too. Nice!
In South Carolina, we call this Frogmore Stew! Nothing’s better than Carolina shrimp…well, maybe that there are no dishes to clean after having this for dinner:-)
This is a camping tradition for us now. It feeds multiple people and is easy after a day of wakeboarding and tubing. I am so glad we found this site for the recipe!
THis is so much fun! We did this one a while back and will do it again this coming weekend for my moms 69th birthday! Thanks for posting this!!!!