Crawfish Jambalaya

Name: Crawfish Jambalaya
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Southern
Ingredients: 4 andouille sausage links, or other smoked sausage; 1 ½ cups chopped onion; ½ cup diced celery; ½ cup diced green bell pepper; 2 large garlic cloves,, minced; 2 tablespoons butter,, divided; 2 tablespoons vegetable oil,, divided; 1 ½ cups long grain rice; 1 (14.5-ounce) can stewed tomatoes; 2 cups chicken broth; 2 bay leaves; ½ teaspoon ground thyme; ½ teaspoon kosher salt; ½ teaspoon tabasco sauce; 1 ½ tablespoons tomato paste; 1 pound crawfish tail meat; ½ cup chopped green onions

This spicy Crawfish Jambalaya is easy to make and will bring a taste of Louisiana to your kitchen. Can be made with shrimp instead.

Prep10 min
Cook25 min
Total35 min
Serves6
Rating5.0

This Crawfish Jambalaya is easy to make and will bring a taste of Louisiana to your kitchen. It’s bold and spicy with lots of crawfish and andouille sausage.

Bowl full of Crawfish Jambalaya

If you’ve never eaten crawfish before, they are a little like a cross between shrimp and lobster, and they’re a little difficult to peel. Unless you grew up in the swamps of Louisiana, and then it should be second nature for you.

Since I grew up in the Carolina Piedmont, I struggle with peeling mudbugs. There’s a deeply buried southern belle in me that wants to bat my eyes at my husband and ask him to Puhleeze peel me some crawfish. But he’d probably say no and even if he did I’d have to pay for it in one way or another.

Crawfish Jambalaya

So I suck it up and do it myself, which means I don’t eat much.

But on this particular occasion, we had mega pounds of crawfish left over from a boil. There was no way I could trash them, so I peeled and peeled and peeled, until I literally had cuts on the sides of my thumb. I did however discover that I have an easier time pushing the tail meat out of the shell when they’re cold.

But let’s just say it’s going to be a long, long time before I peel anymore crawfish.

Note: Shrimp can easily be substituted for crawfish.

This easy to make Crawfish Jambalaya is a filling meal with plenty of spice. The Holy Trinity (onions, celery, and bell pepper) and some tomato paste really create a lot of flavor.

Bowl full of Crawfish Jambalaya