ThermoNuclear Crawfish Boil Recipe

SGH

Here is my recipe for VERY HOT crawfish. Let me fore warn all readers now. These are far hotter than anything you have ever been served at a crawfish festival I assure you. I can hear the nay sayers already but that's ok because you are in for a very rude awakening if you are heat sensitive at all. Once you try them you will truley understand the title "ThermoNuclear" Crawfish. I stress the heat factor because these bad boys are hot on a whole different level than most people are accustom to. Before I go any farther I must give credit to the two originators of this recipe. Mr. Frank Davis from New Orleans LA. and Mr. Paul Prudhomme from Opelousas LA. I thank them both for their knowledge, generosity and wisdom.
Here is a list of ingriedants. Cooking directions will follow. This list is for a whole sack of extremely hot crawfish.

10 gallon pot for boiling.
5 gallons of water.
1 pound of margarine or butter.
5-6 onions chopped.
1 head of garlic peeled and chopped.
6-8 lemons sliced.
1 cup chopped celery.
6-8 bay leaves.
26 ounces of kosher or sea salt.
8 ounces of zatarains liquid shrimp and crab boil. Concentrated.
1/8 cup old bay seasoning.
1 cup cayenne pepper.
1 cup swamp fire.
1 cup Louisiana crawfish, crab and shrimp boil.
1 cup zatarains extra spicy crawfish, shrimp and crab boil.
Everything listed above goes into the 10 gallon pot.
Bring this mixture to a boil for 15 minutes to let it steep.
Add sack of crawfish. When your water comes back to a rolling boil let crawfish boil 2-3 minutes. Any longer is over cooking.
Remove pot from heat and pour a couple of pounds of ice on top of crawfish to stop the cooking. This will also shock them and they will sink. This is when they really pick up the spice. Let them soak about 30 minutes if you want them fireball hot.
Eat at your own risk. You have been warned my friends. One last note. I recommend that you boil your potatoes, corn and mushrooms after you remove the crawfish. I know this probably seems unconventional but trust me when I say the vegetables will be to hot to eat if they are in from the beginning. Hope y'all enjoy some truly hot southern style crawfish my friends.

SGH

@Mattman3969‌
Above is the recipe that you requested. I hope that you enjoy it my friend. I find it to be as good as it gets. I hope you do as well my friend. If you are heat sensitive at all cut the spices in half. They will still be very hot to say the least.

Mattman3969

Thank you very much. We generally do boils about 2 times a year. My buddies have been asking when the next will be. I am running a little behind this year.

SGH

@Mattman3969‌
You are more than welcome my friend. I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I do. I caution again my friend that this recipe is extremely hot so be cautious if any of y'all are heat sensitive. Most people honestly can tolerate them. Cut the spice in half unless y'all like them extra hot. Good luck and enjoy.

saluki2007

@SGH On a scale of 1-10 how hot would you say this is.  For the purpose of this scale lets say Tabasco is a 1.

SGH

Honest to God easily a 10. No joke at all brother. They are uneatable to most people. That's why I keep stressing it to everyone. Even if you cut the spice in half they are still pretty hot.

saluki2007

Thank you for sharing.  I like hot and spicy, but a 10 on that scale might be too much for me.

SGH

Just cut the spice in half and you will love it. The taste is out of this world my friend.

KiterTodd

Damn those sound delicious!  And I love the heat.

What contributes most to the heat?  I know what Cayenne can do, but I've never seen that Swamp Fire stuff.

SGH

@KiterTodd‌
It's the combination of all of them and the large amount that makes it so hot. You can order the Swamp Fire on line if you can't find it locally. It's good stuff. I highly recommend it.

nolaegghead

Looks good to me!  I love spicy hot food, unfortunately my definition of hot is about 10 times hotter than what's considered edible by the average human unit.  I go through bottles of hot sauce like henapple goes through cans of PBR (maybe not quite so fast).

If I want to do a crawfish boil, I call up my buddy and he does the cooking.  I've only cooked crawfish a few times, last time I tried a new technique based on my general experience cooking seafood. 

I bring it to a boil and throw in the stuff that takes a while to cook - potatoes, artichokes, garlic etc.  I let that cook for 15 minutes then throw in the veggies that cook fast, onions, mushrooms and sausage, cook for another couple minutes.  Then I throw in the crawfish.  The temp drops immediately and I adjust the heat to hold about 165-ish (stir to keep it even).  Cook for 5 minutes, turn it off and let it steep for 20 or 30 minutes.  Cool down the outside of the pot with a hose.

The meat never gets real hot and the result is a really plump, fill-the-shell tail that comes out easy (versus shriveled up meat).  There's not much fat in crawfish and you don't render it out as much.  Anyway, that's nothing I read, just something I decided to try with excellent results.  The crawfish were different that what you usually eat when they're literally "boiled".   I will do it next time around.  

SGH

@nolaegghead‌
Thank you for the kind words my friend. Just a note- The warning about how hot these crawfish are was not intended for folks in Louisiana. But the other 49 states should proceed with caution!!

Eggbertsdad

DAMN!

Liquid Crab Boil is pretty hot on it's own. On a side note, it makes a decent base rub for ribs.

Anyway....adding the cayenne and the other stuff...holy crap!

SGH

@Eggbertsdad‌
Combining and using all the listed ingriedants produces a outstanding taste due to the differ types of pepper in each product . It is hot to say the least in the amounts I listed but you can cut the amounts in half and still get a spectacular taste without so much heat. Give it a try and let me know what you think my friend.

Zmokin

My mouth and stomach can handle far more heat than the rest of my digestive track.  The only way I can deal with something this hot would be to make sure I cook the potatoes, corn etc, in non-heat mode. that way I can enjoy the spicy crawdad's but I dilute the fire with non-spicy food so the intestines, etc aren't overloaded

Swamppro

When I boild I use a jar of pro boil and boil an entire sack. It's got great flavor and not too spicy for the kids. We also throw taters, onions, garlic, sausage, and anything else I feel like throwing in that day.