How to cook traditional crawfish étouffée

Crawfish Étoufée can sound like a very complex dish to cook, but truthfully, it's not that difficult. By employing the oven-baked roux technique, you can focus on ingredient prep.

Oven-baked Dutch-oven Roux. Mix equal parts oil and sifted flour - 3/4 c. of each, put in Dutch-oven on middle shelf at 350°, stirring every 30m for approx two hours, until dark like milk chocolate.

2 c. Chicken Broth

1/4 c. finely chopped bell peppers and 1/4 c. finely chopped celery

1/4 c. finely chopped onion

3/4 c. finely chopped green onion

Spice mixture - mix all the dry spices in a small bowl

Vegetable and spice ingredients together

2lbs of Louisiana-raised crawfish meat. Order from Lousiana Crawfish Company; they're the best. Absolutely terrific, and trust me, there IS a difference.

Roux with chopped onion cooking

Roux and cooked onion having bell pepper/celery mixture added

Mix bell pepper/celery mixture into Roux and onion mixture in pot and pull off of the heat to cool

When roux, onion, celery, bell pepper have darkened slightly, stop stirring constantly and move to next step.

Add 1 Tbsp of spice mixture to Roux/vegetables mixture

Roux, off heat, chicken broth, and large pot for cooking butter, green onions, and crawfish meat

Adding roux to the 2 c. chicken stock/broth

Adding roux to the 2 c. chicken stock/broth, whisking in gradually

Finished incorporating roux into chicken broth/stock

Keep stirring periodically for 5 minutes

Remove roux and chicken broth/stock mixture from heat and move to crawfish/butter pan

8 Tbsp. butter into crawfish pan

Melt butter and sauté green onions briefly

Melt butter and sauté green onions briefly

Add 2lbs of good crawfish, the important part being "good" crawfish. The imported Chinese crawfish don't compare. I order from Louisiana Crawfish Co., and it makes a difference. Trust me.

Cook crawfish and green onions in butter

Begin to add the roux mixture incrementally to the crawfish/green onions and incorporate after each addition.

Continue adding the roux mixture incrementally to the crawfish/green onions

Simmer for about 3 or 4 minutes

Finally, but what else, add more butter. If you want it right, you can't be afraid of the butter.

Melt the butter and let simmer for a few minutes, and then YOU'RE DONE. Serve over a small mound of white rice, grab a seat, a good beer, and a bottle of Crystal hot sauce and enjoy your labor.

Close up of final étouffée.

Make a small mound of white jasmine or long grain rice in the middle of a wide bowl and ring with étouffée. Top with green onions.

Enjoy!!