Shrimp Etouffee is a juicy shrimp dish smothered in rich and flavorful roux boasting authentic southern flavors. Its bold spices are incredibly mouthwatering, and it’s super easy to make!
I totally appreciate easy, quick, and tasty meals. But if you want to put something exciting on your dining table, this Shrimp Etouffee recipe is a good place to start. The French know how to make delicious food but throw in a kick of African and Creole seasonings, and you have an unforgettable combination.
Once you taste it, you’ll want it on a weekly rotation. So, while planning your weekly menu, you might as well add homemade Creole Seasoning to your spice list. It’s the mother of all Southern spices for depth and richness, quick to put together, and easily customizable to your preference.
Content…What Is It? |
What Is Shrimp Etouffee?
You are probably thinking, what on earth is shrimp étouffée? I love French. The verb etouffée is much prettier than smother. But you’re not here for French 101, right?
Shrimp etouffee is different than shrimp creole. Shrimp etouffée is juicy, decadent shrimp smothered in a thick spicy sauce, then served over steaming white rice. On the other hand, Shrimp Creole is a thinner, more stew-like sauce and isn’t quite as spicy. However, both are equally delicious because the tomatoes, onions, celery, bell pepper, and garlic add a rich flavor.
Recipe Ingredients
- Roux – Oil, butter, and flour make the perfect roux. Toasted flour and fat, when done right, are what make this shrimp etouffee recipe so awesome. If you need a gluten-free version, try an all-purpose gluten-free flour or cornstarch for the roux.
- Holy Trinity – Green bell pepper, onion, and celery are staples in Southern Creole cooking because they add substance and flavor.
- Seasonings – Garlic, thyme, bay leaves, Creole Seasoning, and smoked paprika are staples in Cajun and Creole cooking. Tomatoes are slightly acidic and make a good base with the herbs’ intense flavors. Then, add Worcestershire sauce and seafood broth (you can make it from the shrimp shells), and you have a flavor explosion.
- Shrimp – I love seafood, and this is the cheapest way to satisfy my seafood craving. Get it on sale and store it in the freezer for those nights you need something you can throw together quickly. Lobster and crab are both delicious for a total seafood experience! Even chicken and pork would make a good etouffee.
- Garnishes – Parsley and green onions are beautiful and delicious on stews and soups. A little green on top of the plate always looks gorgeous.
How to Make Shrimp Etouffee
Shrimp Stock
- Saute – Add a teaspoon or two of butter or oil to a saucepan or skillet. Then, throw in the shrimp shells, the remaining onion, garlic, and celery scraps, and aromatics like bay leaf and thyme. (Photo 1)
- Add Water – Sauté for 5-7 minutes, constantly stirring to prevent burning. Add about 5 cups of water to it. (Photo 2)
- Simmer – Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
- Strain – Remove from heat and strain using a sieve. Set stock aside. (Photo 3)
Etouffee
- Roux – Whisk melted butter, oil, and flour until smooth in a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed saucepan. (Photo 4)
- Patience – Cook on medium heat, stirring continuously, for 10-12 minutes or until you achieve the desired color. Please don’t walk away from the stove because it might burn. (Photo 5)
- Sauce – Add the onion, green pepper, and celery, and cook for 8-10 minutes – stirring frequently. (Photo 6)
- Herbs – Then add garlic, thyme, and bay leaf – continue stirring about 2 minutes longer. (Photo 7)
- Season – Next, throw in about 1 cup chopped tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, and Creole seasoning, and let it cook for 5 minutes. (Photo 8)
- Add Stock and Shrimp – Gradually pour in about 2 cups of shrimp stock, bring to a boil, and simmer. Add the shrimp and simmer for five more minutes. Or you may season the shrimp with Creole seasoning, sauté for about 5 minutes, and then throw it in at the last minute. You’ve got two options here – both work. (Photos 9-10)
- Adjust the soup’s thickness and flavor with more shrimp broth or water, hot sauce, and salt. (Photo 11)
- Serve – Stir in the green onions and chopped parsley. Serve over hot cooked rice. (Photo 12)
Recipe Variations
- Seafood etouffee. Crawfish Etouffee is incredible if you can get some fresh crawfish when it’s in season. But, hey, clams, oysters, mussels, lobster, and crab sound terrific.
- Vegetarian etouffee. Vegetable broth instead of seafood broth and baby portabellos, oyster mushrooms, tempeh, and eggplant instead of seafood all make good yum.
- Paleo version. Use ghee instead of butter, arrowroot powder instead of flour (skip making the roux and add it as a slurry), and yuca fries instead of rice.
Tips and Tricks
- The key to a great shrimp etouffee is the roux. Some people like the brown roux for deep, bold flavors, but I prefer the blonde roux for two reasons: First, it takes less time, 5-7 minutes. And second, it has a slightly nutty taste, not as strong as gumbo but equally tasty.
- Cook the roux over medium to low heat with constant whisking. Don’t stop even for a second to avoid burnt roux.
- Shell-on shrimp is best because the shells make a quick, easy, and flavorful stock.
Make-Ahead and Storage Instructions
This incredible dish is the perfect make-ahead because the flavor is even better the next day. Make it the day before, let it cool, then store it in the fridge. Make your rice and reheat your shrimp etouffee on the stove when ready to serve. You keep your leftovers the same way.
If freezing etouffee for later, try not to cook the shrimp first. Then let the sauce thaw overnight in the fridge, heat it in a pot on the stovetop, and throw the shrimp and simmer until it’s done.
What Goes With Shrimp Etouffee
Homemade garlic bread, fried okra, spicy green beans, skillet cornbread, and basmati rice all love to be with shrimp etouffee. King cake is a superb finish with a cup of coffee. And if you want to serve wine, Chardonnay is a good pick.
More Awesome Seafood Recipes to Try
Watch How to Make It
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”8ucJfXsH” upload-date=”Mon Aug 06 2018 19:57:54 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)” name=”Shrimp Etouffee” description=”Shrimp Etouffee — Juicy shrimp dish smothered in rich and flavorful roux sauce made with rich authentic southern flavors and an incredibly delicious taste. Easy recipe with big bold flavors!!!”]
This blog post was originally published in June 2017 and has been updated with additional tips, new photos, and a video.
Shrimp Etouffee
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon (28 ml) canola oil
- 2 tablespoon (28 g ) butter
- ¼ cup (31 g) flour
- ½ medium onion, diced
- ½ cup green bell pepper, diced
- ⅓ cup celery, chopped (about 1-2 stalks)
- 2 teaspoon (10 g) garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon (1 g) thyme, fresh or dried
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup tomato, chopped
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) Worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon (1 g) smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoon (8 g) Creole seasoning
- 2 cup (500 ml) seafood broth (can sub with water)
- 1 pound (453 g) shrimp, (peeled and deveined) reserve shrimp shells
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) hot sauce, optional
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 2-3 tablespoon (8-12 g) parsley, chopped
Instructions
Shrimp Stock
- Add a teaspoon or two of butter or oil to a saucepan or skillet. Then throw in shrimp shells, the remaining scraps of onion, garlic, celery together with aromatics like bay leaf and thyme.
- Sauté for about 5-7 minutes, constantly stirring to prevent burning. Add about 5 cups of water to it.
- Remove from heat and strain using a sieve. Set stock aside.
Etouffee
- In a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine melted butter, oil, and flour until smooth.
- Cook on medium heat, stirring continuously, for about 10-12 minutes, or until you have achieved the desired color. During this process, don't walk away from the stove because it might burn.
- Add the onion, green pepper, and celery, and cook for 8-10 minutes – stirring frequently.
- Then add garlic, thyme, and bay leaf – continue stirring about 2 minutes longer.
- Next, throw in about 1 cup chopped tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, and Creole seasoning, and let it cook for 5 minutes.
- Gradually pour in about 2 cups of shrimp stock, bring to a boil, and let it simmer. Add the shrimp and simmer for 5 more minutes. Or you may season the shrimp with Creole seasoning, sauté for about 5 minutes, and then throw it in at the last minute. You've got two options here – both work.
- Adjust the soup's thickness and flavor with more shrimp broth or water, hot sauce, and salt.
- Stir in the green onions and chopped parsley.
- Serve over hot cooked rice.
Tips & Notes:
- Comparable to gumbo and jambalaya, it’s made with Southern holy trinity. The roux is not as dark as the gumbo.
- Feel free to switch out the shrimp with crawfish. I suppose you could even use chicken if you’re allergic to seafood. Just make sure to cook the chicken through.
- If you want to add crabs to this recipe, cut down on shrimp or double everything else, minus the shrimp.
- The key to success for this dish is the roux (or sauce). Some people like the brown roux for deep, bold flavors, but I prefer the blonde roux for two reasons: First, it takes up less time, approximately 5-7 minutes, to get rid of the flour’s raw flavor. And second, it has a slightly nutty taste, not as strong as gumbo, but equally tasty in its own right.
- If you have the patience and persistence and want that brown roux flavor, go for it. Don’t let me stop you.
- Be sure to cook it over medium to low heat with constant stirring and whisking. Don’t stop even for a second, or you might end up having a burned roux.
- This is one recipe that is best to get shell-on shrimp, if possible. Do not let the shelling and deveining of the shrimp scare you! They make for a quick and easy stock, and it’s flavorful too!
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used.
Ken Schatzman says
Hello,
Made the stock from scratch and it definitely took longer than 40 minutes to make this. That being said, it was VERY good. Also, be careful when cooking the shrimp, 5 minutes in the pot is about 2 minutes too long.
Looking forward to making it again, I think I’ll try a shrimp base next time to make things go a little faster.
Regards.
ImmaculateBites says
Awesome! Glad to hear it worked out well for you ken. Thanks for taking the time to share feed back with us – appreciate it !
LaToia J. says
Just made this for New Years… Bomb.com!!! Only added sausage and doubled recipe size for my family… Winner!!!
I love your recipes! Easy to follow, & now people think I cook like Big Mama!
ImmaculateBites says
Virtual High Five Girl! Glad to hear the recipes are working for you LaToia. Happy New Year!!!
Danielle says
Made this tonight and it was fantastic! Can’t wait to try out more of your recipes 🙂 Happy New Year!
ImmaculateBites says
Happy to hear it worked out well the second time around. Thanks for taking time out to let me know.
tb says
Hello,
Can this recipe be doubled and still come out the same ? Thanks
ImmaculateBites says
It sure can.
Bernadette Hendry says
I made this for Sunday dinner last weekend. Southern cooking is new to me, but I read about this dish and it sounded good. It was easy to make and my family loved it. Definitely will be added to my weekly menus.
Thank you for the recipe.
ImmaculateBites says
Awesome! So glad to hear you enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me know ! Happy Holidays Bernadette!!!
Tracy says
Just made this for dinner tonight. Absolutely the best etoufee ever. Love the idea for the quick shrimp stock. That made the dish. Thanks for posting!
ImmaculateBites says
OH WOW! Thank you so much Tracy!!!
Ms. Felicia says
Hello how are I’m planning on making this tomorrow how do you keep the sauce from getting thick once it has sat for a couple of hours and has gotten cold
B. says
The shrimp etouffee was on point I had to keep adding water so that I could get it really nice and soupy like you see in the restaurants but not like a soup more like a thick Rich Roux and the spices add in more to taste, I added in a some cayenne pepper and a little extra Worcestershire sauce and also poured in a little bit of white wine to give it that little extra Zing it came out really good I added extra shrimp also to make it a bigger meal to feed more people
ImmaculateBites says
Love all the additions. I want to head over to the kitchen and make some- sounds Delicious. Thanks B!
Jason W. Backus says
Two questions. I’m planning on making this hours in advanced so it has time to mature and become even more amazing. Doing that, what ingredients should I hold out until just before I get ready to serve? Shrimp, green onion, and parsley?
Second question – My Indian wife loves spicy (like we cook with habanero peppers when we make eggs in the morning lol). To increase the heat above a southern hot sauce, any recommendations that wouldn’t hurt the integrity of the dish?
ImmaculateBites says
Hi Jason! Yes to the first question. Add those three ingredients just before you are ready to serve . In regards to your second question. A southern sauce would work or cayenne pepper – habanero is not a good fit here.
Happy Cooking
jason says
I doubled the recipe so there would be plenty of leftovers, blackened some chicken and added some Andouille sausage and my family now begs me to make it. I’ll be making it again tonight. Thank you for the great recipe and follow-up.
ImmaculateBites says
Aww, thanks ! So happy to hear it’s a hit with the family.
Linda says
This was fantastic! The depth and richness of the flavors were wonderful. This will be a repeat absolutely and is a definite must for dinner parties and seafood lovers.
ImmaculateBites says
Hi Linda! Thanks for taking the time to provide such glowing review. So happy to hear it was a hit .
Delf says
Imma, how delicious, great recipe. Lived in Louisiana for 5 years and love these local dishes! I like to add some lime at the end, adds another layer, thanks for sharing Delf
ImmaculateBites says
Thanks for the feedback Delf! So happy you liked it !
Patrick says
Looks sublime! Have made it is wonderful! Serve up with cheddar biscuits to stop up any gravy/sauce.
ImmaculateBites says
Hi Patrick! Cheddar biscuits just pairs well with this -it’s been a while .. now I have the hankering for cheddar biscuits. Thanks for the feedback!
Starr says
In the instructions for Shrimp Stock it says add to “Add a teaspoon or 2 of butter or oil to a sauce” What type of sauce? Or just use the butter or oil as the sauce?
ImmaculateBites says
My bad! It’s sauce-pan. Recipe updated!!!
Nicole Kennedy says
Hi Imma!
To make this or your gumbo gluten free could I use cassava flour or what flour do you recommend to preserve the flavor of your dishes?
Btw I absolutely love your recipes and they’ve been satisfying my pregnancy cravings to the tee! Lol
Thank you!!
ImmaculateBites says
Hi Nicole, So glad to hear this. I remember when I was pregnant and only certain foods could satisfy me – the joys of pregnancy.
I have very limited knowledge when it comes to gluten free flours. So don’t have much to offer , have used cassava flour before and it worked to thicken other food but never tried it with étouffée or gumbo. If you do let me know how it works out for you.Thanks
Ada says
Hi pls whats creole seasoning, hot sauce?
Also how do i get smoked paparika?
I wanna try this sauce
Ada
ImmaculateBites says
Creole seasoning is combination of spices . Check it out here https://www.africanbites.com/creole-seasoning/. Hot sauce is any peppery sauce
Mark says
Hi, can I use Tony’s for the Creole seasoning?
ImmaculateBites says
You sure can. You will have to adjust salt and pepper, to suit your taste buds. It has salt and a little on the heat side.
Monica Stark says
Smoked paprika can be found in large grocery stores/supermarkets or maybe specialty markets like Whole Foods, Sprouts, Natural Grocers, etc.
ImmaculateBites says
Thanks for
sharing Monica
Diana Paris says
Wal-mart sells both.
ImmaculateBites says
Thanks for sharing!!!
Johanna says
Hi Imma,
Do you think I can use homemade chicken stock instead of shrimp stock? I know you said sub with water but stock would obviously be more favorable.
Thanks!
ImmaculateBites says
Of course you can Johanna! I meant to include that too! Obviously it will add more flavor that water.