Ultimate Low Country Boil: Party-Size Recipe
A 100-quart pot is ideal for serving a crowd of 25 to 35 people. This party-sized recipe calls for 25 to 30 pounds of seafood—such as shrimp, crawfish, or crab—along with all the classic fixings. For perfect results, begin with the ingredients that take the longest to cook, and save the delicate seafood for last.
Ultimate Low Country Boil: Party-Size Recipe
~30
A 100-quart pot is ideal for serving a crowd of 25 to 35 people. This party-sized recipe calls for 25 to 30 pounds of seafood—such as shrimp, crawfish, or crab—along with all the classic fixings. For perfect results, begin with the ingredients that take the longest to cook, and save the delicate seafood for last.
Ingredients
- 25-30 lbs fresh, shell-on shrimp (Jumbo or Extra Large)
- 10 lbs crab legs (snow or king) or crawfish, optional
- 15 lbs smoked sausage or kielbasa, sliced into 1-inch rounds
- 15-20 lbs Baby red potatoes, scrubbed and left whole
- 30-40 ears of corn, shucked and cut into halves or thirds
- 2 to 3 large boxes crab boil seasoning, e.g., Old Bay
- 2-3 bottles liquid crab boil, e.g., Zatarain’s
- 8-10 lemons, halved
- 5-8 onions, quartered
- 3 garlic cloves, split in half
- 2-3 lager or pale ale beers, optional
Directions
- Fill your 100-quart pot about halfway with water (roughly 50 quarts).
- Stir in your crab boil seasoning mix, lemons, onions, and garlic.
- Bring to a rolling boil over your high-output burner (this will take 20-30 minutes).
- Once boiling, add the red potatoes and the smoked sausage into the basket. Carefully lower the strainer basket into the pot.
- Cover the pot and let them boil for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are almost fork-tender.
- Drop the halved ears of corn directly into the basket.
- Cover and boil for an additional 5 to 7 minutes.
- Lastly, add the seafood (shrimp, crawfish, crab legs, etc.) on top of the corn.
- Cover tightly and cook until the shrimp turn bright pink and start to curl, which should take roughly 3 to 4 minutes.
- Turn off the gas burner.
- To lock in maximum flavor, drop in about 10 lbs of ice into the pot to shock the shrimp and stop the cooking immediately.
- Let the whole mixture soak for 10-15 minutes.
- Carefully lift the strainer basket and hang it with the pot hanger on the side of the stock pot, letting the excess liquid drain off.
- Dump the feast out onto a long, paper-lined table or cooler and serve with melted butter, cocktail sauce, and hot sauce.