Cajun Crawfish Stew

I’m going to preface this recipe by saying I’m not completely sure what this should be called. I know, it's pathetic.

I’ve had both crawfish stew and crawfish étouffée my entire life and truly cannot figure out the difference.

Here’s what I’ve been told:

1. étouffée includes cream of some sort whereas stew does not
2. étouffée includes tomatoes whereas stew does not
3. stew starts with a roux whereas étouffée does not

And here’s why I’m confused. I've looked up recipes and most etouffee recipes use the EXACT SAME INGREDIENTS as mine. So I don’t know, I just don’t.

But my mom said it was a stew, and my mom’s always right, so stew it is!

Crawfish is hard to come by these days, so when I use one of our frozen packages, I want to make sure that there’s no experimenting. I’m making what I know how to make, and what I know how to make AMAZING (I may be biased).

It’s easy, so don’t be intimidated by it, and oh so good! It’ll just warm you up on a chilly day.

I️ can literally go on and on about crawfish so I’ll stop. But seriously, you should try this recipe, and you should get your crawfish from Rouses if you're lucky enough to have one in your town.

If not, try your best to get Louisiana crawfish because it’s SO MUCH BETTER than the imported stuff.

One more note, if you’ve run out of crawfish, use some shrimp! Just as yummy!

Cajun Crawfish Stew

• ⅓ cup butter
• ⅓ cup flour
• 1 medium onion, diced
• ½ green bell pepper, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 3 teaspoons better than bouillon - chicken (Note 1)
• 3 cups water
• ¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• ½ tablespoon Tony’s
• ½ teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 package crawfish tails (12-16 ounces)

1. In a Dutch oven or stock pot, add the butter and flour and set heat to medium-low
2. Stir continuously, making a roux, until the mixture is a caramel or peanut butter color (I know it's silly, but that's what we want)
3. Add in chopped trinity (onion, bell pepper, celery) and cook down with the roux for 10-15 minutes. It will clump up and look weird, but just keep cooking it down, that’s where all of your flavor is!
4. Add in one cup of water and mix with the roux
5. Add in better than bouillon, parsley, Tony’s and minced garlic and stir to incorporate
6. Add in the other 2 cups of water and bring mixture to a boil
7. Turn heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes
8. Add in the crawfish tails and let simmer for another 5 minutes (don't overcook!)
9. Serve over rice and top with green onions!

Note 1: You can substitute 3 cups of shrimp stock if you'd prefer instead of the water and better than bouillon

Alsooooo here is the frozen package of crawfish that I use from Rouses along with a picture of how your roux should look! Good luck!