Garlic Loaded Southern Style Shrimp Boil
A big ol’ southern style shrimp boil! I’m making the boil seasoning from scratch too that way we can control the flavor! Serve with lemon butter or my homemade cajun remoulade sauce.
Holy deliciousness!
I’ve got your midweek southern style shrimp boil fix right here! ?
This needs to be a weekly affair from now until forever. It starts with those itty bitty baby potatoes, fresh corn, and shrimp. Lots and lots of shrimp. And sliced sausage if that’s your thing. Me? I added more shrimp because the sheer thought of dunking them in lemon butter sauce makes me a little giddy with joy.
This one has the potential to become my new favorite go-to 30 minute meal because it basically involves me intermittently throwing ingredients into a pot of boiling seasoned water and serving it with my 2 ingredient lemon butter sauce. Can you guess the two ingredients? NO BRAINER. It’s like those sheet pan dinners that were all the rage mid 2016 but only, we throw it all into a stockpot and serve.
But wait. Before we get into it, let me say this now. I claim no authenticity here. All I know is my homemade shrimp boil seasoning mix tastes better than the stuff i’ve previously purchased in stores. I’m not saying this is how everyone does it in the south, i’m just saying that this is the closest i’ll ever get to my favorite shrimp boil joints version of it.
And trust me, they make a mean shrimp boil!
Have you thawed off from the cold weather yet?
I woke up to 40 degrees this morning with a massive headache and allergies. Oh what a joy that was. This has got to be some kind of a cruel joke, right? I’m experiencing all the springtime feels with winter weather. It’s like waking up in the twilight zone. What is even going on here?
So for days like these, all I want is a big pot of water on the stove, seasonings in the mix, and carby starches like potatoes and corn with sweet shrimp all covered in my homemade Old Bay style seasoning.
Now before we get to the recipe, I want to say, this recipe is heavy on the seasonings. You’ll need things like ground mustard, all spice, whole coriander seeds, and whole cloves. But then you have your basic pantry staples too, like cayenne, Italian seasoning, paprika, onion, and garlic powder. When all of this stuff comes together, with a couple of garlic heads chopped in half to expose all that garlicky goodness, an onion, and a jumbo lemon that’s been squeezed then thrown in for flavor it’s sure to be one heck of a meal!
I like to serve this up with a simple mix of equal parts lemon juice with melted butter. And sometimes i’ll double the seasoning blend and keep a little extra to sprinkle on top too because what can I even say about this? I LIVE for bold flavors.
You can also dump the extra seasoning/ lemon butter sauce and go with a cajun style remoulade sauce if that’s more your sort of thing.
To make your own remoulade, you’ll need:
- mayo
- scallions,
- minced garlic, cajun/creole seasoning
- dijon mustard
- hot sauce, lemon juice
- and optional: horseradish
Regardless of how you decide to serve this up, this is a quick and easy 30 minute meal for 4 that everyone will enjoy. And when the weather actually gets warm, you can easily double, triple, or even quadruple the recipe, get your friends// neighbors// loved ones together and put on a large shrimp boil for them all.
It’s seriously the best way to enjoy summer!
Garlic Loaded Southern Style Shrimp Boil
A big ol' southern style shrimp boil! I'm making the boil seasoning from scratch too that way we can control the flavor! Serve with lemon butter or my homemade cajun remoulade sauce.
Ingredients
Boil seasonings:
- 2 tablespoons EACH: ground mustard AND paprika
- 1 tablespoon EACH: ground all spice AND coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoons EACH: cayenne* AND Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoons EACH: onion powder AND garlic powder
- 4-5 whole cloves
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
- ¼ cup salt
- 4 bay leaves
- 2 heads garlic (sliced horizontally to expose cloves)
- 1 onions (sliced horizontally)
- 1 lemon (sliced horizontally)
Shrimp Boil:
- 1 pound baby yukon gold potatoes
- 4 ears of corn, shucked and cut into quarters
- 2 pounds large shrimp (peeled if desired)
- serving: ¼ cup lemon juice + ¼ cup butter (optional)
- see notes for cajun remoulade sauce (optional)
- hot sauce + lemon wedges (for serving, optional)
Instructions
- Fill a large stock pot with 4 quarts of water and heat over high heat. When the water is just about to boil, lower the heat to medium, add all the seasonings along with the cloves, peppercorns, salt, bay leaves, garlic heads, onions, and squeeze the lemon juice into the stockpot before tossing in the lemon halves too. Bring back to a boil.
- Add the potatoes to the pot and cook for 10 minutes, add the corn and continue to cook for an additional 10 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook for 2-4 minutes or until they just start to turn and turn opaque. Remove the potatoes, corn, and shrimp with a slotted spoon to a bowl.
- Combine the lemon juice and butter in a boil and serve on the side. You can also serve it with hot sauce or my homemade cajun remoulade (recipe in notes).
Notes
- 1 tablespoon of cayenne makes this pretty mild IMO, if you prefer spicier flavor, I suggest 2 tablespoons.
- Double the ground seasonings or serve with Old Bay seasoning on the side if you'd like to have some to sprinkle on before eating. You can also serve this with cajun remoulade sauce
- For the remoulade sauce, combine the following ingredients in a bowl:
½ cup mayo + 1 scallion, chopped + 1-2 teaspoons EACH: minced garlic AND cajun or creole seasoning +3 tablespoons creole mustard (or dijon) + 1 tablespoon EACH: hot sauce AND lemon juice + optional: 1-2 teaspoons horseradish
IS THIS A GOOD CHOICE FOR YOU?
Nutritional content on this one was hard! This is my best estimate and actual calories may vary. Also, this doesn’t include either of the sauces.
Hey there. It appears the remoulade recipe is missing. I plan to use the Cajun remoulade sauce recipe included with your salmon burgers. Is that what you had in mind? I just discovered your site yesterday. My gosh, your recipes look amazing, and your food photography is gorgeous. Looking forward to making so many of your tasty creations!
Hi Chele! So sorry about that! We recently converted some recipes to a new format, and for some reason, it just didn’t save properly. Thank you for pointing that out, I’ve added it into the notes section! I hope you thoroughly enjoy everything you try! ♥
This is a really good base of flavor. I followed it fairly closely with a few substitutions based on what I had and adjustments to my liking and it turned out great. The whole heads of garlic are a great idea and we smashed those into everything. I made that remoulade with stoneground mustard and lots of horseradish and it was a huge hit as well. Highly recommended!