This Crawfish Pot Pie is filled with tasty crawfish in a spicy and luscious sauce, topped with a buttery puffed crust. The filling has a few unique ingredients, making it unlike any other Louisiana crawfish pie recipe.
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Eating crawfish is a Cajun's delight, so it's my pleasure to share our family's methodology for How To Boil Crawfish: With Helpful Tips. For another classic crawfish dish, see my Crawfish Etouffee Recipe: To Étouffée Is To Smother recipe. It's made the classic Cajun way. There are more Louisiana-inspired Cajun food recipes in 24 Mardi Gras Food Recipes, too.
Ingredients
Crust
- Self-rising flour - the baking powder in this flour causes the crust to rise for puff pastry- perfect.
- Salted butter - cold and grated.
- Water - ice water keeps the dough cold and easy to work with.
Crawfish Filling
- Olive oil - for sauteeing the Cajun trinity of vegetables.
- Salted butter - adds flavor to the olive oil when cooking vegetables.
- Onion - chopped white or yellow onion is the first ingredient of the classic Cajun trinity.
- Green bell pepper - chopped fresh green pepper, another trinity member.
- Celery - the third ingredient of the trinity, fresh and chopped.
- Tomatoes - fresh, diced, and sauteed with the trinity.
- Garlic cloves - pressed or finely chopped.
- Crawfish tails—From November through June, you can get fresh Louisiana crawfish tails peeled and cleaned; crawfish fat is acceptable, adding to the rich taste. Frozen tails outside of crawfish season are just as good.
- Salt - to enhance every ingredient's flavor involved.
- Liquid crab boil - for extra special seasoning, it accents the taste of seafood dishes.
- Chicken broth - homemade, boxed, or canned.
- All-purpose flour - as a thickener.
- Heavy whipping cream - adds richness to the sauce.
- Parmesan cheese adds a slightly nutty taste to the crawfish pie filling.
- Parsley - chopped for that fresh, earthy addition.
Egg Wash
- Egg - whole and scrambled.
- Water, milk, or cream - any of them with the egg make a beautiful golden brown result.
Instructions
Flaky Pie Crust
This buttery homemade pie crust is easy to assemble. For the best results, use the coldest ingredients possible. Begin by grating a few sticks of cold butter over the self-rising flour, then cut the butter into the flour with a fork or pastry blender until you can still see a few small pieces of butter in the flour mixture. Like a thin biscuit, the self-rising flour lifts the pot pie when baked. Stir the water in until the dough forms into a ball. Cover and refrigerate the dough while the filling is prepared.
Crawfish Pie Filling
A few unique ingredients in the filling elevate the taste of this crawfish pot pie. But first, there's some sautéing we must do with the Cajun Trinity of chopped onion, bell pepper, and celery. First, melt butter and heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Adding fresh tomatoes and garlic is the perfect setting for peeled and ready crawfish tails. Can you smell that flavorful aroma?!!
And now it's time for the crawfish and a splash of liquid crab boil to spice things up. Yup! It's one of those unique ingredients I was telling you about. The others are cream and parmesan cheese. You wouldn't guess the cheese is in there if you didn't know it, but you would definitely miss it if it weren't. The heavy cream brings more richness to the sauce. Yum, yum, yum!!!
Fresh parsley is the last ingredient in the filling before assembling the Crawfish Pot Pie in ramekins or pie plates. To me, this is just as important as the trinity. They go hand in hand, and the smell of parsley added last to a dish always reminds me of my Mawmaw cooking in her kitchen.
There is no bottom crust to this crawfish pie. When it's time to top the pot pie, lightly flour the surface of your counter and dust the rolling pin with self-rising flour. Roll the cold dough and cut out the top crust into round circles a little smaller than the container's opening with a sharp knife. I like using the bottom of the baking dish as a template. It covers just enough of the filling to get a sneak peek inside the edges of the crust of what's inside.
Brush the dough of the assembled pie with an egg wash. Bake them on a rimmed baking sheet until puffed and golden brown. You can always wrap them tightly with a layer of plastic wrap and freeze them to reheat later; they are just as good. That's why making a double batch is such a great idea.
Substitutuions
- Use leftover crawfish tails from a crawfish boil.
- Use store-bought pie crust to top the pie instead of this homemade one.
- Seafood stock in place of chicken broth.
FAQ
Making a crawfish pie is similar to making any meat pie. Fill a pie shell with a filling made with crawfish in a rich sauce, top it with more pie crust, and bake until golden brown.
Crawfish pie is a delightful Louisiana dish of cooked crawfish tails seasoned with Cajun seasoning, simmered in a flavorful sauce, topped with a pie crust, and baked until golden brown.
Bake a crawfish pie for 30 minutes in a 350° f oven or until golden brown.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these crawfish dishes:
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with Crawfish Pot Pie Recipe:
Print
Crawfish Pot Pie, A Cajun Delight
Individual pies filled with crawfish in a luscious spicy sauce topped with a puffed buttery crust.
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 8 small crocks, 6 mini pies, or 2-9" pies 1x
Ingredients
Crust
- 2 ⅔ cup self-rising flour
- 1 cup cold salted butter
- 6 tablespoons cold water
Filling
- ⅔ cup olive oil
- ⅔ cup salted butter
- 3 cups onions, chopped
- 1 ½ cups green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 2 cups fresh tomatoes, diced
- 6 garlic cloves, pressed
- 2 pounds crawfish tails, peeled and cleaned
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons liquid crab boil
- 1 ½ cup chicken broth
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Egg Wash
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water, milk, or cream
Instructions
Crust
- Add flour to a large bowl.
- Grate the cold butter into the large bowl of flour and cut the butter with a fork into the flour until you can still see a few small lumps of butter.
- Stir the water in until the dough forms into a ball.
- Cover and refrigerate the dough while the filling is prepared.
Filling
- Heat the oil and butter in a large, heavy pot.
- Add onion, bell pepper, and celery to the pot and saute in the oil and butter for 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook for 2 more minutes.
- Stir in the crawfish, salt, and Liquid Crab Boil to the vegetables, simmer on low for 15 minutes uncovered.
- Add flour to chicken broth.
- Add broth, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese to crawfish, stir together, and simmer for a few minutes until thickened; it will reduce some more as it bakes in the oven.
- Stir in parsley and ladle into 6 mini pie shells, 8 small crocks, or 2 pie plates.
Pie Crust And Assembling
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly dust the counter and rolling pin with self-rising flour and roll the cold dough to about a ½" thickness.
- Cut dough into a circle that is a little smaller than the pie plate or crock opening.
- Place dough rounds on top of the filling, allowing the filling to peek through between the crust and the container.
Egg Wash
- With a fork, beat the egg and liquid together until well combined.
- Brush the dough with egg wash.
Bake the pies for 30 minutes or until the tops of the crusts are golden brown and puffed.
Notes
- Depending on how much water is in the crawfish, you may have to add more flour to thicken filling up or more broth to thin it out.
- Use the bottom of the baking container as a template to cut your pie topper.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Main Dishes, Seafood
- Method: Sautéing, Baking
- Cuisine: Cajun
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"There are forty kinds of lunacy, but only one kind of common sense."
An Old African Proverb
fdgoode
Looks delicious! I have some crawfish tails in the freezer left over from a boil earlier this year. I think I need to try this recipe.
Louisiana Woman
That’ll work! Hope you are all safe from the hurricane. ❤️
Leah Ann
It seems like a lot of olive oil.... 2/3 cup. It doesn’t taste too olive oily ? I want to try it. Sounds delicious.
Louisiana Woman
Not at all, Leah Ann! The combination with the butter is very tasty. It’s not a lot of oil for 2 pounds of crawfish and all of those vegetables that get sautéed in it. You can cut the recipe in half and try it with 1 pound of crawfish if you’d like.
Holden Harris
I've never seen Crawfish Pot Pie before, but it looks pretty awesome!
Louisiana Woman
Thank you! It’s another delicious way to enjoy that lovely Louisiana product, the crawfish?.
Geri Lawhon
I usually stay away from crawfish because of the work involved in eating them. This recipe might have me eating them again.
Louisiana Woman
Hope you give it a try. It’s a good way to enjoy them!
Geri Lawhon
A new pot pie to try, thank you for sharing the recipe.
Louisiana Woman
My pleasure! Thanks for reading about it. Enjoy!