Crawfish Bisque

Reinvent leftover crawfish with this lighter version of incredibly delicious Crawfish Bisque. Gluten-free and can be dairy-free

Yesterday was a glorious Sunday Funday spent with the girls I work with at our little barre3 Crawfish Boil/Pool Party

Not only did I get the chance to spend some extra bonding time with ladies I love spending my weeks with, but I got to fill my tummy with yummy crawfish.

As I've mentioned before, I love seafood. And crawfish boils make me incredibly happy.

I mean who doesn't love to spend the day outside sipping on cold beverages or drunk fruit and eating with their fingers. I love the casual theme that is implied when it comes to a crawfish boil, and it's even better if there's a pool involved.

To top it all off, I got to take a bag of crawfish home with me! Woohoo! This girl loves leftovers, and it's rare that I get leftover crawfish.

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So this morning I woke up with the intention of creating a few crawfish recipes with my leftover mud bugs.

After much discussion about what to do with our leftovers with my barre3 friends and some research from old cookbooks {my preferred method for recipe inspiration}, I decided I wanted to make a crawfish bisque recipe.

One of my favorite go-to cookbooks is The Plantation Cookbook by the Junior League of New Orleans. Their Crawfish Bisque recipe sounds beyond incredible; however, it was just a little too involved for me.

I decided to use the recipe as inspiration but forgo the stuffing of crawfish heads. I knew that I wanted to use the shells to create a flavorful stock and used their ingredients list as a guideline.

I found a few crawfish bisque recipes online that were less than ideal... I had absolutely no intention of putting canned cream of whatever soup in my bisque; nor did I intend on putting cream cheese in my crawfish bisque.

Honestly, there wasn't much to find when I searched the World Wide Web, except this one that was titled Crayfish Bisque... which I almost didn't click on the recipe because I {wrongfully} assumed it was some sham of a recipe since we don't call them crayfish down here and it pains me to no end when spell check tries to change crawfish into crayfish.

However, the recipe was incredibly delicious sounding and the writer isn't from the South, he's from California. And he clearly knows what he's talking about, so I decided to use his recipe as heavy inspiration as well.

Armed with my inspiration, a good apron {crawfish are quite messy}, two buckets at the ready to separate the shells and the meat, a good playlist to keep me entertained, and a muggy/potentially rainy Monday, I went to my kitchen to make the Crawfish Bisque.

What came about was a creamy, euphoric, glorious medley of flavors in a bowl.

I couldn't be happier with the recipe I ended up making, and while it takes a little time, it was well, well worth it. It obviously won't take as long for someone else {or for me the next go round} because I was measuring and writing and constantly washing my hands {like I said... crawfish can be quite messy}.

Now that you have the back-story and the incentive to make this {leftover crawfish + liking good food}, here's what you need to know about the recipe:

First and foremost, the stock that you make from the crawfish shells is really hard to beat.

I prefer to use the shells from crawfish that have already been cooked {and well-seasoned}.

That gives tons of flavor to the stock. However, if you are boiling live crawfish, then you are going to want to season the stock a little more. Luckily, I was blessed with the most perfectly seasoned crawfish ever {thanks Kendall & Clayton!!} but I imagine that adding some salt, cayenne pepper, extra garlic, onion, herbs, and lemon will help make the stock more flavorful.

Basically, to make the stock, you'll just peel the crawfish and reserve the heads and shells. Then you'll fill a large stock pot with water {I used 12 cups} and about half of the reserved shells {from 3 pounds of crawfish} along with some veggies, spices, and herbs. Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 30 minutes. {I included how to make the stock using already cooked crawfish as well as for uncooked.}

It's well worth the extra time it takes because it adds incomparable flavor to your bisque.

If you buy already cooked and peeled crawfish, then you'll obviously have to make a substitute. I would use an already prepared seafood stock but vegetable would do in a pinch. Just skip the directions for the stock and use an equal amount of seafood or vegetable stock in its place.

In the end, you'll have about one pound of crawfish meat. I did some measuring and weighing, and just about six pounds of unpeeled crawfish yields one pound of peeled crawfish.

I would say to serve Crawfish Bisque as a starter or side because it's a little on the heavier side, but I ended up eating this as a meal with a side salad and it was perfectly lovely.

I used butter because I found it added to the creaminess but if you wanted to skip the dairy, then you could make this with olive oil or bacon grease. I forgot to add the half and half until after I'd already eaten a bowl, so I don't think it's 100% necessary to add in the half & half or milk.

This is naturally gluten free because you use rice to thicken the soup, but double check that your spices or other ingredients don't have gluten.

If you aren't a fan of crawfish, I think this would be really good with shrimp, but adjust the amount of unpeeled shrimp since they have less waste {meaning that a smaller amount of unpeeled will make one pound of peeled shrimp}.

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with information. I just wanted to you to know everything that I learned along the way, which will likely make your Crawfish Bisque a much easier and less time-consuming experience. Enjoy 🙂

Crawfish Bisque

Reinvent leftover crawfish with this lighter version of incredibly delicious Crawfish Bisque. Gluten-free and can be dairy-free

5 from 1 vote

Print Rate

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Servings: 8

Author: Meme

Ingredients

For the stock:

• ▢ 6 pounds cooked crawfish
• ▢ 12 cups water
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic
• ▢ 1 onion peel
• ▢ 1 carrot
• ▢ 1 celery stalk
• ▢ 1 bay leaf
• ▢ 6 sprigs thyme
• ▢ 2 sprigs parsley

For the bisque:

• ▢ 2 tablespoon butter
• ▢ 1 large onion diced {about 2 cups}
• ▢ 6 ounce can tomato paste
• ▢ 1 clove garlic minced
• ▢ 8-10 cups reserved Crawfish Stock (from above) or seafood stock, divided
• ▢ ½ cup brown rice uncooked
• ▢ 1 lb cooked crawfish meat divided
• ▢ 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ▢ 2 tablespoon whole milk or half & half optional
• ▢ salt to taste
• ▢ parsley optional

Instructions

To make the stock using already cooked crawfish:

• Peel the crawfish, reserving about 3 pounds worth of heads and shells. Add to a large stock pot and cover with 12 cups water. Add garlic, onion peel, carrot, celery, bay leaf, thyme, and parsley. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and simmer on medium heat for 30 minutes.
• Strain through a fine mesh strainer and reserve stock.

To make the bisque:

• Heat the butter in a soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion to the butter and saute for 3 minutes, just until lightly softened {don't brown the onion}.
• Stir in the tomato paste and garlic. Stir well to mix with the onions and cook about 2 minutes.
• Slowly stir in 6 cups crawfish stock until tomato paste is completely incorporated. Add in rice and 1 cup {about 4 oz.} crawfish, and cook for 35 minutes, stirring occasionally, on medium-low. When rice is very tender, remove from heat. Transfer to a blender {making sure to vent the side or use a dish towel to cover opening, so steam can escape} and blend until very smooth, or use an immersion blender. 
• Transfer mixture back to the soup pot and add 2 cups stock to mixture. Stir well to combine and add in remaining crawfish. Cook for about 5 minutes, adding more stock if needed. Add lemon juice and half & half, if using. Taste and add salt or more lemon juice if needed.
• Sprinkle with parsley if desired. Enjoy immediately {for best results}

Notes

*To make stock using uncooked crawfish:
Bring a very large pot of water to a boil. Add crawfish and boil for about 10-15 minutes. Pick crawfish and follow instructions for using already cooked crawfish but add 1 tablespoon salt, 1 quartered lemon, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 chopped onion, an extra clove of garlic, and a few extra sprigs thyme.

*The nutrition facts are likely off because I couldn't calculate the amount in the homemade stock, so I used homemade fish stock in the nutrition facts which might make it a little different.

*Inspired by The Plantation Cookbook by The Junior League of New Orleans and Hunter Angler Gardener Cook Blog

Did you try this recipe?Be sure to leave a comment & recipe rating below. Bonus points for tagging @memeinge & #livingwellkitchen on Instagram! THANK YOU! xo

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Meme

The first three photos were taken by my amazing friend Summer! Thanks again, Summer 🙂

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