This Crawfish Casserole recipe with rice is great for crawfish season to use leftover crawfish or frozen crawfish tails. Easy, high protein, and full of veggies, you'll love this one pot seafood dish
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About Crawfish Casserole
This crawfish casserole recipe is a great recipe to enjoy for crawfish season for leftover crawfish boil recipes. Or use defrosted frozen crawfish.
It's filling, satisfying, and made all in one pot. Plus, it doesn't need a can of cream of chicken or mushroom soup.
Packed with veggies to add flavor, there's only one dish to wash and you get a nice balance of protein, carbohydrates, and a little fiber too.
This crawfish rice casserole is a great option to add to your rotation, and it's a tasty lower-sodium option that is also a diabetes-friendly casserole.
More to love
Crawfish Health Benefits
Learn all about crawfish including nutrition facts and recipe ideas.
Ingredients
Butter: To sauté the vegetables, add a little butter or oil. Simply use whatever you have. I prefer unsalted butter, but salted butter works fine along with olive oil, canola oil, avocado oil, or bacon grease. Note that the sodium with increase if you use bacon grease or salted butter.
Veggies: For flavor and extra nutrients, this cajun crawfish casserole includes onions, bell peppers, celery, and garlic. For the onion, use white, red, yellow, or sweet onion. Any color bell pepper will work.
Tomatoes & green chilies: A can of Rotel Tomatoes (which is diced tomatoes and green chilies) adds depth of flavor, color, and bulk to the casserole. If you can find it, grab the no salt added.
Broth: Chicken broth, vegetable broth, seafood stock, or water can all be used for the liquid. to keep the sodium from being super high in this recipe, use a no salt added or lower sodium version.
Milk: For a little richness, add some milk. Use 2% or whole milk. Do not use skim or fat free milk.
Rice: The recipe was tested using white rice. If you want to use brown rice, you need extra liquid.
Seasoning: A bay leaf, dried thyme, and cayenne pepper season this crawfish rice casserole recipe. If you do not need a low-sodium version, I recommend adding a little salt.
Crawfish: Use peeled crawfish tails. Frozen crawfish tails or leftover crawfish from a crawfish boil both work well.
Cheese: Because casseroles are better with cheese, add shredded cheese in and on top of the casserole. Cheddar, mozzarella, pepperjack, monterey jack, or parmesan all work well. The recipe was tested using white cheddar.
Recipe Cost
- butter 1 tablespoon: $0.13
- bell pepper 1 medium: $0.86
- onion 1 medium: $0.50
- celery 2 stalks: $0.36
- garlic 3 cloves: $0.18
- tomatoes and green chilies 1 (10 ounce) can: $1.36
- broth 1.5 cups: $0.57
- milk 8 ounces: $0.28
- white rice 1 cup: $0.35
- bay leaf 1: $0.10
- dried thyme ½ teaspoon: $0.03
- cayenne pepper ¼ teaspoon: $0.02
- crawfish 12 ounces: $13.98
- cheddar cheese 4 ounces: $1
TOTAL COST: $19.72 or $4.93/serving (Based on San Diego grocery stores 2025)
Note that this is not the recipe; it's simply to show the cost breakdown of ingredients. Scroll down to the full recipe to see the specific ingredients and directions.
Budget-Friendly Tips
- Buy frozen crawfish when it's on sale.
- Use leftover crawfish from a crawfish boil.
- Freeze leftover crawfish casserole that you won't have time to eat. This helps prevent food waste (which saves on your food budget as well).
How to Make Crawfish Casserole
- Step 1: Melt butter and sauté onion, bell pepper, and celery.
- Step 2: Add garlic and spices.
- Step 3: Stir in crawfish tails, rotel tomatoes, some cheese, rice, milk, water, and bay leaf.
- Step 4: Bake.
- Step 5: Remove from oven and sprinkle cheese on top.
- Step 6: Let rest for a few minutes then enjoy!
Top Tip
Taste the mixture before adding the broth and milk. You want it to be well-seasoned to ensure the rice has enough flavor to absorb.
Recipe Tips
Taste the crawfish mixture before you add the liquid and rice. Because rice is bland, it will absorb a lot of flavor and you want to make sure it's not underseasoned.
I like to taste and add a little extra seasoning (almost bordering on over-seasoned) to make sure the casserole has good flavor after making and the rice absorbs all the liquid.
How to Fix a Mistake
- Bland: Season with creole seasoning, your favorite spice blend, or salt. Sprinkle with lemon juice or green onions.
- Too spicy: You can add extra cooked (unseasoned) rice. Or serve with a slice of bread to absorb some of the flavor.
Make-Ahead Ideas
Because seafood spoils easily and this casserole is best served immediately after baking, I don't recommend making this in advance.
However, if you do, be sure to transfer the cooked crawfish casserole to the fridge or freezer as soon as possible.
Storage Suggestions
Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 4 weeks.
To reheat:
- In the microwave: Put leftover crawfish casserole in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat for 45 seconds at 100% power. Stir and microwave for another 30-45 seconds until warm.
- In the oven: Reheat in a 350F oven for 10-20 minutes until warmed through.
Variations
Ingredient Options
Veggies: Feel free to change the veggies if you want. The "holy trinity" of onions, bell peppers, and celery makes this a Louisiana crawfish casserole, but you can add mushrooms or carrots if you want.
Spices: Feel free to add black pepper, garlic salt, or creole seasoning to the crawfish mixture before baking.
Alternative Prep and Cooking
You can sauté the veggies in a large skillet then stir everything together and transfer to a casserole dish if prefered.
How to Make Allergy-Friendly
This crawfish casserole is naturally gluten free, egg free, and soy free.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe for cajun crawfish rice casserole has only 351 mg of sodium per serving which is about 15% of the daily amount recommended. You can reduce it more by using water and skip the cheese on top. Also, make sure all the ingredients are no-salt-added.
Nutrition Benefits
A balanced meal in one, this crawfish rice casserole has 30 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber.
Each serving provides an excellent source of Vitamin C (59% daily value), calcium (39% daily value), Vitamin A (32% daily value), and potassium (23% daily value). It's a good source of iron (10% daily value).
Because there is no cream of mushroom soup or cream of chicken soup, it's also much lower in sodium than most crawfish casserole with rice recipes.
Crawfish is an excellent source of Vitamin B12, selenium, copper, and manganese.
What to Serve with Crawfish Rice Casserole
This is a complete meal already, but it's delicious with a side salad with strawberry balsamic dressing or raspberry vinaigrette. Or to bulk up the meal, add a slice of French bread or garlic bread.
With a balanced combo of protein and carbohydrates, plus tons of veggies and less sodium, this casserole is great for people with diabetes.
Final thoughts:
If you like crawfish, you'll love this flavorful crawfish casserole recipe!
Great for crawfish season to use up leftover crawfish from a crawfish boil or to get your crawfish fix from frozen crawfish.
Plus, it's easy and you only have to clean one pot to make it.
MORE CRAWFISH RECIPES YOU'LL LOVE:
Crawfish Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 medium bell pepper diced
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chilies undrained
- 1.5 cups broth or water
- 1 cup milk whole or 2%
- 1 cup white rice uncooked
- 1 bay leaf
- 12 ounces crawfish
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Over medium-high heat, melt butter in an oven-safe dutch oven or very large skillet with high sides. Sauté onions, celery, and bell peppers for about 7 minutes.
- Add spices and garlic, and cook for about 1 minute.
- Stir in diced tomatoes and green chilies, broth, milk, rice, bay leaf, crawfish, and ½ cup cheese.
- Press into an even layer and transfer to preheated oven. Cook for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, stir, and top with cheese. Bake for another 15 minutes until the liquid has completely absorbed and the cheese is lightly brown.
What to Use in This Recipe
Meme
Joe Ann
This was a FANTASTIC and easy way to use up my leftover crawfish
Meme
YAYY!! So glad you enjoyed it!