I’ve often heard folks say the thing they like most about a Thanksgiving feast is digging into leftovers the next day. I feel the same way about a crawfish boil.
I cherish gathering around the table with family and friends to devour the spicy tails, potatoes, corn and sausage, but my husband and I have a secondary ritual that’s just as important to us.
When everyone is satiated, we start peeling for another day. We recap the gathering as we transfer the spoils of the boil into containers destined for the refrigerator and the freezer. How delightful to freeze some of the tails and have crawfish handy in the dog days of summer.
When I tell people how much I love the leftovers, they often laugh and say: What leftovers? But if you don’t have leftovers, you’re just not boiling enough.
Obvious day-after recipes, such as an étouffée, are a treat, but your options are only limited by your imagination, said Mike Westbrook, director of Rouses Market deli, cold cuts and sushi.
The prepared foods at Rouses reflects that sky-is-the-limit philosophy. The deli sells Crawfish Riley pasta dishes, Natchitoches mini crawfish pies, and a crawfish corn and bell pepper soup. The sushi case features a variety of rolls made with crawfish. And Rouses is always on the lookout for other clever ideas, he said.
“This year, we have a crawfish étouffée egg roll coming out,” he said.
How to guarantee leftovers
When I caught up with Denise Englade, director of seafood for Rouses Markets, I realized that when it came to crawfish, I’d met a kindred spirit.
“The goal isn’t to run out,” Englade said of boiling at home. “At least my goal isn’t to run out.”
Englade, who was born in Louisiana and has been in the seafood business on the West Coast and in her home state for more than 20 years, works with as many as 30 crawfish suppliers to ensure Rouses can meet the demand for the 2.5 million pounds of boiled crawfish it sells each year. The stores also stock about 400,000 pounds of frozen tail meat per year, the vast majority of which is from area crawfish farmers and harvesters, she said. It’s easy to tell if the tails are local, because purveyors are required to list the origin on the label.
Most crawfish are harvested between December and June, with peak crawfish season running from March to early May, she said. And, unlike last season, which was plagued with drought — and thus scarcity — the 2025 season is starting off well. Rouses began selling a limited amount right before Thanksgiving and, if all goes well with the Atchafalaya Basin harvest, the grocers will stretch the season to the Fourth of July.
But how do you know how much boiled crawfish you’ll need for your gathering? The LSU Ag Center estimates a 30-pound sack of crawfish should yield about five pounds of meat, though this varies with the size of the creatures. Most adults will eat about a half pound of tail meat, according to experts. If you’ve got fast-peeling, big eating locals in your party, you’ll need to account for them.
“I look at who is coming over,” Englade said. “Then I make sure I’m boiling enough to have five or six pounds left for me. I need leftover potatoes, crawfish and corn so I can make my after-the-boil chowder.”
When buying her crawfish, she estimates one pound of live crawfish for each child and about three pounds for teens and adults, with two medium potatoes, a half ear of corn and a few inches of sausage for each person.
How to handle leftovers
If refrigerating leftover tails, use them within a couple of days. Potatoes, corn and sausages can be refrigerated for up to four days. All of these foods can be placed in airtight containers and frozen for up to three months.
Englade points out that commercially packaged, vacuum-sealed frozen crawfish tails are unseasoned. Some include the flavorful fat from the mudbugs; some do not.
“I boil and peel mine because I want the fat and the boiled crawfish tail for flavor,” she said. “I use my Seal-a-Meal to freeze the tails in quart or gallon [bags] for when I can’t get crawfish at all.”
I don’t have a vacuum-sealer, so we tightly pack our tails into resealable bags, squeeze out as much air as possible, add just enough water to ensure the bag is completely filled and freeze into a solid block. (Englade doesn’t use water because, she said, it can affect the tail meat texture.)
If the tails are still warm, place the filled bags in a mixture of half-ice, half-water for about 30 minutes to chill, and then freeze them.
If you want to freeze tails for longer than three months, you should boil them without salt or seasoning and rinse off the yellow fat before vacuum-sealing, according to the LSU Ag Center. After three months, the fat can go rancid, even in the freezer.
What to do with the most common leftovers
While Englade is partial to her crawfish boil chowder and traditional bisque, Westbrook — when gifted with leftovers from a crawfish boil — likes to whip up a quesadilla of tails, sausage, corn, peppers and onion the next day.
Below you’ll find other suggestions for using traditional leftovers that might jump-start your imagination.
Tails: Where to start? Étouffée, bisque and chowder, of course. Lots of folks add them to their gumbo, too. We use them in both hot or cold crawfish pasta dishes, turnovers and pies. We make pan-fried crawfish cakes similar to crab cakes. We slip them into grilled cheese sandwiches, frittatas, stuffed mirlitons and rice dressing. Or, try this: Serve a cold mayonnaise-based crawfish salad piled onto a toasted pistolette à la lobster roll.
Potatoes: We always throw in an extra bag of new potatoes. Spicy spuds make the best potato salad, mashed potatoes (with softened boil garlic, too!) or hash browns. Try smashing them and roasting them until crisp. Add them to frittatas, omelets or casseroles.
Corn: Corn picks up spice fast, so boiling it with crawfish turns it into a sweet and spicy flavor booster. Love a creamy corn soup? Imagine one made with spiced corn and potatoes. Scrape the corn off the cob and add it to a homemade salsa, or sprinkle it on tacos or nachos. Stir it into cornbread or succotash, add it to your next stir-fry or whip up a batch of fried corn fritters.
Sausage: If you’re concerned that the fat from sausage will coat the mudbugs, wait until the crawfish have been pulled out, then drop links into the water to pick up the heat. Slice them and put them in red beans, stews or a penne pasta bake, or use them as a pizza topper. Sauté the links with onions and peppers. My husband likes to slice them open, run them under a broiler until crisp and make a crawfish boil sausage po-boy.
Onions: Most of us pitch the onions used to flavor the crawfish boil, but I sometimes chop them and use them in soups, étouffées, sauces and gravies. (I’ve done the same with celery and bell peppers that I’ve softened in a boil.) I’ve also caramelized them and made a spicy onion soup.
Garlic: Garlic boiled in the spicy water is like gold in our household. We always throw in extra heads so we can blend some with butter and herbs to make a delicious spread. Much of it we squeeze out of the cloves and transfer to a resealable bag, then flatten and freeze it so it stores easily, and we can break off chunks anytime we want to use it in recipes calling for minced or pressed garlic.
Think beyond traditional add-ins.
Englade and I both love to experiment.
I add whole chickens to the boiling pot after the crawfish come out and use it to make spicy chicken salad, noodle bowls and sandwiches.
“Have you ever tried turkey necks?” she asked. “Oh my God, they are so delicious.”
Rouses experienced crawfish boilers have instructions, or codes, not only for turkey necks, but chicken feet and turkey legs and wings. Englade has also experimented with pineapple, peaches and sweet potatoes — Brussels sprouts and mushrooms, too.
I couldn’t agree more with her selections. I love using these add-ins as leftovers, too. Try a pineapple salsa made with the spiced fruit or a duxelles spread made with boiled mushrooms.
Something else Englade and I have in common? We don’t always wait for a boil.
If you have an outdoor stove or a well-ventilated kitchen, consider making a bottle of liquid crab boil a go-to pantry item. When the mood strikes, turn on the vent (and/or crack a window) and add some to a pot of salted water to get those spicy potatoes, ears of corn and heads of garlic anytime.
“I’ve done that,” Englade said, but she takes it a step further. “I might buy 10 pounds of live crawfish and do it in my stock pot,” she said. “I open the two doors and turn the vent on. And everybody chokes when they walk in.”
Sometimes you have to suffer for your art.
