This copycat sauce from the famed Boiling Crab restaurant makes any freshly simmered shellfish absolutely explode with finger licking flavor. Add in some boiled potatoes and corn on the cob, and you have a complete meal ready in about 30 minutes and not a whole lot of dishes to wash.
The Boiling Crab is a seafood restaurant started in 2004 in Garden Grove, CA by a Vietnamese couple with family ties to the fishermen in Seadrift, TX.
After the fall of Saigon in 1975, many Vietnamese refugees resettled along the Gulf Coast and found familiar work in the fishing industry and seafood restaurants. Viet-Cajun cuisine and Vietnamese seafood boil restaurants were born, but Boiling Crab has remained the most notably prominent one.
Perhaps it is their secret Rajun' Cajun spice blend or trademark Whole Shabang sauce. This recipe is an attempt to recreate this euphoric sauce, if only because the lines are so long at the restaurant and you may not live near one.
Serve this with a refreshing Vietnamese lemon soda chanh, air fryer sweet potato fries, or blue steamed jasmine rice for a rainbow of colors at the dinner table.
Ingredients
At the restaurant, they boil the seafood with some of these ingredients, and then toss the seasoned, boiled seafood with the sauce. This copycat recipe combines all of the ingredients into a sauce that you toss with plain seafood boiled in plain water.
Most of these ingredients are easy to find staples in the American pantry, except for the secret ingredient I think they use, which is Vietnamese pantry staple known as mushroom seasoning.
- Mushroom Seasoning: This is like MSG, but without all the negative side effects of MSG. Made from dehydrated mushrooms and salt, it gives EVERYTHING that little extra savory, umami, Asian well roundedness.
- It does cost about $15 for a large packet that will last a good while. if you don't want to buy it, substitute with seasoned salt (such as Lowry's) or more Cajun seasoning.
- You could substitute this with cumin powder or just leave it out. Another trick is to make the sauce the day before, and the flavors meld together and taste better the next day (kind of like what mushroom seasoning does immediately).
- Cayenne Pepper: The amount you add will determine whether the sauce is mild, spicy, or XXX just like the options they have at the restaurant.
- Optional Ingredient: Louisiana Crystal hot sauce - This adds tanginess and a little more spice.
See recipe card for quantities.
About Viet-Cajun Seafood Boil
While a Cajun seafood boil will season the boiling water with lemons, celery, Louisiana crab boil seasoning (Zatarain's being the most prominent one), garlic, and onions, a Vietnamese Cajun seafood boil adds a few more items.
- Boiling liquid - Additions of coriander seeds, fresh lemongrass stalks, ginger, fish sauce, vinegar, and sugar.
It's very important to have a seasoned boiling liquid in a regular Cajun seafood boil as that will be the primary source of flavoring.
The Viet-Cajun seafood boil will take the seasoned seafood one step further by coating the seafood in a rich, aromatic butter sauce.
- Butter Sauce - In addition to garlic and butter, this can include lemongrass, black pepper, fish sauce, sugar, ground coriander, ginger, fresh chilies, and tamarind.
- Garnishes - Serve with limes and Thai basil
The Boiling Crab version doesn't have the typical aromatics of a Viet-Cajun seafood boil but a rich, red, deeply seasoned butter sauce.
Instructions
The longest part of this recipe is getting the pot of water to boil to cook the seafood, so make sure you get that started first.
- Step 1: Make the garlic butter by melting the two ingredients together just until the garlic starts to sizzle.
- Step 2: Bloom the spices in the hot garlic butter.
- Step 3: Press into patties
- Step 4: Toss the hot boiled seafood with the sauce and serve right away.
Hint: If you use plain water to boi the seafood, you essentially have ready to go stock after boiling the seafood. Save the stock to make ramen, chowder, or soup.
Tips & Tricks
At the Boiling Crab restaurant, they don't boil the seafood in plain water. They season the stock to flavor the seafood before it hits the sauce.
To make your seafood taste even better, season your boiling water with the following.
- 2 qts water for every 1 lb of fish
- mushroom seasoning
- sugar
- salt
- black pepper
- garlic powder
- cayenne pepper
Storage
You can make the sauce ahead of time. In fact, it tastes even better the next day, since all the spices have had a chance to meld together.
The sauce by itself can be stored for up to a week in the fridge. The sauce tossed with seafood should be consumed within a couple days.
Top Tip
This sauce works with any shellfish, but I think it tastes the best with head on shrimp. The best head on shrimp doesn't come from a farm in Ecuador (like the ones sold on styrofoam trays at Costco), but from the Gulf of Mexico/America fished by American fisherman, many of whom are Vietnamese American, where the shrimp are wild and free.
It's much easier to find if you actually live near the Gulf, but there are specialty seafood shops that will sell it too.
Otherwise, use the best quality seafood you can. The restaurant offers these options:
- Blue Crab
- Dungeness Crab
- Snow and King Crab Legs
- Clams
- Mussels
- Crawfish
- Oysters
- Clams
- Mussels
- Red Waxy Potatoes
- Sausauges
- Corn on the cob
Recipe
Copycat Boiling Crab Sauce (for the most delectable seafood boil)
Ingredients
- 8 Tb butter or non-hydrogenated margarine
- 2 teaspoon minced garlic about 2 large cloves
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon mushroom seasoning See Note 1
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper See Note 2 for heat level
- ½ teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
- 1 lb cooked shellfish and/or vegetables head on shrimp, crayfish, corn on the cob, potatoes
Optional Garnishes
- hot sauce preferably Louisiana Crystal brand
- lemon wedges
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Add butter, garlic, sugar, and mushroom seasoning to the pan. Put over medium heat to allow the butter to melt. Once the garlic starts to sizzle, swirl and cook for 15-30 seconds.
- Turn off heat. Add the remaining spices.
- Toss with cooked shellfish of your choice.
Notes
- If you don't have mushrooms seasoning, you can omit it or substitute with cumin powder, though not traditional. The other way to make this sauce extra savory is to make it the day before to give the spices time to meld together.
- To vary the spiciness levels, use these amounts of cayenne pepper:
- Non-Spicy - None
- Mild - ¼ tsp
- Med - ½ tsp
- XXX - 1 tsp
Nutrition
Fortune Cookie
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
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