Originating from Louisiana, crawfish pie is a hearty dish with plenty of New Orleans flavor. Pie can be a daunting task for some, but this recipe will let you make the filling for the pie while the dough itself is chilling in the fridge, making it simple to assemble at the end.
The recipe has 3 basic steps: make the dough, make the filling, then combine them both to make a pie. While your pie dough is chilling in the fridge, you can work on making the filling. Once the dough is ready, you’ll fill it with a delicious crawfish and vegetable mixture and bake it.
Meat pies are a delicious dinner that can be kept in the fridge or freezer and easily reheated by popping it in the oven for a few minutes. With so much jam packed into it, it is really a full meal encased into one pie. Read on to learn how to make crawfish pie, what you will need to make it, and more.
How To Make Crawfish Pie
When making crawfish pie, the crust and filling will be made separately and then combined at the end of the recipe. First, you will make the pie dough and let it chill in the fridge for an hour. While the dough is chilling, you can make the filling.
Once the dough has been chilled, you will use half of it to fill the pie pan. It needs to bake for 15 minutes first with pie weights in it before adding the filling. The other half of the dough will be used as the lid for the pie. Once the pie has been fully cooked, it needs to cool for 10 minutes before it can be served.
Serving and Storing Crawfish Pie
Crawfish pie is a main dish, but it can be served with other side dishes. Since it is heavier in meats and carbohydrates, a vegetable side dish or a salad pairs well with crawfish pie.
The filling for crawfish pie can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days. The fully assembled pie can be stored in the fridge or freezer, if it is kept in wax paper and freezer safe plastic wrap. It will store for up to 1 month.
To reheat the pie, let it thaw in the fridge overnight and then reheat it in an oven set at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 5 to 10 minutes. You can also reheat it in the microwave, but the pie tends to get soggy if reheated in this way.
Ingredients
This recipe has 2 separate lists of ingredients: 1 for the crust and 1 for the filling. Here’s a quick list of the ingredients you will need for the crust:
- All purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Kosher salt
- Unsalted butter: This will need to be cold and diced.
- Buttermilk: This will also need to be cold before being used in the recipe.
Here is the ingredient list for the filling:
- Unsalted butter
- Onion: This will need to be diced.
- Green bell pepper
- Celery: This will need to be finely diced.
- Garlic: This will need to be minced.
- Whole milk
- Crawfish: These will need to be thawed before use. However, do not drain the juices in the package, as they will be used in the recipe.
- Flat leaf parsley: This will need to be chopped.
- Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
- Old Bay seasoning
- Egg: The egg whites will be mixed with water to make an egg wash for the pie.
- Black pepper, kosher salt, and red pepper flakes
Crawfish Pie Recipe
Course: MainCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy8
servings1
hour30
minutes45
minutes358
kcalLearn to make a delicious meat pie with easy to follow steps that make baking and cooking easy as pie.
Ingredients
- For the crust:
2 2 ½ cups of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon 1 granulated sugar
1 teaspoon 1 kosher salt
1 cup 1 unsalted butter (cold and diced)
½ cup + 1 tablespoon of cold buttermilk
- For the filling:
½ cup of unsalted butter
1 medium 1 onion (diced)
½ cup of diced green bell pepper
2 2 stalks of celery (diced)
3 cloves 3 garlic (minced)
1 1 ½ cups of whole milk
1 pound 1 Louisiana crawfish (do not drain)
½ cup of flat leaf parsley (chopped)
½ cup of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1 1 ½ teaspoon of Old Bay seasoning
1 large 1 egg (beaten)
Black pepper, kosher salt, red pepper flakes to taste
Directions
- To make the crust:
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Add the butter and use your fingers to work it into the flour mixture.
- Make a well in the butter and flour mixture and pour in ½ cup of cold buttermilk. Use a fork to bring the dough together. Add more water as necessary as you try to moisten all of the flour.
- On a lightly floured work surface, press and knead the dough into a disk. Divide the dough in half and gently knead it into 2 disks. Wrap each disk of dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- To make the filling:
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and celery. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes until they start to soften. Add the garlic and let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Do not let the garlic burn.
- Add the milk and crawfish tails, along with any liquid that came with the crawfish. Stir them gently to avoid breaking up the crawfish tails. Add the parsley, breadcrumbs, Old Bay seasoning, and salt and pepper to taste.
- Cook for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Turn off the heat and cover the mixture.
- To make the pie:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit and place the rack in the upper third of the oven.
- Roll out the disks of dough on a well-floured surface until the disks are ⅛ inch thick and about 12 inches in diameter. Transfer the dough to a 9 to 11 inch pie pan. Trim the edges of dough almost evenly with the edge of the pan. Prick dough with a fork a few times all over.
- Spray a piece of foil with nonstick cooking spray on one side and use the greased side on the bottom of the crust. Fill the pie with dry beans or pie weights and bake it for 15 minutes. Remove the weights and foil and let the pie bake for another 10 minutes.
- Turn the oven down to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Put the filling mixture into the pie. Roll the other disk of dough over the filling and crimp the edges with a fork to seal it. Prick the top of the pie with the fork several times.
- Brush the top of the pie with a mixture of egg white and water. Bake the pie until it is golden brown, or for about 45 minutes. Once the pie is finished baking, let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.
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Tips and Tricks
You can always use frozen peeled crawfish tails if you need to. You can also try this recipe with peeled and deveined shrimp. Additionally, you can use Tony Cachere’s seasoning instead of Old Bay seasoning if you prefer.
You can make the filling for crawfish pie in advance and store it in the fridge before using it. All you need to do is pour it into the pie crust and bake it as normal.
This recipe calls for a par bottom crust, but you can always skip the steps for that. It just may result in a softer crust bottom of the pie when it is done baking.
FAQs
Can I use frozen crawfish for this recipe?
You can absolutely use frozen crawfish tails for this recipe. You can find peeled crawfish tails in the frozen sections of most stores. Crawfish tails can come from Louisiana or China and you can decide which one you want to choose.
Can I use other meats in this recipe?
You can use other shellfish, such as peeled shrimp, with this recipe. However, for other meats such as chicken, it would be better to use a pie recipe geared towards chicken instead.
Conclusion
Now that you know all of the steps to take, making a crawfish pie can become a fun way to expand your cooking and baking skills while making something truly delicious and satisfying. Try making it with shrimp instead or mess around with a new blend of spices to make a pie that really suits you.
