Crawfish Pie

In Louisiana, there is a strong connection between food and family. Recipes are discovered, cultivated, and passed down through the generations, becoming bright spots at gatherings and creating happy memories with the ones we love. Nell Aucoin Robarge, of Baton Rouge, inherited this recipe for Crawfish Pie from her mother, Brenda Aucoin, who adapted it from an old church cookbook. The Aucoins hail from Napoleonville, Louisiana, a tiny community on Bayou Lafourche that dates back to the 18th century. Growing up, Nell remembers enjoying the pie along with fried fish and other Cajun delicacies when extended family would come to visit. Today, she makes it on weekends, and when her children are in town and there are plenty of mouths to feed. 

Crawfish Pie
Serves 6
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Ingredients
  1. ½ cup salted butter
  2. 1 large onion, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
  3. ½ bell pepper, seeded and diced (about 1/2 cup)
  4. 4 cloves garlic, minced
  5. 1 (10.75-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
  6. 1 (5-ounce) can evaporated milk
  7. 1 teaspoon salt
  8. ¾ teaspoon ground black pepper
  9. ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
  10. 3 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with ¼ cup cold water
  11. 2 pounds crawfish tail meat
  12. ½ cup chopped green onion
  13. 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
  14. 1 (14.1-ounce) package Pillsbury Ready-Made Pie Crust (2 crusts)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400°.
  2. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat; 
add onion, bell pepper, and garlic; cook until softened. 
Add soup, evaporated milk, salt, and peppers. Add cornstarch mixture. Reduce heat to low, and cook until 
thickened, about 5 minutes. Fold in crawfish, green onion, 
and parsley; cook 5 minutes.
  3. Place bottom crust in a deep-dish pie plate, and bake, using pie weights, until lightly browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Fill with crawfish mixture, and place top crust on pie. Bake until browned, 25 to 30 minutes.
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92 COMMENTS

  1. This looks like an old recipe I had but lost. Thanks for sharing! Who knows, Nell and I may be related since a lot of my Aucoin ancestors settled in Assumption Parish.

    • I use this as my go to for a party. Use cream of celery soup, since the recipe doesn’t include celery, ( I’m not wild about mushrooms) red and yellow bell pepper instead of green. Also add Cajun seasoning!
      Prepare as directed and serve with mini phyllo pie shells for a great party food. Literally have to give the recipe to everyone that tastes it!

  2. I have yet to taste this beautiful ( which by the way looks scrumptious and sinfully good) l can’t wait to serve this pie to my family and friends.

  3. I made this pie this weekend and it was great. I don’t have a deep dish pie pan, so I made two regular 9″ pies. One pie is enough for 6 adult servings with a veggie side dish. I froze the other for another special time. Hope it turns out as well as the first one.

  4. Additional note #2. For those that don’t know what pie weights are. When you bake an empty pie crust, it will bubble up and harden, so the weights (which look like marbles) keep it down while baking. If you don’t have pie weights, which most people don’t, use uncooked rice or beans with a piece of foil or parchment paper between the crust and rice/beans.

  5. My wife and I made this last night. Absolutely restaurant quality delicious! Changed up a few things. Couldn’t understand leaving out celery – one of the members of the “holy trinity” of cajun cooking (i.e., bell pepper, onion, and celery). Ok, so added chopped celery and also used cream of celery soup instead of cream of mushroom. Used red and orange bell peppers instead of green. We just like the flavors better than the green ones. Also added a small amount of Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning and about a half cup of red wine when sauteing the veggies. Also used a little cayenne pepper. Other than that and using a little Tabasco after plating…pretty much followed the recipe. We baked it in our favorite enameled cast iron baking pot – which always makes a huge difference with any baked dish.

    • Why don’t you just post your own recipe somewhere else. Its somewhat rude to come on here and completely change the recipe they got from family.

      • It’s Not at all Rude, Tom❗ Tweaking a recipe is Standard Operating Procedure in Louisiana ❗ Lol…It’s How We Roll❗ I Promise You…No Native ‘Boot-Born” Cook Would Take Offense to Changing an ‘original recipe. We Love Stories that Successfully Altered a Dish. It’s Desired…and Required, Chere❗

      • It appears you are the rude one. No cajun would object to their neighbor changing their recipe to suit their own taste. That is why there are about as many versions of traditional cajun recipes as there are cooks in South Louisiana. Perhaps you should visit with us for a while, learn our customs and our people before you give our people the old Yankee attack dog treatment.

        • Oh yes! Made this many times for my family and they love it! Thinking about folding in some crab meat next time

  6. I add 2 tablespoons of ketchup to the mines and I always add celery leaves chopped up and a few drop of hot sauce. been making this for over 38 yrs now.

    i

  7. Great recipe. I took a couple of corn cobs left over from a crawfish boil and cut the corn off to add to the mixture. Perfection!!

  8. I made this, tweaked the ingredients and oh boy it was amazing. I live in utah, originally from deep south louisiana. Couldn’t have bought anything any better. I added celery, used red bell pepper and red onion, changed to cream of celery added a jalapeño, added shrimp in addition to crawfish and had to distribute into two pies. The flavors were authentic and amazing. It was not too spicy, thank goodness I added the one jalapeño. I am always looking for amazing recipes, and I always change them a bit, never has anyone not eaten what I cook. It was too easy. I also froze the second one. Hope it turns out when we reheat!

  9. Would love to have your Etouffee recipe. I live in northern IN & it’s hard to find just crawfish tails. I can always get the whole crawfish – Just not sure I want to work that hard.

    • It’s true that finding Louisiana crawfish outside Louisiana can be difficult, but there are a few things you can do. First: ask the seafood department of your favorite grocery store to see if they can source some for you. That’s the easiest, and you get to support your favorite store. If that doesn’t work, you can order some on websites like CajunGrocer.com ( http://www.cajungrocer.com ). And thirdly, if you can get good American shrimp, you can use them as a substitute. You would be able to substitute 2 pounds of raw chopped shrimp for the crawfish tails.

      • The crawfish from walmart come from china and are substandard. It will cost a little more but the Louisiana crawfish from cajungrocer.com are amazing. Much better and includes the fat that makes any recipie better,

        • Oh yes!! You are right! I was so craving crawfish I decided to try them and thought they could be better than nothing. Wrong! Do not put good ingredients into Chinese crawfish. They stink and I had to throw the whole thing out

        • Walmart stores here in Indy carry two brands of frozen crawfish tails. One is from China, but the other is Riceland Cleaned Crawfish Tails, a “Certified Cajun Product” out of Eunice, LA. It’s a couple of bucks more, but worth it.

    • I’ve had great luck with lacrawfish.com.
      I just ordered 10lbs. of tails for etoufee for a party. I only used 8 and was thinking of making this pie with the other 2.

  10. I have a strict house rule against canned cream of anything soup…but for this recipe I’m going to break it and give it a try! (don’t tell on me!)

  11. I’ve seen a similar recipe in the river roads cookbook that I really like… It uses heavy cream instead of evaporated milk… It’s awesome! Just saying

    • I was thinking of using heavy cream myself…& maybe some mushrooms too…I gotta try this recipe …I’ve never made it…thanks for sharing

  12. Great recipe I tweaked it a little by adding celery,paprika,red pepper and orange bell peppers. Also I added a little slap ya mama. I did not use crushed red pepper or green bell pepper. It came out great. My family complimented me at first bite,

  13. Love this recipe . I use it all the time i live basically on the Mississippi Louisiana state line . I do tweek it some degree with celery,Vidalia onions ,added to it . Its truly amazing my whole family loves it

  14. Awesome recipe! Tastes like grandma used to make. But I have to agree it’s hard for me not to put a little celery in there…lol

  15. I used this recipe but added
    Shrimp, Cajun sausage, mushrooms, and creole seasoning.
    I found that I needed more corn starch due the water in the mushrooms & shrimp. I also used
    FILO instead of pie crusts. Thanks so much for sharing your recipe!!
    It was well received by my dinner guests

  16. Got mine in the oven right now. I hate ‘cream of’ anything so I made a dark roux w some mushrooms instead of using the soup and corn starch. Added some old bay, paprika, and celery. Delicious 🙂

  17. I’m gonna half this, but still use the whole can of cream of mushroom soup. I think I will rinse the fat from the raw crawfish tails, and soak the tails in liquid crab boil overnight. I do this with most of my crawfish or shrimp dishes. It makes a world of difference!!

  18. Oh my goodness!! Was looking for the perfect recipe when my grandson asked for a Crawfish Pie. He shelled the Crawfish for me and the pies (enough for two deep dish pies) are fantastic!! I added a teaspoon of Chef Prudhomme’s seafood seasoning and it’s the best I’ve ever eaten!!!! Will be a ‘keeper’ recipe!

    • Yes, we used cooked crawfish tail meat for this recipe. But because it is baked at 400° for so long, you could use whatever crawfish tail meat you can get your hands on.

  19. OK! Last time I cooked it directly as the recipe calls, delicious of course!

    However, having grown up below I-10 with Grandmothers and great Aunts who loved their kitchens and cooking in them I was Willing as often as possible to be Chief Taste Tester, Experiment Guinea Pig, and Student.
    Sometimes the Changes & Substitutions are due to whim and sometimes due to Lack of some other Ingredients.

    My changes This Time were:
    ~ Added Heavy Whipping Cream & used No Soup
    ~ 12 Ozs Tails + 8 Ozs of Sm. Raw Frozen Shrimp (chopped) + 10 Ozs Container Lump Crab Meat (Yum! A fork full fell into my mouth!)

    ~ Sauteed all 3 Seafoods together until Liquid barely remained.
    ~ Sauteed 1½ Cup (store bought) Onion/Garlic/Bellpepper/Celery Mix in Butter added a Tbsp of Minced Garlic and some Parsley Flakes.
    ~ Added in Seafood and Whipping Cream, stirred till bubbling.

    TASTE TEST TIME!
    ~ Added Tony Chachere’s Spice & Herbs for Cajunized Flavor and bit of Salty.

    ~ Slowly added Tony Chachere’s Instant Roux Mix to Thicken & Flavor a bit more.
    ~ Added some Cary’s Dry Roux to Thicken further without adding Salt or more Spices.
    ~ Added and lightly mixed in ½ Cup Fresh Chopped Green Onion along with a Handful of the Uncooked Onion/Garlic/Bellpepper/Celery Mix! It will cook but be firmer when you bite. (Texture difference is the only reason I did this).
    ~ Filled store bought, 2 pack, frozen deep dish Pie Crust right to the top!
    ~ I cook with a Pie Crust Top, making 6 cuts “clock hand” vents and then invert this 2nd pie crust on top of the filled pie, squeezing them together all around.
    ~ Just reach in oven, in 10 Minutes, with a long fork and flip the top pie pan up and off. It will have neatly collapsed on top and can brown now!
    ~ I preheat to 400° then turn down to 325° as soon as the pie first goes in!
    ~ Cook about 30 Minutes and pull out to cool.
    ~ If you poke the crust and it’s firm, Voilà! Tà-Dā! Bam! Success! Ooooh!
    And should liquids show, you’ll have to adjust next time! The first time I used Raw Shrimp, figuring they’d cook easily enough, I wound up with a Fantastic Tasting GUMBO PIE!

    Bon Appetit!

    NOTE: When stirred it is something like cookie dough or Non-Runny Tuna Salad, so it’s Not very Wet at all!
    Too Wet (or using Raw Shrimp) and the Pie Slice comes out like thick Etouffee! or Gumbo Pie!
    (That’s why when using Shrimp it can get runny if you don’t boil away the liquids or count them as part of your total liquids added.)

  20. My Mother grew up on sugar plantation in Napoleonville, had a lot of cousins that had ones too.
    I wonder if our families crossed paths? I bet they did!
    Will try this soon! Thanks

  21. ive lived in Louisiana all my life, NOLA mostly, and this is one good crawfish pie! The only change I make is to add a little celery and Tony’s. Delish!

  22. Made this a few months back, it was awesome. Had another bug boil and have a couple pounds in freezer, I guess it’s time to make a pie!!

    • Hi Melanie! That may be at your discretion. It will depend on the size pie plate you are wanting to use, or if you are wanting to make several small pies versus one large pie.

      Let us know how it goes!

  23. Great recipe …. i added a can of drained mushrooms to the recipe and it turned out great. I only used 1 pound of crawfish tails and substituted flour for the cornstarch.

  24. I’m making this for my fourth time tonight. We absolutely love this recipe!! We use celery finly chopped as well as cream of celery soup instead of the mushroom. It’s perfect and makes you feel cozy and happy!!

  25. Made this for Sunday dinner with corn on the cob & toss salad. Yummy!! It was delish. Thank u for sharing ur recipe. Will def keep this one.

  26. This is my go to Crawfish Pie recipe! Delicious with leftover boiled crawfish. I follow the recipe and these Cajuns here yea all love it sha ☺️

  27. I am a NOLA resident, born and raised. I made the pies by the recipe and they are delicious before going into the oven.
    I need help here. I am traveling with the pies to another part of town. Of course they are a little soupy. Should I bake them first and reheat them there to keep from having a mess? If so, give me the reheating procedure. Great recipe as is.

  28. The lady, Nell Robarge,that originally posted this recipe is from Assumption parish. Worked with her at our local hospital in Gonzales, La. This is the only recipe for crawfish pie that I use.. try it in the original recipe before tweeking..

  29. I loved the dish with slight modifications. I used celery, 1/2&1/2, Cream of Shrimp soup, crawfish, shrimp and Tony Chachere’s seasoning.

  30. Made this recipe today with a couple of changes: added celery, cut back on onion, added Louisiana hot sauce. Tasted while loading into crusts. Oh my God !! I left Louisiana in 1981. This brings back so many good memories from my short time there.

  31. I’m posting awhile after I made this. Really was fantastic. Luckily, I had extra peeled tails(about 1#) from a boil so were quite seasoned. Added another 1# of frozen. I added just a little bit of finely chopped turkey tasso, maybe 2oz, as I like the smoked flavor. Highly suggest that. Mine made so much that I made a whole 9” pie with top crust. I froze the rest. Just last week I thawed and made 8 small individual topless pies which still were great and as above would be perfect for parties. Next crawfish season I am gonna freeze enough to be able to make this 3-4 times a year or for holidays. From SW La. Cest Bon

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