Shrimp Étouffée {Classic Cajun Recipe} (2024)

FAQs

What is étouffée sauce made of? ›

What's in an Étouffée Sauce? Étouffée is a type of stew if you want to get technical. It's made with a roux, onion, celery, and bell pepper (the holy trinity), tomato, garlic, hot sauce, and either shrimp, crawfish, or chicken.

For an effortless etouffée, toss some crawfish, shrimp or chicken into our sauce blend of onions, bell peppers, celery and spices. Serve over rice and enjoy.

Shrimp Creole and Shrimp Etouffee are similar dishes but are not the same. An etouffee has a consistency that is more like gravy and is thicker than shrimp creole sauce. Shrimp creole has a tomato base while shrimp etouffee has a roux for its base.

The crawfish have a slightly more earthy flavor than shrimp, and the dish is typically a bit more rustic. I also like that crawfish etouffee is often made with a tomato-based sauce, which gives it a slightly different flavor profile than shrimp etouffee.

Etouffee can be found in both Creole and Cajun cuisine, with slight but important differences in the seasoning and preparation of each version. Creole etouffee uses a traditional French-style roux made from butter and flour while the roux for Cajun etouffee is made with oil, lard, or other animal fats.

Classically etouffee is served over white rice cooked with bay leaf and butter. I would keep at least one of the other sides pretty classic New Orleans as well: fried okra, grilled green beans, zucchini with tomatoes, corn bread, collard greens stewed with bacon, or maybe some grits. Rice is always a good side dish.

While both dishes use a broth base—like shrimp stock, crawfish tail stock, or chicken broth—étouffée has a thicker, gravy-like consistency because chefs make it with a roux (a mixture of all-purpose flour and butter). Gumbo, on the other hand, is thinner than étouffée, with a soupy stew broth.

Both etouffee and gumbo are broth-based, using shrimp stock, seafood stock, crawfish tail stock, or chicken stock. But etouffee has a thicker, gravy-like consistency whereas gumbo is a thinner stew.

The difference between etouffee and gumbo is that etouffee is thicker, made with butter roux, and has a gravy consistency. An etouffee and gumbo both have the holy trinity (onion, celery, and bell pepper) and a dark brown roux. Gumbo is thinner, made with an oil roux, and a soup consistency.

Jambalaya is a highly seasoned rice casserole. Shrimp Creole—Shrimp Creole is a favorite of Creole cuisine in the greater New Orleans area. It is a dish made of shrimp, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic and cayenne pepper. Classic shrimp creole does not contain a roux, but some cooks may add one.

What are 3 main differences between Cajun and Creole foods? ›

While they are very similar, they do utilize different ingredients. Cajun food is typically spicier than Creole food, and it also contains more pork and crawfish. Creole food utilizes more ingredients like tomatoes, shrimp, oysters, and crab.

The best side dishes to serve with etouffee are jasmine rice, cornbread, cauliflower rice, quinoa, polenta, wedge salad, eggplant parmesan, mashed potatoes, green bean almondine, roasted brussel sprouts, southern-style collard greens, sweet potato fries, black-eyed peas salad, grilled asparagus, garlic knots, and apple ...

Among the Gulf shrimp, pinks are considered the sweetest and most delicate but are often used interchangeably with whites. Because pinks are the largest of the commercial warm-water species, they typically boast more meat, making them a prime choice for family-style peel-and-eat shrimp boils.

Both are considered main dishes, but étouffée is more or less a sauce or thick gravy, typically served over rice. Jambalaya, however, is a rice dish, akin to paella, its likely ancestor. One uses rice as a vehicle, the other as a staple component of the dish.

In simplest terms (and remember all you New Orleans fans out there — I said simplest), Gumbo is a soup, étouffée is a stew, and jambalaya is a rice dish similar to a paella or rice-based casserole. It goes much beyond that, of course. Gumbos can be very stew-like and I've had étouffées that were almost like...

In some ways, its similar to gumbo – same types of Creole seasonings, served over rice, and made with a roux, but unlike gumbo, étouffée is often made with a“blonde”roux, giving it a lighter color and a very different almost sweet flavor. It's a unique taste you won't soon forget and worth trying at home.

Gumbo and etouffee both start with the vegetable trinity of Cajun seasonings (bay leaf, paprika, and cayenne), but etouffee tends to be lighter and almost sweet in flavor, while gumbo is deep and savory.

In simplest terms (and remember all you New Orleans fans out there — I said simplest), Gumbo is a soup, étouffée is a stew, and jambalaya is a rice dish similar to a paella or rice-based casserole. It goes much beyond that, of course. Gumbos can be very stew-like and I've had étouffées that were almost like...

And while gumbo is a soup or stew, etouffee is more of a main dish; the word "etouffee" means "smother" in French, which refers to how the seafood is "smothered" in a thick, usually tomato-based sauce. Like gumbo, etouffee is also usually made with a roux and has its roots in Cajun and Creole cuisine (via Chowhound).