Crawfish and Rice Casserole

It’s almost Mardi Gras!!

Being an honorary Cajun, I try to make something for Mardi Gras every year. I’ve never lived in Louisiana, but I have family there (Alexandria) and my aunt lived in Monroe for a while when I was a teenager. I have a deep love for Louisiana and all of its people and food.

Luckily, I’m not the only honorary Cajun in Oklahoma. In Edmond, the closest suburb to where I live, a man started a seafood shop a while back. He makes a trip to the Louisiana and Alabama coast once a week to pick up fresh gulf shrimp, fish and crawfish. He also carries a bunch of Louisiana favorites you can’t find anywhere else in Oklahoma: Crystal hot sauce, Blue Plate mayonnaise, and Best Stop Cajun seasoning, just to name a few.

I picked up a pound of peeled and cooked crawfish tails from Edmond Seafood Company this weekend and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I had found a recipe for a crawfish casserole that sounded perfect for celebrating Mardi Gras.

Even if you get peeled and cooked crawfish tails like I do, make sure you pick over the meat to get any shell pieces out. Sometimes they slip by unnoticed in the packaging process.

If you can get fresh crawfish and don’t mind cooking live animals, go for it! I don’t like all the peeling involved so I usually go the peeled and cooked route.

This casserole is extremely good. It’s savory, cheesy and the perfect embodiment of Cajun food.

Enjoy!

Crawfish and Rice Casserole

Servings: 4-6
Time: 1 hr
Difficulty: Easy
Print

A savory Cajun casserole with yellow rice, crawfish, peppers and cheese.

Ingredients

1 TBS. vegetable oil

1 yellow onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. crawfish tails, peeled and cooked

1 (8 oz) pkg yellow rice, cooked according to package instructions

2 tsp. Cajun seasoning

1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes (I used Rotel)

1 (10 oz) can cream of celery soup

1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Sliced green onions, for topping

Directions

Cook yellow rice according to package instructions. While that’s cooking, in a large cast iron skillet or ovenproof pot, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onion and green bell pepper and saute until onion is translucent, about 5-6 minutes.
Stir in garlic and cook for another minute. Stir in crawfish, Cajun seasoning and diced tomatoes. Let simmer for about 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir cream of celery soup and cooked yellow rice into crawfish mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove foil and sprinkle cheese on top of casserole. Return to oven, uncovered, and cook for 12 more minutes.
Serve topped with sliced green onions.

2 thoughts on “Crawfish and Rice Casserole”