Name: Cajun Garlic Butter Crab & Shrimp Boil Foil Packets for Two
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks); 14 to 16 cloves garlic (minced); 4 tablespoons Cajun seafood boil seasoning (salt-free preferred, see notes); 1 tablespoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal, added gradually, ¼ teaspoon at a time, tasting as you go); 1 tablespoon lemon zest (zest of 1 lemon); ⅔ cup beer (amber, pale ale, or lager, can sub stock); 3 tablespoons lemon juice; 2 tablespoons Louisiana-style hot sauce; 3 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped); 3 quarts water (use a 3-quart or larger saucepan); 3 tablespoons kosher salt (Diamond crystal, see notes); 3 tablespoons Cajun seafood boil seasoning (salt-free, see notes); 4 to 6 cloves garlic (smashed); 4 to 6 sprigs thyme; 1 whole lemon (halved); 2 whole bay leaves; 10 to 12 ounces baby red potatoes; 2 ears sweet corn (about 10 to 12 ounces shucked, each cut into about 5 pieces (10 small cobbettes total)); 3 tablespoons Cajun seafood boil seasoning; 1 tablespoon kosher salt; 4 to 5 cloves garlic (smashed); 6 ounces andouille sausage (sliced ½ inch thick); 6-8 ounces large shrimp; ½ cup reserved par-boil water (¼ cup per packet, split between bottom and top layers); ½ cup beer (¼ cup per packet, split between bottom and top layers); 1 cup Cajun garlic butter seafood boil sauce (from above, ½ cup per packet, split between bottom and top layers); 1½-2 pounds snow crab clusters (about 1 to 2 per packet, depending on size); 4 whole hard-boiled eggs; 4 wedges lemon (about ½ lemon); 4 wedges orange (about ½ navel orange)

There's something about a seafood boil that turns dinner into an event, and these Cajun Garlic Butter Shrimp and Crab Foil Packets bring that whole experience home, scaled down for two. Each packet is its own little Louisiana-style feast: a cluster of snow crab, jumbo shrimp, andouille sausage, baby potatoes, and sweet corn, all sealed up with a rich garlic butter sauce and baked until everything is steamy and glistening. The best part is opening them at the table, when the steam pours out, and everything underneath is swimming in garlic butter. This is the small-batch, date-night version of a boil, no big cleanup or crowd required. Set the table, toast some French bread for swiping through the sauce, and pour a cold beer. 🤤

Two open foil packets of Cajun garlic butter seafood boil with snow crab, shrimp, sausage, corn, and potatoes on a sheet pan, garnished with parsley and lemon wedges.

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Disclosure: This post is a paid partnership with Plugrà Premium European Style Butter, the official butter partner for A Full Living for 2026! Plugrà's higher butterfat (82%) is exactly what you want in a garlic butter sauce like this one: richer, glossier, and more flavorful than your average stick. 😍 As always, all opinions are our own.

Why These Seafood Boil Foil Packets Beat Dragging Out the Big Pot 🦀

A full seafood boil is a whole thing. The giant pot, the cooler of seafood, the table covered in newspaper, and getting the house cleaned up for guests. 😂 We love it, and if that's the energy you're after, our Cajun Seafood Boil is right there waiting for you! But most nights it's just the two of us, and that production is hard to justify. These foil packets are how we get there anyway: real Cajun boil flavor, two tidy little parcels, straight from the oven to the table with almost nothing to clean up after.

We used to spend the end of the winter and early spring (when the weather is MISERABLE in the Midwest) escaping to warmer weather and delicious food, visiting my dad in Baton Rouge. Now back at home in our Michigan kitchen, we're always cooking up Cajun recipes. This one is one of our favorites.

A few little choices are what give these so much flavor. We use a homemade Cajun seafood boil seasoning instead of Old Bay, a splash of beer, a few shakes of Louisiana hot sauce, and a pinch of filé powder at the end. I also love the orange wedges tucked in alongside the lemon; they add a little sweetness against all that spice.

If there's one piece that ties this entire recipe together, it's the buttery seafood boil sauce. It does two jobs at once: a good pour goes right into the packets so the shrimp, crab, potatoes, and corn all bake in it and soak up that richness, and the rest waits in a little dish on the side for dipping. It's buttery, garlicky, a little spicy, and seriously good enough to eat with a spoon. Make a big batch, it's worth it! The sauce is the difference between a nice foil packet dinner and one you'll be thinking about the next day. 🤤

Two open foil packets of Cajun garlic butter seafood boil with snow crab, shrimp, corn, and potatoes on a sheet pan, a box of Plugrà butter and fresh herbs in the frame.

We used this recipe and did a covered foil pan for our Labor Day party, and it came out incredible! It was easy, intuitive, but most of all, delicious! The sauce was incredible on top of the seafood, and the seasoning was perfect, making it super easy to make with frozen crab, crawfish, and shrimp. It was perfect for our size as we didn't have large pots, so this was perfect for apartment cooking with minimal pots and pans to clean. Thank you! - Our reader Ai Nhu, 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🦐 Ingredients for These Seafood Boil Foil Packets

A handful of good proteins, a few vegetables, and that garlic butter sauce are really all you need. Here's everything before we get into the build.

Labeled ingredients for Cajun garlic butter shrimp and crab foil packets, including snow crab legs, colossal shrimp, andouille sausage, baby potatoes, corn, garlic, lemon, orange, hard boiled eggs, Cajun seafood boil seasoning, filé powder, beer, and Plugrà butter.

How to Make Seafood Boil Foil Packets ✨

The one thing to know going in: the packet steam is gentle. It finishes and flavors everything rather than doing the heavy cooking, so a quick par-boil up front is what makes it all come together. Let's build them.

A spatula stirring simmering Cajun garlic butter sauce in a skillet, the surface bubbling and turning glossy red-orange.

Step 1: Start with the garlic butter sauce, since everything else gets built around it. Melt the Plugrà butter gently in a saucepan, then add the minced garlic and cook it slowly until soft and fragrant. Stir in the Cajun seasoning and let it bloom for a minute, season with salt, then add lemon zest and a splash of amber beer and let it simmer briefly.

Finished Cajun garlic butter seafood boil sauce in a stainless skillet, glossy red-orange and flecked with parsley, a fish spatula resting in the pan.

Off the heat, finish with lemon juice, Louisiana hot sauce, and fresh parsley. Set it aside; you'll use some inside the packets and save the rest for dipping.

🧈Why high-quality butter? A garlic butter sauce is mostly butter, so the quality really shows. Plugrà's higher butterfat (82%) makes the sauce richer and glossier than a standard stick, which is exactly what you want pooling at the bottom of these packets. Two quick things that matter: keep the garlic pale (browned garlic turns bitter), and give the beer a minute to simmer so the raw edge cooks off. For more details, tips, and tricks, check out the full recipe post for our Cajun garlic butter seafood boil sauce.

Step 2: Preheat the oven to 400°F and tear two sheets of heavy-duty foil. Hard-boil and peel your eggs. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil for the potatoes and corn.

🥚 Make ahead: The eggs can be boiled and peeled up to 5 days in advance, stored in cold water in the fridge. One less thing to do the day of.

Lemon, thyme, garlic, bay leaves, and seasoning in a small pot coming together to make a flavorful broth.

Step 3: To a pot of water, add kosher salt, seafood boil seasoning, a halved lemon, smashed garlic, bay leaves, and thyme.

Adding small potatoes to a pot of boiling, seasoned water on a yellow backdrop.

Add the whole baby potatoes and par-boil until almost fully cooked.

🧂Season the water REALLY well. This helps infuse the potatoes and corn with flavor, so don't be shy!

Sweet corn cobbettes in a spider strainer being lifted into seasoned par-boil water with a charred lemon half floating alongside.

Step 4: Add the corn for the last few minutes.

Hand pulling out corn and potatoes from seasoned boiling water and piercing a potato with a fork.

Cook until the potatoes can be pierced with a fork and the corn is tender and bright yellow. Before you drain, scoop out and reserve some of the par-boil water. You'll splash it into the packets, and it's great for thinning the butter sauce if needed. Drain the potatoes and corn and let them cool slightly.

🥔 Keep the potatoes similar in size. Whole creamer or baby reds work best here. If your potatoes are on the bigger side or a mix of sizes, halve the larger ones so everything par-boils evenly and finishes at the same time.

Par-boiled baby potatoes, sliced andouille, and corn cobbettes arranged on a sheet of foil and dusted with Cajun seasoning before saucing.

Step 5: Lay a sheet of foil flat. In the center of each, layer the potatoes, andouille sausage, corn, and smashed garlic. Season generously with salt and seafood boil seasoning.

🧂 A note on salt: This recipe is built around our salt-free seafood boil seasoning and Diamond Crystal kosher salt, which is less salty by volume than other brands. If your seasoning blend already contains salt, cut back the added salt in both the butter sauce and the in-packet seasoning sprinkle, and add it gradually, tasting as you go. And if you are using Morton's kosher salt or table salt, use about half the amount called for, since they are nearly twice as salty by volume. When in doubt, under-salt and adjust at the end. You can always add more, but you cannot take it out.

Raw seasoned shrimp pressed down into the buttery sauce pool at the bottom of a foil packet with potatoes, sausage, and corn.

Step 6: Add the shrimp, more seasoning, then pour over some of the garlic butter sauce, beer, and reserved par-boil water. Press the shrimp down into that buttery liquid pool, so they're submerged, or nearly so. This is the single most important step in the whole recipe.

🍺 A splash of beer in the packet. We use Abita Amber, a Louisiana beer that adds a little malty depth behind all that butter and spice. Any amber ale works, or skip it and use a splash of seafood stock.

🦐 Go big on the shrimp. Jumbo or colossal shrimp hold up best to the 25-minute bake without overcooking, and their size makes them easy to press down into the liquid. If you only have smaller shrimp, tuck them in the same way and start checking a few minutes early so they don't turn rubbery.

⚠️ Shrimp on top won't cook through. This was a BIG lesson from our many rounds of recipe testing. Shrimp left sitting on top of the food stayed undercooked even at a full 25 minutes, but pressed down into the liquid, they cook perfectly every time. Tuck them in!

A ladle drizzling garlic butter sauce over an assembled foil packet of snow crab, corn, potatoes, and seasoning before sealing.

Step 7: Set a snow crab cluster on top, then nestle in the eggs. Add the remaining seasoning, and drizzle with more garlic butter sauce.

🦀 Don't overstuff the packets. Snow crab clusters are bulky and awkward, and it's tempting to pile them in for a generous look. But an overfilled packet is hard to seal, and a packet that won't close tightly will leak steam and leave you with dry seafood. If your clusters are large, use one per packet; if they're smaller, two will fit. Either way, leave yourself enough foil at the edges to crimp a tight seal.

Snow crab clusters layered on top of a foil packet with potatoes, corn, lemon and orange wedges, thyme, and a bay leaf.

Step 8: Tuck in lemon and orange wedges, a bay leaf, and a thyme sprig.

🍊 Don't skip the orange! Lemon plus orange is a delicious Cajun thing, and that little bit of sweet citrus against the spice makes these extra delicious.

Hands crimping the long sides of a foil packet together over a sheet pan to seal in the seafood boil.

Step 8: Bring the long sides of the foil up and crimp them tightly together in the center, then crimp each short end. You want a sealed pouch because the trapped steam is what does the cooking.

Two sealed foil packets on a metal sheet pan ready for the oven, with corn, lemon, and garlic styled alongside.

Nestle both of the packets on a sheet pan.

🔪 Sealing tips and what to do if a packet tears. Snow crab has sharp leg tips that can poke through the foil, so tuck the pointy ends inward toward the center as you pack, and always use heavy-duty foil. If a packet does tear, press a small piece of foil over the hole to patch it, or set the packet tear-side up on the sheet pan so the liquid pools away from the gap.

You can also wrap a second layer of heavy-duty foil around each packet for extra insurance. Just know it insulates the food and slows things down, so you'll need to add at least 5 to 10 minutes to the bake time and check that the shrimp are opaque and cooked through before serving. Either way, always bake on a sheet pan to catch any drips!

Open foil packets with cooked shrimp and crab out of the oven right after baking.

Step 9: Bake for 25 minutes. Let the packets rest a couple of minutes, then open carefully (mind the steam!)

Top with more butter sauce, parsley, lemon, thyme, and optional filé powder.

Close-up of an open foil packet of Cajun seafood boil with butter-glazed snow crab legs, shrimp, corn, and potatoes in garlic butter sauce.

Serve each packet with toasted butter-brushed French bread for swiping through the butter, the reserved garlic butter sauce in little dishes for dipping, extra lemon, and a cold beer. Tip the packet out onto a board or platter if you want the full spread, or eat right out of the foil for almost zero cleanup. Either way, date night is extra delicious! 🤤

Cajun garlic butter seafood boil with snow crab, shrimp, andouille, corn, and potatoes plated on a white oval platter with toasted bread, a ramekin of dipping sauce, and a box of Plugrà butter alongside.

Don't be shy when dipping. The butter sauce is liquid GOLD!

Hand dipping a butter-glazed jumbo shrimp into a ramekin of Cajun garlic butter sauce, the sauce dripping back into the dish, with crab, potatoes, and corn behind.

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