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. 🤤
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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. 🤤
🦐 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.
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.
- 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.
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.
- Step 3: To a pot of water, add kosher salt, seafood boil seasoning, a halved lemon, smashed garlic, bay leaves, and thyme.
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!
- Step 4: Add the corn for the last few minutes.
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.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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!
- 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.
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! 🤤
Don't be shy when dipping. The butter sauce is liquid GOLD!
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📖 Recipe
Cajun Garlic Butter Crab & Shrimp Boil Foil Packets for Two
Equipment
- heavy duty aluminum foil
Ingredients
Garlic Butter Seafood Boil Sauce
- 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
Par-Boil Water (for the potatoes and corn)
- 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 whole and similar in size (about 8 regular baby reds or 12 to 16 creamer-size), par-boiled (halve any larger ones so they cook evenly; see instructions)
- 2 ears sweet corn about 10 to 12 ounces shucked, each cut into about 5 pieces (10 small cobbettes total)
Packets
- 3 tablespoons Cajun seafood boil seasoning salt-free preferred, the in-packet seasoning sprinkle, divided between layers and packets, see notes)
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt Diamond crystal, 1½ teaspoons per packet, sthe in-packet seasoning sprinkle, divided between layers and packets (see notes)
- 4 to 5 cloves garlic smashed
- 6 ounces andouille sausage sliced ½ inch thick
- 6-8 ounces large shrimp peeled and deveined, tails on (about 4 to 6 jumbo, or 8 to 10 medium; larger shrimp hold up best to the bake time)
- 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
- 2 whole bay leaves
- 2 sprigs thyme
For Serving
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped, optional for serving
- Cajun garlic butter seafood boil sauce about half the batch from above, reserved for dipping
- lemon wedges
- toasted French bread with butter
- 1 pinch filé powder sprinkled over each open packet just before serving, optional
Instructions
Make the Cajun garlic butter seafood boil sauce
- Melt the butter gently in a saucepan over low heat (no browning). Add the minced garlic and cook slowly until soft and fragrant but not browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the Cajun seasoning and let it bloom for 30 to 60 seconds, then add the salt gradually, tasting as you go. Stir in the lemon zest, then add the beer and simmer 1 to 2 minutes to cook off the raw alcohol edge.1 cup unsalted butter, 14 to 16 cloves garlic , 4 tablespoons Cajun seafood boil seasoning, 1 tablespoon kosher salt, 1 tablespoon lemon zest, ⅔ cup beer
- Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice, hot sauce, and parsley. Keep the garlic pale and give the beer its full simmer; these two steps are what separate a glossy, balanced sauce from a bitter or boozy one. For the full sauce recipe and all the ways to use it, see our Garlic Butter Seafood Boil Sauce.3 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons Louisiana-style hot sauce, 3 tablespoons fresh parsley
Prep
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Tear two sheets of heavy-duty foil, about 18 by 24 inches each. Standard foil tears under the weight of the food and the sharp ends of the crab legs, so use heavy-duty here, and always bake on a sheet pan to catch any leaks.
- Hard-boil and peel the eggs. (These can be done up to 5 days in advance and stored peeled in cold water in the fridge.)
Par-boil the potatoes and corn
- Bring the water to a boil with the kosher salt, Cajun seafood boil seasoning, halved lemon, smashed garlic, bay leaves, and thyme sprigs. Season this water aggressively. Under-seasoned water means under-seasoned potatoes, and this is your one shot to get flavor all the way into them.3 quarts water, 3 tablespoons kosher salt, 3 tablespoons Cajun seafood boil seasoning, 4 to 6 cloves garlic, 4 to 6 sprigs thyme, 1 whole lemon, 2 whole bay leaves
- Add the whole baby potatoes to the boiling water. Par-boil creamer-size potatoes for 8 to 10 minutes, or regular baby reds for 10 to 12 minutes, until almost fully cooked: a knife slides through easily but the potato still holds its shape. The packet steam is gentle and finishes the cooking rather than doing it, so take the potatoes further than you think you should.10 to 12 ounces baby red potatoes
- Add the corn cobbettes for the last 2 to 3 minutes. Reserve some of the par-boil water for the packets. Drain the potatoes and corn and set aside to cool slightly.2 ears sweet corn
Build the packets
- Combine the Cajun seafood boil seasoning and kosher salt in a small bowl. Set aside; you will use this sprinkle throughout the build. (If your seasoning blend already contains salt, go light here and taste as you build.)3 tablespoons Cajun seafood boil seasoning , 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- Lay a sheet of foil flat. In the center, layer the par-boiled potatoes, the andouille, corn, and smashed garlic. Sprinkle some of the seasoning-salt mix over the top. Pour over the reserved par-boil water, the beer, and about half of the garlic butter sauce.4 to 5 cloves garlic, 6 ounces andouille sausage, ½ cup reserved par-boil water, 1 cup Cajun garlic butter seafood boil sauce, ½ cup beer
- Press the shrimp down into the buttery liquid pool at the bottom of the packet so they are submerged or nearly so, touching the liquid rather than floating on top of the food. This is the single most important step. Shrimp sitting on top of the food will not cook through even at a full 25 minutes; down in the liquid, they cook perfectly.6-8 ounces large shrimp
- Set your snow crab on top (1 cluster if large, 2 if smaller). Nestle the eggs around it. Tuck in the lemon wedges, orange wedges, a bay leaf, and a few sprigs of thyme. Avoid overstuffing the packet; an overfilled packet is hard to seal and will leak steam, leaving you with dry seafood. Leave enough foil at the edges to crimp a tight seal.1½-2 pounds snow crab clusters, 4 whole hard-boiled eggs, 4 wedges lemon, 4 wedges orange, 2 whole bay leaves, 2 sprigs thyme
- Pour over the remaining garlic butter sauce, and sprinkle the remaining seasoning-salt mix on top. Tuck the sharp ends of the crab legs inward so they do not pierce the foil. If a packet tears, patch the hole with a small piece of foil, or set it tear-side up on the sheet pan. You can wrap a second layer of heavy-duty foil around the packet for insurance, but it slows the cooking, so add 5 to 10 minutes and check that the shrimp are cooked through.
Seal and bake
- Bring the long sides of the foil up and crimp tightly in the center, then crimp each short end. The seal is what traps the steam, and the steam is what cooks the food. A leaky packet means dry seafood.
- Bake on a sheet pan for 25 minutes.
- Rest 2 minutes, then open carefully (watch for steam) by slicing across the top with kitchen shears. Garnish with fresh parsley and extra lemon, and serve with the reserved garlic butter sauce, toasted French bread, and a cold beer.2 tablespoons fresh parsley, Cajun garlic butter seafood boil sauce, lemon wedges, toasted French bread with butter, 1 pinch filé powder
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Notes
- Make ahead: Hard-boil and peel the eggs up to 5 days in advance, stored in cold water in the fridge. Par-boil the potatoes and corn the day of, up to a few hours before assembly.
- Storage: Foil packets are best fresh, but leftovers keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. Reheat gently in a covered skillet with a splash of water or stock so the seafood does not overcook.
- A note on salt: This recipe is built around a salt-free Cajun seasoning and Diamond Crystal kosher salt, which is less salty by volume than other brands. If your blend contains salt, cut back the added salt and taste as you go. If you use Morton's kosher salt or table salt, use about half the amount, since they are nearly twice as salty by volume.
- The beer: We use Abita Amber, a Louisiana beer that adds malty depth behind the butter and spice. Any amber or pale ale works. For a non-alcoholic version, use seafood stock or water in the same amount.
- The hot sauce: Crystal is our Louisiana go-to. Any Louisiana-style hot sauce works here.
- Pork-free: Any smoked sausage works in place of the pork sausage.
- Heat level: For milder packets, drop the cayenne in your seasoning blend to 1 tablespoon. For spicier, add ¼ to ½ teaspoon extra cayenne to the garlic butter sauce.
- Filé finish: A pinch of filé powder over each open packet just before serving is the authentic Louisiana signature. Never add filé to anything still simmering or it turns stringy.
- Serve with: Cajun seafood boil seasoning and garlic butter seafood boil sauce (make these first or use what you have), toasted French bread, or dirty rice. Feeding a crowd instead? Scale up with our Cajun seafood boil.
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