Seafood Boil Sauce

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If you’re a fan of seafood recipes, you must learn how to make this delicious sauce complement! This delicious seafood boil sauce is simple to make, and you can get it done in under 10 minutes, making it one of the simplest sauces to create for your seafood boil recipes.

A particular thing about this dipping sauce (also called Garlic Butter Seafood Boil Sauce) is that it’s buttery, rich, and spicy, which is perfect for those who want to pair it up with dishes like a crawfish boil, shrimp boil, crab oil, or others.

The seafood boil sauce started as a Southern tradition and gained more popularity worldwide, so you likely already have all the ingredients necessary to make it.

Overall, the two primary ingredients here will be butter and fresh garlic, but I will give you a list of other herbs and spices you can add to make this dipping sauce even better.

Ingredients You Will Need to Make the Seafood Boil Sauce

Just like our chili garlic sauce, you may already have most of the ingredients at hand. I’ll give you a few recommendations if you want to substitute a few ingredients:

Substitutions

The best part of this seafood boil sauce is that you can tailor it to your personal taste. Let’s take a look at some great alternatives you can consider for this delicious sauce.

Spiciness

You can replace the smoked paprika with hot red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper to get even more spiciness out of your seafood boil sauce. On the other hand, you can add hot sauce to the mix.

However, if you want to make seafood boil sauce that doesn’t feel as spicy, feel free to remove the red pepper flakes from your garlic butter dipping sauce.

Bright Flavor – Lemon Juice

Some people prefer their seafood sauce recipe to have a brighter flavor. If this is your case, consider adding lemon pepper seasoning and lemon juice.

Sweetness

Those who prefer sweeter flavors for their seafood boil sauce use brown sugar, although that’s not the only option out there.

If you want to make your seafood boil sauce sweeter and don’t enjoy brown sugar, consider adding maple syrup or honey. They will definitely make a difference in your garlic butter sauce!

Cajun

Old Bay seasoning is already an excellent option to make the most out of your seafood boil sauce recipe. However, if you want to take things up to the next level, you have two options.

You can add an extra amount of Old Bay seasoning, or you can add Cajun seasoning itself to achieve a flavor that suits your taste buds.

Herbs

Our seafood boil sauce wouldn’t be complete without the herbs! You can add lemon zest and chopped fresh parsley to improve your garlic butter seafood boil sauce.

Other Seasoning Options

If Cajun seasoning isn’t that appealing to you, you can also consider other options, including bay leaves, lemon peels, garlic powder, or black pepper.

Chicken Broth

You can also add low-sodium chicken broth to reduce the seafood boil sauce’s salt amount.

What Will You Need to Make This Seafood Boil Recipe?

You will be pleased to know that the only thing you need to make the seafood boil sauce is a pot. However, here’s a list of extra things I use to make the process much easier and faster:

• Large Stockpot for boiling the ingredients
• 12-inch Tongs to move ingredients around
• Whisk to achieve a creamier garlic butter seafood boil sauce
• Newspaper or Parchment Paper to get your ingredients in a single place and not make a mess

Bottom Line

It’s as easy as that! You only need two steps to prepare your seafood sauce. Using this as a dipping sauce for seafood boils is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and once you try it out, you will quickly notice why.

I hope this guide has helped you understand how to make seafood boil sauce in an effective, easy, and fast way. On the other hand, if you’re interested in discovering more of my recipes, make sure to stick around to this website!

Frequently Asked Questions

Where Does Seafood Boil Come From?

According to history, seafood boils came with the French settlers in Canada. They went to what is known today as Louisiana after running away from British colonizers back in the 1700s.

It’s vital to note that seafood boil refers to a social event rather than a dish. The cooked seafood you will get depends on the region.

In Maryland, for example, people have crab feasts, and they steam the seafood to then season it with Old Bay seasoning. The Deep South, however, features seafood boils where people get Frogmore stews or low country boils.

Finally, Louisiana is popular for its crawfish boils. Overall, a seafood boil is a rather interesting concept that you should definitely do research on! Our seafood sauce will fit any seafood boil you decide to get.

What Can You Serve This Seafood Boil Sauce with?

One of the best things about this homemade seafood sauce is that you can pair it with a lot of dishes.

As mentioned before, you can create the normal version of this sauce or change it up with ingredients like cayenne pepper to get a great alternative. Then, you can use it as a sauce for seafood boil in general.

If you’re not looking to prepare seafood boil, keep in mind you can also use this sauce for the following recipes:

• Boiled Lobster Tails
• Snow Crab Legs
• Steak
• Fish
• Boiled Lobster
• Crawfish Boil
• Shrimp Boil
• Salmon
• Parmesan Pork Chops
• Lamb Chops

If you want something that goes better with meats like chicken and steak, I would recommend our buffalo wild wings garlic parmesan sauce recipe!

How Can You Store Seafood Sauce?

You can take this seafood boil/crab boil sauce and store it, but there are some steps to it. First, remember that this recipe will give you about one cup. This cup will likely last you for many days, so don’t throw it away when you’re done!

In essence, you can take a resealable glass jar or an airtight container for the sauce. Then, store it in your fridge. In most cases, you can store your sauce there for up to a week. However, I don’t recommend you wait that long to consume it.

Can you reheat seafood boil sauce? Absolutely! The only thing you have to do is take the sauce out of the fridge and into a pot. Then, heat it in medium heat for a few minutes until it’s warm again.

Some people take the sauce into the microwave for a few seconds too, but I prefer the first method.

Are There Any Variations to This Seafood Sauce?

There are many variations to this excellent sauce! You can achieve those using some of the alternatives I gave you in the ingredients list.

Here’s a detailed explanation of my three favorite variations you can get:

• Seafood Cajun Butter Sauce: You can add extra Cajun seasoning to your sauce, which will make it perfect for meat and vegetables too.
• Sweet/Spicy Seafood Boil Sauce: Remember that your sauce doesn’t necessarily have to be spicy only. You can add brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey to make it sweeter. On the other hand, if you’re not a fan of the spiciness, you can remove the red pepper flakes.
• Louisiana Seafood Boil Sauce: If you want to get as classic as possible with this sauce, create a “Louisiana Hot Sauce” by adding fresh ginger, bay leaves, and lemon slices.