Sunday Soup #85: Slow Cooker Shrimp Boil

Laissez les bons temps rouler! A shrimp boil is a tasty one-pot meal that can be packed with flavor, bound to please old and young alike... Those that enjoy seafood, anyway.

"Wait," you may be saying to yourself, "a shrimp boil is not a soup! You drain the liquid off before you serve it!!" Well, you're right, you got me! A shrimp boil is not technically a soup. But, it cooks in a (yummy, yummy) broth, and I really wanted to try it, so you're just going to have to deal with it this week! LOL

This recipe came from: https://damndelicious.net/2019/06/21/slow-cooker-shrimp-boil/

*Pic 1 - https://damndelicious.net/2019/06/21/slow-cooker-shrimp-boil/

Variations from Recipe as Written: I used lime juice instead of lemon juice because it is what I had. I also used minced garlic rather than a whole head.

General Thoughts: The prep on this one was fairly simple and straightforward... A quick wedging of the onion, breaking a few cobs of corn into pieces, and some fast knife work on the sausage had me ready to roll. A few swishes and swirls of the whisk later, everything was ready to go into the slow cooker (aka, Crock-Pot). There were a couple of extra steps near the end of the cooking process, but it took pretty low-intensity effort overall.

*Pic 2 - Picture from when I made it

I was a little skeptical about whether the potatoes would be cooked completely, but they came out just right! Bite-sized baby red potatoes might have been an improvement, but the ones I used were tasty enough. The shrimp, likewise, were perfectly cooked with excellent texture. The corn, on the other hand, was a bit underdone; still entirely edible, but they could have used a bit more time cooking in the hot broth.

As far as the flavor, it was solid overall, but not very strong... Being that I enjoy strong flavors, I was counting on a big kick of Old Bay with every bite, but the flavor was more subtle. With some additional sprinkles of the Old Bay and the judicious use of some Frank's RedHot on my plate, though, it was just about perfect!

Potential Improvements? This one was already pretty solid as-is, but next time, I'd leave the corn in a little longer, use baby red potatoes, and double the amount of Old Bay.

Polling the Fam: I found this dish easy to make and tasty overall, so I would make it again, particularly with the improvements above. Jayson also seemed to enjoy it, although I forgot to ask for his specific comments. And, Fox, who had never tried shrimp before, said he enjoyed it.

Verdict: Liked it. (4 stars)