Shrimp Boil

After visiting Historic Charleston and Jekyll Island, the wife and I spent a few days on the Florida coast. You’d think the seafood would be a lot cheaper there, but it’s not that different from my local grocery store. I live at the opposite end of a coastal state, but it’s a coastal state nonetheless. We bought some amberjack steaks for our ‘nice dinner’ night. For another night, we bought some shrimp:

When you factor in time, money and level of difficulty, is there any meal better than a shrimp boil?

You just throw everything into a pot of seasoned, boiling water and that’s it for the prep work and cooking. Then you strain it, dump it on some newspaper, and dig in. There are no dirty dishes and the whole mess goes straight into a garbage bag when you’re done.

In our travels, we’ve noticed that people in the north tend to use Old Bay in their boils while people in the south use Tony Chachere’s. We used both in this boil. Old Bay has a smoky flavor and Chachere’s is a little salty, so they both bring something to the party when mixed.