Mini Crawfish Pie Recipe

Recipe developer Erin Johnson is known for cooking foods you would never assume were healthy, except that they are. One of the things Johnson loves to cook with is crawfish, which is a super nutritious, low-calorie, low fat shellfish (via Nutrition and You). Johnson has been known to bake her crawfish into pies. As she points out, "There are several variations on crawfish pie," with some being fully-crusted such as double-crust pies and hand pies, and others boasting a single crust, which essentially halves the carbs and fat in one swell swop. This recipe for mini crawfish pies is basically 12 mini-single-crusted crawfish pies.

"This filling is knock-your-socks-off fantastic," Johnson raves, and if you don't want to eat pie crust or if you don't feel like dealing with pie crust for whatever reason, the crawfish pie filling "also tastes good served on pasta." If you can't find crawfish, you can always substitute shrimp, lobster, or crab, all of which taste fantastic and possess similar positive nutritional attributes to crawfish.

Each pie is like a mini quiche, and the presentation is really great when served for lunch, brunch, or a light supper. You can serve them with a small salad and it makes a great meal.

For this mini crawfish pie recipe, you will need a number of ingredients that you may well already have in your kitchen such as butter (4 tablespoons), flour (4 tablespoons), milk (½ cup of whole milk), one yellow onion (chopped), three garlic cloves (minced), two stalks of celery (chopped), two bell peppers (any color, and chopped), 2 teaspoons of Cajun seasoning (such as McCormick's Old Bay), and ½ cup of chicken broth. You'll also need a few items you might not have around as kitchen staples. These include 1 pound of crawfish tail meat, two refrigerated, pre-packaged pie crusts, two green onions, (chopped, including both the white and the green parts), and 2 tablespoons of freshly chopped parsley. To bake these mini crawfish pies, you can use mini pie pans or mini tart pans (as Johnson did).

Start the process by preheating your oven to 375 F. While it heats, get out a large skillet, and melt the butter over medium heat. When the butter is melted, add the flour, and stir together to make a "roux." A roux, as Johnson notes, "is a mixture of fat and flour." It's used to thicken sauces. In this case, the fat is the melted butter. Johnson also says that because this roux involves a relatively small amount of butter and flour, you can feel free to stir it with a wooden spoon, rather than whisking it (which you might be better off doing with a larger quantity of roux, for efficiency's sake, among other things). Continue cooking the roux, stirring constantly, over medium for approximately 10 minutes. You'll know you're ready for the next step when the roux is the color of pale peanut butter, as shown in the above photo.

Once your roux has been cooking on the stove for about 10 minutes, and once it has taken on the color of a pale peanut butter, it is ready for the chopped yellow onion, diced bell peppers, and chopped celery to be added to it. Toss these vegetables into the roux all at once, stir with a wooden spoon, and cook for another five minutes. Your kitchen will start to smell yummy, and be prepared, because there's even more goodness to come.

Once you've cooked the pre-chopped onion, bell peppers, and celery into the roux for five minutes, you can add the pre-minced garlic, Cajun seasoning, and chicken stock. Stir the entire mixture to combine, using a wooden spoon to scrape any browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Immediately mix in the crawfish meat, the pre-chopped green onions, pre-chopped parsley, and milk. As soon as the mixture has become warm again (remember, you just added cold milk), remove it from the heat, and set it aside.

After you remove the pie filling mixture from the heat and set it aside, it's time to deal with the pastry dough. Since you'll be using pre-packaged pre-prepared pie crusts, this step should be a breeze. Simply unroll one of the pie dough circles, and use your mini pie tins or tart pans to cut it into mini pie-sized pieces, placing the cut-circles into your tins or pans as you go. Then, repeat with the next pre-prepared pie dough circle. 

Bear in mind that at some point, you may have to "reshape and re-roll the dough [in order to cut all the] circles," as Johnson points out. If you don't have a rolling pin, feel free to use a bottle of wine (it's one of those secrets chefs won't necessarily tell you). Be sure to wash it and then dry it thoroughly before you do any rolling, though!

Before you begin filling your pie crusts, Johnson advises that you taste your filling. "It is critical that you taste your filling before you add it to your pie dough," she says. "Every brand of Cajun seasoning is different in complexity and salt content, which is why I did [not] include salt in the recipe. If your Cajun seasoning is very salty, you may not need additional salt. If you want to increase the heat, consider adding cayenne or hot sauce." You can be the judge, and make it your own.

Now, all good in the flavor department? If so, it's time to set your pastry pans on a large baking sheet. Fill each pastry pan or tin three-quarters of the way with crawfish mixture. Place your baking pan (or pans, depending on if you needed more than one) into the preheated oven, and set a timer for 35 minutes. When the timer goes off, your mini crawfish pies are ready if the crusts are golden brown. If not, give them another minute or two in the oven. In the meantime, savor the delightful smell of your soon-to-be meal!

After taking your mini crawfish pies out of the oven, allow them to rest before removing from their pans. Garnish with additional chopped parsley, if desired, and serve. If you happen to have leftovers, Johnson recommends heating them up in the oven or air fryer in order to "prevent the crust from getting soggy."