The Weeknight Kitchen · One-Pot Dump Dinner · Serves 4

Cajun Shrimp Boil

Name: Cajun Shrimp Boil
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Cajun
Ingredients: 450 g baby potatoes; 340 g smoked andouille sausage; 3 ears of corn; 3 tbsp Old Bay seasoning; 1 head of garlic; 1 lemon; 480 ml water; 680 g frozen raw shrimp; 60 g unsalted butter; To serve: chopped parsley, extra Old Bay, lemon wedges, and hot sauce

Baby potatoes, smoked sausage, corn, and frozen shrimp in a garlicky Old Bay bath — cook the sturdy stuff first, add the shrimp at the end, then pour it all out and dig in. Instant Pot or stovetop.

~40 min total Instant Pot / stovetop method One pot cleanup

Spoon cost

Time ●●○○○ Some Doing

Instant PotGluten-Free

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Cook the potatoes, sausage, and corn first — the shrimp go in last so they don't overcook. Potatoes need the most time and shrimp the least, so build in that order. Add the shrimp frozen at the very end and give them just 4–6 minutes, until pink and curled into a loose C (a tight O is overcooked). Then toss everything with melted butter and a fresh shower of Old Bay, and tip it all out onto a platter (or a paper-lined table) to eat with your hands.

Easier, if you like

Frozen mini corn cobs (or a couple cups of frozen corn kernels) skip the shucking entirely — add them with the sausage.
Pre-cut baby potatoes or a bag of pre-washed small potatoes make this a true dump dinner.

Method

Cook's notes

Buy raw, not pre-cooked shrimp. Shell-on shrimp give the most flavor (and are fun to peel at the table), but peeled works too. Pre-cooked shrimp just need warming — stir them in off the heat for a minute.

Potato size is the timing key. Keep them small (golf-ball or under) so they cook through in the short pressure/boil; halve any big ones.

Heat and salt live in the seasoning. Old Bay is fairly mild; use a spicier Cajun or crab-boil blend, or add cayenne and hot sauce, if you want more kick. A splash of Zatarain's liquid crab boil deepens it.

The Instant Pot keeps it hands-off; the stovetop is the traditional big-pot boil. Either way, don't overcook the shrimp — pull them at the loose C.

Serve it the fun way: pour the whole boil out onto a parchment- or newspaper-lined table, pile on lemon and extra butter, and let everyone dig in. Garlic bread on the side.

More frozen-shrimp dinners: smoky Cajun Shrimp & Sausage Rice, bright Garlic Butter Shrimp & Orzo, or the coconut Goan Shrimp Curry.

Gluten-free as written; check one label

Gluten-free: naturally gluten-free (Old Bay is GF) — just confirm your smoked sausage is too.

No sausage: leave it out for a lighter shrimp-and-corn boil, or use a chicken sausage; add a little smoked paprika for the smoky note.