Louisiana courtbouillon is a richly seasoned fish stew or gravy commonly made with tomatoes, roux, aromatic vegetables, stock, and firm fish such as catfish or redfish. Learn how it is pronounced, prepared, served, and distinguished from gumbo, étouffée, and French court-bouillon.
Shrimp Creole and étouffée are both Louisiana seafood dishes served with rice, but their sauces are built differently. Learn how tomatoes, roux, stock, consistency, flavor, and cooking methods separate the two.
Shrimp Creole combines tender shrimp with a seasoned tomato-based sauce, aromatic vegetables, herbs, and rice. Learn how the Louisiana classic is prepared, how recipes vary, and how it differs from étouffée, gumbo, jambalaya, and courtbouillon.
Étouffée and gumbo may contain similar seafood, vegetables, seasonings, and roux, but they are not the same dish. Étouffée is generally a concentrated, gravy-like preparation centered on one featured ingredient, while gumbo is usually a brothier soup or stew built for a bowl.
Crawfish étouffée and shrimp étouffée use many of the same Louisiana cooking techniques, but the two shellfish create different flavors, textures, sauces, and dining experiences. Learn what separates them and why both versions belong in Louisiana cuisine.
Étouffée is a Louisiana dish in which crawfish, shrimp, or another main ingredient is smothered in a rich, seasoned sauce and served over rice. The sauce is thicker than gumbo broth but generally looser than a heavy gravy, with regional versions using butter, crawfish fat, light roux, tomatoes, stock, and aromatic vegetables.
Gumbo is a Louisiana soup or stew commonly served with separately cooked rice, while jambalaya is a rice dish in which the uncooked rice absorbs the seasoned liquid inside the main pot. The two dishes may share chicken, sausage, seafood, vegetables, and seasonings, but their structures and cooking methods are fundamentally different.
Jambalaya and paella are one-pan rice dishes that may contain meat, seafood, vegetables, and seasoned liquid. Paella comes from Valencia and traditionally uses a wide, shallow pan, round rice, olive oil, and saffron. Jambalaya developed in Louisiana and commonly uses long-grain rice, deeper pots, browned meat, smoked sausage, and Cajun or Creole seasonings.
Brown jambalaya gets its color and roasted flavor from browned meat, rendered fat, vegetables, stock, and concentrated material from the pot. Red jambalaya contains tomatoes or tomato paste and is especially associated with New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana.
Seafood jambalaya is a Louisiana one-pot rice dish made with shrimp, crawfish, oysters, crab, fish, or combinations of seafood. It may follow a tomato-based red Creole style or a brown, tomato-free tradition.