Seafood Cookout Ideas That Will Really Please A Crowd

When your back patio is packed full of guests that have growling stomachs, you need to offer more than bowls of chips and salsa to keep them happy. Get all of those hungry people fed by turning your backyard party into a summer seafood cookout and serve a clambake, a seafood boil or a pot of fragrant steamed mussels. (1)

Clambake

This is a veritable feast full of hearty ingredients likes shrimp and grits, andouille sausage, hunks of red potato, corn cobs, jumbo lobster tails and of course, fresh clams. When you’re making a sheet pan clambake for dinner, place all of your cleaned, chopped and seasoned ingredients onto a greased pan and put them in the oven until they are tender. Coat every inch with indulgent clarified or browned butter, empty it onto a suitable platter and have everyone dig in — you will need plenty of napkins or paper towels, but the mess will be well worth it. To make your grocery shopping experience a little faster, you can order some of your essentials using Lobster Anywhere, a website that specializes in fresh lobster and New England seafood. This way you can order the premium seafood without stepping foot outside of your front door, and have it shipped within a day. You should use them to buy Maine lobster online along with steamer clams and colossal shrimp for your big clambake so that you get to simultaneously experience high-quality flavors, speedy results and shopping convenience.

Seafood Boil 

Much like a New England clambake, there are a number of seafood boils that are considered time-honored traditions in the United States — they boil shrimp in Georgia and South Carolina, blue crab in the Chesapeake Bayand crawfish in Louisiana. Put your seafood of choice, corn cobs, red-skinned potatoes and seasoning into a giant pot of bubbling water until they are perfectly cooked, strain the contents, and dole out the grub. If you plan on throwing a summer cookout with lots of hungry guests, a seafood boil is an effective way to feed them all in a short amount of time. (2)

Steamed Mussels 

When you’re steaming a batch of mussels for a party, you always want to make a big pot because these little mollusks will disappear quickly — their shells take up more room in the container, so it’s easy to make the mistake of thinking you have enough to go around. Give your dinner guests a taste of the Mediterranean by steaming mussels with tomatoes and garlic and serving crusty bread from the nearest bakery on the side so that you can mop up all the juices resting on your plates. Make sure to sprinkle a healthy amount of chopped parsley into the pot for a vibrant eye-catching garnish.

After handing out these hot and tasty seafood dishes to guests, put out pitchers of batch-cocktails like fruity sangria, frosty margaritas or boozy punch to wash down their meals. Fantastic food, endless drinks, and loud conversation are all the ingredients you need to make a great summer event.