Shrimp Boil Foil Packets

Also known as Low Country Boil or Frogmore Stew, a good seafood boil is one of my absolute favourite summer dinners of all time!

I get a gigantic pot, fill it with stock, aromatics, and my homemade seasoning blend of Cajun spices and herbs. Then - at timed intervals - I add in all of the rest of the ingredients - potatoes, sausage, corn, and - of course succulent shrimp!

The meal prep doesn’t take a lot of time, and it’s a meal the whole family - and a bunch of guests! - will love. The best part? Easy cleanup!

While the campfire version does some prep at home - and scales everything down - I thought it would be fun to put together traditional shrimp boil ingredients into a different format ... as foil packet meals!

Unless you boil the potatoes ahead of time, there’s no real good way of making shrimp foil packets that *don’t* result in overcooked shrimp!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t tend to want to fuss with pre-boiling potatoes before assembling the shrimp packets.

It took a little brainstorming, but I finally came up with the easiest way to make tasty shrimp boil foil packs.

Canned potatoes.

Don’t judge - they work FABULOUSLY! A good rinse - and coating with my special compound butter (another fun, functional modification in this foil packet recipe ) - leave you with delicious potatoes.

... and, of course, perfectly cooked corn and shrimp!

Anyway, it’s been a go-to for us, ever since the first time I did them up. We photographed a batch at Kap-Kig-Iwan Provincial Park last summer, and I’m happy to finally share the recipe with you!

Ingredients

This recipe uses pretty simple ingredients, you shouldn’t have a problem finding what you need in pretty much any large grocery store.

As always, I have some ingredient notes for you:

Fresh Shrimp

Raw shrimp is key - I do not recommend using precooked shrimp.

Not only will it be likely to overcook, it won’t take on the flavour of the boil, like raw shrimp will.

You can use whichever size shrimp you like - we usually go for large shrimp or jumbo shrimp. Different sizes will have slightly different cooking times, that’s all.

I use frozen shrimp for convenience - for best results, let the shrimp thaw and drain before adding them to the pot.

Finally, I recommend using peeled, deveined shrimp when you’re doing this on the road. No one wants to fuss with disposing of shrimp shells, when camping!

Smoked Sausage

When I was still living in the USA, I’d use Andouille Sausage whenever I’d make low country boil... but it’s harder to come by, here!

So, go with whatever smoked sausage you like, and have access to. We’ll usually use Kielbasa Sausage, these days.

The key is to be sure to use pre-cooked sausage. You really want the shrimp to be the one and only thing that the cooking time is really dependant on, or you risk overcooking the shrimp.

Fresh Corn

In terms of the corn, I definitely recommend using fresh sweet corn - I don’t like the texture of frozen corn, when cooked this way.

Canned Potatoes

As previously mentioned, I use canned potatoes for these shrimp boil foil packets, rather than mess with pre-boiling the red potatoes or baby potatoes that I usually use.

Whole canned potatoes are usually a good size to use as-is, but use your judgement. If yours seem a bit bigger than you’d like, cut them in half.

If you can’t find whole canned potatoes, you can use sliced - you’ll just want to be more gentle when stirring the ingredients to coat with the melted compound butter!

The Compound Butter

The key component of this Shrimp Boil Foil Packets recipe - the thing that makes it all work, and makes it SO easy to do on a campsite - is the compound butter I make at home, ahead of the fact.

Compound butter is just a butter that has various herbs and spices mixed into it. It’s great for topping steaks, melting over fresh corn on the cob - or popcorn! - and many other uses.

In this case, it basically becomes a sauce, used to coat all of the main ingredients with a TON of flavour.

While traditional shrimp boils tend to use Old Bay Seasoning, this compound butter uses my own Cajun seasoning blend, along with a few other ingredients.

Salted Butter. (Add ⅛ teaspoon Salt if using Unsalted Butter)
Dried Mustard Powder
Ground Black Pepper
Cayenne Powder
Smoked Paprika
Dried Parsley
Garlic Cloves
Lemon Zest
Dried Sage
Salt

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Yellow Onion
Fresh Lemon

Just a couple extra ingredients, but I don’t have anything to add!

How to Make Shrimp Boil Foil Packets

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

Compound Butter

In a small bowl, beat butter until smooth. Add remaining compound butter ingredients, whip until everything is well distributed.

Refrigerate for about 5-10 minutes, or just long enough for it to firm up slightly - but still be workable.

Spoon the seasoned butter onto a piece of plastic wrap and roll it into a log. Chill for up to 3 days, or freeze until ready to use.

Note: We vacuum pack our compound butter portions, so we can freeze them for longer periods.

Assemble the Shrimp Boil Packs

About 30 minutes before you want to eat, get a medium fire going or get your charcoal on the go. You can cook these shrimp boil foil packets on a charcoal grill, a BBQ, or on a grill plate over a campfire.

As you prepare your main ingredients - slice sausage into chunks, peel the shrimp if needed, drain and rinse the potatoes, potatoes, cut the corn and onion - place them into a large bowl.

Unwrap your log of compound butter, place in an appropriate vessel, and melt it. (A small pot over the fire, or a microwave safe bowl if indoors).

Pour the melted butter over the bowl of prepared ingredients, gently toss to fully coat everything.

For Each Pouch:

Lay 2 good sized pieces of heavy duty foil crosswise to each other, then spray generously with nonstick cooking spray.

Arrange a slice or two of lemon - and some onion slices - in the center of each packet, then divide the seasoned shrimp mixture between the foil packets.

Fold the foil ends in, rolling to form a well sealed packet.

Once the time is up, remove from the heat and check to make sure that the shrimp are cooked through. If not, re-fold the packets and return to the fire for another few minutes.

The actual cook time will depend on the size of our shrimp, your grill, the distance from the heat, and how you’ve assembled your foil packets.

Serve hot, with your choice of dipping sauces, and sides. Cocktail sauce, Dijon mustard, hot sauce, and French bread - are all great options.

Leftovers

Leftovers can be cooled to room temperature, transferred to an airtight container, and chilled for up to 3 days.

Gently reheat leftovers before serving.

More Grilling Recipes for Camping

Looking for some great meals to cook on a campfire or grill? Here's a few of my favourites!

Bacon Venison Burgers with Whiskey Onions
Bannock Burgers
Bison Burgers with Bacon and Caramelized Onions
Campfire Calzones
Campfire Pizza
Elk Burgers with Bacon & Sauteed Mushrooms
Fajita Chicken Kebabs
French Onion Soup Burgers
Greek Chicken Souvlaki
Grilled Chicken Fajitas
Lemon-Dill Fresh Salmon Burgers
Easy Grilled Shrimp Tacos
Grilled Tuna Tacos
Mediterranean Chicken Kebabs
Mediterranean Salmon Burgers
Pesto Chicken Skewers
Sesame Ginger Grilled Tuna Kebabs
Thanksgiving Turkey Burgers

Be sure to check out our other Camping Recipes, including Camping Desserts, Camping Snacks, Make-Ahead Camping Mix Recipes, and a ton of delicious Camping Main Dish Recipes.

Also, we had SO much fun designing gourmet jerky recipes for our camping trips, we started a whole new blog for them! Check out Dried & Tasty for all kinds of fun recipes to make in your food dehydrator!