Seafood Boil Sauce

A seafood boil sauce made with only three ingredients in less than 10 minutes. This sauce gets its flavor from the Old Bay seasoning, a mixture of aromatic spices and herbs. 

You know we love spicing up our food with delicious sauces. Some of our favorites are katsu sauce, tempura sauce, and eel sauce.

If you’ve made my famous seafood boil before, you know this is the only sauce recipe you need.  

Why this recipe works

• Only three ingredients. Unlike many seafood boil sauce recipes, this one doesn’t have a lengthy list of ingredients. 
• Customizable.  You can add more ingredients to the sauce to suit your palate. 
• A no-cook recipe. No simmering, no heating up, none of that; it’s just simply whisking everything together. 

What I love about this recipe is just how versatile it is! Don’t just reserve it for your next seafood cook-up- drizzle it over some chicken breast, salmon, or even some steak. 

What is seafood boil sauce made of?

• Butter. Melted. Use unsalted butter, as the seasoning blend does have salt in it. 
• Lemon juice. Freshly squeezed.
• Old Bay seasoning. This flavorful blend of spices and herbs gives the sauce a rich flavor. Old Bay seasoning typically contains celery salt, paprika, red and black peppers, cayenne pepper, etc. You can find it at almost any grocery store or online. 

How to make it

This sauce is inherently easy to make. All you have to do is melt butter in the microwave or stove and mix it with lemon juice and Old Bay Seasoning. 

You can drizzle this sauce over any seafood boil you make. It will add a rich buttery flavor to boiled crabs, shrimp, lobster, and any other seafood that goes into it. 

How to make seafood boil sauce without butter?

While butter makes this sauce so special, you may not want to use it for your sauce for different reasons. 

Replace butter with the same amount of extra virgin olive oil to make this sauce. Using olive oil instead of butter is a great way to make it dairy-free and much healthier. 

Consider the flavor and consistency changes that come with using olive oil instead of butter. Olive oil yields a fresher flavor but doesn’t have the richness of melted butter. 

Flavor variations

The beauty of this seafood sauce is just how easy it is to customize. Here are some suggestions: 

• Make it spicier. Add some cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes to the sauce if you like to have spicy sauces with your seafood boils.  
• Add onion and garlic. To add fresh garlic and onion to the sauce, melt some butter in a hot pan. Cook the chopped onion and minced garlic for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the remaining ingredients. 
• Sweeten it. You can sweeten this sauce by adding some maple syrup, honey, or brown sugar to it. 
• Use Cajun seasoning. If you don’t have Old Bay seasoning at hand, use Cajun seasoning instead. This seasoning blend contains such spices as black and white peppers, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, etc. 
• Add more herbs. Chopped parsley, dill, and thyme will add nice, herbal notes to the sauce. 

Storage instructions

To store. Store this sauce in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to a week. 

To reheat. As butter solidifies in the fridge, you will need to reheat the sauce to be able to use it again. Reheat it on the stove over medium heat or use the microwave. 

To freeze. This seasoned butter sauce freezes very well. Use an ice cube tray to freeze the leftover sauce for up to 2 months. 

More ways to use this sauce

Drizzling this sauce over some cooked fish or seafood can really elevate the flavor. Here are some suggestions:

• Mahi Mahi
• Cod
• Grouper
• Red snapper
• Haddock
• Chilean sea bass
• Branzino

Frequently asked questions