The Cajun dish made as a thick crawfish stew and served over rice is étouffée.
Étouffée comes from the French verb étouffer, meaning “to smother” or “suffocate,” which describes the dish’s cooking style. Shellfish—especially crawfish—is gently smothered in a seasoned sauce that may begin with a roux, the cooked flour-and-fat mixture central to many Louisiana dishes.
Crawfish étouffée is associated with both Cajun and Creole cooking. Cajun versions often emphasize a blond or brown roux and familiar Louisiana seasonings, while Creole versions may include tomatoes. Shrimp and crab can also replace crawfish, but the crawfish version is the one most strongly linked with the dish’s Louisiana identity.
The dish became known to restaurant diners in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, around the 1950s, although some accounts trace versions of it to earlier decades. Étouffée is commonly confused with gumbo, but gumbo is generally a broader soup or stew containing multiple ingredients, while étouffée centers on smothered shellfish served over rice.