How to cook seafood in a bag in the oven! Crab boil in a Reynolds oven bag with corn, sausage and shrimp in 30 minutes, tender, packed with Old Bay or Zatarains seasoning. If you love our Instant Pot Crab Boil you will love this steamed easy.
Our Steaming crab legs in a bag recipe works great! You don’t lose any flavor this way vs. a boil. Trapping in all the bold seasonings gets your shrimp pink, corn on the cob buttery and the sauce is used for dipping too. (affiliate links present)
Jump to:
- How to make a Seafood Boil in a Bag in the Oven
- How to Cook Seafood Boil in a Bag
- Where to buy seafood boil bags
- Can you boil seafood in a bag?
- Seafood Boil Ingredients
- Seafood boil in a bag sauce
- Can you cook frozen seafood in a bag?
- How to use Zatarain’s crab boil in bag?
- What else can you add to a seafood boil?
How to make a Seafood Boil in a Bag in the Oven
This is kinda’ like our Instant Pot Shrimp Boil where all the ingredients are steamed perfectly in no time at all. I will admit this retains a lot more flavor though! You can use a packaged seasoning blend but our homemade crab boil sauce below is easy and way better.
Seafood boil ingredients usually don’t vary much but you can tweak them to your liking. Some leave out the andouille sausage and prefer baby potatoes instead. That works here too as long as they are small enough to cook in 30 minutes. You can use fresh deveined shrimp or Cook Frozen Raw Shrimp work too.
How to Cook Seafood Boil in a Bag
Ok so we aren’t actually going to submerge this in water. Boiled Fish actually doesn’t have a lot of flavor no matter what you do to the cooking liquid. Skip the water entirely and “boil” in the oven this way instead. It is just kinda’ a term in a sense. I mean it can be done if you have a sturdy enough bag meant to be heated at really high temperatures.
You can buy ready made bags filled with fish and corn cobs. Those are meant to be poured into a pot of boiling water right out of the freezer. Walmart and Sam’s Club have one in the freezer section you can buy, but homemade and steamed is best.
Where to buy seafood boil bags
You can find what we used here at the grocery store with freezer bags, or online. Can you use an oven bag as a boil bag? Yes. Reynolds Oven Bags is what was used here. Are Cooking Bags Safe? If used correctly at the designated temperatures listed they are, you just don’t want to exceed it or they can break down and the food won’t be safe.
Can you boil seafood in a bag?
If they are made of food grade polyethylene and BPA free like these then it is said to be safe. inside a rolling boil with food inside.
Are Ziploc Bags safe for boiling?
Yes and no. Ziploc bags are safe for boiling to a degree. If too high the plastics can begin to break down potentially leaching harmful chemicals into your food. The plastic can start to melt or warp at boiling temperatures above 155°F. That would then make your food unsafe to consume. You could use them to warm food or Sous Vide let’s say in lower temperatures.
Can I boil food in vacuum sealed bags?
Vacuum bags such as the ones uses for the FoodSaver system will work but only up to 185F – 212 degrees F. Anything higher than that can break the seal. If so, it can begin to compromise the structure of the bag itself potentially contaminating the food.
Seafood Boil Ingredients
- Corn on the cob cut in half
- Kielbasa sausage cut into dials
- Shrimp uncooked, deveined
- Snow crab legs
- Butter
- Onion diced
- Minced garlic
- Cayenne pepper
- Paprika
- Old bay
- Chicken broth
Seafood boil in a bag sauce
Below we will share our Seafood Boil Sauce Recipe which is melted butter based, of course it is. It can be adjusted to as spicy as you want it to be. You can make it dairy free with a vegan plant based alternative. With that I do suggest adding a bit of salt as it is a bit bland. Use most of it inside the bag as the liquid to steam and some set aside for serving.
We have instructions for you here. Use a turkey bag to steam crab legs, corn, potatoes and kielbasa in the oven for best results. If you literally boil seafood it won’t have as much flavor as it will if you bake it in a Reynolds bag.
Heating up food in a plastic bag can be done safely if you use the right type of bag. One common method for heating up seafood in a plastic bag is sous vide. That’s a cooking technique that involves sealing food in a bag and immersing it in water at a precise temperature.
Yes, we used the turkey size for this. If you were to cut it in half you could use the large Reynolds large oven bag instead. Fill with raw shrimp and some butter and Old bay poked with holes at the top to vent. Bake in the oven.
Can you cook frozen seafood in a bag?
Yes, that is a great choice if you live in rural areas. If you have to Cook Frozen Crab Legs instead of fresh the timing really won’t change much. If they are really large like King crab, then yes the timing would change overall since we used snow here.
How to use Zatarain’s crab boil in bag?
If you prefer this bottled seasoning to Old Bay then by all means swap out for that. We have done that before when making our Air Fryer Shrimp Boil and it is a great alternative. I will still follow the butter sauce below other than that change with the minced garlic cloves and all.
What else can you add to a seafood boil?
If you want to add something else “beyond the norm” you could make our Oxtail Boil Recipe this same way. Almost. With this meat you need to simmer on the stovetop until tender before adding with the other ingredients. Add the sauce to finish it off because they are rather tough otherwise.
Baby red potatoes would be great too, small, so they get done in 30 minutes. Instead of snow crab legs you could opt for lobster tails instead, small would be best. An alternative to Old bay seasoning would be cajun seasoning but that would add a spicy heat to it.
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How to Cook Seafood in a Bag
Equipment
- 1 oven bag turkey size, reynolds
Ingredients
- 2 ears corn on the cob cut in half
- 1 package kielbasa cut into dials
- 16 oz shrimp uncooked, deveined
- 1.5 lbs crab legs
Seafood boil sauce
- 2 sticks butter
- 1 c onion diced
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tbsp old bay
- 1/2 c chicken broth
Instructions
- Add corn to a large saucepan full of water. Once boiling, continue to boil for 5-7 minutes or until corn is bright yellow and tender. Drain liquid and reserve corn.
- Slice sausage into 1" rounds and place in a single layer in a skillet. Heat over medium high heat, browning both sides, for about 6-8 minutes total. Remove from pan and set aside.
- In the same skillet, add butter, onion, garlic, broth, cayenne pepper, paprika and Old Bay seasoning. Cook over medium high heat until it just begins to boil. Reduce heat to simmer for 6-7 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove about 3/4 cup of sauce and reserve for serving.
- Preheat oven to 400 and place an oven bag on a baking sheet. Open the bag and place shrimp, sausage, corn and crab legs.
- Spoon in sauce. seal the bag, keeping air around the food, using the tie provided. Gently shake and knead the bag so sauce coats all seafood and corn. Using a knife or scissors, cut 4 slits in the top of the bag to vent it.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes. or until shrimp is pink and hot. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Cut open bag and serve seafood boil with reserved sauce and slices of lemon to squeeze over the top.
