étouffée

American  

[ay-too-fay] / ˌeɪ tuˈfeɪ /

noun

• étouffées
  plural

1. New Orleans Cooking. a stew of crayfish, vegetables, and seasonings, served over white rice.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• étouffées
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of étouffée

< Louisiana French; French (à l')étouffée cooked in a closed vessel with little liquid, braised; noun use of feminine past participle of étouffer literally, to smother, suffocate, Old French estofer, apparently identical with estofer to stuff

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

étouffée étouffées

They held regular dinner parties for friends, colleagues and students, and Morgan was renowned for her cooking, with a repertoire that included jambalaya, French beef stew, fried chicken and shrimp étouffée.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025

During the festival, food available on site includes crawfish bread, pecan catfish meuniere and catfish almondine, cochon de lait and turducken po-boys, boudin, crawfish étouffée, jambalaya, crawfish Monica and shrimp and grits.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2024

Reese recommends getting the gumbo, the signature dish, or sampling any number of Creole or Southern classics, such as crawfish étouffée, shrimp Creole and fried chicken.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 24, 2022

My family’s from Louisiana so I’ll battle anyone on my gumbo or my shrimp étouffée.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2021

He said one of the senator’s favorite drinks was sambuca, the Italian anise-flavored liqueur; Mr. McCain would often order ribs or étouffée, the Cajun dish served with shellfish over rice.

From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2018

Although gumbos and étouffées define much of the cooking in southern Louisiana, Mosca’s is a stalwart of another, though less celebrated, vein of the New Orleans culinary canon that came from transplanted southern Italian immigrants.

From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 2011

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