étouffée

American  

[ey-too-fey] / 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

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

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

Those varied influences translate to restaurant week dishes such as crawfish linguine dotted with lobster butter, summer vegetable étouffée, surf clam ceviche and rice pudding with pear pineapple jam.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 10, 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

Nearly two dozen food vendors offered jambalaya, étouffée and other specialties.

From New York Times ● Apr. 24, 2019

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