Southwest Louisiana Road Trip
- Kimi's Travel Thoughts
- 10 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Back at the end of December 2025, my family took a one day road trip from the Houston area into southwest Louisiana. This sort of trip was a regular occurrence for us when I was growing up and we hadn't made a similar trip since August 2019. I invited my cousin to join me and my parents and we loaded up the vehicle with coolers so we could fill them up with boudin because this trip was going to be a "boudin crawl"!
What is Boudin?
I should explain what boudin is for anyone reading this that doesn't already know what it is. The simplest way I can describe boudin is that it is basically rice dressing stuffed in a casing and shaped like a sausage. Boudin can also be served without the casing by forming it into a sphere, battering it, and frying or baking it to make boudin balls. The protein in boudin can vary with common options including pork or crawfish. Boudin can be prepared mild or spicy (I prefer spicy), but all good boudin is flavorful.
How to Prepare for a Southwest Louisiana Road Trip
The best way to prepare for a road trip to southwest Louisiana from the Houston area is by making plans to leave early in the morning. Traffic can slow you down pretty easily along Interstate 10 because major car accidents or stalled vehicles can pop up at any time, so it's best to be on the road when there are fewer cars out. My family likes to be on the road by 10:00 AM because we already know our usual stops for our drive and how long we can expect to be there. However, we were planning to check out some different places this time around and set our sights on leaving a little bit earlier than usual.
Almost all of our stops involve food because southwest Louisiana (in our opinion) has the best food in the state and they have tons of local markets with uniquely prepared food that we can bring back home. That is why we made sure to put a couple of coolers in the trunk because there was no way we were going to be able to eat all the boudin we found in real time!
Planning stops for a road trip is always a good idea -- no matter the destination. My family has two places that we always stop at on our road trips to southwest Louisiana: 1) the Louisiana Welcome Center on the other side of the Sabine River just after crossing the state line and; 2) Poche's Market and Restaurant in Breaux Bridge. Since this trip was supposed to be a boudin crawl, that meant we would need to stop at some other places along with way and we decided to go to the extra places on the way back home which would be the best opportunity to keep the food fresh in the coolers.
Our Southwest Louisiana Road Trip Stops
We stopped at several locations along Interstate 10 once we crossed the state line and as we made our way back to Texas. On this road trip, we went to the following places in southwest Louisiana:
Louisiana Welcome Center
We don't typically travel to Louisiana during the winter months and most commonly have gone in the spring or summer. Going in winter was nice because we were able to check out the welcome center which we did not do back in 2019 because it was too hot to be outside for long. The entire welcome center was shut down for a while for renovations and they improved that bathrooms, created a larger indoor sitting area with views of the water. They also added boardwalk walking trails along with some sitting areas at some parts that sit directly over the water. While my dad grabbed a cup of free hot Community Coffee (one of the main reasons people stop at the welcome center), my mom, cousin, and I decided to walk the trail. Since it was cold, we didn't have to worry about any mosquitos or potential alligator sightings and instead enjoyed the beautiful day and I got some nice photos before we returned to the vehicle to continue our road trip.
Poche's Market and Restaurant
We finally arrived at Poche's Market and Restaurant in Breaux Bridge after a brief slow down along Interstate 10 and we got there in time to catch the end of their lunch service. My mom and cousin went for the crawfish etouffee while I got the chicken tenders with rice dressing because they weren't serving fried catfish until dinnertime and I can't remember what my dad ordered but I think he got the same thing I did. My cousin had never been to Poche's before and he was hoping that it was going to be as good as we hyped it up to be. When he took his first bites of the crawfish etouffee, I glanced over and it looked like he was having a religious experience eating the meal! His eyes were closed and you could tell he was going to savor every bite of the dish because that's how good the food at Poche's is. In addition to buying lunch at Poche's, we also bought some items from the market. We have our usuals which include pies, pecan candy, and we also get head cheese (not real cheese but hog head meat that is cooked and formed into a brick that can be eaten as a slice on a sandwich or with crackers) for my grandma because Poche's is the only place she wants it from. I love when I can bring someone to Poche's for the first time because it's about 2 miles off the freeway and seems like it could be a creepy backwoods place. In reality, it's a long-standing family owned business with good food and plenty of southern hospitality. If I'm going to Louisiana, odds are I'm specifically going for Poche's.
Billy's Boudin and Cracklin
On our way back to Texas, I noticed several billboards for markets located off of Exit 97 along Interstate 10. I told my dad that we should take that exit because there were so many billboards and highlighting places we could stop at and he took the exit a few minutes later. We decided to start at Billy's Boudin and Cracklin where my family bought some frozen boudin and I got a package of breakfast sausage links while my cousin opted to get some freshly cooked boudin balls. At the checkout line you can see all the delicious fried foods (such as fried corn, boudin balls, and cracklin) under heat lamps that are available to purchase for immediate consumption. I pointed out the chicken cracklin to my mom because we had never heard of such a thing before and we had to try it. Cracklin usually refers to fried pork skin, but this was chicken cracklin which meant it was fried chicken skin. We got half a pound to share and snack on in the car. Upon first bite though, we quickly realized we should have bought more because it was possibly the best thing I have ever eaten! Imagine the best fried chicken in the world as a little poppable snack that is an explosion of flavor in your mouth. That is what the chicken cracklin from Billy's Boudin and Cracklin is and my life has been changed for the better now that I've had it.
Don's Specialty Meats
After Billy's we circled the roundabout to go to Don's Specialty Meats for more frozen boudin and discovered another food item we hadn't seen before -- boudin dip! It's the classic boudin I know and love but with some cream cheese and extra green onion along with some other ingredients to make it into a tasty, spreadable dip that pairs perfectly with crackers. My mom and I decided to get a container of the boudin dip because the next day was New Year's Eve and we could add it to our snacks for the evening and it was delicious!
Boudin King
There are a couple of Boudin King locations and we went to the one in Jennings rather than Crowley because that was closer to where we were on our way back home to the Houston area. Boudin King is my mom's favorite place to stop for spicy boudin and we ordered it hot and they wrapped it up so well that the boudin was still warm by the time we got home and we ate some of it as a tasty nighttime snack. While at Boudin King my mom and I also ordered fried catfish baskets for dinner because we were hungry for a meal at that point. That fried fish was really good, but we were in southwest Louisiana and it's pretty hard to find bad food in that region of the state. It was a solid substitute for the fried catfish I missed out on at Poche's.
Wrap-Up
I had such a great time eating some of my favorite foods and discovering new places with special foods to enjoy during this road trip to southwest Louisiana with my family! The stops are always the best part of a good road trip and there are plenty of great options across southwest Louisiana. We only went to a very small number of markets and we hope to visit more during future road trips. You can actually order from some of these places online, such as Poche's, and they will ship everything on dry ice. However, I love the drive and I'm looking forward to the day I take another southwest Louisiana road trip and can't wait to get my hands on some fresh chicken cracklin again!
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