Last Updated on April 21, 2025
New Year’s Eve is always a time to try new appetizers and this year it is an easy crab dip recipe. This is not one of those cheese-laden gooey dips. It’s a full-blown, in-your-face, crab meat delight.
Inspiration For Easy Crab Dip
The crab appetizer idea all started when our local Winn-Dixie store had a buy one, get one free sale on pasteurized canned crab meat. Well, buy a one pound can of lump crab meat and get a free one pound can of crab claw meat. Not a bad deal for 20 dollars.
Then Barb, a friend of mine, dropped off a full year’s worth of Food and Wine magazines. This recipe was in the December 2015 issue and it’s from a Boston-raised chef, Matt Jennings, who recently opened a restaurant in Boston called Townsman.
I think that any chef from Boston must know how to make a pretty darn good crab dip, so I had to try it and share it with you. If you are in the Boston area, check out Townsman…the menu looks fantastic.
Ingredients That You Need
- Crab meat (claw meat is okay)
- Mayonnaise
- Celery stalk
- Green bell pepper
- Sweet onion
- Fresh parsley
- Fresh lemon
- Tabasco
- Cayenne pepper
- Hearty white bread
- Butter
- Salt and black pepper
I used crab claw meat for this recipe. I’ll save the more expensive lump crab meat for crab cakes.
How To Make The Crab Dip
Mince the celery, bell pepper, onion, and parsley. Zest the lemon.
Carefully place the crab meat into a medium sized bowl and use your fingers to detect any bits of shell that may be present. Then, mix in the mayonnaise, celery, bell pepper, onion, lemon zest and juice, parsley, tabasco, and cayenne.
Give the mixture a quick taste and season with salt and black pepper if desired. Refrigerate the crab mixture for one hour.
Put the bread cubes into a food processor and pulse until they are chopped into crumbs.
Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet on medium heat and cook for about 4 minutes to allow the butter solids to start browning. Take the skillet off of the heat and add the bread crumbs and stir to coat with butter. Add a bit of salt also.
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Pour the cold crab mixture into a shallow 1.5 quart baking dish and sprinkle in the bread crumbs.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the bread crumbs become lightly browned. Remove the dish from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes then serve.
Serve On Toasted Baguette
To make a toasted crostini, slice a baguette into 1/4 inch slices, then coat one side with olive oil and place on a cooling rack set in a baking pan.
Bake until lightly toasted, which takes 8 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and lightly season with salt.
You could cut out lots of carbs by serving the crab in radicchio leaves. That would look cool and taste good, too.
This recipe is packed with crab flavor and has just enough heat to entertain your flavor buds. It should be on your shortlist to prepare for New Year’s Eve celebrations and the upcoming football playoffs. This easy crab dip recipe is a winner.
Here are some more Seafood appetizers you may like to try:
- Classic Shrimp Cocktail with Sauce
- Smoked Salmon with Dill and Capers
- Shrimp Cocktail with Pickled Daikon Radish
Easy Delicious Crab Dip Recipe (Boston Style)
Ingredients
- 1 pound crab meat , picked of shells
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 stalk celery , minced
- 1/2 green bell pepper , minced
- 2 tbsp grated sweet onion , (about 1/2 an onion)
- 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
- zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 tsp tabasco
- 1/8 tsp cayenne
- 3 slices hearty white bread , crust removed, cut into 1 in. cubes,
- 3 tbsp butter
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Mix the crab, mayo, celery, green pepper, onion, parsley, lemon, tabasco and cayenne in a medium sized bowl, taste and add salt and pepper if desired.
- Refrigerate for 1 hour, (this could be done a day in advance of baking)
- Preheat oven to 400° F
- Put bread cubes in food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
- Spread crumbs on a rimmed baking sheet and toast for 6 to 8 minutes until just starting to brown.
- Melt butter in a large skillet on moderate heat and let the milk solids brown, about 4 minutes
- Add the bread crumbs to the butter and stir to evenly coat, lightly salt
- Pour the crab mixture into a shallow 1.5 quart baking dish
- Sprinkle with bread crumbs
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until browned
- Let cool 5 minutes
- Serve with crostini or radicchio leaves
Notes
- Recipe from Townsman owner/chef Matt Jennings, Boston, Mass.
Craig Cooper
I need to make this. I can already tell it will taste yummy!
Joe
Hi Craig,
Enjoy the crab dip and thanks for the comment.
Joe
MaryJo
We took this to share with friends and we all loved it!