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+ servings
Two crab cakes on a silver plate with green lettuce.
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5 from 3 votes

EASY CRAB CAKES

YOUR PART IS DONE IN LESS THAN 30 MINUTES THEN IT'S ALL JUST RESTING IN THE FRIDGE! This Easy Crab Cakes recipe will be your go-to Crab Cake Recipe from now on! These MOIST, TANGY, SATISFYING and HEARTY crab cakes are gonna win your heart!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time16 minutes
Fridge resting times (2)2 hours
Total Time2 hours 26 minutes
Course: main
Cuisine: American
Keyword: crab cakes, easy crab cakes
Servings: 3 servings
Calories: 544kcal
Cost: $20

Equipment

  • 1 Medium Bowl
  • 1 rubber spatula
  • 1 refrigerator
  • 1 sheet pan
  • measuring cups and spoons
  • 1 oven with a broiler

Ingredients

  • 1 LB Crab Claw Meat Drained My family prefers the claw meat but regular crab meat is fine too.
  • 20 Saltine Crackers crushed
  • 1/2 tsp Hot Sauce Texas Pete or Cholula
  • ½ tsp fresh ground pepper
  • ½ tsp Kosher Salt
  • 1 Tbs Dijon Mustard
  • 1 Tbs Old Bay Seasoning
  • 1 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce
  • ½ tsp Onion Powder
  • ½ tsp Garlic Powder
  • 1 Egg
  • ½ Cup Mayonnaise
  • 1 tsp Lemon Juice
  • 3 Tbs Parsley - chopped fine - optional optional
  • 4 Tbs butter - melted.

Instructions

  • Drain the crab meat well and then evenly spread it across the bottom of a large bowl using care not to break up the crab meat pieces.
  • Sprinkle the crushed saltines over the top (Do Not mix together yet). Crush with your hands, it is fine if there are some larger pieces.
  • In a small bowl, mix together the hot sauce, pepper, salt, dijon, old bay, worcestershire, onion powder, garlic powder, egg, mayo, lemon juice and Parsley (optional ). Whisk well.
  • Pour the wet ingredients over the crab meat and saltines and then VERY GENTLY, using your hands, fold together the ingredients until well mixed. Do your best not to break up the crab meat.
  • Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least one hour.
  • Remove the bowl from the fridge and pat into patties. (This recipe makes about 6 patties). Place the patties on the sheet pan that they will bake on (for easy clean up, put aluminum foil on the pan first).
  • Place the patties back into the fridge for at least an hour.
  • When ready to broil - preheat the oven to BROIL HIGH. Allow the oven to come to full temp (it will take about 10- minutes or maybe a little more so be patient. Do NOT plop the crab cakes immediately into the oven as it preheats for the broil).
  • Brush the tops of the crab cakes with the melted butter and Broil on HIGH for 8 minutes on the first side.
  • Carefully (very very carefully, they break apart easily) turn the crab cakes over and brush with butter on the other side. Broil for another 6 minutes. Serve Hot.

Video

Notes

  • Crab meat is expensive, so you’ll want to follow the directions exactly to have these come out perfectly.
  • You can make these half size and use as an appetizer, you’ll need to watch them carefully in the oven, when they are browned and sizzly, it’s time to turn them.
  • You’ll want to use a good mayo such as Hellman’s, Dukes, Blue Plate or Aldi brand.
  • The mustard gives a ton of flavor, use a quality DIJON mustard not a yellow mustard.
  • The hot sauce adds flavor, so don’t worry about the heat.
  • Use a quality hot sauce like Cholulas. Texas Pete also works for this recipe. 
PRO TIP:  The egg and mayo act as binders. One without the other doesn’t work (I’ve tried it).  The cracker is a little bit of a filler, but not so that you can use less crab. Instead if fills in the spaces between the chunks of meat and you need it as well. Do NOT try to use panko or some other filler, it doesn’t work as well.
SUBSTITUTIONS
This is super important. Don’t make any substitutions.  Everything in this recipe is important to the outcome.
The one substitution that I’ve been able to make without a decline in the performance of the recipe is to use a pinch of cayenne instead of the hot sauce.  But the hot sauce was better.

Nutrition

Serving: 2cakes | Calories: 544kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 47g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 126mg | Sodium: 1437mg | Potassium: 195mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 935IU | Vitamin C: 9.7mg | Calcium: 60mg | Iron: 2.7mg