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This Easy Crab Cake Recipe will remind you of your favorite Maryland crab cake. These crab cakes mix lump crab meat, spices, mayonnaise, crushed saltines and butter. They are cooked in a skillet and topped with a simple tartar sauce. These are great for lunch or dinner!
We eat a lot of seafood in our house. Not only is it light, but it is easy to make and my kids will eat it! I recently made these Mediterranean Tuna Cakes with Fresh and Herbs and these Salmon Cakes which my kids loved. I thought I would try this Easy Crab Cake Recipe and I am so glad that I did. In my opinion these are the best crab cakes around and remind me of maryland crab cakes. This recipe is so easy to make and these homemade crab cakes can be frozen for later for a special occasion or a quick dinner. You can also prepare these crab cakes ahead of time and stored in the fridge for up to two days before you cook them in a skillet.
These crab cakes use lump crab meat, mayo, spices, green onions, crushed crackers and a light tartar sauce for serving. We will often rotate these crab cakes with this Air Fryer Cod, Baked Cod with Lemon, Black Sea Bass Pan Seared in Garlic Butter or this Mediterranean Salmon Bowl.
Recipe Ingredients
For exact ingredient amounts and instructions, see the full recipe card below.
These simple pantry staples are all you need. See the recipe card below for exact amounts and printable instructions.
- Lump Crabmeat
- Green Onions
- Spices
- Lemon Juice
- Mayo
- Ritz Crackers
- Butter or Olive Oil
Serve these crab cake with a Creamy Dill Sauce or this Tahini Garlic Sauce.
How do you Make Crab Cakes?
Step 1: Create Egg and Bread Mixture: In a medium bowl, add the egg, mayonnaise, red pepper flakes, green onions, tarragon and lemon juice. Mix until well combined.
Add the crab meat to the egg mixture, blend well. Use a ziploc bag and rolling pin to crush the crackers, add the crushed crackers to the crab meat mixture. Mix until well combined.
Step 2: Form Crab Cakes: Form 8 small crab cakes and prepare a skillet with melted butter over medium high heat.
Step 3: Cook in Skillet: Add the crab cakes to the skillet and cook for 5 min approximately on each side or until a light golden brown. Remove from heat, serve immediately with tartar sauce and lemon wedges.
In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, relish and chili powder and serve with the crab cakes.
Recipe Tip: You can prep the crab mixture ahead of time and leave them in the fridge for one to two days in an airtight container. When you are ready to cook them you can pull them out and heat them in the skillet.
Recipe Variations
- Yogurt: You can sub Greek yogurt for the mayo if you like but I personally really like the mayo in the crab cakes. I think it helps bind everything and offers a subtle creaminess to the crab cakes.
- Spices: Spices can really add great flavor to these crab cakes. I used tarragon and crushed red pepper but feel free to use other spices like paprika, cajun seasoning, Italian seasoning or oregano. Old Bay seasoning is nice too.
- Crabmeat: I like to use fresh jump lump crab meat but you can also use canned crab meat if you like. If you can’t find jumbo lump crab meat you could use regular lump crabmeat too. You want to make sure that if it is fresh you pick through it to make sure there are no pieces of crab shell in it.
- Breadcrumbs: You could sub the crushed crackers with bread crumbs or panko bread crumbs.
If you like crab appetizers you should try my Air Fryer Crab Rangoon for a crispy appetizer.
Ways to Use Crab Cakes
- Add the leftover crab into Coconut Fish Curry.
- Pair these crab cakes with this Summer Orzo Pasta Salad, Greek Chickpea Salad or Lebanese Salata.
- Serve the crab cakes over this Mediterranean Hummus Bowl or Greek Quinoa Bowl.
Storage Tips
- Leftovers: You can store the leftover crab cakes in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freeze for up to 6 months in an airtight container.
- Reheating: To reheat the crab cakes you can slowly heat them in the skillet again or slowly heat them in the oven. You don’t want to turn the oven too high because it will dry them out.
More Seafood Recipes
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Easy Crab Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound lump crabmeat, picked over for shells {try to find jumbo lump crabmeat if you can}
- 2 tablespoons green onions, chopped
- 1 teaspoon tarragon, chopped {or dried}
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 4 teaspoons lemon juice, fresh (about 1/2 of a lemon juiced}
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 pack Ritz crackers, or butter flavored crackers, crushed
- 1-2 tablespoons butter, or olive oil for cooking
- 1/2 cup dill relish, drain excess liquid
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/8 teaspoon chili powder
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, add the egg, mayonnaise, red pepper flakes, green onions, tarragon and lemon juice. Mix until well combined. Add the crab meat to the egg mixture, blend well.
- Use a ziploc bag and rolling pin to crush the crackers, add the crushed crackers to the crab meat mixture. Mix until well combined.
- Form 8 small crab cakes and prepare a skillet with melted butter over medium high heat.
- Add the crab cakes to the skillet and cook for 5 min approximately on each side or until a light golden brown.
- Remove from heat, serve immediately with tartar sauce and lemon wedges.
- In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, relish and chili powder. Optional: use finely chopped pickles in place of the relish.
Notes
- In the tartar sauce you could replace the relish with finely chopped pickles.
- Air Fryer: You could cook them in the air fryer. Make sure to spray the air fryer basket with a non-stick spray. Cook the cakes in the air fryer at 370 degrees for about 10 minutes or until crispy and browned on the outside.
- Baking: You could also bake these crab cakes on a baking sheet. Cook at 450 for about 12-15 minutes or until the outside is lightly browned.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
A delicious crab cake recipe.
I made this recipe. Instead of crackers I used 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs. I prepared them in the Airfryer at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. I turned them half way through. They were amazing. Thanks Julia
So glad you liked them! I like the idea of using breadcrumbs.
I just wanted to say thank you for this crab cake recipe. Keep posting wonderful things.
You are welcome.
kids always love to eat cake.
🙂