This easy Crab Dip recipe is meant to impress, made with fresh lump crab meat in a creamy dip that can be served hot or cold. It's the perfect appetizer or side dish for parties, game-day or holidays.
I'll take advantage of any opportunity to make crab for my family, including Baked Crab Legs, incredible Crabs Cakes, or this easy and delicious Crab dip. For a similar recipe, check out my clam dip.
The ingredients are so simple, hopefully the only thing you need to grab from the store is fresh lump crab meat.
How to make Crab Dip:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Add cream cheese to a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Stir in mayo, sour cream, garlic, green onion, Old Bay seasoning, salt, Worcestershire, and lemon juice.
- Stir in ¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese and hot sauce and mix until smooth.
- Stir in crab meat.
- Spread into a 9″ pie dish or similar size baking pan and sprinkle remaining cheddar cheese on top. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden and bubbly.
Serve warm, with slices of sourdough bread, crackers, tortilla chips or chopped cold veggies.
Variations:
Cold Crab Dip: prepare dip as instructed, but don't bake (serve it cold).
Crockpot Crab Dip: Add dip to the slow cooker and cook on low for 1-2 hours, until heated through.
Crab Dip in a Bread Bowl: For an extra fun appetizer, bake the crab dip right inside a bread bowl (homemade or a large round store-bought loaf). Hollow out the bread, leaving about an inch around the inside edges. Fill with crab dip and bake as directed in recipe. Save the removed bread pieces for dipping.
Fresh Crab Meat substitution: Since the crab is the star of the show here, I only recommend using fresh jumbo lump crab meat. You can use canned crab meat if really necessary.
Make Ahead and Storing Instructions:
Leftover crab dip will keep, stored covered in the fridge, for up to 5 days. Rewarm in the microwave.
To Make Ahead: Crab dip can be prepared 1- days ahead of time, stored covered in the fridge, then baked according to instructions.
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Recipe
Crab Dip
Ingredients
- 8 ounce package cream cheese , room temperature
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- ¼ cup chopped green onion
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon salt*
- 1 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- ½ of a lemon , juiced
- 1 cup freshly shredded cheddar cheese , divided
- ½ teaspoon hot sauce , or more, to taste
- 1 pound fresh jumbo lump crab meat
Dipping ideas:
- sourdough bread
- crackers
- tortilla chips
- chopped cold veggies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Add cream cheese to a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Stir in mayo, sour cream, garlic, green onion, Old Bay seasoning, salt, Worcestershire, and lemon juice.
- Add ¾ cup cheddar cheese and hot sauce and mix until smooth. Stir in crab meat.
- Spread into a 9″ pie dish or similar size baking pan and sprinkle remaining cheddar cheese on top. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden and bubbly.
- Serve warm, with slices of sourdough bread, crackers, tortilla chips or chopped cold veggies.
- Leftover crab dip will keep, stored covered in the fridge, for up to 3 days. Rewarm in the microwave.
Notes
- Cold Crab Dip: prepare dip as instructed, but don't bake (serve it cold).
- Crockpot Crab Dip: Add dip to the slow cooker and cook on low for 1-2 hours, until heated through.
- Crab Dip in a Bread Bowl: For an extra fun appetizer, bake the crab dip right inside a bread bowl (homemade or a large round store-bought loaf). Hollow out the bread, leaving about an inch around the inside edges. Fill with crab dip and bake as directed in recipe. Save the removed bread pieces for dipping.
Nutrition
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HAVE YOU TRIED THIS RECIPE?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
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We live in Maryland and tried more crab dips than we can count. This is our fav!
Love the crab dip! It’s a keeper!
Best crab dip I have ever made. Excellent recipe.
This crab dip was a huge hit with my family. The recipe easily made enough for a sitting plus a couple more however it was so well received, it was demolished in one. 2 huge thumbs up.
Thank you so much.
Yummy! Made this today and it’s perfect!!
Delicious! And I’m glad it was so I didn’t waste all that lump crab meat!🦀 Followed recipe exactly. Will definitely make again ❤️.
I am from coastal NC and hot crab dip was something my cousins and Aun’ts would bring to every event and it is on every local menu. This is the BEST I have ever had! I used mozarella only because I didn’t like the look of yellow cheddar, I used 1 large garlic clove instead of 2 other that that I followed the recipe. Thank you for sharing!
I made this according to directions. It came out great. Everyone loved it for the holidays.
I wish I had omitted the garlic.
It was overpowering.
Can I freeze this?
Yes, you can freeze this! Let it cook completely and store it in a freezer-safe dish wrapped well!
The garlic is a bit overpowering. In the future, I will sauté onion and garlic and then incorporate that mixture into the dip. I may omit the Old Bay in the future. Also, I plan on adding at least a half cup of mayo and some cayenne pepper.
the only flavor I tasted was garlic and cream cheese. my boyfriend gagged eating it.
Love this recipe. We have access to fresh caught crab and I’ve tried many recipes. This one is my favorite.
We use fresh caught Dungeness crab and it is salty because the crabs are boiled in salt water. I would suggest you taste the crab before adding any ingredients with salt and go from there.if it’s too salty you can rinse it a little in cold water but you may lose some of the flavor. Regular mayo is even salty so just be careful…I cut down the Old Bay because the flavor gets a little tiresome and taste after each addition.
Epicure crab dip seasoning about 1/2-1 tap would be an idea to use instead. Or the veggie seasoning. A little goes a LONG way