Baked Crab Dip
🦀🧀 This dip is a luxe, rich appetizer that's perfect for holiday parties, Christmas and New Year's entertaining, or date night in! It's easy, cheesy, ready in 30 minutes, and sure to impress! Various crab meat options are provided to make this easy dip accessible for everyone.
Servings: 10
Calories: 270cal
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese very well softened to room temp (use full-fat, brick-style cream cheese)
- ⅓ cup sour cream (full fat, I've never tried using Greek yogurt)
- ¼ cup mayonnaise (full fat)
- ½ cup diced white onion (or substitute with 1 to 2 teaspoons onion powder, or to taste)
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced (or substitute with 1 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste)
- 1 to 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce to taste
- 1 to 2 teaspoons lemon juice to taste
- 1 ½ teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning or to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper or to taste
- Tabasco sauce (or hot sauce or red pepper flakes) optional and to taste
- 2 cups cheddar cheese divided (I like extra sharp but use your favorite; white cheddar is great here or another favorite shredded cheese may be subbed)
- ½ cup chives minced and divided, plus more for garnishing if desired
- 16 ounces crab meat (*read blog post section about what kind of crab to use)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and spray a 9 to 10-inch cast iron skillet, a 9-inch pie dish, a 2 to 2.5-quart casserole dish or similar with cooking spray; set aside.
- To a large bowl, add the cream cheese and either beat by hand momentarily until smooth, or use a handheld electric mixer. Tip - Set your cream cheese out an hour before you need to use it and you can easily beat by hand for 20 seconds, no need to dirty a mixer.
- Add the sour cream, mayo, onion, garlic, Worcestershire, lemon juice, Old Bay, salt, pepper, and stir to combine. Tip - If you like a bit of heat, add a couple shakes of Tabasco or other similar hot sauce or a bit of red pepper flakes and stir to combine.
- Add about 1 1/4 cups shredded cheese, half the chives, all of the crab meat (see Notes below or in blog post), and stir to incorporate. Turn the mixture out into the prepared skillet or pan.
- Evenly top with the remaining cheese (about 3/4 cup), the remaining chives, and bake uncovered for about 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is as golden browned as desired, and the edges are lightly bubbling. Tip - All ovens vary so check early and rotate the skillet once midway through baking to ensure even browning.
- Optionally, garnish with extra chives, green onions, red pepper flakes, or as desired.
- Serve with toasted bread, garlic bread, crackers, tortilla chips, etc.
Notes
- Crab Meat: The best (and most expensive) is refrigerated fresh jumbo lump crab meat which is a mixture of lump crab meat and backfin meat. You can buy this from some grocery stores at the seafood counter.
- Canned crab meat is fine. The texture is not comparable to fresh but most people can find it at least and it's less expensive. Drain it very well to make sure there's as little water as possible. If using 6 ounce cans, I suggest 3 cans which is 18 ounces (rather than 16) but the more the merrier.
- Imitation crab meat is not really crab meat as the name suggests but instead a mixture of fish including surimi and is fine in this dip. It's the 'crab' in many grocery store sushi rolls. Shred it well with two forks and toss it in. It's the most budget friendly of all 3 options.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 270cal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 71mg | Sodium: 877mg | Potassium: 181mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 690IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 220mg | Iron: 1mg
