Perfect and Easy Crab Cakes

This delicious and easy pan fried crab cakes recipe is flavored with lemon zest, lemon juice, dill, and bread crumbs. Crab cakes are lightly dredged in panko bread crumbs for a crispy crust.

These crab cakes will make your family or guests feel like they are in a high class restaurant and people will sing your praises!  And rightfully so, since crab is so dang pricey.

Serve crab cakes with easy homemade tarter sauce.

What keeps crab cakes from falling apart?

Refrigerating formed crab cakes before cooking is essential for the crab cakes to stay together and not fall apart. Refrigerate crab cakes minimally 2 hours (4 hours preferred) and up to 24 hours.

Additionally, the crab cakes are held together with egg, mayonnaise, and panko bread crumbs in this recipe.

Flour or regular breadcrumbs can be used in place of panko bread crumbs, but I don't think it tastes or looks as good. Ground up saltine crackers are also very flavorful as a binder in place of the panko.

Variations or Modifications on Crab Cakes

Any herb will work in this crab cake recipe. Try thyme, dill, parsley, rosemary, chives, or sage.  Substitute 1 teaspoon dried herbs if you don't have fresh ones or jsut skip the herbs.

Old Bay is a pretty classic addition to crab cakes and other seafood. Add around 1 - 1 ½ teaspoons if you like. A dash of hot sauce, dijon mustard, or Worcestershire sauce is also good.

What Kind Of Crab Should I Use For Crab Cakes?

Use fresh crab if you can find it. After that, use pasteurized crab (this means that it has been heated to kill bacteria and results in a longer shelf life). Next up is canned crab, which is the least expensive so the most accessible to most of our pocket books.

Use jumbo lump crab if you can find and afford it. Next is lump crab meat. Next is backfin or flake crab meat. Last is claw meat which is darker and flavorful but not as sweet.

Basically the bigger the crab meat, the better the crab cake in terms of sweetness and texture. Don't lose your mind trying to pick crab meat. Just try the recipe with the crab meat that you can afford and find. 🙂

Remember to check for the occasional crab shell that hasn't been picked out before packaging.

How To Make Crab Cakes

• Whisk together the mayonnaise, egg white, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, herbs.
• Gently fold in the crab meat and the panko into the mixture, trying to not break up any crab.
• Form into six even sized "patties", relatively thick at ~ 1 inch high.  Squeeze any excess liquid out of the patties (there may not be any).
• Gently roll both sides in panko and reform as needed if they are falling apart.
• Place on a large plate, saran wrap the top, and chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours. This will keep the crab cakes from falling apart when cooked.
• Bring a large non stick or cast iron skillet to medium high heat and add butter and oil. 
• Gently add crab cakes and cook around 3-4 minutes or until brown.  Gently flip and cook an additional 2 minutes or until golden brown.
• Add salt to taste and garnish with any leftover herbs.

Crab Cake Tips

Start with ~ ½ cup panko on a small plate and add more as needed for dredging the crab cakes.  If the panko becomes too clumpy, throw it out and start with fresh panko. You will probably have leftover panko crumbs that can be tossed or brown it up in the oven as a garnish if you don't like to waste.

If crab cakes are burning, remove immediately from heat, reduce heat, and / or just cook in oil at a lower heat.  Butter has a low smoking point (350F) which means that it browns / burns food fast compared to other fats or oils.

Easy Crab Cake Recipe FAQS

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