Whether it’s New Years Day or just game day, we break out this classic, easy crab dip recipe when it’s time to seriously treat our favorite people and it never, ever fails. In the chilly months (AKA fresh crab season here in the Pacific Northwest!), we love hot crab dip, all bubbly and cheesy and ready for us to dip big hunks of crusty bread into. Just a few ingredients — like cream cheese and fresh crab meat — and a few minutes, and you’ll be in appetizer heaven! If you love creamy, warm dip recipes as much as we do, try classic Spinach Artichoke Dip, or cozy hot corn dip, too.
Crab Dip Ingredients
Crab meat: Fresh lump crab meat is the very best here, but if canned crab is all you can access, that is OK in a pinch.
Cream cheese: If the only ingredients in your crab dip are crab meat and cream cheese, you’d have a pretty bland dip, but also you’d be most of the way there. Crab meat and cream cheese are the foundation of crab dip!
Old Bay seasoning: Crab dip is sometimes called Maryland crab dip, because of its (likely) Chesapeake Bay origin. Therefore, you’ve got to include Old Bay seasoning, which is made in Baltimore! You can buy the real deal, or you can whip up a little homemade Old Bay seasoning.
Mayonnaise + sour cream: Creamy crab dip doesn’t just feel luxurious because of the crab (though that’s a big part of it). It’s got to be ultra-creamy, too, and so we doubledown on the creaminess factor by including mayo AND sour cream, along with the classic cream cheese, to give our crab dip recipe the perfect creamy-yet-dippable consistency.
Worcestershire sauce: Don’t worry, you don’t have to be able to pronounce it in order to cook with it. (For the record, it’s pronounced “wooster” sauce, because the English language is totally bananas).
Lemon: You’ll use both the zest and juice.
Garlic: Fresh cloves and granulated, too. Flavor, flavor, flavor!
Fresh chives.
Hot sauce: You can feel free to add hot sauce to taste, and if your taste is such that you want nothing to do with spicy crab dip, it’s fine to skip it! Or, if you’re like “give me all spicy crab dip, the spicier the better” then you may want to add even more hot sauce that we call for.
Cheese: We like to use white cheddar purely because of the color. If you only have yellow cheddar, it’s just fine to use it. We include mozzarella for its melt factor.
How To Make Crab Dip
Buy good crab. Crab meat is often expensive, but that’s part of what makes crab dip such a special appetizer to serve. People know that you’ve gone all out for them! We love to serve it at the holidays, when we want everything to feel a little sparkly — even the party snacks.
If you’re making hot crab dip, preheat the oven. If you’re option for cold crab dip, obviously don’t.
Combine the cream cheese, mayo, sour cream, garlic, chives, Old Bay, salt, pepper, Worcestershire, lemon zest and juice, hot sauce, and cheeses. This can take some elbow grease, so you may opt to use your stand mixer. Or a sturdy spoon and big bowl work, too. Gently stir in the lump crab meat (don’t use a stand mixer for this part!)
If you’re going to serve it cold, you’re done!
If it’s hot crab dip you’re after, move the dip to an oven-safe dish (like a pie pan or cast iron skillet), top with cheese and bake until the dip is super bubbly.
Crab Dip Tips, Tricks + Variations
Serve crab dip cold: Just skip the baking step!
Make crab dip ahead of time: Mix the crab dip ingredients and stop before your bake the hot crab dip. Cover and store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve it (for up to 48 hours). Then, top with cheese and bake until bubbly!
Leftover crab dip will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge, but we have never experienced this “leftover crab dip” thing.
Unfortunately, you cannot freeze crab dip.
How to buy fresh lump crab meat: Look for fresh lump crab meat at the seafood counter of your grocery store. It’s usually sold in 1-pound tubs. If you really can’t find it, you can use canned crab (though our crab dip recipe is best with fresh crab meat).
More Cozy, Warm Dip Recipes
When You Dip, We Dip!
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