Baked Crab Dip

A hot dish of baked crab dip rarely has time to cool—it gets gobbled up that quickly. This baked crab dip recipe fills two bread bowls, making it one of our best dip recipes for a crowd. For your average weeknight, the mixture cooks just as well in a baking dish and scales down easily to a one-bowl batch.

When you carve a bread bowl, the leftover bread becomes cubes for dipping, but you’ll want to add more dippers. And just about anything goes with this creamy dip, from crackers and pita chips to fresh or cooked vegetables. As you start to scrape the bottom of each bowl, break off the bread around the edges and savor the last crab-infused bites.

To keep this hot dip recipe affordable for a tailgate or party, bake canned or imitation crab and a blend of cream cheese, sour cream and cheddar cheese. If you’re looking for the signature brininess that fresh crab brings, feel free to use it. Check the prices because 2 cups of imitation crabmeat versus 1 cup of real crabmeat might be more similar than expected.

Baked Crab Dip Ingredients

• Cream cheese: For this recipe, use a block of cream cheese, not the whipped spread you get in a tub. Whipped cream cheese has extra milk and other ingredients that keep it soft and spreadable, but it will make the dip runny when baked. Letting the cream cheese block come to room temperature will help when mixing it with the other ingredients.
• Sour cream: Sour cream boosts the tangy taste of the cream cheese and thins it out for dippers. Use full-fat sour cream and cream cheese for the most decadent flavor or low-fat versions for a lighter, looser dip.
• Crabmeat: With such a full-bodied base, canned or imitation crabmeat works in this baked crabmeat dip. Cans of lump crabmeat will bring chunks of crab in some bites. If using imitation crabmeat, you need twice as much to match the robust flavor of real crabmeat.
• Cheddar cheese: Choose sharp cheddar for a stronger flavor or mild cheddar for a buttery, less noticeable one. Pre-shredded cheese doesn’t melt as well as a freshly grated block, so grate your own cheese for the smoothest dip.
• Green onions: Green onions lend this baked crabmeat dip their fresh, subtle flavor and flecks of color. Also known as scallions, these onions taste mild even when raw, so sprinkle on extra slices after baking if you’d like a garnish.
• Sourdough or Italian bread: For bread bowls, you need fresh, whole, unsliced loaves of bread. The wild yeast used for sourdough bread makes the loaves tangy and slightly chewy. Italian bread types vary widely, but look for a loaf with a golden crust and a soft, yeasty interior.
• Dippers: Bread cubes from the loaf you serve the dip in are just the start. Crackers and fresh vegetables are more options for dipping.

Directions

Step 1: Mix the crab dip

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sour cream and mix well. Fold in the crabmeat, cheddar cheese and green onions.

Editor’s Tip: For the smoothest results, let the cream cheese and sour cream come to room temperature before mixing. Instead of beating the cream cheese by hand, use a hand-held mixer. The cream cheese becomes fluffier the longer the beaters spin.

Step 2: Prepare the bread bowls

Cut the top third off each loaf of bread. Carefully hollow out the loaf bottoms, leaving shells with 1-inch-thick walls.

Cube the removed bread and loaf tops, and set the cubes aside.

Step 3: Fill the bread bowls

Spoon the crab mixture into the bread bowls. Place the bread bowls on baking sheets. Arrange the reserved bread cubes in a single layer around the bread bowls.

Step 4: Bake the dip-filled bowls

Bake the dip-filled bread bowls, uncovered, until the dip is heated through, 45 to 50 minutes. Garnish the hot dip with additional green onions if desired. Serve with assorted fresh vegetables, crackers and the toasted bread cubes.

Editor’s Tip: Most crabmeat is cooked, so it’s safe to pull out the bread bowls early if they’re darkening. Once the bread cubes brown to your liking, remove them from the trays and continue heating the dip in the bread bowls.

Baked Crab Dip Variations

• Use fresh crabmeat: Upgrade the elegance and flavor of this dip with fresh crabmeat. Even small pieces of fresh claw or backfin meat have a more robust crab taste than canned crabmeat, which has been pasteurized, or imitation crabmeat, which includes artificial flavors. Use 1 cup fresh crabmeat for this recipe, or more as desired.
• Make it spicy: Stir in a can of diced green chiles, minced roasted Hatch chiles or several dashes of hot sauce. For sweeter, milder heat, dice bell peppers, banana peppers or pimentos into the dip and slice up the extras as dippers. For extra zing without heat, add 1/4 cup capers.
• Add seasonings: Mix in lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard and minced garlic, starting with 2 teaspoons of each and adjusting to taste. Spices like freshly ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika or Old Bay seasoning (stirred in to taste or sprinkled on as a garnish) bring out the briny crab flavor.
• Bake it in a pan: Pour the dip into a buttered 1-1/2-quart baking dish and bake it like the bread bowls until the mixture bubbles around the edges. If the cheese starts to brown on top, cover the dish and continue baking for the remaining time. Alternatively, warm this dip in a slow cooker on low for two to three hours.

How to Store Baked Crab Dip

This baked crab dip recipe tastes so good that if you serve it at a party, you likely won’t have any dip-coated bowls left to store. If you want to make the full recipe to eat at home over several days, bake it in a pan. Once filled, bread bowls turn soggy within hours. Store baked crab dip in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

How long does baked crab dip last?

Baked crab dip made with canned or imitation crab lasts three to five days in the refrigerator when scooped into a container and sealed tightly. If you use fresh crab, polish off the dip within three days.

Can you make baked crab dip in advance?

Baked crab dip is a great make-ahead appetizer. Mix the crab dip ingredients a few hours before serving and refrigerate the dip in an airtight container. At the same time, hollow out the bread bowls and store them in an airtight container until you’re ready to fill and bake them. Crab dip-filled bread bowls can be refrigerated for up to 1 hour and 30 minutes without turning overly soggy. Remove them from the fridge 30 minutes before baking.

How do you reheat baked crab dip?

Reheat baked crab dip in a baking dish in a 350° oven until warmed through. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center will read 165° when it’s ready. Transfer the hot crab dip to a fresh bread bowl for serving if desired. Leftovers also taste delicious served cold.

Baked Crab Dip Tips

Can you make bread bowls at home?

You can’t buy bread fresher than homemade bread bowls. The dough in our quick and easy bread bowl recipe keeps well in the refrigerator for two days, and the baked loaves stay fresh for three days. Freshly baked bread bowls crisp nicely in the oven when filled with crab dip and baked. If the inside feels so soft that you fear the bowls will turn soggy, brush olive oil inside the hollowed-out shells and toast them for a few minutes in the oven until the inner lining firms up.

How should you serve baked crab dip?

Serve baked crab dip with an array of dippers. Besides the toasted bread cubes left from hollowing out the bread bowls, offer crackers, crunchy bagel chips or soft beer pretzel nuggets. Cut carrot and celery sticks, bell pepper strips and radish slices. Sturdy fresh pimento peppers, broccoli and cauliflower florets, and tart apple slices easily scoop up baked crabmeat dip. Double the seafood taste by dipping poached and chilled shrimp into the hot crab mixture, as you would for shrimp cocktail. Keep everything hot and surround a crab dip bread bowl with dippable Cajun grilled shrimp and grilled mushrooms.