Stuffed Deviled Crab: Baked from Fresh Florida Blue Crab
Eugene L. 07.01.24
Stuffed deviled crab is a favorite childhood treat of mine and a great way to use fresh crab meat when you only catch a few crabs a day. Either you grew up on the southeast Atlantic coast and had them in a nice restaurant, or like me had the cheap deep-fried version from Captain D’s or another cheap seafood purveyor. I’m going to show you how to make it from scratch and it’s not going to mostly filler either.
Catching blue crabs in Florida has always been a thing my family has done since I was a little kid. Be it putting out a crab trap off a dock or using a few double-ring nets from the marina. Whenever I go down to Florida to either fish or have a family vacation I always take at least a couple of crab traps with me. Either I put them out on the dock behind the house we’re renting or go out and run five of them with buoys and weighted lines. I always end up with at least a few quality blue crabs.
I’ll do a crab boil if I catch enough crabs. But when I catch just two or three a day, that’s a perfect time to make stuffed deviled crab. I just throw them on ice, and when the cold finishes them off, I remove the shell and innards before the enzymes spoil the meat.
Stuffed Deviled Crab Ingredients
- About 1lb of shelled blue crab meat
- 2 eggs – 1 hard boiled
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 Tbsp cooking sherry
- 1/2 cup of panko bread crumbs with more set aside for topping
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 green onions
- 1/2 – 1 jalapeño – depending on the heat of the pepper.
- Lemon for wedges
- Creole seasoning
- Cayenne pepper
- Paprika
- Fresh black pepper
- At least 7 blue crab shells
Instructions for Stuffed Deviled Crab
Steam and Pick the Crabs
First, you have to do the prep work of steaming the blue crabs, and then picking out the meat. You should also steam the cleaned shells of the blue crabs to prepare them for stuffing.
For picking crabs, everyone has their preferred method. I just take a paring knife and cut the body portions horizontally along the bottom of the crab. This opens up the body and lets you pick out all the meat. After all the body parts are done, I crack all the claws and legs. The legs don’t hold a lot of meat, but that last part before the body is worth the effort.
It took 14 crabs to get about 0.8 pounds of meat!
Prep the Other Ingredients
Now that you picked all your crabs, it’s time to prep all the other ingredients:
- Preheat the oven to 425°F
- Start boiling an egg.
- Meanwhile, chop up two green onions—both the green and white parts.
- Taste the jalapeño to see how spicy it is so you can decide how much to use. This one was a bit hotter so I only used half of it after deseeding it.
- Dice up the jalapeño fine and put it aside with the green onion.
- Melt 2 Tbsp of unsalted butter
- In another bowl, mix together your sherry, creole seasoning, and raw egg.
- After the butter is melted mix that in as well.
- Once the egg is hard-boiled, peel it and chop it up, and add that and the vegetables you already cut up to the crab meat. Add in your lemon juice and fresh cracked black pepper to the crab meat as well.
- Take your wet ingredients and add them into your crab meat and mix them all together, then add in the panko bread crumbs and continue to mix until all of it is evenly incorporated.
Stuff the Deviled Crab
Once your deviled crab mix is done, grab your cleaned crab shells and stuff them with the meat. I probably could have made more of the deviled crab but I broke a few of the shells so I made do with 7 shells. Also, if you are just wanting to make this at home using store-bought crab, you don’t need the shells. But it’s now more of a crab cake instead of deviled crab. Make sure the mix is well pressed into the shells, that way they hold together when cooked.
Place all your stuffed deviled crabs onto a baking tray and sprinkle them with panko bread crumbs, cayenne, and paprika. Then top with a pat of butter on each piece of deviled crab.
Bake the deviled crabs for about 20 minutes or until the top starts browning a bit. Remember the crab is already cooked so you don’t want to overdo it. After they are done baking or you just can’t stand to wait any longer. Pull them from the oven and serve with some lemon wedges.Enjoy!
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