When it comes to Stuffed Shrimp, you don’t want to fool around with recipes adding crackers and other fillers. My Crab Meat Stuffed Shrimp is made with Jumbo Gulf Shrimp and sweet Blue Claw Lump Crabmeat in an old bay seasoned imperial sauce.
Baked till golden brown and served with your favorite sides, my crab stuffed shrimp recipe is guaranteed to be better than your favorite seafood restaurant, at a fraction of the cost! That’s a win-win in my book.
During my restaurant career at the Jersey Shore, seafood was king and combining shrimp and crabmeat in a dish only made it more appealing to the many people that dined at my restaurant. My Stuffed Shrimp were always in demand and never failed to impress those that ordered this delightfully delicious seafood entree.
It’s the perfect dish for the seafood lover in your house.
Ingredients to make Crab Stuffed Shrimp
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make my Baked Stuffed Shrimp Recipe. In Chef Speak this is called the “Mise en Place” which translates to “Everything in its Place”.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed up the cooking process, it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
How to make Crab Stuffed Shrimp
- Add the mayonnaise, old bay seasoning, lemon juice, chopped parsley and lightly beaten egg to a small mixing bowl.
- Combine the ingredients until the egg is fully incorporated.
- Add the imperial sauce to the crabmeat, but hold back about one-quarter of the imperial sauce. Depending upon what type of crabmeat you use you may not need to add all of the sauce. *Small pieces of crab meat will use more sauce than jumbo lump crab meat.
- Gently fold the crab meat into the imperial sauce.
- Peel and devein the shrimp. Then cut along the deveining side with a pairing knife (or chef’s knife) to butterfly the shrimp. Be careful not to cut completely through the shrimp.
- Season the butterflied shrimp with salt and pepper.
- Top each shrimp with about one tablespoon of the crab meat mixture, mounding it in the center of the shrimp.
- Place the stuffed shrimp on a baking sheet or dish and add a little water to the pan to help keep the shrimp from drying out.
Bake the Stuffed Shrimp at 375 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until the crab meat filling begins to get golden brown.
Serve the Crab Stuffed Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce and lemon wedges.
My stuffed shrimp is the perfect dish for entertaining and can be made up ahead of time and kept refrigerated until you’re ready to put them in the oven. They are also one of my favorite shrimp appetizers for dinner parties.
Recipe FAQ’s
Stuffed shrimp is a simple restaurant-style dish, that should not include any fillers in the stuffing. Jumbo shrimp are stuffed with lump crabmeat blended with an imperial sauce, that’s it. No crackers, onions, peppers or anything else should ever go into the stuffing.
I normally use jumbo lump or lump, blue claw crab meat to make my stuffed shrimp. You can also use claw crab meat, or Dungeness crabmeat to stuff the shrimp.
You certainly can. Preheat the air fryer to 375 degrees and bake in the basket of your air fryer for about 8 minutes.
More Seafood Recipes You’ll Love!
Crab Meat Stuffed Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 lb Shrimp 16- 20 count per pound : peeled, deveined and butterflied
- 1 lb lump crabmeat you can use jumbo lump, claw, or lump crabmeat.
- ½ cup mayonaise (Hellmans, Best Foods or Dukes Mayo)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon old bay seasoning
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Italian parsley finely chopped
Instructions
- Peel and devein the shrimp.
- Cut along the deveining side with a pairing knife (or chef's knife) until almost through the shrimp. Be careful not to cut completely through the shrimp.
- Place the shrimp on a sheet pan and season with salt and black pepper and set refrigerate until needed.
- Add the mayonnaise, old bay seasoning, lemon juice, parsley and lightly beaten egg to a small mixing bowl and combine the ingredients until the egg is fully incorporated.
- Add the imperial sauce to the crabmeat, but hold back about one-quarter of the imperial sauce. Depending upon what type of crabmeat you use you may not need to add all of the sauce. *Small pieces of crab meat will use more sauce than jumbo lump crab meat.
- Top each shrimp with about one tablespoon of the crab meat mixture, mounding it on top of the shrimp.
- Place the stuffed shrimp on a baking sheet or dish and add a little water to the pan to help keep the shrimp from drying out.
- Bake the Stuffed Shrimp at 375 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until the crab meat filling begins to get golden brown.
- Serve with cocktail sauce and lemon wedges.
Jan says
Can I use claw crab meat?
Chef Dennis Littley says
absolutely
Harry H says
I have to be honest. I didn'[t think it was going to tast that good…but I was wrong! Came out delicious!
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed the stuffed shrimp, I’m glad it was a delicious surpriseQ
Brandy says
I have made this twice now and it is outstanding! The crab really shines through. Perfect recipe.
Chef Dennis Littley says
Thanks for letting me know you’ve been enjoying my stuffed shrimp recipe! It was a big hit during my restaurant days.
Frances says
I’ve made this recipe in the past; it is delicious.! It’s truly a great base and as you said, you can add additional spices to your taste. My question is, can you prepare it in advance refrigerate it overnight and cook the next day? Would that ruin the taste?
Chef Dennis Littley says
You can make it up a day ahead of time. You may see a little liquid drain-off as it sits, but they will be fine.
MKC says
That looks like a lot more than 1 teaspoon of parsley and Old Bay in the picture. Can you clarify? Thanks
Chef Dennis Littley says
The amounts in the recipe are correct. Sometimes images of ingredients have more than is actually used so they photograph well.
Lisa Brigham says
I made this recipe last night for our family (total 5). We thought the 16-20 sized shrimp were a bit small, so we did colossal and double the recipe so we would have 6 shrimp for each of us. (More than we needed). I started with 1 lb of lump blue crab, (recipe calls for equal amounts shrimp and crab) so I bought 2 lbs and I had almost half left over! Did I miss something? I would have liked a little more zing/flavor in the crab but it was very nice and cooked well.
Chef Dennis Littley says
16 shrimp to a pound would have 1 ounce of crabmeat on each. With bigger shrimp, I would have used a little more crabmeat, so I have no idea how you ended up with so much left over. As for the zing, the idea is to taste the crabmeat, not the seasoning. You can always spice it up more if you like.
Debra says
The recipe says to hold back 1/4 of the imperial sauce.
What do you do with that?
Chef Dennis Littley says
If you read the whole instruction it mentions why to hold back the sauce.
Depending upon what type of crabmeat you use you may not need to add all of the sauce.
*Small pieces of crab meat will use more sauce than jumbo lump crab meat.
Jim says
My first time making crab imperial, The recipe was outstanding. It is truly restaurant quality. I will be using this recipe again. I would have given it 5 stars but the recipe wouldn’t import into the recipe box app and i made the mistake of using my smart phone to follow the recipe. The pop ups were so bad i could barely follow it. Recipe 5 stars. Web site negative 3.
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed my “free” recipe. I could do away with ads and pop ups but then I’d have to charge you for accessing my site, since they are the only way I make money and provide my years of experience as a restaurant chef free to everyone on the internet.
S Siftar says
I just saw this recipe and it looks great. I do have a question. Several recipes call for some breadcrumbs in the stuffing. Will that make the stuffing too dry?
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m using a crab imperial recipe for the stuffing, so there are no bread crumbs. I only add bread crumbs to crabcakes, and just enough to help hold them together. The brewad crumbs will draw moisture out of the stuffing.