Best Crab Rolls Recipe

5 from 57 votes

Best Crab Rolls Recipe

My Classic Crab Rolls are loaded with fresh jumbo lump crabmeat gently tossed with a seasoned mayonnaise-based dressing and takes less than 10 minutes to make.

Prep Time10

Cook Time0

Total Time10

Course: Entree, sandwich

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 272kcal

Author: Chef Dennis Littley

Ingredients

⅓ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
6 drops hot sauce optional
1 teaspoon old bay - or use salt and black pepper to taste
2 tablespoon shallot finely chopped
1 teaspoon chives fresh or freeze dried
¼ cup celery finely chopped
16 oz jumbo lump crabmeat (lump, claw, Dungeness, snow, king or imitation crab meat can be used)
6 top sliced hot dog buns - or New England Style hot dog buns if you can find them
Italian parsley finely chopped for garnish. You can also use chopped fresh chives, or fresh dill as the garnish.
Old Bay sprinkle as garnish - optional

Instructions

Add the mayonnaise, lemon zest, lemon juice, hot sauce, and old bay to a medium bowl.
Whisk to combine the ingredients for the dressing.
Add the chopped shallot, and celery to the dressing and stir until fully combined.
Add the mayonnaise mixture to the crabmeat in a large bowl. and very gently fold the crabmeat into the dressing.
Try not to break up the lumps of crabmeat.
Serve the crab salad on top cut hot dog buns.
When I can find them I use New England style hot dog rolls, which have more of a white bread side to them. If you find this type of roll, you should melt some butter and brush it on the sides of the roll and lightly toast the buttered rolls. This is true decadence.
Some people like to add a bib lettuce leaf to the roll before adding the crab salad. This is totally unnecessary but does add a little pop of color.
Garnish the crab rolls with a sprinkle of old bay and chopped parsley. This of course is optional.

Notes

What type of crabmeat should I use?

The best crabmeat for crab rolls is jumbo lump crabmeat. I was fortunate enough to find Maryland crabmeat which is the gold standard for crabmeat.

You can also use lump, claw, Dungeness, king, snow crab, or even (gasp) imitation crabmeat.

My main concern when buying crabmeat is the country of origin. If you're buying pasteurized crabmeat there is a good chance its not from the United States.

Most pasteurized (cans) crabmeat, comes from Asian and Indian waters. Not only are these waters questionable in terms of cleanliness, these are not blue crabs. You'll see blue swimming crabs on the label, but there not the same and they don't taste the same.

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