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.
Barb B
Chef my son just made your stuffed Shrimp for me,FANTASTIC RESTAURANT QUALITY! Gonna buy your book! Thank You
Chef Dennis Littley
Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed my stuffed shrimp recipe. I hope you find many more delicious recipes on my website to try.
Kimmygirls
Sounds and looks delicious! Plan on making these this weekend. What is the imperial sauce?
Chef Dennis Littley
The imperial sauce is the binder for the crabmeat.
Diana
What can be substituted for mayonnaise? My family won’t touch anything with mayo in it. Thanks.
Chef Dennis Littley
you can make a bechamel instead of mayonnaise but the sauce will be a little heavier.
A basic bechamel is made with
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. flour
1 cup milk
Melt butter over medium heat. Once butter melts, sprinkle flour over the butter and cook for 3-5 minutes until a roux forms. Slowly add in the milk, whisking while you’re adding the milk.
You don’t want it too thick but it needs to be thick enough to bind the crabmeat.
Helmut
Excellent
Otis Williams
I try to be a home chef for o family and thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge on how to make this shrimp o crab dish. Very tasty dish…………….
Ann
This was wonderful! I love shrimp and crab, but the two of them together was amazing! Thanks for the recipe share!
Tammy
These sound and look amazing! What a delicious recipe for the holidays coming up.
Tracy
Wow, thank you so much for bringing a restaurant-quality dish to my kitchen! My family was so incredibly impressed – this is such a great dish!
Mari
Chef,
This recipe is outstanding. Thank you for sharing.
Lauren Michael Harris
Such a restaurant-worthy recipe. My husband LOVED these as the starter to our fish dinner even more than the main dish. Will definitely be making again!
Veronika
Such a delicious and simple recipe! I made it yesterday and my whole family loved it 😉
Patricia
oh, my! I can see why these were always in demand! They were amazing, and like you said, stuffed with all the good things and not breadcrumbs!
Bernice
Well this is a new one from me. I was hesitant to believe that shrimp could be stuffed but if anyone could do it, you could! Wow. These are impressive and you wouldn’t have to tell me twice to order these!
Kathryn
These crab stuffed shrimp are my favorite at restaurants and your recipe is just as delicious! I love how easy they are to make at home. Going to be making these as much as I can!
Sharon
Your crab-stuffed shrimp was a perfect appetizer for our dinner parties. Simple to make but big on flavor.
Marta
This stuffed shrimp transported me back to my first job at a seafood house. I used to love the crab-stuffed shrimp there and this version was far and above that one.
Chris
This recipe looks perfect, and I’ll be making it for Thanksgiving. I can prepare them ahead of time and put them in the oven after the turkey comes out. I trust a fellow Jerseyan!