If you’ve ever wondered “can you air fry crab cakes?” and “how long do you air fry them?” This recipe has you covered! These air fryer crab cakes are full of delicious and authentic Maryland flavors. And when combined with the homemade remoulade sauce and roasted corn succotash, you’ll be left wondering where this recipe has been all your life! In just a few simple steps and only 10 ingredients, you’ll have a truly impressive appetizer or dinner on the table in no time!
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📋 About the Recipe
The slightly sweet, fresh crab pairs wonderfully with the crunchy celery, tangy lemon juice, and the salty, smoky flavor of the Old Bay seasoning. The eggs, mayonnaise, and breadcrumbs help to hold all of the other ingredients together, while keeping the air fryer crab cakes perfectly moist and flakey.
You read that right - there are no dried out, bland crab cakes here! As an added bonus, this is a healthy recipe, which allows you to use less oil overall. Instead of greasy, calorie-dense patties, you’ll be left with light, crisp, perfectly golden brown ones.
And don’t you dare sleep on the homemade remoulade sauce or the roasted corn succotash either. They pair perfectly with the crab, adding their own unique flavors. The remoulade is creamy, smoky, and slightly spicy, while the succotash is packed full of healthy and nutritious vegetables.
There’s just something about the flavor combination of corn and crab that truly takes it to another level. In a pinch, you can use frozen vegetables, but fresh are always better for ideal flavor and texture!
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Jumbo lump crab meat: this is one of the most important components of the air fryer crab cakes (obviously!) so it’s important to purchase good quality crab. My recommendation is to use fresh instead of canned crab meat. Fresh crab may be more expensive than canned, but it’s SO worth it. You can find fresh jumbo lump crab meat in the refrigerator near the fish and seafood counter of your grocery store. It’s often in a plastic container. For this recipe, I used 2 containers of Chicken of the Sea Lump Crab Meat from Costco.
- Mayonnaise, eggs, coarse breadcrumbs: these are the second most important components, since they help to bind the ingredients together. They also keep them from drying out, as they provide an equal balance of fats and moisture.
- Lemon juice, dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce: each of these provide great flavor. Because they are liquid, they too help to keep the crab cakes moist.
- Old Bay seasoning, scallions: these provide extra flavor and seasoning as well. Old Bay seasoning is common in New England seafood and truly makes these the Maryland crab cakes we all know and love. Old Bay marries together so many great herbs and spices. The blend is salty, peppery, smoky, and includes a combination of paprika, celery salt, mustard, nutmeg, and bay leaf, among many other ingredients.
- Celery: the celery is a great addition because it adds a subtle sweetness. It is also great for texture, as it retains most of its crispness inside the softer crab cakes.
📓 Instructions
Gently dump the jumbo lump crab meat into a mixing bowl. Carefully use your hands to graze through it for any leftover shells or cartilage, but try not to break up the crab too much. Remove any pieces that you find and set the bowl aside.
In a separate large bowl, add the mayonnaise, eggs, dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, Old Bay, lemon juice, and scallions,. Stir to combine.
Add the crab, breadcrumbs, and celery to the mayonnaise mixture. Then, fold them in with a spatula to evenly coat it all. Again, making sure not to break up the crab pieces too much.
The batter might look a bit dry, but it should form into rounds without falling apart.
With your hands, carefully separate the batter into 12 rounds. Flatten them gently to create “patties.”
Spray the air fryer basket with nonstick spray and place the formed crab cakes inside, leaving space in between. You may need to cook them in batches, depending on the size of your air fryer.
Air fry the crab cakes at 370 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until they’re perfectly golden brown with an internal temperature around 160 degrees F.
Serve air fryer crab cakes on a bed of roasted corn succotash with a dollop of homemade remoulade sauce on top.
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
If you’re not a fan of celery, you can leave it out.
If you don’t have Old Bay seasoning on hand, you can try a combination of ground mustard, paprika, and celery salt, but the resulting flavor might be a bit different. I’d highly recommend buying Old Bay! It will last you a long time.
I personally haven’t tested this recipe with any mayonnaise substitutes. However, if you’d like to use something besides mayonnaise, my best guess would be to use greek yogurt for a similar texture. If you try this, you might want to leave out the lemon juice so the acid from both the lemon and greek yogurt doesn’t overpower the crab.
🔍 FAQs
For health purposes, it is generally better to bake them. However, for textural purposes, frying usually gives you a better result. BUT, with this recipe for air fryer crab cakes, you get the best of both worlds! The texture is nearly the exact same as frying without all the extra oil!
Crab cakes are generally golden brown on the outside with a light, moist interior. They are crisp, yet soft. Because most recipes include eggs as a binder, the internal temperature should be cooked to about 160 degrees F to ensure the eggs have cooked thoroughly. Use a meat thermometer to check their internal temperature. If it registers below 160 degrees, continue to cook for a few more minutes.
The harmony of wet and dry ingredients helps to keep crab cakes together. If your batter seems too dry, it’ll create fragile crab cakes, but if it is too wet, they might not hold together. The use of mayonnaise, eggs, and breadcrumbs combined with the other ingredients in this recipe helps keep them from becoming dry and brittle. Follow this recipe exactly to have perfectly moist and delicious crab cakes.
The fresh crab meat does not need to be rinsed once it’s removed from the container. Instead, place it in a bowl and use your fingers to gently sift through it for any leftover shell or cartilage. Remove any foreign objects, but be careful not to break up the crab too much.
Yes, if you don’t have an air fryer, you can bake or pan fry these crab cakes instead:
For the oven method, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray it generously with nonstick spray. Place the crab cakes on the baking sheet, leaving space between them. Bake them for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they’re golden brown. If one side seems to get darker than the other, you can flip them halfway through.
For the pan fry method, heat a small layer of mild oil (canola, vegetable, or olive oil) in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop a small piece of crab in the oil. If it sizzles, add the crab cakes in a single layer, leaving space between them. If the crab doesn’t sizzle, heat the oil a bit longer and try again. Leave the crab cakes to cook for a minute or two, gently check them, and flip them over when they’re golden brown. Allow the other side to cook in the oil and remove them from the skillet once both sides are golden brown. The internal temperature should be about 160 degrees F.
💭 One More Tip
For mini air fryer crab cakes, form the batter into 24 small rounds instead of 12. Place them in the air fryer basket and air fry at 370 degrees F for about 5 minutes. If they are not perfectly golden brown, continue to cook for another minute or so. The internal temperature of the crab cakes should register around 160 degrees F.
🍴 Related Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Air Fryer Crab Cakes
Equipment
- air fryer
Ingredients
For the Crab Cakes
- 2 lbs real jumbo lump crab meat (see notes) shells and cartilage removed
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- 3 eggs
- 2 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 scallion sliced thin
- 1 ½ cups unseasoned coarse breadcrumbs
- 2 celery stalks sliced thin
For the Roasted Corn Succotash
- 8 cobs of corn corn cut off the cob
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 zucchini diced
- ½ to 1 cup shelled edamame
- 1 shallot sliced thin
- 2 limes juiced
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon dill chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- olive oil for drizzling
For the Homemade Remoulade Sauce
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoon ketchup
- 2 tablespoon pickle juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon capers rinsed and slightly crushed
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- a few dashes of hot sauce to taste
Instructions
For the Crab Cakes
- Gently dump the jumbo lump crab meat into a mixing bowl. Carefully use your hands to graze through it for any leftover shells or cartilage, but try not to break up the crab too much. Remove any pieces that you find and set the bowl aside.
- In a separate large bowl, add the mayonnaise, eggs, dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, Old Bay seasoning, lemon juice, and scallions. Stir to combine.
- Add the crab, breadcrumbs, and celery to the mayonnaise mixture. Then, fold them in with a spatula to evenly coat it all. Again, making sure not to break up the crab pieces too much.
- The batter might look a bit dry, but it should form into rounds without falling apart. With your hands, carefully separate the batter into 12 rounds. Flatten them gently to create “patties.”
- Spray the air fryer basket with nonstick spray and place the formed crab cakes inside, leaving space in between. You may need to cook the crab cakes in batches, depending on the size of your air fryer.
- Air fry the crab cakes at 370 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until they’re perfectly golden brown with an internal temperature around 160 degrees F.
- Serve air fryer crab cakes on a bed of roasted corn succotash with a dollop of homemade remoulade sauce on top.
For the Roasted Corn Succotash
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Prepare a sheet pan with nonstick spray.
- Add the corn, bell pepper, zucchini, edamame, and shallot to the sheet pan. Lightly toss with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper.
- Roast the vegetables in the oven for about 20 minutes, until they're cooked through.
- In a small bowl, mix together the lime juice, honey, dill, salt, and pepper.
- Add the roasted vegetables to a large mixing bowl and pour the dressing over top. Mix to combine. Drizzle with additional olive oil if needed.
For the Homemade Remoulade Sauce
- Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Stir to combine.
Notes
- Jumbo lump crab meat: this is one of the most important components of the air fryer crab cakes (obviously!) so it’s important to purchase good quality crab. My recommendation is to use fresh instead of canned crab meat. Fresh crab may be more expensive than canned, but it’s SO worth it. You can find fresh jumbo lump crab meat in the refrigerator near the fish and seafood counter of your grocery store. It’s often in a plastic container. For this recipe, I used 2 containers of Chicken of the Sea Lump Crab Meat from Costco.
- If you’re not a fan of celery, you can leave it out.
- If you don’t have Old Bay seasoning on hand, you can try a combination of ground mustard, paprika, and celery salt, but the resulting flavor might be a bit different. I’d highly recommend buying Old Bay! It will last you a long time.
- If you don’t have an air fryer, you can bake or pan fry these crab cakes instead: For the oven method, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray it generously with nonstick spray. Place the crab cakes on the baking sheet, leaving space between them. Bake them for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they’re golden brown. If one side seems to get darker than the other, you can flip them halfway through. For the pan fry method, heat a small layer of mild oil (canola, vegetable, or olive oil) in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop a small piece of crab in the oil. If it sizzles, add the crab cakes in a single layer, leaving space between them. If the crab doesn’t sizzle, heat the oil a bit longer and try again. Leave the crab cakes to cook for a minute or two, gently check them, and flip them over when they’re golden brown. Allow the other side to cook in the oil and remove them from the skillet once both sides are golden brown. The internal temperature should be about 160 degrees F.
- For mini air fryer crab cakes, form the batter into 24 small rounds instead of 12. Place them in the air fryer basket and air fry at 370 degrees F for about 5 minutes. If they are not perfectly golden brown, continue to cook for another minute or so. The internal temperature of the crab cakes should register around 160 degrees F.
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Erin
IT WAS VERY EASY HEALTHY AND DELICIOUS. ITS GONNA BE A FAVORITE RECIPE.
Alana Lieberman
So glad you enjoyed it! This recipe is a favorite in our family as well. Thank you for the kind feedback!
Lori
This is definitely a home run!!!! 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Out of 5!!! Please reward yourself and make these! You can thank me later!!! 👍🏼😋🥰
Alana Lieberman
Thank you! So happy you liked them!