Whether you’re on team king crab, snow crab or Dungeness, this sweet suite of wild-caught crustaceans needs to be in your seafood brunch rotation. Distinctive in flavor and texture, yet delicate enough not to overpower your favorite brunch dishes, fresh crab meat integrates effortlessly into a range of indulgent weekend meals, from benedicts to hashes to bread puddings.
To prep for your Saturday and Sunday brunch crab recipes, just make sure to move the crab legs from the freezer to the refrigerator the night before so that they’re ready to crack open the next morning.
Here are 6 crab brunch recipes that always please.
Crab Quiche
Fit for royalty, Epicurious’s king crab quiche is the ideal brunch dish for a rainy day. The quiche batter is a cheesy, herby mixture that is delicious on its own, but the king crab is the key to making this quiche memorably decadent. If you’re short on time, you can buy a premade pie crust rather than making your own… but to really do this recipe justice, we highly recommend taking the time to make the crust from scratch.
Crab Breakfast Hash
This crab hash from Michael Schwartz is a hearty way to serve crab for brunch. Topped with poached eggs, the hash of potatoes and lump crab meat — either Dungeness or king crab will do here — becomes a glorious mess of flavor and texture. And whatever you do, don’t leave out the mustard greens: Their mild bitterness really sets off the sweetness of the crab meat.
Crab Cakes Benedict
Crab cakes benedict is a classic when it comes to crab meat brunch recipes. But John Currence’s recipe for eggs benedict nixes the traditional English muffin and replaces it with zingy Louisiana-style crab cakes. It’s a brunchy mashup well worth making on a leisurely morning when you’ve got time to spare and a couple extra helping hands, as it’s a multi-step recipe that takes a bit of effort to make — you’ve got to pick the crab meat (preferably Dungeness) and transform it into crab cakes, make hollandaise from scratch, and poach a pan full of eggs, all while timing everything perfectly so that each component is piping hot upon serving.
Crab Salad Blinis
Diversify your blini topping options by taking a cue from Mary Berry, whose recipe for crab salad blinis is light and lovely — and a good complement to smoked sockeye, if you’re serving salmon with your blinis too. Opt to use king crab for the crab salad, if you can, as it will make a particularly elegant crab salad that you’ll want to pile high on the blinis. Feel free to use this recipe for blini batter, or whip up a batch of our quick and easy buckwheat blinis instead for another level of flavor. [https://wildalaskancompany.com/blog/quick-smoked-salmon-blinis]
Savory Crab Bread Pudding
The next time you’re hosting a little gathering for brunch, add Food & Wine’s recipe for a crab bread pudding to the menu. It’s a classic mix of bread pudding ingredients — milk, eggs, and day-old bread — but made savory with some fresh green herbs and sweet crab meat. Any variety of crab will do, but we think king crab is a particularly good choice: Its lobster-like texture and buttery flavor will bring out the most notable qualities of bread pudding.
Crab Frittata
Elevate your breakfast-in-bed routine with this crab frittata recipe from Gayle Pirie and John Clark. Dungeness is ideal to use in this frittata, adding just a touch of brininess to the meal. Its salty-sweet flavor matches up really nicely to the delicate creaminess of creme fraiche and ricotta. Note: A handful leftover roasted potatoes stirred into the frittata gives the meal heft — but if you don’t have any on hand, you could saute up a small batch of potatoes instead, though you’ll be missing out on the hearty texture of roasted potatoes.
Photo courtesy of ASMI - Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI)
