Crispy Thai Crab Cakes
Impress yourself and your guests with these crispy Thai crab cakes with quick sriracha mayo and homemade sweet chili sauce. The addition of small amount of shrimp will enhance the texture of the crab cakes. The crispness is irresistible.
“This are the best crab cakes I’ve ever had!” These are the words of praise that came out of my husband’s mouth when he took a bite of these lovely Thai style crab cakes.
Since I love crabs, I, of course, love anything made with crabs. Korean Chili Crab and Korean Crab Stew are a couple of examples I shared the recipe for using fresh crabs.
These classic Thai crab cakes are made with canned crabmeat. Using canned crabmeat is so convenient, and you don’t lose the delicious crab taste. I love to make these crab cakes often when I crave something crabby. They are crispy and so delicious. Honestly, I think they are better than the crab cakes you get from the local Thai restaurants.
I serve them with sriracha mayo and homemade sweet chili sauce for dipping. These two dipping sauces are easy and quick to put together. If you love Southeastern Asian food, don’t miss out these crispy Thai crab cakes. You won’t regret it.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Canned crabmeat, shrimp, green onion, red chili, cilantro, lime, egg, ginger puree, fish sauce, and panko crumbs.
Adding Shrimp: I like to add a little bit of shrimp to the crab cake mixture. The shrimp adds nice bite to the crab cakes and might lower the cost of the expensive crab meat. If you don’t want shrimp in your crab cakes, omit the shrimp but increase the amount of crab meat (use 3 cans instead of 2).
How to Make Classic Thai Crab Cakes
Drain the juice out of canned crabmeat. Chop shrimp into small pieces.
In a mixing bowl, combine crab meat, shrimp, green onion, cilantro, red chili, ginger puree, one egg, and panko crumbs. Season with fish sauce, lime juice, salt and pepper.
Mix the ingredients gently, and press them to make 2 1/4-inch in diameter and 3/4 inch thick patties.
You will need to coat these patties in the order of flour, egg, and then panko crumbs.
You can make these patties up to this step a few hours ahead of time if you want. Just keep them in the refrigerator until you are ready to fry them.
Heat a generous amount of oil in a pan over medium heat. Add patties and pan-fry them until they are golden and crisp, about 3-4 minutes. Flip to the other side and fry for another 3 minutes. Adjust the heat level if the surface browns too quickly.
Keep the first batch on a wired rack to prevent them from getting soggy on the bottom.
Homemade Sriracha Mayo and Sweet Chili Sauce
Making homemade sriracha mayo and sweet chili sauce is super easy and quick. They can last up to 1 month in the fridge.
1. Sriracha Mayo
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1 1/2 tbsp sriracha sauce
- 2 tsp lime juice
- salt & pepper to taste
Mix all the ingredients in a small mixing bowl and serve with crab cakes.
2. Homemade Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 6 tbsp water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 tsp red chili flakes
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water
Combine all the ingredients EXCEPT cornstarch in a small sauce pan. Bring to boil. Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl and add to the sauce mixture. Continue to cook for 1 minute until thickened.
Serve these crab cakes while they are warm with homemade sriracha mayo and/or sweet chili sauce. Enjoy the irresistible crispness and delicious taste of sweet, salty, sour and a hint of heat all mingled together. So good!
Other Thai Recipes to Try
- Classic Thai Beef Salad (Yum Nua)
- Tom Yum Goong, Thai style hot and sour soup
- Thai Beef and Basil Stir-Fry (Under 20 Minutes)
Crispy Thai Crab Cakes
Ingredients
Crab Cakes
- 2 (6 oz can) lump crab meat, drained well
- 5 medium shrimp, peeled and chopped finely
- 2 green onion, chopped finely
- 4 tbsp cilantro, chopped finely
- 1 red chili, chopped finely
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- salt & pepper, to taste
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumb
- 4 tbsp oil
To coat crab cake patties
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup panko breadcrumb
Sriracha Mayo
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 1/2 tbsp sriracha sauce
- 2 tsp lime juice
- salt and pepper , to taste
Sweet Chili Sauce
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 6 tbsp water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp red chili flakes
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, combine crab meat, shrimp, green onion, cilantro, red chili, ginger puree, one egg, and 1/2 cup panko crumbs. Season with fish sauce, lime juice, salt and pepper.
- Mix the ingredients gently, and press them to make 2 1/4-inch in diameter and 3/4 inch thick patties. (You will get about 8 patties)
- Beat 2 remaining eggs in a shallow bowl. Prepare flour and the remaining panko crumbs in separate bowls. Coat the patties in the order of flour, egg, and then panko crumbs.
- Heat a generous amount of oil in a pan over medium heat. Add patties and pan-fry them until they are golden and crisp, about 3-4 minutes. Flip to the other side and fry for another 3 minutes. Adjust the heat level if the surface browns too quickly.
- Keep the first batch on a wired rack to prevent them from getting soggy on the bottom.
- To make the sriracha mayo, combine all the ingredients in a small mixing bowl and mix well.
- To make the sweet chili sauce, mix rice vinegar, water, sugar, garlic, red chili flakes, and salt in a saucepan and bring to boil. Mix the cornstarch and 2 tbsp water in a small mixing bowl and add to the sauce mixture. Continue to boil until the sauce thickens. Remove the pan from heat and let it cool down.
- Sriracha mayo and sweet chili sauce can be stored in the refrigerator up to 1 month.
Hi, can you freeze these crab cakes after cooking and then reheat in the oven from frozen?
Yes, you can. It won’t be as crispy when it is freshly fried, but it will still be delicious!
These look wonderful! Is there anything that I can substitute the shrimp with? I would be making these for someone with a shrimp allergy.
Increase the amount of crabmeat as a substitute for shrimp. Hope you enjoy it.
Hi Holly. I want to make these crab cakes as they look delicious. Can i make them ahead of time, including breading, and stored in the fridge before cooking or would it be best to cook them ahead of time and gently warm through then needed?
Thanks
Peter
Hi Peter
Yes, you can prepare these patties ahead of time, up to the breading step, a few hours before frying them. Just store them in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook them. This is a better option than reheating them after frying, which can cause them to become soggy over time.
I’m so intrigued by this recipe! Laura loves crab cakes (and all things crab really), and we both enjoy Thai food – so combining crabcakes with Thai flavors sounds like something that needs to happen. These look so crispy and delicious!!
The recipe says to add bread crumbs to the crab mixture. How much? It says 1 ½ cups Panko, but that is for the breading part. I tried to make these and the mixture wouldn’t hold together so I couldn’t bread them (they just fell apart). I ended up cooking the mixture in a cast iron skillet with a layer of oil and panko on the bottom. I broiled the top with more oil and panko. The flavor was very good, but I wish the directions hadn’t been incomplete. If I try these again, I will add some amount (half cup?) of panko to the crab mixture.
Stephanie
I’m sorry for the missing direction. You need to add 1/2 cup of Panko to the mixture and the rest goes into breading. Since there’s lump crab meat in the mixture, it can be a little tricky to hold together to make patties. Press the patties firmly. After you coat them with flour, press them gently again to hold the shape, and then coat with egg carefully. Hope this helps. Thank you.
These crab cakes look so sumptuous and elegant – such a neat job! I love that you used canned crabmeat (So much easier), and I love all the flavours going on…well, I might need to substitute cilantro for myself 🙂
Thank Ben. I am a huge cilantro persona and love the fragrance it adds to the crab cakes. If you are not fond of cilantro, you can omit it. It still makes tasty cakes.
Love crab, and love crab cakes. Really like how you’ve seasoned these — different from what I’m used to. And I’ll bet I’d agree with your husband that these are the best ever!
Thanks, John. They are indeed great crab cakes with a wonderful flavor on every bite.
They look so crisp and yum! I need to find those canned crab meat to try.