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)