Make this Crab Salad Sandwich recipe for lunch. They are tasty, creamy, and great for a quick lunch. Make them with real crab meat or imitation crab meat, either will be satisfying.

 

Lunchtime is usually one of the busier times of the day, especially if you’re making lunch from scratch. When it comes to lunch recipes, we love making quick and easy salad sandwiches. Sometimes it’s a sandwich with our Best Egg Salad recipe and other times is our Best Chicken Salad recipe. When we are craving seafood we make creamy and delicious Crab Salad Sandwiches.

Crabmeat is a bit of a dicey pick when it comes to proteins: you either love it or you don’t. It’s got this delicate and somewhat sweet flavor that blends in together perfectly with creamy mayo and veggies to make a perfect seafood salad that’s great on bread, croissants or a roll.

The flavor combo of perfectly seasoned and creamy crab salad mixed with the buttery and flakey bite of croissants makes for the perfect sandwich for lunch. Anyway you serve this Imitation Crab Salad, we’re sure you’re going to love it.

Why you’ll love this easy Crab Salad Sandwich Recipe

• Crab Salad Sandwiches are a great high-protein lunch option.
• We left plenty of room to make this recipe however you want. Use imitation crabmeat to save on time or use real crab instead; use whatever creamy mayo substitute you like; or swap the seasonings around to find the perfect flavor for you.

Crab Salad Ingredients

The ingredients for Crab Salad really aren’t that exotic or hard to find at your local grocery store. Outside of the crabmeat, you probably already have most of these ingredients in your fridge or pantry! In case you need to buy anything, here’s all the ingredients you need:

• Crab Meat – While you could make a fresh Crab Salad Sandwich, we found it a bit easier to use imitation crabmeat. This makes our recipe more of an Imitation Crab Salad or a “Krab Salad” if you want to call it that. We still think it turns out pretty good!
• Celery– just a couple of stalks. Add more if you would like more crunch!
• Red Onion – We prefer red onion but a white sweet onion can work too!
• Mayonnaise – go with your favorite… We used Duke’s.
• Old Bay Seasoning – Try not to skip this seasoning, it really adds flavor.
• Dill – You can use fresh dill if you’d like: we just felt like using this dried dill instead to keep things simple.
• Paprika
• Salt and Pepper

You’ll also want something to make your Crab Salad Sandwich with. We settled on these croissants for that little bit of extra buttery flavor and flakey texture in each bite. Any sort of bread will work out fine though, so pick your favorite! Even slider rolls are a great option.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Crab Salad Sandwiches

Whether you’re preparing this seafood salad recipe as a Crab Salad Sandwich, it’s so simple to make. Here’s all you’ll have to do:

1. Finely chop celery and red onion down into bite-sized pieces and add to a bowl with your chunked crabmeat. Add mayonnaise, Old Bay, dill, paprika, salt and pepper.
2. Gently stir ingredients together until combined and coated with mayonnaise and seasonings. Optionally cover and move to the fridge to chill for up to 2 days to let flavors meld more.
3. To serve, either transfer finished Crab Salad to a bowl and top with fresh dill or serve as a Crab Salad Sandwich on a halved croissant, roll or bread.

Substitutions

We tried to keep this Simple Crab Salad Sandwich recipe as easy as we could. With that in mind, we tried to leave some room for different substitutions for ingredients- here’s some you can give a try:

• Imitation Crabmeat – Of course, the best substitute for imitation crab meat is probably going to be real crab meat. You could use cooked fresh crab or canned crab here but note that these may be more expensive. For other crab substitutes, consider using shrimp or all sorts of white fish.
• Mayonnaise – All sorts of mayo substitutes will work here: mayo with olive oil, mayo with avocado oil, or Miracle Whip if you like the taste. You can also try using stuff like sour cream or Greek yogurt in a pinch. Some folks have even tried making Crab Salad with cream cheese- though it seems like that ends up more like a Crab Dip.
• Seasonings – We went with a simple blend of spices here, and you could easily substitute things out- like using Homemade Cajun Seasoning instead of Old Bay. Dill, for example, you can swap out for some parsley instead. You can also consider adding in a splash of lemon juice or white wine vinegar to brighten the taste up a little.

Variations

We think our Crab Salad Sandwich recipe turned out pretty good but we were interested in some of the other ways people approached the recipe. If you wanted a couple of different ways to modify this recipe the next time you make it, check these ideas out:

• Cold Crab Dip – Like we mentioned, some folks have tried making Crab Salad with cream cheese before and had it turn out more like a Crab Dip. If this is something you’re after, this might actually be a good thing! Consider blending the cream cheese with sour cream and maybe chopping your veggies more finely if you go down this route.
• Surimi Salad – This is an interesting Japanese spin on Crab Salad that’s pretty common at sushi places. Drop the Old Bay and paprika and reach for spices like ginger and sesame seeds. Drop the red onion and dill in favor of some green onions and consider adding in some soy sauce, sesame oil, and maybe a bit of sriracha for extra heat.

Storage / Freezing

Storage: You’ll want to keep your leftover Crab Salad in the fridge when you’re done with it. Like we pointed out, you might even like the taste of it better after its had some time to sit and meld for a day or two! Cover and keep in the fridge- it’ll be good for up to 3 days.

Freezing: You’ll want to lower your expectations a little bit if you plan on keeping your Salad frozen. Not only does mayo not freeze well, but those freshly chopped veggies might not hold up to well either. Still, if you want to try freezing, transfer to an airtight container and keep frozen for 3-6 months- let thaw in the fridge overnight before serving.

Other Sandwich Recipes

Looking for other sandwich recipes? Try these:

• CopyCat Panera Tuna Sandwich
• Classic Club Sandwich
• CopyCat Starbucks Egg Salad Sandwich
• CopyCat Chick- Fil-A Chicken Salad Sandwich

Other Seafood Recipes

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Copycat Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce

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