Maryland Crab Soup Recipe

best maryland crab soup recipe ever

Ingredients:

2 boxes of beef broth

1 can tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

1 yellow onion

Big bag frozen veggies

10-12 crabs

Old bay

Hot sauce

Recipe:

1. pick your crabs and set them aside

2. sauté onion in some oil. add garlic if you like.

3. add both boxes of broth and cook until hot

4. add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and frozen veggies. cook until veggies are tender.

5. add crab meat, old bay, and hot sauce

6. let everything cook together on low heat for 5-10 minutes

As someone who grew up in Maryland, I can tell you Maryland Crab Soup is a summer staple. I’m always the first one to call dibs on extra uneaten crabs when we get them for family events and Maryland Crab Soup is the easiest and most delicious recipe to use for the leftovers. I normally make a huge batch of soup and then divide it up in to-go containers and pass out to my family and friends. Picking the crabs is definitely a labor of love, but the rest of the soup is so simple and the final product is well worth it. 

The easiest way to start is by picking your crabs. Some folks make this soup with pre-packaged lump crab meat, but I’m convinced those people are not from Maryland. If you really want to keep it authentic, you’re gonna want to pick the crabs yourself and add the claws with all their delicious seasoning right to the soup. Hot take: potatoes do not belong in this soup. Fight me in the comments.

Once you have your crabs picked (you can keep all of the meat along with the claws in a bowl off to the side for now), you can chop your yellow onion and add it to a hot Dutch oven with some oil. Sometimes I’ll add a little garlic, as well, but it’s not required. When that’s nice and soft and your kitchen smells delicious, it’s time to add your beef broth. A lot of people add water instead of one of the boxes of broth, but I prefer a bolder, heartier flavor. Stir the onion together with the broth until it’s incorporated well and then cover and let it warm up for a few minutes.

After the broth has come to a low boil, add both cans of tomato product as well as the frozen veggies. Cook until the veggies are nice and soft (10 mins or so) and then reduce heat and add in your crab meat and claws. Now if you got your crabs in Maryland they’re already caked in Old Bay, so I would let everything cook together for several minutes before adding any seasoning. The crabs I had for this batch were ultra spicy, so I didn’t need nearly as much seasoning as I normally would. I do always add some Frank’s Hot Sauce no matter how spicy it already is, but that’s up to user discretion. 

Light enough for a hot, summer day but hearty enough for a whole meal, this Maryland Crab Soup is definitely a staple in our home.