Crab Cake Hushpuppies
Take your fried food game to a whole new level! These Crab Cake Hushpuppies combine two favorites into one.
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Did you know that there is a national (or at least Southern) hushpuppy championship? How have I lived this long and not heard about this!? Hosted in Lufkin, Texas each fall, this event challenges teams of contestants to put forth their best hushpuppy recipe. And there is a respectable amount of cash on the line for the winning team – $1,500!
I was reading through last year’s entry form for the Southern Hushpuppy Championship, and I noticed that teams need a team name and a theme – including costumes. So I get to dress up in a ridiculous costume and cook hushpuppies all day? Where do I sign up?? (The only challenge might be finding friends who would be willing to join me in this venture.)
Crab Cake Hushpuppies
Crab Cake HushpuppiesNow I don’t know how creative you can be in the Southern Hushpuppy Championship, but I’d like to think these Crab Cake Hushpuppies would make a serious run at the title. If you aren’t familiar with hushpuppies, then you need to be!
A hushpuppy is a staple side dish in Southern American cuisine. Hushpuppies are essentially cornmeal batter fried until golden brown, and they’re often served alongside fried fish. You can get really creative with the ingredients – I’ve seen everything from chopped shrimp to crumbled sausage to dessert hushpuppies (apple fritter hushpuppies, anyone?).
I put on the creativity cap recently and decided to make these Crab Cake Hushpuppies. My wife loves crab cakes. If there are crab cakes on a menu, she’s ordering ’em. (Well, as long as they don’t have red peppers in them. Don’t even try talking to her about crab cakes with red peppers.)
Me? I love hushpuppies. What can I say? I’m from the South. I love all things fried. (Well, maybe not fried grasshoppers. I hear these are a popular item at Seattle Mariners home games – I’ll pass, though.) With the goal of combining hushpuppies with crab cakes, I hit the kitchen to see what I could whip up.
For these Crab Cake Hushpuppies, I started with my classic hushpuppy base and added green onions, Old Bay seasoning and lump crabmeat. I also traded out the buttermilk for beer in an effort to make these hushpuppies a bit more airy in texture – similar to what you might find with beer-battered fish. The result was well received! Laura took one bite of these Crab Cake Hushpuppies, and she immediately gave them a thumbs up.
Hushpuppies aren’t typically served with a dipping sauce, but I decided to make a remoulade sauce for these. Crab cakes (at least in Louisiana) are often served with remoulade sauce, so I thought that would be a fun addition here. All in all, these hushpuppies were a fun creation. Part crab cake, part traditional hushpuppy, these Crab Cake Hushpuppies are a fun way to put a twist on a traditional Southern side dish. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
Did you make a batch of these Crab Cake Hushpuppies at home? Leave a comment, or snap a photo and tag me on Instagram (@Spicedblog). I’d love to see your version!
Crab Cake Hushpuppies
Ingredients
For the Remoulade Sauce
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 Tbsp ketchup
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp hot sauce
- ½ tsp Cajun seasoning
- 2 Tbsp chopped Italian parsley
- 2 Tbsp chopped green onions
- ½ cup diced celery
For the Hushpuppies
- 1 8.5-oz. box corn muffin mix
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1½ tsp Old Bay seasoning
- 1½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp chopped Italian parsley
- 8 oz. lump crabmeat
- ¼ cup chopped green onions
- 1 large egg
- ½ Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- ½ Tbsp lemon juice
- ½-¾ cup beer lager or ale
- vegetable or canola oil for frying
Instructions
For the Remoulade Sauce
- Place all ingredients in a food processor or mini-chopper; blend until smooth. Set sauce aside.
For the Hushpuppies
- Using a medium mixing bowl, add cornmeal, flour, baking powder, Old Bay, sugar, onion powder, garlic powder and parsley; stir until well combined.
- Add crabmeat, green onions, egg, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and beer; stir until well combined. (Note: Start with ½ cup of beer, but add more as needed until batter is moistened.)
- Using a deep fryer or a large Dutch oven, heat the canola or vegetable oil to 375°F. Oil should be ~2-3” deep. (An easy way to check the temperature is to drop a pinch of flour in the oil. If it bubbles up and turns brown quickly, then the oil is ready.)
- Using two spoons, drop rounded tablespoons of batter into oil. (Tip: Fry these hush puppies in batches of 8-10 to avoid overcrowding pan.)
- Fry until golden brown (~3-4 minutes).
- Using a metal slotted spoon, remove hush puppies from the oil and let drain on paper towels or brown paper bags.
- Salt lightly and then serve with remoulade sauce for dipping.
Looking for more tasty fried recipes? Check out these other Southern favorites, too:
Will be making this soon for the sauce can i use vegan mayo and coconut cream and for the hushpuppies can i use mushrooms and flax egg as am a vegan i never had hushpuppies before wrong date again it is 2 august 2021 perfect for my after office snacks pl i love your recipes as always brightens up my day after work everyday will dm you if i make this and let you know how it goes Thanks Ramya
Hey Ramya! Yes, you can absolutely use vegan mayo and coconut cream for this recipe. The mushrooms and flax egg should work as well. I love hushpuppies – they are a common side dish in the American South, and I grew up eating them all the time. This version with crab in it is fun, although I like your idea of adding chopped mushrooms!
Wow! The crab definitely takes hushpuppies to a new level. Also love the idea of beer in the batter. I really want to try this, but lump crab is literally $50 a pound where I live. Trying to justify it! Do you know about how many hushpuppies this recipe makes, and are the 8 servings appetizer servings?
Oh I get it on the cost of lump crab meat, Kim! I literally did a double-take in the store when I went to buy a can. I was able to justify it as Laura’s parents were in town, and they love crab, too. So the number of hushpuppies will change a bit based on how big the spoonfuls are that you drop into the oil. I estimated that we got 8 servings, but those would be on the larger side. I think you could easily go with 12 smaller (2-3 hushpuppy) servings here. (On a side note, we discovered that leftover hushpuppies reheat well in a toaster oven!) If nothing else, just omit the crab and make regular hushpuppies – we can’t find hushpuppies up here, so I always get excited when I make a batch here at home!
If i were the judge at that contest -THESE would win for sure! I love all things fried too, though i try to pace myself, but these would be irresistible!
On a side note, I have been trying the whole plant-based thing for 2 months now and these crab cake hush puppies are seriously making me rethink my choices! Goodness if these were on a plate by me now, I would gladly give up the whole plant based diet thing and do some serious damage to a batch of these! Amazing! Simply amazing!
Fried food is so dangerous because it’s so good! 🙂 Kudos to you for doing the plant-based diet! I know I wouldn’t be able to do that, but then again I’ve been stalking some of your tasty recipes, and maybe I could do it…at least for a couple of weeks until I needed a cheeseburger. Haha! Either way, thanks for the comment, Shashi!
to me a hush puppy is a type of shoe david!! i do love crab so these sound great. i love crab but hubby doesn’t so we don’t have it at home. people like to catch them here in the mangroves (moreton bay bugs aka slipper lobsters) to cook up at home. I believe the indigenous peoples ate them often. and how lucky were they!
Haha – a hushpuppy is indeed a type of shoe. It also happens to be a delicious bit of fried cornmeal batter. 🙂 Hushpuppies are a common side dish in the American South (particularly with fried fish), and I love them! The crab is just a fun twist on the recipe. Interesting note about catching crab in the mangroves! We took a trip down South earlier this summer, and it was fun seeing all of the crab traps waiting to be collected. Thanks, Sherry!
I didn’t know about this national hushpuppy championship. But let’s be completely honest – I didn’t know about
hushpuppies until this post either.
I mean how have I lived this long and not heard about them?! (But that’s your fault anyway!) Thank you David for fixing my ignorance lol They look and sound splendid – so crisp and nicely browned and I bet soooooo delicious!
Haha – well then it’s no surprise that you haven’t heard about the national hushpuppy championship! But now that you know about it, you kinda want to go, right?? I mean how fun would that be?! I do accept full blame for not introducing you to hushpuppies sooner. They are a common side dish in the American South, and I love them! This version with crab in it was a fun little experiment on the classic. I recommend it!
Every year, my family go to Maryland to enjoy steamed blue crabs and we always order hush poppies as a side dish. This sounds fantastic with crab meat inside. What a great idea! Looks crisp and delicious.
No way! The trip to Maryland for steamed blue crabs sounds quite familiar, Holly. We do the same thing! In fact, Laura’s love for crab is what inspired me to add crabmeat to hushpuppies. These turned out quite well I have to say!
Love hushpuppies! The crab cake looks like a wonderful addition, David! My favourite is with lots of corn niblets… love the sweetness!
Ah yes, I do like hushpuppies with corn niblets! Oh man, now I’m craving a batch of those. 🙂 Thanks, Michelle!
David, I’d proudly join you for the Lufkin hushpuppy battle if I didn’t live so far away. Oh, and yes I think your’s would get the judge’s attention.
You know a hushpuppy recipe can be sacred in some families. I have our family recipe that was passed to me by my grandmother, but only after a lord’s promise I would never reveal its two secret ingredients. Nope, I’m not saying what they are, but I can say neither is crabmeat. What a perfect addition to the old hushpuppy. You know your crab hushpuppy reminds me of Southern-style crab-stuffed flounder. But like Kim, the cost of lump crab meat is sky-high here. Hmmm, maybe I try using chopped shrimp…
Ah, I would’ve been proud to have you on the hushpuppy competition team, Ron! I suspect you would’ve joined in our efforts to win the costume contest, too, right? 🙂
You’re killing me not revealing the 2 secret ingredients in your family’s hushpuppy recipe! You’ve got my interest piqued for sure. And, yes, crabmeat is a bit unusual in hushpuppies, but I had fun with this little experiment. I think chopped shrimp would be a fine substitute given the cost of crab.
Youre recipe looks like a winning one, if I live there I would be glad to come along with you on that venture
I’m thinking we could put a pretty good team together for those hushpuppy championships! Thanks, Raymund!
David! I love a good Hush Puppy! I remember first trying them at a fast-food place many years ago called Long John Silvers! Since then I’ve had better ones than that, but I have to say, these gems with crabmeat sound like the best ever! Love this recipe!
Yes! Long John Silvers does indeed have hushpuppies – or they used to at least. I don’t think we have Long John Silvers up here in New York. Either way, I highly recommend making a batch of homemade hushpuppies – they’re amazing! And then you add some crabmeat in there, too? Talk about a fun combo! Thanks so much!!
Part crab cake, part hushpuppy, you can count me in on wanting several. I like both so I know I would really enjoy your creation.
Thanks so much, Karen! These crab cake hushpuppies were a fun creation – one of my favorite things combined with one of Laura’s favorite things. 🙂