This quick and easy Crab Bisque can be on your table (or in your mouth!) in under 30 minutes! This isn’t a thin Crab Bisque, crab is the star here, with carrots and celery taking second place, and the flavorful broth third. Plus, it’s lower in fat than traditional bisque! Read on for this creamy and delicious, lower-fat crab soup recipe.
Confession, I used canned lump crab in this recipe. Living in Northeast Pennsylvania leaves fresh shellfish pretty much nonexistent in the grocery stores, and I hate to admit it but I’ve never even been in a seafood market…so weird that my husband just called to tell me he is at one, and do I want anything? My answer, “Why have I never been there, and of course, crab cakes!” Ah, Friday’s during Lent (my husband is Catholic, I’m not), delicious seafood dinners! I can find refrigerated crab meat in the local stores, I just happened to buy canned this time.
Crab Bisque
I started this post and hoped to have it done on Friday, but then my daughter got the flu and a double ear infection, doctors on Saturday, distractions on Sunday, Monday I cleaned. So, this is a little late. My real life hasn’t been going the way I would have liked this Winter, thank goodness Spring is coming!
Back to the Crab Bisque recipe. I cut the vegetables small because I love crab, and I didn’t want to mask the crab with big chunks of carrots and celery. It’s just not fair to the crab! I do the same with my New England Clam Chowder
This soup is one of my favorite recipes with crab. It isn’t vegetarian because it uses chicken broth, so it’s not suitable for Lent. I used equal parts reduced-sodium chicken broth and light cream, to keep the fat as low as possible while still creamy and delicious.
Here are some more crab meat recipes for you to try:
Crab Lasagna Rolls with Blue Cheese Sauce
Hot Crab Rangoon Dip with Sesame Wonton Crisps
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Crab Bisque
Ingredients
- 3- 6 ounce cans fancy lump crab meat ,drained
- 2 stalks celery (reserve the celery leaves) finely diced (about 3/4 cup)
- 1 carrot ,diced small (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 clove garlic ,minced
- celery leaves ,chopped
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- 3 tablespoons reduced fat butter
- 2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups light cream
- 1/2 cup sherry (can use cooking sherry)
- 2-3 tablespoon all-purpose flour (depending on how thick you want the soup)
- black pepper ,to taste
Instructions
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a large pot. Add the carrots and celery, cook until just softened, 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Pour in the chicken broth, add the garlic, chopped celery leaves, chopped parsley, sherry, and pepper. Bring to a boil and cook for one minute. Reduce heat, stir in crab meat and light cream, stir and cook over low heat until heated through.
Nancy C says
Ive really ruined some crab bisque recipes by using the wrong sherry. Can you recommend a good sherry?
Bernadette says
Hi Nancy, Fino is usually a good cooking wine. To be honest, I have just used cooking sherry and reduced the salt before. I hope that helps!
Tee says
I made this…it was fantastic! I added corn, potatoes and a little bit of onion to mine and tossed in a bay leaf. This was a huge hit with my family and is now in my fall/winter soup rotation. Thank you for sharing this awesome, easy to make recipe 😋
Leslie Stahl says
I prefer a 50/50 mix of vegetable and seafood stock whether or not its Lent. It’s easy easy to make your own seafood stock by saving your fish heads, carcasses, and bones, along with shrimp and crawfish shells.
Start with 1-1/2 gallon of lightly salted water. Add a celery stalk finely chopped including the tops, a carrot finely chopped, 1/2 a small onion, coarsely chopped (leave on the onion skins), and 1 cup dry white wine. Simmer everything for 2 hours over low heat until reduced to about a gallon. Strain the shells, carcasses, bones and veggies through fine cloth to get a clear, very rich stock. It’s so easy! Just be sure to never throw away any seafood scraps, no matter the type. Pop them into a gallon size baggy and keep in the freezer until the bag is full. A full bag of shells, bones, and scraps will make a gallon of rich seafood broth.
Bernadette says
Great seafood stock recipe! I make chicken stock all the time, but never got around to making homemade seafood stock yet.
Jan says
Can this be made ahead and frozen?
Bernadette says
Hi Jan! If you want to make this ahead and freeze it, I would wait until you are reheating it to serve before adding the light cream. Cream (and milk) can separate when frozen. The rest will be fine reheated.
Renee says
Hi Bernadette, I’m in Carbondale, PA, and heading to Weiss’ tomorrow to get the ingredients… This looks and sounds great… Sometimes simplicity is always the best.. Thank you for sharing..
Stacey says
This looks delicious. What is the light cream that you use?
Bernadette says
I’m not sure which brand I used, Hood maybe. Any brand of light cream would be fine.
Stef says
If you want a lent compliant soup, next time use seafood stock. Kitchen Basics makes excellent stock if you don’t want to make it from scratch.
Bernadette says
Yes, I love Kitchen Basics stocks. I haven’t tried it with this soup yet, so I can’t say how it would be.
Debbie says
I used shrimp in mine along with the crab and my family loved it!
Thanks for sharing
Bernadette says
Shrimp is a great addition, I’m glad everyone loved it!
Sandra Larson says
I made this with fresh crab I bought and cleaned. After I cooked the initial soup, I put it in the blender, pureed it, then added more crab and reheated it. The end result is a thick soup with chunks of crab in it. Delish!!
Bernadette says
Hi Sandra, that sounds really good! I’m glad you liked it.
Suzanne Falardeau says
My friend made this last week and it was delicious! I’m going to make it for my next gathering.
Bernadette says
Hi Suzanne, I’m glad you liked it, and thanks for getting in touch 🙂
Chauna Montiel says
It looks very 😋 im going to the store and im going to try this thanks for your recipes
Mary Dalton says
How many servings does this make? Thanks.
Bernadette says
Hi Mary, I would say about six 1 cup servings. It’s been awhile since I made it, so I can’t say exactly, but definitely 4-6 servings.
Mary says
What size cans of lump crabmeat do you use? I have only bought the one pound cans. Does it take three pounds of crabmeat?
Bernadette says
Hi Mary!
Thank you for pointing out that I didn’t include what size cans I used! I am almost positive it was 6 ounce cans, for a total of 18 ounces, and have updated the recipe to include the size.
Nadya says
Hi, the recipe says 36 oz can of crab meat. So is it 36 or 18?
Thank you
Nadya
Nadya says
Never mind, I figured it out. Thank you
Bernadette says
Hi Nadya, it’s 3 cans, 6 ounces each.
mimi says
Huh. I have some canned crab that I was going to use along with other seafood for a lasagna, but was too scared to include it! But if you think it’s good, I’m going to try it! Thanks!!!
Bernadette says
It would mix in well, Mimi. It’s not as good as fresh crab, but WAY better than imitation!