Air Fryer Hot Crab Dip

Delicious and creamy air fryer crab dip is a great appetizer! For holidays, parties or game day, our air fried hot crab dip recipe is hard to resist.

Easy Air Fryer Crab Dip Recipe

This is one of our favorite appetizer recipes in the air fryer. Best of all, our air fryer crab dip is super easy to make. We’ve figured out a way to make sure the whole dip cooks through evenly. We used this technique on our air fryer spinach dip recipe too. You saw it here first! As this technique wasn’t found anywhere else online when we first developed it.

Video: Air Fryer Hot Crab Dip

Tips on How to Make Air Fryer Hot Crab Dip

• Use a quality chunky brand of lump crab. The flavor and texture will be much better. Or if you are using the canned brand, you can double the amount of crab for more flavor. Here’s a survey of the best crab meat in a can.
• Each air fryer cooks differently, so monitor the dip so the top doesn’t burn. That’s why our recipe tells you to stir the dip at twice during cooking.
• Hot sauce is nice! Add some red chili flakes or hot sauce to the dip if you love spicy dips!
• All air fried hot crab dip recipe details are in the recipe box below.

What to Serve with Crab Dip?

Crackers or grilled bread is fantastic and filling too. For a low carb or keto version, serve the hot crab dip with vegetables! Pretzels also are great too for that extra crunch factor and salt. Celery, carrots, bell peppers and sliced cucumbers are a few examples of how to make the dip more keto friendly.

Can you Make-Ahead Air Fryer Crab Dip?

Yes, you definitely can! Just make the mixture and add the raw mixture to the air fryer bucket or vessel. Refrigerate the filled vessel up to 3 days before cooking. When you’re ready to cook, take the dip out of the fridge about 2 hours before air frying. This will allow the dip to come to room temperature. Then air fry the dip and you’re ready to serve! Also, if you’re serving the dip with veggies then you can prep the veggies the day ahead too. That way, everything is prepped and all you need to do is to air fry.

Bucket-style Baking Pan

These bucket-style baking cake pans are perfect for this recipe. They are often found in air fryer accessory kits, but you can buy just the pan here. The handles make it much easier to take out of basket style air fryers.

Air Fryer Hot Crab Dip

Yield: 8 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 45 minutes mins

Total Time: 55 minutes mins

The quality of the crab meat makes all the difference for flavor. Some canned crab is really mushy, while others have big chunks of crab. If using canned crab that's watery, you should consider adding double the crab for more flavor.

We love the handled cake barrel because it’s deep enough to fit the whole batch. The deeper the dish, the longer it may take for the dip to cook through. Stirring the dip twice during cooking helps ensure all the ingredients cook evenly without burning the top crust. More info about baking vessels in notes below.

5 from 7 votes

{click on stars to rate}

PRINT RECIPE Review Save to Pinterest

Ingredients

• 6.5 oz. (184 g) lump crab meat *see headnote, drained if necessary
• 8 oz. (227 g) cream cheese (1 package), softened
• 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 medium onion , diced
• 4 green onions , chopped
• 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup (240 ml) mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup (50 g) freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) black pepper
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) minced parsley , for garnish

For Serving

• 4 wedges fresh lemon , for squeezing
• Chips, crackers, bread or for gluten-free serve with vegetables

Equipment

• Air Fryer
• 7” Accessory Cake Bucket Pan

Instructions 

• Spray the baking dish *see note below* with cooking spray or olive oil.
  
• In large bowl, combine cream cheese, lemon juice, onions, green onions, Worcestershire sauce, mayo, parmesan cheese and black pepper. Gently fold in lump crab meat until it's combined into the cheese mixture.
  
• Add the dip mixture into the baking dish. Place at the baking dish into the air fryer basket/tray.
  
• Air Fry at 300°F/150°C for 20 minutes. After cooking for 20 minutes, stir the dip.
  
• Continue Air Frying at 300°F/150°C for 10 minutes. Stir the dip again.
  
• Increase heat to 340°F/170°C and then continue air frying for 5-10 minutes or until golden brown.
  
• Top with minced parsley. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Serve with your favorite chips, crackers, bread or vegetables. Add a side of lemon wedges if you want if anyone wants to squeeze fresh juice on their serving.
  

Notes

BAKING VESSELS

Find an oven-safe dip vessel to fit your air fryer basket or rack. One full batch will fit in a deeper 6.5”x3” baking dish. If your air fryer is too small or you only have smaller shallow baking dishes, cook the dip in two batches. If cooking anything less than the full volume of dip, cook for less time and keep checking until it’s finished with a brown crust.

Baking ramekins also make great vessels to cook the dip in. 

If your air fryer is preheated or if you are cooking multiple batches, you may need to reduce timing by a few minutes (unless preheating is called for in the recipe).

Video

Nutrition Information per Serving

Calories: 341kcal, Carbohydrates: 3g, Protein: 9g, Fat: 33g, Saturated Fat: 10g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 13g, Monounsaturated Fat: 8g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 58mg, Sodium: 579mg, Potassium: 148mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 523IU, Vitamin C: 4mg, Calcium: 119mg, Iron: 1mg

Course: Appetizer, Dips

Cuisine: American

Calories: 341