Smoky Grilled Crab Dip
Crab, cream cheese, and cheddar in a foil pan on the grill grate. A car-camp appetizer that cooks while you do nothing.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 73
- protein
- 16 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- Grill grate
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Picked crab meat | 1 lb | lump or claw; pick through for shell fragments |
|---|---|---|
| Cream cheese | two 8 oz blocks | let it come to air temperature or it will not fold |
| Shredded cheddar | 2 cups | hold back 1/2 cup for the top |
| Mayonnaise | 1/2 cup | Duke's if you have it |
| Sour cream | 1/2 cup | |
| Grated parmesan | 1/4 cup | |
| Garlic | 2 cloves, minced | |
| Lemon | 1/2, juiced | |
| Old Bay or similar crab seasoning | 1 tbsp | |
| Worcestershire sauce | 1 tsp | |
| Hot sauce | 1 tsp | Crystal |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste | |
| Chives | 1 tbsp, chopped | dried works fine |
Method
- Get the grill or a bed of coals to a steady medium, around 325F. Bank the coals to one side so nothing sits over direct flame.
- Pick through the crab meat for shell. Do this in daylight, not by headlamp.
- In a bowl, stir the cream cheese until it loosens, then add mayo, sour cream, parmesan, garlic, lemon juice, crab seasoning, Worcestershire, hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Mix until even.
- Fold in the crab and 1 1/2 cups of the cheddar. Fold, do not beat; you want lumps of crab left.
- Scrape it into a disposable foil pan, level the top, and scatter the reserved cheddar over it.
- Set the pan on the grate over indirect heat and close the lid. Forty-five minutes, until the edges bubble and the top is browned.
- Pull it off, top with chives, and let it sit five minutes before anyone puts a cracker in it.
This is a cooler recipe, not a pack recipe. Cream cheese and crab both want ice, so it lives at the truck or in a raft cooler and nowhere else. What makes it worth the space is that once the pan is on the grate it needs nothing: no stirring, no watching, no second burner. It cooks while you set up tents.
Indirect heat is the whole trick. Straight over flame the dairy breaks and the bottom scorches long before the middle warms through. Off to the side with the lid down, it heats evenly and picks up smoke from the coals, which is the one thing an oven version cannot do. The lemon and hot sauce are there to cut the fat; leave them out and it reads as a bowl of warm cheese.
Packing
Mix everything except the crab and the topping cheese at home and carry it in a sealed quart container in the cooler. Crab rides in its own container on ice and goes in at camp. Bring the foil pan flat-packed and a bag of crackers that will not crush.
Variations
- No grill lid? Cover the pan tightly with foil and vent it for the last ten minutes to brown the top.
- Canned crab or a pouch of imitation crab drops the cost by most of the total and still works.
- A dutch oven with coals on the lid does this in about the same time and browns the top harder.
https://realtree.com/recipe/timber-2-table/smoky-grilled-blue-crab-dip