This Imitation Crab Mac And Cheese is a much cheaper option than real crab, but it still tastes very delicious. It's cheesy, creamy, and simple to make. All you do is combine the ingredients and bake.
I remember one time I made a crab bake for a potluck, and just the crab meat alone costed me over $60. The total for all the ingredients added up to around $80. That's an expensive appetizer! Not to mention, it took me an hour to pick all the crab meat from the shells.
Recently, I decided to make crab mac and cheese for another potluck. But this time, I wanted it to be quicker and cheaper, so I used imitation crab meat instead. It ended up very delicious and actually many people asked for the recipe. So here it is!
Key Ingredients
Imitation Crab
You can buy imitation crab in sticks or flakes. It does not really matter what you choose for this recipe. At my store, the sticks were on sale, so I'm using that today. I chopped them into small bite-sized pieces.
Cheddar Cheese
For the cheese, you want to use a sharp cheddar cheese (or old cheddar cheese). I recommend getting a block and shredding it yourself rather than buying it pre-shredded. Pre-shredded cheese usually has starches which prevent it from melting as nicely.
Heavy Cream
In addition to the milk, I like adding a small amount of heavy cream to make the mac and cheese richer. It is not required by any means, and you can replace it with more milk or half and half if you want.
Flour
This is extremely important for thickening the sauce so that it is creamy and coats the macaroni well. You want to cook the flour in the butter for a few minutes. This will add flavor to the flour and also prevent it from clumping.
Why I love adding breadcrumbs
Macaroni and cheese is a pretty one-dimensional dish in terms of texture. It's mostly just really soft. A little bit of crunchy breadcrumbs on top goes a long way.
My favorite breadcrumbs to use are Panko breadcrumbs. They are usually used for breading Japanese deep-fried dishes, but you can use them on mac and cheese too. If you can't find panko, you can just use regular breadcrumbs or even blend your own bread in a food processor.
Imitation Crab Mac And Cheese
Ingredients
- ½ pound elbow macaroni (8oz/250g)
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 ¼ cups milk
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ pound imitation crab (8oz/250g; cut into bite-sized pieces)
- ⅓ cup breadcrumbs
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375℉ and set the rack in the middle position.
- Cook the elbow macaroni according to the package directions (minus 1 minute). Drain in a colander and set aside.
- Melt the butter in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes, whisking constantly, until it develops a golden color.
- Whisking constantly, gradually add the milk and heavy cream. Once the mixture boils, reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking for 2 minutes until it thickens to the consistency of heavy cream. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheddar cheese, salt, and black pepper.
- To a large bowl or pot, add the macaroni, imitation crab, and cheese sauce. Mix until combined. Pour the mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish (see notes). Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the breadcrumbs are golden brown.
Cynthia Hendrickson
This was delicious! I used half panko and half ritz cracker crumbs on top. I also didn’t have cream so I used all whole milk. It was a hit and even my husband, who stated he didn’t like imitation crab, loved it. Thanks for the recipe! I just hope it reheats well and want to try freezing some, as well 🤞🏼
Grumpy
Thanks, Cynthia. Ritz crackers are an amazing idea! I'll definitely be trying that one. And yeah they should reheat well. The last time I made this, I reheated leftovers by airfrying it for 10 minutes. The top gets extremely crispy and it arguably tastes even better than fresh.
Karen
I brought this to my son who just got a new apartment. He absolutely loved it and has asked me to make more. I followed the recipe exactly but doubled it which I will be doing again for when he comes home!!
Grumpy
So glad he liked it! Thanks for the great review 🙂