Creamy Crab Bisque - CopyKat Recipes (2024)

Crab Bisque is served in many fine restaurants. You can make this creamy and rich soup at home. This is an easy crab bisque recipe to prepare. Seafood lovers will rejoice when they take a spoonful this bisque with the distinctive crab flavor that only a bisque can deliver.

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What makes crab bisque so good?

If you love creamy crab bisque, you know it’s the perfect dish to start a meal. This flavorful soup bursts with crab flavor and has a velvety texture everyone loves.

Easy Crab Bisque Soup

Different types of seafood bisque are served in many fine restaurants. Crab bisque is a rich and creamy soup that makes a fantastic appetizer in a small quantity. It also makes a delicious first course or is hearty enough to serve as an entrée with some crusty bread and a salad. And this crab bisque recipe is straightforward to make at home.

Many bisque styles of soups are made with the shells of the seafood that is served. And yes, this soup is made with the shells of the crab. So if you buy some crab legs, you may want to consider making a crab bisque with the leftover shells.

The Secret to Making the Best Stock for Crab Bisque

Many soups and stews have their primary flavor from their stocks, and bisque is no exception. Plus, there is one secret ingredient in a bisque stock: time. Simulating the shells with aromatics takes several hours to make a deep, rich stock.

Place the shells in a large pot or a stock pot to make the crab shell stock for this crab bisque recipe. You add some coarsely chopped onions, leeks, celery, and carrots. Then fill the pot with enough water to fully cover everything and cook on low heat for several hours.

I prefer to season the stock when it nears completion. This way, you can taste it and see what it needs. Seasoning stock while it cooks is judging your food way too early. Once your stock is ready, this soup comes together fairly quickly (see instructions).

What Does Crab Meat Taste Like?

Eating crab is a bit like eating soft white meat with a mildly sweet flavor. Depending on the type of crab, it could have a more or less salty taste to it.

Different Types of Crab to Eat

• Maryland Blue Crab – has a distinctive blue shell that can turn bright purple when cooked. The meat is lovely, and blue crabs are the best for making crab cakes.
• Soft-Shell Crab – This Maryland blue crab has just grown out of its hard shell and formed a soft shell during the molting process. These crabs are ideal for making fried crab sandwiches (boiling them will make them fall apart).
• Dungeness Crab – This crab is named after Dungeness Bay in Washington State. The meat is more delicate and slightly less sweet than the Maryland Blue Crab.
• Snow Crab – In Canada, these crabs are also called queen crabs, and only the males are kept when harvested. The females are thrown back into the water to sustain the crab stock. Snow crabs have a delicious, sweet taste.
• Florida Stone Crab – The claws on the stone crab easily detach from the body, enabling the crab to escape predators. These claws then quickly regenerate. When a stone crab is caught, the claws are torn off, and the crab is released back into the ocean. This promotes incredible sustainability. The meat in the claws is amazingly delicious and is reminiscent of lobster, making the stone crab an expensive dinner option.
• Alaskan King Crab – is the largest crab species in the eastern hemisphere. A king crab can have a 5- 6-foot span between the middle legs. This enormous leg size yields some substantial pieces of meat with a unique sweet taste.

What Is the Difference? Bisque vs Soup

• All bisques are soups, but all soups are not bisques.
• Soup is commonly prepared from meat and/or vegetables together with a liquid such as water or stock such as vegetable stock or chicken broth or chicken stock.
• Bisque is a smooth and creamy soup with a French origin. A classic bisque is based on a strained broth from the shells of crustaceans.
• A bisque has more cream than a soup (including a cream soup). The cream in a bisque is added early in the cooking process and later in a soup.

Recipe Ingredients

Here’s what you need to make the stock and bisque:

• Crab shells
• Onion
• Rib Celery
• Leek
• Carrots
• Butter you can use salted butter or unsalted butter
• Shallots
• All-purposeflour
• Sherry
• Heavy cream
• Cooked lump crabmeat

You can use shrimp or lobster for the recipe if you don’t have crab. You can interchange the crab, lobster, and shrimp. This is a good soup to make when trying to get the most value out of shellfish, which can be pretty expensive.

How to Make Seafood Stock

To make crab shell stock, you place all of the leftover shells in a soup pot or large saucepan.

Add some coarsely chopped onions, leeks, celery, and carrots. Fill the pot with enough water to cover all stock ingredients fully.

Cook the stock at a low temperature for several hours.

I do not like to add salt and other seasonings at this time. I want to season the soup when it nears completion. This way, you can taste the ingredients and see what they need. Seasoning stock while you cook is judging your food way too early.

After 3 to 4 hours, you will want to drain the stock and toss all of the solids. You will then reduce the remaining liquid by half. Now, you will have a super concentrated and flavorful stock to make your crab bisque.

My big tip is to not let the stock boil now. You want it to simmer only. Allowing a stock to boil means you will have a cloudy store.

Once you have your stock ready, this soup comes together fairly quickly.

How to Make Crab Bisque

1. Melt butter in a pot or a dutch oven over medium heat.
2. Saute the aromatics like shallots and celery in the melted butter until soft.
3. Add some flour and cook a roux.

See Also

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3. After the roux cooks for a minute or two, you will add the remaining liquids in small but equal batches.
4. You can puree the soup and run it through a sieve if you want a smooth bisque.
5. Then add some cooked crab to the bisque and enjoy it.
6. If desired, you could garnish the soup with some fresh parsley or other herbs like fresh chopped chives.

What to Serve with Crab Bisque

• Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits
• Homemade Crostini
• Salad with Easy Ceasar Dressing

How to Store Leftover Crab Bisque

Be sure to store the leftover crab bisque in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat the soup on low in a pot on the stove. You will want to reheat this soup slowly and gently for the best results.

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