Spicy Crab Tacos (15-Minute Meal!)

Crab meat seems super summery and exotic, but did you know that they have lump crab meat at the grocery store in the canned goods section? You can find it near the canned tuna. I know canned crab doesn’t seem that glamorous, but during this time of quarantine, we can have a lot of fun with it and make some great dishes. Think: crab tacos, crab rangoon, or even crab ravioli. And no, it doesn’t taste like sh*t because it’s canned. The crab itself is actually in fine condition, and with a little help of your cooking, you can make it taste almost as good as what you’re used to ordering at a restaurant.

So what’s the difference between this canned lump crab and the juicy fresh stuff? The main difference that I’ve noticed is the structure of the meat. The canned meat I’ve tried is a bit more stringy instead of firm, and I think this is because it’s sitting in a can of liquid that breaks it apart. This doesn’t mean it’s bad. It just means its not that jumbo lump meat you get at a restaurant. Instead, it kind of feels like that jumbo lump meat was put into a shredder and then put back together. The flavor is there but the texture got left behind a bit. I hope that doesn’t scare you off! Each can is $7 and makes about 4 tacos, so I want to be transparent. Clearly the texture didn’t scare me off, as I’m confident enough in this recipe to post it publicly.

I did a live demo of my crab tacos (I call them “guacos” since the crab meat is paired with deconstructed guacamole) and I’ve linked a cut down version of that above for you to watch.