Experience the taste of beautiful Charleston South Carolina in every single spoonful with this incredibly luxurious She Crab Soup! This quintessential Charleston Lowcountry classic features generous chunks of tender jumbo lump crab meat swimming in the most incredibly rich and velvety cream based soup. Serve with crusty bread and a lovely salad for an absolutely unforgettable and elegant dining experience!
When dining in Charleston, South Carolina, you will come across a delicacy called She Crab Soup.
This elegant soup is a quintessential dish of Charleston. You MUST try this dish when in the Charleston area, it is not to be missed.
But if you can't get to Charleston or you'd like to recreate this soup from your Charleston travels, as I did, you have come to the right place!
Here I am delighted to share an easy and delicious She Crab Soup Recipe with you! This dish is perfect to serve at special occasions or on a cold winter day, or any day for that matter!
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What Is She Crab Soup?
She crab soup, or she-crab, is named after female crabs, whose crab roe was a main ingredient in traditional she crab soup recipes. Crab roe is bright orange colored crab eggs found in female crabs.
Charleston she crab soup is a regional dish from the beautiful state of South Carolina.
This rich and creamy crab soup, similar to a crab bisque, usually includes milk or cream, fish or seafood stock, Atlantic blue crab, and some dry sherry. As mentioned, crab roe was also an ingredient in the traditional recipes.
So if you are keen to enjoy this rich soup that delivers mouthfuls of crab in each bite and a fantastic flavor, read on for my version of She Crab Soup!
🥘 Ingredients
Here are the precious ingredients that you will need for this crab soup recipe:
- Jumbo lump crab meat
- Onion
- Shallot
- Butter
- All purpose flour
- Seafood broth or seafood stock - can also use fish stock
- Salt
- White pepper - the flavor of pepper without changing the color of the soup
- Mace - can sub nutmeg
- Heavy cream
- Dry sherry - I used Manzanilla sherry
- Hard-cooked egg yolks - crab roe can be difficult to find, so we will sub these egg yolks for the roe
- Parsley (garnish)
Gather your ingredients together, roll up your sleeves, and let's make this incredible soup!
🔪 Instructions
So now let me show you how easy it is to make this Charleston delicacy!
First, add 2 tablespoons of butter to a saute pan on medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add the minced onion and shallot and saute for around 5 minutes, or until softened. Set this aside.
Now we will make a flour roux. Melt butter (4 tablespoons) to your large saucepan or large pot on medium heat. Add the flour (1 tablespoon at a time) to the melted butter, whisking constantly, for around 5 minutes. You are wanting to see a roux that is a light brown.
Slowly add the seafood broth to the roux, again whisking constantly until the mixture is smooth.
Now add the salt, white pepper, mace, shallot and onion mixture, and the cooked egg yolks to the mixture in the saucepan and give this a good stir. Bring to the boil, and then cover and simmer on a low simmer for 20 minutes.
It's time to add the cream and the jumbo lump crabmeat. Stir gently and then heat through for around 3-5 minutes.
Add the dry sherry and stir well. I tend to go heavy on the sherry. Feel free to reduce the amount to just a dash of sherry if you prefer.
Now your she crab soup is ready to serve!
Suggestions For Serving
Place in your serving bowls and garnish with parsley.
You can add a splash of hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or a little Old Bay Seasoning for some extra flavor if you like.
This creamy soup is perfect served with some crusty bread and a lovely salad. Savor every mouthful of this soup rich with crab flavor.
Enjoy to your hearts content!
FAQ
Store leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator and enjoy within 3 days.
Charleston Seafood sells crab roe online if you'd like the authentic she crab soup experience!
Some Other Great Recipes You May Enjoy!
Here are some other great recipes that you may enjoy:
- South Carolina Benne Wafers - these cookies are soo moreish!
- North Carolina Okra Fries
- Easy Cajun Crawfish Sauce
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Cheers!
Grace
Easy Charleston South Carolina She Crab Soup Recipe
Equipment
- 1 large saucepan or large pot for the soup
- 1 saute pan for sauteing the onion and shallot
- 1 whisk for the roux
Ingredients
- ½ lb jumbo lump crab meat 8 oz.
- 1 onion minced; select a small onion
- 1 shallot minced
- 6 tablespoon butter split (4 tablespoon for the roux, and 2 tablespoon for sauteing the onion and shallot)
- 4 tablespoon flour use all purpose flour
- 2.5 cup seafood broth
- ¾ ts salt
- ¼ ts white pepper
- ⅛ ts mace can sub nutmeg
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup dry sherry you can reduce the amount of sherry to just a splash if you prefer
- 2 egg yolks cooked and chopped; if you are fortunate enough to have some she crab roe, then by all means use that! I would add around ¼ cup - ½ cup of the roe
Garnishes
- parsley minced
Instructions
- Add 2 tablespoons of butter to a saute pan on medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add the minced onion and shallot and saute for around 5 minutes, or until softened. Set this aside.
- Now melt 4 tablespoons of butter to your large saucepan on medium heat. Add the flour (1 tablespoon at a time) to the melted butter, whisking constantly, for around 5 minutes. You are wanting to see a roux that is a light brown.
- Slowly add the seafood broth to the roux, again whisking constantly until the mixture is smooth.
- Now add the salt, white pepper, mace, shallot and onion mixture, and the egg yolks to the mixture in the saucepan and give this a good stir. Bring to the boil, and then cover and simmer on a low simmer for 20 minutes.
- It's time to add the cream and the jumbo lump crabmeat. Stir gently and then heat through for around 3-5 minutes.
- Add the dry sherry and stir well, and now your she crab soup is ready to serve! Place in your serving bowls and garnish with parsley. Enjoy to your hearts content!
Grace
Love this soup! Every mouthful includes tender bites of delicious crab and this reminds me of the she crab soup I had in the Low Country Charleston area!