Mexican Style Crab Cake Tacos with Jalapeno and Lime Aioli

Today’s recipe is a crab cake and taco mashup!

These two favorites combine with a homemade jalapeno-lime aioli to create a delicious dish. This recipe for Mexican style crab cake tacos from Jen Reviews is clever and tasty. It consists of well-seasoned crab cakes with a vibrant aioli wrapped up in a corn tortilla.

Traditionally a Mexican dish, tacos usually consist of a corn or flour tortilla folded around a filling. The filling can be a variety of options including chicken, beef, pork, seafood, cheese, and vegetables. The exact history of the taco is unknown, but there are theories that it originated with Mexican miners.

Around the early 1900’s, tacos made their way to the United States. Mexican-American tacos were adapted to include fillings readily available in the U.S. like ground beef, lettuce, tomato, and cheddar cheese.

Crab cakes are a popular American dish, traditionally associated with the Chesapeake Bay. The star ingredient of this fishcake is lump crab meat. Other ingredients like mayonnaise or egg are used to hold the cakes together.

You can use any type of crab meat for our Mexican crab cake taco recipe, but blue crab is the popular choice. Cameron’s Seafood fresh lump crab meat is a great option for crab cakes, as it is handpicked fresh from blue crabs caught in the Chesapeake Bay. Shipped in 1 lb sealed containers, Cameron’s lump crab meat is ready to use in your favorite dish.

Let’s start cooking with this Mexican crab cake taco recipe!

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Mexican Style Crab Cake Tacos

Prep Time 2 hours

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

Ingredients Required to make Mexican Style Crab Cake Tacos

• Jalapeno Lime Aioli
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 1 roasted jalapeno seeded and peeled
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• ½ tsp salt

Crab Cake Tacos

• 1 cup Cameron’s Lump Maryland Crab Meat
• 2 cups panko bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp onion finely diced
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• ½ tsp lime zest
• ½ tsp cumin
• ¼ tsp Serrano chile thinly sliced
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ cup canola oil for shallow frying the crab cakes
• small corn tortillas

Instructions

Jalapeno Lime Aioli

1. Over medium high heat, roast a jalapeno in a dry pan until each side is blistered. Place the jalapeno inside a covered container and allow it to cool down. The steam will allow the skin to become loose and easier to peel off. Gently take the skin off the cooled jalapeno. 

2. Peel and place the 2 cloves of garlic into a dry pan over medium heat, and cook until just lightly roasted. Add all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Put the aioli in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

Crab Cake Tacos

1. Carefully fold all of the ingredients together until well combined, being careful not to break up the crab meat too much. Form golf ball sized discs, and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover the cakes with plastic wrap and let them chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. 

2. Heat the oil in a small, non-stick pan over medium heat. Place the crab cakes one at a time into the oil with tongs. Cook them for about 3 minutes per side or until they are golden and crispy. Continue frying until all the cakes are cooked and then put them onto paper towel to drain any excess oil. 

3. Put 2-3 crab cakes into a corn tortilla and top with your homemade aioli. For added nutrition and texture, shred some cabbage and carrots for garnish. If your corn tortillas are not soft enough, try warming them between moist paper towels for a few seconds in the microwave.

Buy Maryland Blue Crab Online

You can buy lump Maryland crab meat and many other delicious seafood products from our online store. Want to make tacos but don’t have time to make the crab cakes from scratch? Get our handmade Maryland crab cakes shipped fresh right to your door!

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