Creamy Crab Croquette is a popular style of korokke in Japan. Unlike croquettes made with potatoes, this recipe uses a creamy white sauce to bind together delicate crabmeat and sweet corn. It‘s a delicious treat that‘s crispy on the outside and creamy inside.
I hope everyone had a great weekend. We enjoyed our stay-cation in Half Moon Bay as I mentioned in my previous post. Half Moon Bay is located along the coastline of California and it’s about 23 miles south of San Francisco. From where we live, it only takes us 30 minutes or so to get there.
It’s a rustic coastal town with amazing Pacific Ocean views. We enjoyed eating lots of seafood, swimming in the very warm indoor pool, and having a nice Sunday brunch at the hotel. I shared some of the food pictures from my iPhone on my facebook page, but my husband will be posting his very first (and last?) post about our Sunday brunch review tomorrow on Just One Cookbook. Although it’s not our regular posting day, I hope you will come and say hello to my husband.
When I posted Korokke (Japanese croquette that is usually made of potato and meat) recipe on my website about a month ago, I received a request for Japanese Creamy Croquette from one of the readers. I’m sorry it took a long time for me to post this recipe, but thank you for patiently waiting for this recipe and I hope you like it.
Both kinds of croquettes are very popular in Japan. Since my dad likes potatoes, my mom usually cooked regular croquettes and it was more like a treat to eat creamy kind. This time I put corn inside so my kids will enjoy eating them more since they are crazy about corn.
To be honest, this is not easy to make. The mixture tends to be very sticky, and it’s tough to make ball/patty shapes. But I’m very sure, and my family would also agree, that it’ll be worth your effort. Enjoy!
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Creamy Crab Croquette
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 1 onion
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter (for cooking the onion)
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 1¼ cups milk (at room temperature)
- 1 can real or imitation crabmeat (6 oz, 170 g; or use fresh crabmeat)
- ½ cup frozen or canned corn
- 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper
For the Panko Breading
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 2 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) (beaten)
- 1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (for coating your hands)
For Deep-Frying
Instructions
For the Crab and Corn Filling
- Cut 1 onion in half and thinly slice it with a mandoline slicer or knife.
- In a large, nonstick frying pan, heat 3 Tbsp unsalted butter on medium-low heat. Add the sliced onion and sauté until translucent.
- When the onion is translucent, turn off the heat. Then add ⅓ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour) and mix well. Turn the heat back on and stir constantly for 1–2 minutes.
- Pour in 1¼ cups milk, a little at a time, stirring in order to eliminate lumps and to make a smooth, thick béchamel sauce. Keep stirring over low heat for 5–10 minutes. You want your sauce to be the consistency of thick mustard.
- Add 1 can real or imitation crabmeat and ½ cup frozen or canned corn and cook off as much moisture as possible while stirring. Season it with 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper. Take off from the heat and allow to cool.
- Spread the mixture on the bottom of a baking pan. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator for 1 hour. If you don’t chill the mixture enough, the croquette might explode while deep-frying from the moisture.
- After 1 hour, prepare the three bowls: One with ⅓ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour), one with 2 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) and 2 Tbsp oil, and one with 1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs). Beat the eggs and oil together. Next, divide the chilled mixture into 10 equal portions.
- Lightly coat your hands with some of the 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and scoop each portion out to make a small round patty, followed by dredging in the flour, dipping into the egg, and then coating with panko. Repeat this process with all the croquettes. Cover them with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.
To Deep-Fry
- In a large frying pan, heat ½ inch neutral oil on medium-high heat. When it’s hot (350ºF/180ºC), fix the shape of the croquettes and slip them into the oil to deep-fry. Do not crowd the pan (maybe 4–5 croquettes at a time) and do not disturb them until the bottom side is golden brown. Then, flip and wait until the other side also turns golden brown. Transfer the croquettes onto a paper towel and serve immediately.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 3 days or in the freezer for a month. Reheat in the oven or the toaster oven until the outside is crispy and the inside is warm through.
Hi may I ask about the nutrition, is it for per croquette?
Hi dea, Thank you for trying Nami’s recipe!
The nutrition information is for approximately one croquette.🙂
We hope this helps!
Hi Nami, I love your site. I’ve made so many of your recipes for my family and every single one has been well-loved. I’m half-Japanese and growing up, I never knew how much time went into making some of the dishes my family would make. This is definitely one of those labor-intensive foods that I used to gobble up as a kid. We make the yuzu kosho miso soup at least every couple of weeks, and my oldest child loves the spinach ohitashi. And I also really love making the eggplant donburi to add to our unagi donburi (unagi has become so expensive these days that I have to make one filet stretch for the whole family). I often make the shiojake with steelhead from costco, I portion an entire filet, prepare it according to your recipe, wrap them up and freeze them for a super easy weeknight meal or a tasty breakfast.
I’ve made the meat and mushroom korokke a couple of times, this was my first time making the cream crab recipe. It certainly is gooey-er than the other recipe, but I’ve come up with a couple techniques that have saved me some time and frustration. My first tip is that I don’t peel the potatoes before cooking, I just quarter the potatoes, then I steam them in my instant pot for 6-8 mins depending on the size. I lay them on a pan to cool and evaporate out some more moisture and pulling the skins off is super easy at this point. This has given me really light and fluffy dry cooked potatoes to work with. The other simple tip I’ve discovered that works really well with making korokke is wearing a pair of vinyl gloves, dusting them with a bit of potato starch or flour and using a silicone spatula to scoop the potato mixture onto my hand, I use the spatula to continue shaping the korokke and then I use my gloved hands to refine the shape of the korokke.
Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful recipes and posting such great videos too! My family truly appreciates it. Your recipes remind me of all of the food I ate growing up. Will you publish a book anytime soon? If so, I’ll gladly buy one for myself and several more for friends and family.
Hi Jessica! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your cooking experience and tips with us.
Nami and JOC team are so happy to hear you enjoy our site, and you and your family enjoyed many recipes!
Thank you very much for asking about the JOC cookbook! Nami had published two cookbooks so far. Please check out https://www.justonecookbook.com/just-one-cookbook-essential-japanese-recipes/.
If you are looking for a print version, we have it available on Amazon.
Vol 1: https://amzn.to/3yL6bx3
Vol 2: https://amzn.to/2UbFPoT
We truly appreciate your love and support! Happy Cooking!
Hi Nami,
You forgot to leave us a copy of the recipe for Kani Karokke. Could you please provide one to us?
Thanks.
Wayne
Hi Wayne! The recipe is above (in the post). 🙂
I learned this recipe from you awhile ago, but now I have kids, my wife was wondering if this recipe is possible to be baked? Will the cream crab filling stand up to baking? If so, what needs to be modified? And thank you for always the prompt replies.
Hi Boyd! The filling is always so soft to handle, so make sure you chill the filling so when you divide up it’s easy to divide. Follow the same technique as my baked katsu recipe:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/baked-tonkatsu/
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
p.s. Sorry for my late response – I’ve been away from work after surgery.
These are absolutely amazing! I made them, tonight, with some steamed rice, homemade miso soup, and pickled cucumbers. So delicious! They seem work intensive, but are quite easy and so worth the effort!
Thank you for the recipe! I’ve been visiting your site for years and finally decided to review one of your delicious recipes. 😊
Hi Miki! Thank you so much for trying out this recipe! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. It’s a bit time consuming but yeah it’s worth your time and effort at the end. Thank you for your kind feedback and for reading my site for a long time! xo
クリームコロッケ大好きだから作ってみたけどパティを作るのににとても柔らかくてとても困難しました。もっとよく冷やすか、小麦粉をたすかして練習してみます。味はとても美味しかった。なんか良い方法ないかな？こおらせてみると水っぽくなるだろうしな、
エリカさん、このレシピ作ってみて下さってありがとうございます。そうですね、柔らかいので、丸めるのが簡単ではないですね。フォークを使ったりする人もいますが、私は粗熱をとってから冷やして少し固くなった段階で丸めるようにしてます。揚げた後にクリーミーに仕上げるには、小麦もあまり多く入れない方が良い気がします。もう少し冷やしみてみたらよくなりそうですか？
The recipe calls for 1 cube vegetable bouillon, but I noticed that there are 2 sizes of bullion cubes available. I think the more common size is 0.13 ounces and the bigger one that Knorr makes is 0.33 ounces. Which size vegetable bouillon cube is the correct one to use?
Hi Alan! I don’t use bullion cube anymore so I am not familiar with the size, but from the picture, it looks like this one is the square cube one. 🙂
Hi Nami-san,
So based on your ingredients, it says that you need 1/2 tsp. of salt and more if you’re not using the bouillon cube. Does that mean that the vegetable bouillon cube isn’t necessary for the recipe? Thanks a lot! 🙂
Hi Megumi! I stopped using bouillon cubes and make the same dish without using one. It adds saltiness to the dish, therefore I suggested that additional salt to taste might be necessary if you don’t use bouillon. You can omit it if you’re not using bouillon in your cooking. In Japan, it’s very common to use bouillon and I used to use it too… but not any more… try to be healthier. 😀
Hi Nami-san!
Thanks a lot! I’ll be sure to make this for my family sometime next week! 🙂
These crab croquette look and sound amazing. I want to make them real soon. Nami the pictures don’t seem to appear,well the cooking ones don’t, I really want to try out this recipe and the pictures do help a lot so if you could please fix them that would be great. Also love your recipes, I’ve tried a lot of them out and my family loves them.
Hi Tatiana! Thank you for bringing this image issue to my attention. I’ve fixed it. 🙂
I’m so happy to hear your family enjoy my recipes. Thanks so much for your kind feedback!
These look so tasty!
Just wondering, is it possible to bake croquettes in the oven instead of deep frying?
Hi Lava! Technically I think you can. I haven’t tried yet, but using my Baked Tonkatsu method, it should work… However, unlike tonkatsu, the creamy filling is very soft, so I’m not sure how the shape will stay while baking in the oven. Please let me know how it turns out if you decided to bake. 🙂
I notice some people use half-and-half in place of milk; do you think it makes a big difference?
Hi Amy! I apologize for my slow response. Yes, you can use half and half – it will be more creamier due to cream in it. It’ll be more flavorful too! But it’s already thick, so you can reduce the flour a bit. 🙂
Hi Nami!
I hope you have enjoyed your summer trip to Japan. (I’m so very jealous, because it’s my dream to go there.) I have been searching the site for information on an item that was included in my bento box at our local Obon Odori Festival last weekend (August 3rd). I think these might be the items, because they had a very creamy filling with corn inside. I was wondering are the creamy korokke ever made without the crab, and with just corn? I ask because I truly couldn’t taste any crab flavor in the ones I had. They were delicious, oval shaped, creamy on the inside and crispy fried outside. I could taste onion and recognized the Panko too. I think the yummy things I had were probably korokke, but I’m not sure. I thought you might be able to tell me if creamy ones without crab are usual. Or maybe it’s that the crab flavor is so mild that I didn’t notice it? In any case, thanks for everything. The blog is informative and enjoyable every time I visit, no matter the topic. 🙂
Thank you, I had a really great time with my family in Japan. It’s so cold here in SF that I truly miss “summer”. 🙂 I hope you get to visit Japan one day!
We have both “Cream Corn Korokke” and “Kani (crab) Korokke” and they are usually creamy inside the korokke. So yes, you can make without crab too! It’s a bit pain to make as they are supposed to be “creamy” inside panko crusted layer outside…but it’s delicious! It’s almost treat in my house as I don’t make them often compared to regular Korokke.
I’m really happy that you enjoy my site. Thank you so much for your feedback and kind comments! xo 🙂