Crab Leg Sides For Dinner: 19+ Tasty Ideas

Is there a special occasion you want to celebrate? Or maybe you’re just in the mood for crabs?

Whatever your reasons are, crab legs are always a good idea!

They are meaty, sweet, decadent, and just out of this world!

But you know what would make crab meat taste even better? The right sides, of course!

So what to serve with crab legs? Don’t be crabby! We got your back.

Below are some of the tried-and-tested side dishes that we’ve been serving with crab legs for years:

1. Mashed Potatoes

Potatoes will always be a classic option when it comes to side dishes. After all, this starchy vegetable is traditional comfort food and is versatile enough to pair well with just about any dish—especially seafood. (*)

You can cook potatoes in many ways, but our favorite version is mashed potatoes. We’ve listed it at the top of our list because its creamy texture can definitely balance the richness (and sometimes overwhelming) flavor of your crab leg dinner.

• Pro Tip: Level up your mashed potatoes by infusing them with garlic butter, sour cream, and cheese.

Learn more: What to Eat with Mashed Potatoes?

2. Smashed Potatoes

If you’re already tired of the usual mashed potato side dish, then why not try something new? Go for smashed potatoes!

If you have no idea yet what these are, these are mashed potatoes but with their skin still on. So instead of just creamy goodness, you get to enjoy a crispy and crunchy exterior and a creamy and chewy interior.

The added texture will surely round up your crab meat meal and give it more depth.

To prepare this, all you need to do is boil small potatoes until they are tender enough. After that, it’s seasoned with garlic and herbs then tossed in melted butter. Lastly, smash it with a potato masher and bake until crispy.

• Pro Tip: Top it off with cheese, chives, and your choice of toppings to make it more flavorful.

3. Potato Salad Goes Best With Crab Legs

How about something light and refreshing? If so, we’ve got the perfect potato side dish for you—potato salad.

This creamy and refreshing salad features hard-boiled eggs, seasonings of your choice, red potatoes, and fresh dill. Toss it in a mixture of Dijon mustard and mayonnaise.

• Pro Tip: Inject a tangy flavor to your potato salad by adding a few tablespoons of dill pickle juice to the dressing.  

4. Baked Potatoes

If you can’t find potato balls but wish to enjoy a crunchy and chewy texture similar to mashed potatoes, baked potatoes are the way to go.

What we like the most about this recipe because it’s pretty simple to make. You only need to season the potato to your taste, drizzle it with olive oil, and bake it for around 45 minutes.

Make it extra special by topping it with slices of butter and a dollop of sour cream.

• Pro Tip: If you don’t have an oven in your kitchen, you can use an air fryer to bake potatoes.

5. French Fries

And of course, how can we ever forget the crowd favorite—French fries.

But let’s face it, buying frozen French fries is not only healthy, but it can also become quite greasy.

That’s why we recommend making homemade French fries instead. To prepare this, you just need to slice potatoes into sticks and season them with salt and olive oil.

French fries are often fried, but there are healthier versions of cooking it—air fry or bake.

• Pro Tip: To ensure that your French fries will come out extra crunchy, soak them in cold water first and then pat dry before seasoning.

6. Deviled Eggs

For a fancy touch, serve crab legs with deviled eggs. This is a unique way to serve eggs and inject a creamy touch into your crab meat meal.

Here’s the best part: this appetizer, albeit fancy, is quite easy to do. You just need to boil the eggs, get the egg yolk, and chop it up. Then, add mayonnaise and season with salt and pepper.

Bring back the creamy egg yolk mixture into the egg whites and serve!

• Pro Tip: You can refrigerate it for a bit if you want a refreshing touch to your meal.

7. Sweet Corn on the Cob

Who can ever say no to the delicious combination of crab and corn? We certainly can’t, and most probably, you won’t be able to resist it too!

This combo works simply because the two ingredients involved are both sweet, refreshing, and just simply irresistible.

With that said, you should never miss out on serving Alaskan king crab with sweet corn on the cob.

Not only is it easy to use, but it’s also best eaten using your hands—just like a crab. More than that, you can prepare it in plenty of ways—steam, grill, boil, and even microwave.

• Pro Tip: Slather butter all over the corn cob for a side dish you can’t forget!

8. Steamed Artichokes

For a light and nutritious side dish, may we suggest artichokes? We particularly love this side dish because its subtle and earthy taste complements crab legs quite well.

This vegetable is best steamed because steaming softens it and unleashes its mildly sweet taste. Serve it with a garlic butter dip to let its flavor shine through.

• Pro Tip: For a crunchy version, roast the artichokes and top with parmesan, and squeeze fresh lemon juice on top.

9. Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts may just look like baby cabbages, but their taste is a whole lot better than cabbages when cooked right.

The most important thing to avoid when cooking these vegetables is overcooking them to avoid mushy texture and funky taste.

Well, we’ll let you in on a bit of a secret. The best way to cook brussels sprouts is to coat them evenly with olive oil and roast them in the oven for 20 to 40 minutes.

• Pro Tip: Top it off with crispy bacon bits for a savory touch and crunchy texture.

10. Roasted Vegetable

We can’t deny that Alaskan king crab legs are delicious, but there are times when it can get a bit overwhelming, especially with its rich flavors and high-fat content.

We suggest serving it with something healthy like roasted vegetables to round up the meal.

Our go-to veggies for this dish are squash, bell pepper, onions, asparagus, carrots, and zucchini. Aside from being nutritious, these vegetables deliver an earthy and mild flavor that suits crab meat’s sweet taste quite well.

Roasting these veggies will bring out their slight sweetness and caramelize their interior, making it an extra crunchy—good contrast with the meat’s tenderness.

• Pro Tip: Drizzle olive oil on top of roasted veggies for the perfect flavor. You can also make this dish creamy by serving the vegetables with hollandaise sauce.

11. Roasted Asparagus

If you like to keep your side dish simple, roasted asparagus is the way to go.

It will give you the nutrition you can also get from other roasted vegetables, plus it will infuse a nutty flavor to your meal.

Let’s also not forget that roasted asparagus is one of the best side dishes for steak, so this is an excellent option if you plan to prepare a surf and turf meal for your loved ones.

12. Sautéed Green Beans

Since we’re already on the subject of vegetables, let’s not forget one of the easiest vegetable side dishes to prepare—green beans.

We love sautéing it in butter garlic sauce and then drizzled with a bit of lemon juice.

You can enjoy green beans two ways—with a softer texture (cook it for more than 10 minutes) or vibrant color and crunchy exterior (cook within 10 minutes).

13. Caesar Salad

Tossed salads are the way to go if you don’t have time to cook but wish to serve vegetables with your crab leg dinner.

When in doubt, we always go with the classic—Caesar Salad.

We love this salad because it’s so easy to prepare, in addition to the assurance that this will always be a big hit.

All you would need is a bed of mixed lettuce (we prefer Romaine Lettuce), crunchy croutons, creamy Caesar Salad dressing, and freshly shaved or grated parmesan cheese.

Other optional toppings you can enjoy are sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, boiled eggs, and ham slices.

• Pro Tip: You can also go for Almond Caesar Salad. The almond toppings will deliver a nice crunch to the salad and boost its healthy fat content.

14. Bread

What would go well with the buttery and citrusy sauce of crab legs? A bread, of course!

This will help absorb all the juices and provide a nice balance to your delicious meal.

Which type of bread should you serve with crab legs?

Any type of crusty bread will do—baguette, sourdough, focaccia, and many more.

• Pro Tip: Our personal favorite is garlic bread because it matches the buttery garlic flavor of crab legs quite well! To make your garlic bread a little bit extra, top it off with parmesan cheese.

15. Cheddar Bay Biscuits

Serve your crab legs with Cheddar Bay biscuits for a seafood feast a la Red Lobster. With its fluffy and cheesy goodness, it’s an addicting side dish to crab legs.

For sure, your friends and family won’t get enough of these biscuits.

You can always choose to buy some from red Lobster. However, we want to share a secret with you: you can whip up your biscuits in just 20 minutes!

16. Lemon Rice Pilaf

Crabs, legs, and lemon go well like butter and jam. It’s like lemon is the yin to crab leg’s yang. You know what we mean.

With that said, why don’t you turn this refreshing fruit into a filling and satisfying side dish? Go for lemon rice pilaf!

To make this, you would need egg yolks, chicken broth, jasmine rice, heavy whipping cream, parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and fresh parsley.

• Pro Tip: You can also add fresh dill toppings as seafood goes well.

17. Butter

Never eat crab legs without butter. We know this is a cliché, but everything is better with butter, which stands the truest with crab legs.

This is because the mild sweetness of crab legs just begs to be with the rich flavor of butter. They’re just truly meant to be together.

But before we go all-out cheesy with the love story of butter and crab legs, we want to let you know that there are different types of butter to serve with crab legs.

While most restaurants serve seafood with drawn butter, our best bet is clarified butter. This is often sold as seafood butter in most grocery stores.

• Pro Tip: Instead of buying seafood butter, just make one. You can do this by melting butter in a saucepan. Let it cool a bit and let the milk solids settle at the bottom, then scoop out the clarified butter or the clear liquid at the surface.

18. Dipping Sauces For Crab Legs

If you want to try crab legs with other dipping sauces, you also have many options to choose from. Here are some of our recommendations:

• Cocktail sauce (Creamy horseradish + ketchup)
• Cajun remoulade sauce (Cajun powder, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, cayenne pepper, and other seasonings)
• Beurre Blanc (Lemon juice, cold butter, and white wine)

Desserts

The perfect ending to your crab leg dinner would be a refreshing lemon-based dessert.

Some of the best lemon desserts we’ve tried are creamy lemon squares, lemon cheesecake, and lemon meringue pie.

Other fantastic options are key lime pie and chocolate cream pie if you want something different.

Drinks

What to drink with crab legs?

Crab legs pair best with Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Champagne, Muscat.

The sweetness in these wines will help to compliment the sweetness of the crab meat. If you are looking for a red wine to pair with your crab legs, try a Pinot Noir or Merlot.

These wines have earthier flavors that will complement the savory flavors of crab meat.

So, What to Serve with Crab Legs?

Seafood lovers, rejoice because you can serve many things with crab legs, and they are all listed in this article. From the best appetizers to sides to desserts and even dipping sauces, we’ve got the best recommendations for you.

That’s why you shouldn’t forget to check out this list the next time you decide to throw a seafood party!