So my plan WAS to pitch this as your next must-make cozy winter meal.
But Mother Nature is screwing that up! This warm streak of weather has been L-O-V-E-L-Y but so unexpected. I’m still down for soup and sweater weather, but I think I may be alone. People are eating up this spring-like weather like crazy. Not that I blame them. I just wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to cozy time. Also, side bar: I kind of think it means our world is ending. I know. I’m cray.
The good (bad?) news is that I don’t think we’re quite in the clear yet. Mother Nature is a….mother. She is fickle. I fear we still have some cold days and nights in our future.
Let’s just ignore the weather for a moment so I can get back to my original point: this bisque is incredible and should happen in your life ASAP. Plus, it all happens in a slow cooker or crock pot, which makes it totally appropriate for warmer weather. It will keep your kitchen nice and cool. My slow cooker takes things a step further and allows for me to saute veggies right in the slow cooker itself, rather than turning on the stove and dirtying another pan.
It is LIFE CHANGING. Seriously. I have been cooking with it nonstop since buying it earlier this year, way more than I normally used my slow cooker in the past. The sear/saute option changes the whole crock pot game.
Anywho.
Dan and I are huge fans of seafood bisque. In fact, if a variation of seafood bisque is on a menu, we almost always order it. Even if it doesn’t “go” with the rest of our meal. It’s just a special sort of dish to us, especially since I rarely take the time to make it at home. That’s one of my rules when ordering out: try to eat as much stuff off the menu that I’m not ambitious enough to try in my own kitchen. It works out well 99% of the time.
The thing is, seafood bisque, when done right, can take some extra love and labor. It often involves boiling crustacean shells to infuse your stock. Lots of straining and heating and reheating. I usually don’t have time for that.
My solution? Use really, really good, fresh seafood and store bought seafood stock. Seriously. People will never know the difference, as long as the seafood you’re using is fresh.
For this particular bisque, I went with shrimp and crab, two of our favorites. The shrimp are affordable and easy to find, and the crab…well…that’s the indulgent part of this dish. Jumbo lump crab costs a pretty penny, but I find that a little goes a long way. Plus, people just get EXCITED when lump crab shows up in their bisque. And who can blame them? It is a very special ingredient that is definitely worth the price point.
It makes this bisque something special, too. The bisque itself is fairly straightforward. Veggies, stock, aromatics simmering away for a few hours (oh, and let’s not forget the sherry. VERY important). Shrimp and some of the crab are added in and poached until just tender and perfect. Then comes the rest of the crab. In cold salad form!
OK, so I know it sounds kind of weird to top a hot, rich, creamy soup with a cold crab salad, but this is one of those weird things that you’re just going to have to trust me on. It works, people. It just does. The crab is lightly (key word!) dressed in a mixture of mayo, mustards, lemon, and herbs and added to each bowl of soup just before serving. It adds a fun and slightly tangy twist to the dish. Plus it’s gorgeous!
It adds a slightly different, weird-in-a-good-way twist on a fairly traditional seafood bisque, and now that I’ve gone weird, I don’t know that I can ever go back.
In fact, it pairs perfectly with this super weird weather we’re having.
Oh, and icy cold white wine and crunchy baguette toasts. Just sayin’.
Slow-Cooker Shrimp & Crab Bisque
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Ingredients
For the Bisque:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 leeks, washed well and sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 cups seafood or fish stock
- 2 cups water
- 1 (15-oz) can diced tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup dry sherry (or brandy, cognac, dry white wine)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup half-and-half or heavy cream
- 1 lb peeled/deveined shrimp
- 1 cup fresh jumbo lump crab
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- Toasted bread or croutons, for serving
For the Crab Topping:
- Juice of ½ a lemon
- 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 cup fresh jumbo lump crab
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
For the Bisque:
- Heat a skillet** over medium heat and add the oil and butter. Add the leeks and garlic, along with a pinch of salt and the red pepper flakes, and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Transfer the leek mixture to the bottom of your slow cooker pot.
- Add in the tomato paste, stock, water, tomatoes, Old Bay seasoning, and sugar, stirring well to combine.
- In a mixing cup, whisk together the brandy/sherry and flour until smooth. Stir into the stock mixture. Add in the salt and pepper and cook in the slow cooker on low for 4 hours or high for 2 hours.
- Taste the bisque base for seasoning and adjust as necessary. Stir in the shrimp, cream, fresh crab, and parsley and continue cooking for another 15 minutes or until the shrimp are pink and cooked through. Keep warm until you are ready to serve.
For the Crab Topping:
- While your bisque is cooking, make the crab topping by combining the lemon juice, mayo, mustards, and parsley in a mixing bowl. Gently fold in the crab meat, being careful to not break it up too much. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper, Keep chilled until you are ready to serve.
To Serve:
- Ladle the bisque into serving bowls and top with some of the cold crab salad. Garnish with additional parsley, if desired, and serve while warm with toasted bread of croutons.
**NOTE:
- I have a slow cooker that can be used like a skillet, so I made this entire thing in the slow cooker pot. If you have a sear/saute option on your slow cooker, you can save a couple steps (and the second pan!) and do the whole thing in the slow cooker.
Hi There. I'm Molly. I'm a food-obsessed, self-taught cook and I can't wait to share my passion for all things culinary with you. My love for egg yolks is just the tip of the iceberg!
Warm, cold, or mild I’d happily eat this shrimp bisque any day of the year! She Crab Soup is a thing where I live (in Charleston, SC) and it’s served year-round so I feel like this one could be too. It looks great.
Thanks so much, Aimee! I totally agree. Also, She Crab Soup is something I need to try!
I never comment on recipes, but had to tell you that this is AMAZING! My daughter is allergic to dairy, so I used coconut milk instead, and it is still good. In fact, my picky two year old and four year old both loved it. Also you were right about the cold crab salad on top. Perfect.
Aww, thanks so much for the comment, Danielle! It means the world to me. I’m so glad you and the kids enjoyed this!
I skipped the sauce for the crab topping but made the bisque in my crock pot today. It was delicious! I used an assortment of seafood (cod, salmon, shrimp, etc) and made a fish broth beforehand. My husband absolutely loved this bisque as well. It is a nice, light meal for a cold day! Can’t wait to make it again! Thanks so much for sharing!
So glad to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks, Heather!
This was really good. When the broth was done I pureed it with an immersion blender added the shrimp & finished with fat free half & half. I used the leftovers for a sauce for lobster ravioli. It was delicious. I will definitely be making this again.
Thanks, Tara! I’m so glad you enjoyed this!
this slow-cooker-shrimp carb bisque looks very attractive to the eyes,I love the yellow colour broth and it seems ti goes very well with baked bread.great dish for lunch or dinner
Would be even more awesome if you could not make folks dig for the recipe.
Nice pics and a great story but really am interested in the recipe.
Thanks for the feedback. This is, however, a food blog, not just a recipe database. That’s the way I choose to present the recipes. Hope you enjoy the soup!
I like to go right to the recipe to see if I have the ingredients and then read the backstory. Just hit Control + F for find and type cup or teaspoon or some other recipe word in the little box. Scroll and find the highlighting.
There is also a “Jump to Recipe” button at the very top of the post that will take you straight to the recipe, if you prefer.
I made this without the leeks simply because I forgot them at the store. Even still, it was delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
So glad to hear this! Thanks, Shayla!
I used brandy but I wish I used Sherry or white wine. I think the brandy was too strong of a flavor for this bisque. What alcohol did others use ??
I agree with Sharon, I used Brandy and had to transfer it from the crockpot to a soup pot to boil it on the stove to cook off the brandy as just cooking in the crockpot wasn’t cooking off the high Brandy flavor. Tasted good after I did that though.
Help! I’d like to take this to work tomorrow for soup day. However since it yields for 8, I thought I’d double the recipe. But now I’m concerned if it will fit in my slow cooker. What size (in quarts) is needed for a single batch? My crock pot is only 6 qts.
Can u pan grill the shrimp before putting it in the mixture?
★★★★★
Hi Angela! I don’t see why not!
Can you use almond milk instead of cream? This would be a great dish for Christmas Eve seven fish dinner.
Hi Noreen. I can’t say for sure because I’ve never tried this recipe with almond milk. I do worry that it won’t have the same thickness/richness that the cream adds here.
I’m a little sad, this recipe looked so awesome and I gave a go this weekend and honestly, it wasn’t very good. I adhered super strict to the directions, the only thing I did different was use imitation crab instead of jumbo lump (I had to buy nearly everything for this recipe and it was kind of costly already) and cajun seasoning in place of the old bay seasoning because my grocery store didn’t sell it. My store also didn’t sell seafood stock, so I used fish stock instead. But even these small changes shouldn’t have made such a big difference in the recipe.
I don’t know what it was but it came out super acidic, like it had this strong tang that every time I took a sip of the soup it was impossible to not twist my face. I did want it a little spicy so I didn’t mind that I made it a little hot with the extra pepper flakes and cajun seasoning, but eating this was literally discomforting. When I think of a bisque I think of something thick and creamy with a nice tang of sweetness mixed with some spice to it. This was anything but that. It was acidic and watery and unpleasant to eat.
My only guess is possibly the leeks? I felt like 3 cut up leaks was A LOT, like a huge majority of the soup just felt like it was made up of leeks more than anything else.
The crab salad topping was very good, but just drizzling this over the remaining crab and eating the crab alone felt silly and like a missed opportunity. I wish I had bought some kale and put the crab inside and used the topper as dressing to make an actual salad.
Glad everyone else’s came out fine, but hopefully I can find another shrimp crab bisque recipe to try where it comes out better.
★★
I think the leeks were waaay too much, I cut mine back to about 1 leek but I think even a half of leek is MORE thank enough!!
Also with all the leeks the first time I had to add sugar a little at a time to bring the taste back up. You. Can always try that if the leeks are overpowering.
Not sure how this soup is yellow? Mine was red and green from the leeks and tomatoes. However, it tastes beautiful! I’ll definitely make this again.
★★★★★
I do not want to give this a bad rating, as I am certain I am the one who messed up. This was, hands down, the SALTIEST thing I have EVER tried. Think: swallowed a gallon of wave while playing at the beach salty. We had a hard time finding “fish sauce” at our Publix in Orlando. The woman stocking shelves suggested we use Coco Aminos as a substitute. Four cups of fish sauce seemed like A LOT, but I am no chef, so we powered through. Fast forward to me realizing I had forgotten to pick up the tomato paste, and seeing actual fish sauce on the same aisle, (of a different store). Four cups still seemed excessive, but who am I…
Followed all other instructions to a few. It smelled delicious. Taste tested just before the shrimp, and OMG. Salt BOMB. Tried again after cream and crab additions, and somehow it got saltier!!
Please tell me four cups is wrong. Where did we go wrong? Bummed to have thrown away $25 worth of crab, (not to mention a whole lot of fish sauce).
Hi Linda. The recipe calls for four cups of FISH STOCK not fish sauce. Another name for it is seafood stock/broth. Yes, I imagine it tasted pretty awful with that much fish sauce in it.
I made this for a co-worker luncheon. One of my co-workers cried when she tasted this soup. CRIED!! Yes people, it’s that good. Heaven!
★★★★★
Wow! Now THAT’S a great reaction! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
Pictures of soup looked great, wish I could say about the same about the soup. Made for Christmas eve, my wife tried it, she said it tasted like Bloody Mary soup. Other guest said same thing after dinner. Not sure how the color was achieved, pinkish red was a better choice as other have noted. I definitely would not make again.
★
This came out wonderfully. I prepped it this past weekend to have for easy dinners this week and not only does it look just like the pictures (not sure what other people are referencing about the red color – as soon as I added the half-and-half, it lightened to a yellow-orange creamy color like the pictures here show), it tasted even better! I did the crab topping for the first few servings and then we ran out – the soup is still great without it! Definitely making again! Thank you!
★★★★★
I made this for my family for Christmas Eve as part of the 7 fishes feast, and this was the highlight of the entire meal! I thought the crab topping was so creative and interesting, and I think it adds a touch of elegance to this dish (perfect for a holiday meal). The soup itself was delicious – I have no idea how other people had such a bad result? This tasted wonderful to my whole family. I did use sherry in mine, and I think that might be the key. Also, if things are too acidic for your taste (as some people have noted), you should adjust the seasonings. Add a touch of sugar, adjust the seasoning as you see fit…this is what cooking is all about. Taking a recipe as a guide and tailoring it to your tastes. For us, this was a stellar recipe and we’ll be making it for years to come. A new family Christmas eve tradition.
★★★★★
I totally agree! The recipe directions even state “taste and adjust the seasoning” …I feel awful for recipe writers who take the time to write out these detailed instructions and encourage people to adjust as needed…and no one listens and then they complain that the recipe didn’t work. Cooking is a TO TASTE experience! I loved this soup and will make again.
★★★★★
Amazing recipe. Tasted so fresh despite being made in a slow cooker. The crab topping is delicious but not necessary. The soup is still great without it. Will make again and again.
★★★★★