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This Oven Baked Cod with Crab Topping and Cream Sauce is a restaurant-worthy meal you can make at home! With a buttery, seasoned crab topping, perfectly cooked cod filets, and a quick and easy Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce, this dinner is an elegant meal you can make with ease any night of the week, that’s ready in about 30 minutes! This crab crusted cod is to die for!

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Oven Baked Cod with Crabmeat

This Oven Baked Cod with Crab Topping and Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce is a decadent date night meal with restaurant quality flavor. No special equipment needed, and it’s ready in about 30 stress-free minutes! Cook your cream sauce while the play on cod imperial bakes, and dinner is a breeze!

So whether you’re making this dish for a date, your family, or even for a feast of seven fishes, it is sure to impress your guests, and have them making reservations at Chez (insert your name here) very soon.

Oven Baked Cod with Crabmeat

Preparing the Oven Baked Cod

For this recipe, we’ll make a quick and easy crab topping, lay seasoned cod on a bed of lemon slices, top each filet with butter, and bake. While all that seafood goodness gets going, we’ll also make a quick Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce, which really gives the dish it’s date night, almost-feels-like-we’re-at-a-restaurant status. 

The combination of the rich, seasoned crab mixture with the light cod and the tart lemon are perfectly complimented by the rich, indulgent flavors of the Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce.

Technically, you could just eat the crab topped cod as-is, no sauce. But you’d REALLY be missing out. Trust me- make the sauce. PS- its amazing on pasta, too.

fresh cod with lemon

How to make the Crab Crusted cod

To makes this fuss free Crab crusted cod, you will need:

  • Crab meat. You can use claw or lump, whichever you prefer.
  • A lemon or 2. Some will be thinly sliced and placed under the cod while baking, and some will be used for the crab topping. A little squirt of fresh lemon while serving is also delicious!
  • Mayonaise, to help bind the crab topping for the fish. This dish is a lighter play on a cod imperial, so the mayo really helps everything stay together.
  • Old Bay seasoning.
  • Prepared horseradish. If you don’t have this on hand, a little red pepper flakes or hot sauce works, too.
  • Worcestershire sauce.
  • Panko breadcrumbs.
  • Some good quality cod filets. This recipe makes enough crab topping for 5-6 smaller (4 oz or so) cod filets.
  • Butter.
Crab topping for fish

Tips for a perfectly cooked Crab crusted cod

Bake your fish on the top rack of the oven. This will encourage a pretty, browned top.

Don’t skimp on the butter. The butter not only adds great flavor, it helps keep the cod moist.

Use lemons to not only add flavor, but also moisture. Baking the fish on top of lemon slices helps keep them flakey and delicious, and merges with the melted butter for a deliciously spoonable sauce to drizzle over the finished cod.

Check your fish at the 20 minute mark. Once the cod flakes with a fork, it’s ready!

baked Crab crusted cod

Tips for the best crab topping for fish

Don’t over mix. Gently fold all the ingredients together, until just combined.

Use quality ingredients. Make sure to use coarse panko breadcrumbs, for their light texture, and good quality seasoning and mayonnaise.

What else can I do with the Red Pepper Sauce?

The Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce is amazing with the cod and crab, but I also love it with any other baked or pan fried fish, and tossed with pasta and parmesan cheese.

oven baked cod with crab

What to serve with the Oven Baked Cod

This Oven Baked Cod goes great with some pasta or potatoes to soak up that sauce, or some crusty bread. Here are a few other great sides for this meal:

Oven Baked Cod with Crab Topping and Cream Sauce
Print Recipe

Oven Baked Cod with Crab Topping and Cream Sauce

Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time1 hr 25 mins
Total Time35 mins
Course: Dinner
Keyword: cod, crab, lemon, roasted red pepper cream sauce, seafood
Servings: 5

Ingredients

  • 5 4 oz cod filets
  • 1 lemon, sliced thinly , (plus more for serving, if desired)
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
  • roasted red pepper cream sauce*, (see recipe link below)

Crab Topping

  • 8 oz crab meat (claw or lump)
  • the juice and zest of half a lemon
  • 1/4 cup mayonaise
  • 1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
  • 1/2 tsp prepared horseradish
  • 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tbsp panko breadcrumbs

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
    2. Gently combine crab topping ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
    3. Pat cod filets dry with paper towels, and season with salt and pepper.
    4. Spray a large glass or ceramic baking dish with cooking spray, and lay lemon slices evenly on the bottom of the pan.
    5. Place cod filets on top of lemon slices, and top each filet evenly with crab topping, mounding with your hands if needed to keep it on top of the fish. Sprinkle tops lightly with additional Old Bay, if desired. Divide the butter into 5 even pieces, and place on top of each piece of fish.
    6. Bake on the top rack of a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until cod flakes easily with a fork.
    7. While cod bakes, make your Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce.
    9. Serve cod on top of red pepper cream sauce, and spoon lemon/drippings over each piece of fish.

Notes/Substitutions:

Use my Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce to complete this recipe.

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