Crab and Old Bay Chesapeake Chili

This is what happens when a chili grows up on the Chesapeake instead of in Texas — built around sweet lump crab and a heavy hand of Old Bay instead of beef and cumin. It's lighter than a meat chili, brothy and bright with fire-roasted tomato, and unmistakably Mid-Atlantic thanks to that celery-salt-and-paprika Old Bay backbone every Marylander knows by heart. The crab goes in at the very end and is barely warmed through, so it stays in tender flakes rather than dissolving. Serve it with oyster crackers and it drinks like a crab-boil and a chili had a very good idea together.

Oyster crackers or saltines are the Chesapeake move; a splash of hot sauce suits it.

Keep the crab additions gentle — fold, don't stir. Good-quality canned lump crab works; imitation won't. Shrimp can stand in or join the crab.