How to Cook Snow Crab Legs Like a Pro
Pretty much everybody loves crab legs, but getting them in a restaurant is expensive. Snow crab season is early in the Spring, so you can get these tasty critters from your local grocer fresh and for a very palatable price starting around Valentine’s day into the Spring months. Follow my recipe below for perfect boiled crab legs at home, and you won’t even know you’re not in a restaurant – Not only will you save some cash, but it’s super nice to get embarrassingly messy eating them in the privacy of your own home!
Ingredients:
- Snow crab clusters (a standard serving is 1.5lbs per person. Most clusters come in at around a half pound a piece. If you buy extras, you can choose to eat only the biggest legs and the claws and pick the rest of the meat to make crab cakes with on a different night! Southern-Style Crab Cakes Recipe)
- Old Bay Seasoning
- Salt
- Melted Butter
Directions:
Step 1: If you’re legs are frozen, keep them frozen as best you can. Do a quick look over each of the clusters and you can use a butter knife if need be to remove any barnacles or other foreign things off the shells. None of the things on there will kill you, but most people don’t love them. Take a pot or deep frying pan the legs will fit in and fill it 1/3 to 1/2 full with water. Add about a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of Old Bay Seasoning
Step 2: Bring the water to a boil.
Step 3: Add the crab legs.
Step 3.5: If your crabs are too cold when they enter, you’ll definitely loose the boil. I cover mine for the first 30-60 seconds to help get the pot back up to a boil quickly and then remove the lid afterwards to prevent boil overs.
Step 4: Boil the crabs for 3-5 minutes or just until the meat is hot. I like to serve mine on paper towels to keep our plates from turning into a lake.
Step 5: The best part: EAT THEM! Preferably with lots of melted butter!
A couple of tricks for serving:
- If you’re doing surf and turf, consider eating your surf first or as an appetizer because these things cool off fast.
- If you’re eating lots of crab, consider cooking the clusters in stages so that they’re always hot as you finish the ones you’re on.
- You can also put hot legs inside of a dutch oven or roasting pan with a lid to keep them hot while you’re working on other clusters.
- TOO MUCH MEAT!? Pick it out of the shells and set it aside for tomorrow! I have an awesome Southern-Style Crab Cakes Recipe you can make with it! We purposefully over-buy so we can do both!