Main Dishesnatashaskitchen5.0
Crabs Legs with Garlic Butter
Learn how to cook Crab Legs at home! It's easy to make restaurant-quality seafood at home, and it can be much more cost-effective. Choose one of 4 methods: steaming, baking, grilling, or Instant Pot. Then, finish the dish with easy garlic butter, because we love to dip crab meat into the incredible crab dipping sauce.
👥 2 Servings⏱️ Prep & Cook: 15 min⏳ Prep: 5 min🔥 Cook: 10 min👤 Natasha Kravchuk📖 natashaskitchen
🥘 Ingredients
Check off ingredients as you prepare them:
🍳 Cookware
- ●pot
- ●oven
- ●baking sheet
- ●saucepan
📝 Preparation Steps
1
Steamed Cook Crab Legs:
2
Steam - Place a steamer basket or wire rack at the bottom of a large stockpot. Add 1 cup of water. Place crab legs over the rack (as many as your pot will accommodate). Bring the water to a boil, then cover and steam cook until fragrant and steaming hot (⏱️ 5-10 minutes). Frozen crab legs will take longer, thawed crab legs cook faster).
water (for Instant Pot or steaming methods)1 cup
3
Oven-Baked Crab Legs:
4
Wrap - Using heavy-duty aluminum foil, create a foil pack with 4 clusters of crab legs. Using a long sheet of foil with the crab legs in the center, bring the two ends together and fold them together twice. Fold the other two ends together twice to seal the foil packet. Do not add water since it will steam cook with the natural moisture from the crab legs.
water (for Instant Pot or steaming methods)1 cup
5
Bake - Place on a baking sheet and onto the center rack of a preheated oven at 450˚F for ⏱️ 25 minutes if frozen or ⏱️ 15 minutes if thawed. The crab legs are ready when you open the foil pack, and they are steaming.
6
Grilled Crab Legs:
7
Wrap - Create the same foil pack of 4 crab leg clusters as in the Oven-Baked directions.
8
Grill over medium/high heat at 450˚F for ⏱️ 15 minutes if frozen or ⏱️ 10 minutes if thawed. Crab legs are ready when you see steaming as you open the foil pack.
9
Instant Pot Crab Legs:
10
Fill the pot - Place a trivet in a 6 qt Instant Pot and add 1 cup of water. Add 3-4 clusters of fresh or frozen crab legs per batch, folding the legs to fit more in (thawed are easier to fit than frozen).
water (for Instant Pot or steaming methods)1 cup
11
Cook - Close the lid, set the vent to sealing position, and cook on manual high pressure ⏱️ 4 minutes, then switch the vent to venting position and do a quick release* of remaining pressure.
12
How to Make Crab Dipping Sauce:
13
Heat - In a medium saucepan, melt 4 Tbsp butter and add 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp black pepper. Stir ⏱️ 30 seconds until fragrant, then remove from heat. Off the heat, squeeze in 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice. Divide between ramekins to serve.
tsp black pepper1/8Tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)1/2
Nutrition Facts
calories
397 kcal
fat Content
24 g
serving Size
1 serving
sugar Content
1 g
sodium Content
2197 mg
protein Content
42 g
cholesterol Content
155 mg
carbohydrate Content
1 g
saturated Fat Content
15 g
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