How Long Do You Cook Crab

How to Boil Crab Legs for a Special Dinner Any Night of the Week

Humid crab legs makes creating a special-occasion meal a cinch. If you know how to boil water, you lot basically already know how to melt crab legs. So we'll show you lot how to get the meat out of the legs and besides how to cook frozen crab legs.

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Enjoying the succulent meat from crab legs is a dish that takes whatsoever fancy dinner to the next level. We know there tin can be sticker stupor when buying crab legs, and then it's common to reserve this extravagant entrée for special nights or special guests, but they're then unproblematic to make that there'due south no demand to wait for a large event. Use our tips to know how long to boil crab legs so they're cooked to perfection and certain to impress. Because they are nearly always precooked, simply boil crab legs to warm them through, then serve them with melted butter (always, butter!).

How to Boil Crab Legs

Technically, the first pace in how to cook crab legs is to thaw them when you don't have fresh crab legs bachelor (yay for you if you lot can go them fresh!). The best mode to thaw frozen crab legs is to put them in the refrigerator overnight (at to the lowest degree 8 hours). If space or time is an issue, you can also put the frozen legs in a colander ($26, Target) in a sink and run cool water over them to thaw chop-chop.

Thawed (and fresh) crab legs can be steamed, grilled, and heated in the microwave, merely boiling is one of the best ways to melt crab legs and 1 method highly recommended by the Improve Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen. The h2o gets into the shells, keeps the meat moist, and helps the meat rut through rapidly. Hither's what to do forth with the answer to the pressing question: How long do you eddy crab legs?

Stride ane: Fill a large pot ($30, Target) one-half to two-thirds total with common cold tap h2o. Add together 1 tablespoon table salt; bring the water to humid.

Step 2: Add four 4- to 8-ounce crab legs to the humid water, bending and tucking the legs then as much every bit possible is covered in water. Return the water to boiling.

Step 3: Cook the legs, uncovered, 4 to 5 minutes or until heated through, adjusting occasionally with long tongs ($14, Bed Bath & Across) to make certain they heat evenly.

Step 4: Using the long tongs, remove the legs from the h2o. If desired, rinse legs; drain well.

That's all there is to it! Y'all at present know how to boil crab legs. Getting the meat out is the real chore.

twisting crab leg at joint

cutting crab leg to remove meat

Left: Credit: Scott Footling

Right: Credit: Scott Little

Removing the Crabmeat

Now that the meat is cooked, y'all just have to get information technology out of the trounce.

Step 1: Twist at the joint and/or cut the shell

Absurd cooked crab legs until easy to handle. Yous may want to use a make clean kitchen cloth when handling since the legs have nodules that tin can be sharp. Twist the legs at the joint. Oftentimes you can pull the meat from the beat out as you lot twist.

Or utilize kitchen shears ($ix, Target) to cut through the shell to access the crab meat. If you lot tried twisting and pulling out the meat but notwithstanding see some left, grab the shears so yous don't go out whatsoever crab meat behind.

opening crab vanquish to remove meat

Step two: Harvesting the meat

For carve up legs, pull apart the beat out with your fingers. Use a small seafood fork to remove the meat from the legs and claws.

Steamed Crab Legs with Butter Dipping Sauce and Lemons

Step iii: Serving Crab Legs

When serving, go along things elementary and let the crab legs star. You can go to all the attempt of twisting, cutting, and separating crab legs for your guests or serve 'em upwardly right out of the pot and permit anybody at the table earn their fancy repast.

If the crab legs are non presplit, have kitchen shears available for splitting, and give each person a small seafood fork for getting crab meat out of the shells. Favorite accompaniments for crab legs are lemon wedges and small bowls of melted butter for dipping. Figure about ane tablespoon butter per four ounces crab meat. Get fancy with your butter by adding fresh herbs every bit we did in our Steamed Crab Legs recipe (there are directions for how to boil crab legs, too in this steamed recipe, and so now you'll know two ways to cook them).

Antiseptic Butter

Clarified butter is more commonly served with lobster, only since crab is another shellfish fabricated even more succulent served with butter, you may desire to try our Clarified Butter recipe with crab legs, too. Clarifying butter is a elementary technique that removes the cloudy milk solids from melted butter, resulting in a clear, amber-hue butter that is pretty and delicious for dipping bites of crabmeat.

Ownership Crab Legs

Because the crab season is short and quotas are strictly enforced, they are a bit of a splurge. Purchase top-quality crab legs from a trusted source and treat them with care. Most crab legs are cooked and frozen on the fishing boat as shortly equally the crab is caught, so frozen crab legs are the most common way to purchase.

Look for crab legs that are fairly thick to ensure they will be meaty and easy to eat. Avoid those with a lot of ice crystals or that look like they take been frozen for too long. The leg meat is considered the best but the claw meat is nonetheless tasty.
Consider your pot size when purchasing crab legs since the legs will need to fit into the pot for cooking and they only bend at the joints.
Some merchants sell crab legs that are already split. This makes harvesting the meat from the shells easier.
King crab legs, which are from the northern Pacific, tend to be the largest legs available and offer delicate, sweet meat tinged with a blood-red color. Because they are and so meaty, king crab legs tend to be more expensive than snow crab legs, the other meridian variety. Sugariness, slightly salty snow crab has white meat with a pinkish hue and hails from the northern Pacific and the waters of Canada's east coast.
Plan on one iv- to 8-ounce crab leg per serving.

Afterwards you lot've cooked crab legs to perfection, don't forget to make some delicious sides to go with your dinner. You can go far simple with some boiled potatoes or roasted veggies to keep the crab legs the star of the evidence. To continue your seafood kick, try our quick and easy seafood recipes for any night of the week.