How to cook frozen crab legs seems to be challenging for most people. Are you the one finding yourself a way of how to cook frozen snow crab legs? If yes, read this article below to figure out the 4 best recipes from Fisherman’s Net.
Tips To Buy The Best Crab Legs
Snow Crab Legs are what we normally used to make these recipes. They are usually sold from $10 to $15 per pound. One of the most initially perfect tips for “How to cook snow crab legs?” is buying the crab legs attached together as a cluster. This is because the cluster is typically filled with more meat.
Dungeness Crab, which is sold from $8 to $12 per pound, has a similar impact for the below recipes. This type of crabs inhabits eelgrass beds and the bottom of water on the West Coast of North America. Therefore, you should ask the fish department where you buy Dungeness Crab to help with cleaning the shell. This will help you to process the crab more easily.
King Crab Legs have the highest price among these three, which are often sold for more than $25 per pound. The reason why King Crab is more expensive than others is because it is extremely meaty.
What are the Must-have Ingredients and Tools?
Ingredients
- 8 quarts of water.
- A quarter cup of salt.
- 2 lbs of fresh or frozen cooked Snow Crab legs. Then, remember to thaw them from frozen.
- A little melted butter.
- Some wedges of lemon.
Tools
- A large stockpot that can fit all of your prepared crab legs.
- A trivet that fits your pot.
- Long-handled tongs.
- Kitchen shears.
- A crab cracker. In case you do not have one, you can use a mallet or a nutcracker instead.
- A steamer basket.
- A heavy-duty aluminum foil.
How to cook frozen crab legs?
In most seafood stores, crab legs will be prepared such as steamed or boiled, then frozen and sold. When you buy them, you just need to defrost and cook them simply to be able to use them, crab meat still retains its natural sweetness and fresh flavor. Or you can try our 4 favorite and popular ones below:
Cook crab legs frozen in instant pot
Place the trivet which you have prepared into a 6-quart instant pot, and also add 1 cup of water. Then, put 3 – 4 clusters of crab legs per batch into the pot. Remember to fold and adjust the crab legs, so that they can fit it more. This is why we suggest that you should thaw the legs from frozen when processing. Thawed crab legs are more flexible, in other words, they will fit in easier than those frozen ones.
Pro Tip: Set up your instant pot outside or let it vent under the stove hood or your kitchen will be quite fragrant!
Then, close the lid and cook on manual high pressure for about 4 minutes with quick release. After these steps, all you need to do is wait for the instant pot to do its job. You can use the same water to repeat with another batch of crab legs clusters right away.
How to cook frozen snow crab legs in the steamer?
This recipe should be started with the steam basket being placed at the bottom of your large stockpot. Also, add 1 cup of water into the stockpot. Then, put in as many crab legs as possible with the lid still being closed tightly.
Now, you should boil the water, and reduce the heat a simmer when it has reached the boil. Make sure that you maintain the simmer as you steam the crab legs until they are cooked through. Boil water about 5 minutes for thawed crab legs or 10 minutes for frozen crab legs. When it is heated enough, remove the crab legs from the stockpot by using the long-handled tongs. Then, set them aside to cool slightly.
Grilled Crab Legs Recipe
First of all, you should have your gas or charcoal grill prepared for medium heat. To minimize the risk of crab being stuck, you ought to clean the grill grates with a stiff-bristled wire brush.
Next, apply 1 tbsp of oil onto the crab legs in order to keep them from sticking to the grill. Cook them directly on the grill grates for about 3 – 4 minutes, then take them out when heated through.
One tip from Fisherman’s Net is that you should keep the grill covered when cooking to help maximize its heat.
How to cook frozen crab legs in the oven?
Create a foil pack for 4 crab legs clusters with the heavy-duty aluminum foil which you have prepared. In specific, bring the 4 ends into the center, then fold them together twice.
Next, place them on a baking sheet and bake them at 450˚F for the amount of time as below.
- Frozen crab legs: 25 minutes.
- Thawed crab legs: 15 minutes.
Serve and Enjoy!
Some Tips You May Note
- Limit boiling: Boiling will cause the meat and substances in the crab legs to be diluted and mixed into the water. So when eating meat, it will not be firm and easy to water when breaking crab legs.
- How to know crab legs are cooked? Crab legs should be cooked long enough until the hot water evaporates and fragrant, so it’s cooked and delicious
- Should use crab cracker or nutcracker to avoid injury: Because the shell is quite tough and sharp, especially the nail.
- If you do not eat all the crab legs, you should wrap them up, store them in the refrigerator and reheat as needed. Refer to how to reheat crab legs properly to have fresh and sweet crab legs like freshly cooked.
Now that you’re an expert in cooking crab legs get your shears, seafood cracker, or mallet and get cracking.
If you’re looking to find the best seafood place in Portland, Maine, Fishermen’s Net is here. We offer a variety of crab, lobster, snail, fish, and more! Plus, we speak fluently in both English and Vietnamese, ready to cater to nationwide customers.
Tips for Making the Most Delicious Dipping Sauce
Do you know what pairs best with most seafood? Let Fishermen’s Net tell you! It is a combination of butter, garlic, and lemon.
First of all, you need to have yourself a small saucepan. Then, use it to melt 4 tbsp of butter and stir in 2 minced garlic cloves, 1 quarter tsp of salt, 1 eighth tsp of pepper.
Secondly, you should spend just 30 seconds stirring this mixture. After that, take your saucepan off the heat.
Last but not least, squeeze in 1 half tbsp of lemon juice.
Now, you have the best dipping sauce ever to try with crab meat.
(Extra) How to Eat Crab Meat?
Eating crab for the very first time can actually turn into a mess, but do not let that intimidate you!
In the process of eating crab, you should learn how to crack its shell right at the beginning. Just simply use a crab cracker, a mallet, or a nutcracker as we mentioned above to crack open the shell. When the shell is opened, you can easily take out the crab meat.
However, for crab legs, using a cracker sometimes leads to the fact that there will be small shards of shell in the meat. In this case, Fishermen’s Net suggests that you should remove the meat by splitting the legs with kitchen shears. Cut a slit down the length of the shell, then gently separate the 2 sides of it. Now, you are able to take the meat out in long pieces.
You can consider to serve lobster jumbo with crab legs dish. View more Jumbo live Maine lobster on sale now!
That is all the advice from Fisherman’s Net for you on how to cook frozen snow crab legs. Follow these 4 recipes, and you will have the best experience with crab.
Visit our blog for more useful tips related to the crab and the other seafoods. Feel free to contact us via the below contact information if you have any further questions or requests.
- Website: www.mualobster.com
- Address: 849 Forest Ave, Portland, ME 04103.
- Tel: +1 (207) 772-3565.
