Snow crab legs are a delicious and visually spectacular addition to any celebratory meal. About 100,000 tons of snow crab is caught annually, the most of any of the large crab species [1]. Unless you live very close to a snow crab fishery (Alaska, Japan, or Norway), the snow crab you will find in your local grocery store has been cooked and flash frozen before shipping, so preparing snow crab at home requires gentle reheating! This simple steamed preparation, with garlic butter and lemon on the side, showcases the crab’s natural sweetness and delicate flavor.

Ingredients

2 lb snow crab legs
¼ cup clarified butter
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 lemon

You can usually find crab legs in the frozen seafood section, or thawed out in the seafood case. Unless you’re cooking the crab right away, buy the frozen legs—they can be cooked straight from frozen, and a thawing cycle increases the risk of damage to the meat. If you do buy them thawed, use them within 1-2 days. Steaming is the ideal method for reheating the crab legs (boiling crustaceans will dilute the flavor and waterlog the meat). Bring the water in the steamer to a boil on the stovetop. Before you start, make sure that your steamer basket is large enough to accommodate the crab legs! When the steamer is up to temperature, add the crab legs to the steamer basket and steam them for about 10-12 minutes from frozen, or about 7 minutes from thawed, until the crab is warmed through and hits an internal temperature of 155° F. Remove the crab from the heat right away—we don’t want the crab to become overcooked!

While the crab steams, we can prepare our flavored butter. Clarified butter can purchased, or you can make it in advance from some regular butter. Melt a high-butterfat butter in a saucepan over low heat, without stirring to let the milk solids settle to the bottom of the pan. Then carefully ladle or pour out the now-clarified butter, leaving the milk solids behind [2].

For this recipe, melt ¼ cup of clarified butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add two cloves of smashed garlic to the butter and simmer for 5 minutes, infusing the butter. Then fish out the garlic and pour the butter into serving dishes.

Serve the crab immediately, with lemon wedges and the warm butter. Be sure to have some crab crackers and kitchen shears on hand to get through the shells!

Substitutions

You can prepare any large pre-cooked crabs in the same way. Commonly available varieties include king crab, spider crab, stone crab, and Dungeness crab. You can use ghee instead of clarified butter in this recipe. Ghee is clarified butter which is cooked until the milk solids brown and caramelize, giving it a nuttier flavor.

[1] Snow crab fisheries are generally considered to be sustainable, particularly in regions where the crab is considered invasive. However, in recent years populations have declined in the Bering Sea, likely a consequence of climate change and rising ocean temperatures. See the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch for the latest recommendations.

[2] Because the milk solids have been removed, clarified butter has a longer shelf life than regular butter. It also has a higher smoke point: 486° F compared to the 350° F of regular butter.

Recipe

Prep Time: 5 min Cook Time: 10 min Total Time: 15 min

Difficulty: 2/5

Heat Sources: 2 burners

Equipment: steamer, saucepan

Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 lb snow crab legs
¼ cup clarified butter
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 lemon

Instructions

1. Bring water in your steamer to a boil, then place the crab legs in the steamer basket.

2. Steam for about 10-12 minutes from frozen, or 7 minutes from thawed, until the crab is warmed through and hit an internal temperature of 155° F. Then remove the crab from the heat.

3. While the crab steams, melt the clarified butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the smashed garlic to the butter and simmer together for 5 minutes. Then remove the garlic and pour the butter into serving dishes.

4. Serve the crab immediately, with lemon wedges and the warm garlic butter.