How To Cook Crab Legs - Some Tips

By: Graham Lavery


If you feel like eating crab legs, the easiest way to do it is to buy frozen crab legs from the supermarket. These are already cooked, so you just need to heat them up. Read some tips on how to do this in the following.

It is not advisable to heat them up too quickly. First, you need to thaw them, by leaving them in the refrigerator overnight so they can thaw slowly. Avoid throwing them in the microwave oven or to let them thaw at the room temperature. This is a huge mistake. When you put them in the microwave to heat them up, you will overcook them and if you leave them at the room temperature, some food safety issues may appear.

After keeping them in the refrigerator overnight, they will thaw properly. Then you can cook them, by heating them in the microwave oven or by steaming or by boiling them.

If you decide for the first option, put the crab legs on a pan that is safe to use in the microwave oven and cover them with some paper towels. Two or three minutes are enough for getting them well heated.

If you want to boil them, put some water in a large pot, with a little salt or other spices that you like. Wait for the water to boil and then drop the crab legs in it. Reduce the heat and boil them like this for four to six minutes.

For steaming, you need a large saucepan with water in it. Place it on a stove and let the water boil. Then put the crab legs in a vegetable steamer and put this steamer over the pan with the boiling water. Steam them for four or five minutes to get them done.

If you want to heat the crab legs in an oven, you must heat the over at 420 degrees. The crab legs must be put on a baking sheet and placed on the top rack. You can get them out after you roast them for four or five minutes.

For getting more meat from the crab legs, choose king crab legs. A general thing you need to know about crabs is that they usually have more meat on their legs than in the whole body, and they even have a large amount of meat in their claws.

To eat the delicious meat hidden in the crab legs, you need to break the three sections of the legs exactly at the joints. In order to crack one, hold it and press it until you hear the cracking sound. Take away the shell and you will find inside a good portion of meat. Claws are harder than the legs and they cannot be as easy to be cracked open. So some pliers or some special utensils are needed to pull the meat out of the claws.

As garnishing, you can use some melted butter that will add extra flavor to the delicious meat. You can use any recipe you want as the crab meat is very good and it works great with other foods, too.


Graham Lavery is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com