Crab Legs - 4 Easy Ways + Flavored Butter Sauce Recipe

Hey everybody, it's Natasha of natashaskitchen.com and I have such a treat for you. I'm gonna teach you our four favorite ways to cook crab legs. Crab legs are so easy. Most of the times you get them in the grocery store, they're already cooked. So it's a matter of heating them up, keeping them super juicy and bringing out all that scrumptious flavor. And we have a mouthwatering flavored butter to dip the meat in. So let's get started because I want some crab meat. The first method I'll show you is the instant pot method and this is so easy. Place a trivet in the bottom of the instant pot and add one cup of water. Then top that with your four clusters of crab legs. You can use fresh or frozen. Fresh are a little bit easier to fit because you can fold the legs easier. Close the lid, set that on manual high pressure for four minutes and make sure the valve is set to the sealing position. Once the timer is up, switch that to the venting position and do a quick release of any pressure in the pot. Once all of that pressure is released, remove the lid and serve the crab legs. The steaming method is the best way to make a large batch to feed a crowd. Place a steam basket into a large stock pot and add one cup of water. Add as many crab legs as you can fit so you can still close the lid. Bring that to a boil over medium high heat and let that steam cook for about five to 10 minutes depending on if they were thawed or frozen to begin with. They're ready when they're fragrant and steaming hot. You can also grill or bake the crab legs in foil packets. Using heavy duty aluminum foil, create a foil pack with four clusters of crab legs. Bring the two ends up and fold twice to seal. Then fold each end twice to seal the sides. This method doesn't require any added water, but you do wanna seal that foil pack so the steam doesn't escape. Place the foil pack on a preheated grill over medium high heat or about 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes if frozen or 10 minutes if the crab legs are thawed. To bake the foil packs in the oven, place that on a baking sheet in the center of a preheated oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 25 minutes if frozen or 15 minutes if thawed. You'll know they're done when you see steaming as you open the foil pack. Now onto my favorite part, the garlic butter dipping sauce. In a small sauce pan, melt four tablespoons of butter and add two pressed or minced garlic cloves. This is my favorite garlic press. I use it all the time and I will link to it in the notes. Also add 1 1⁄4 teaspoon of salt and 1 1⁄8 teaspoon of black pepper. Stir that for just 30 seconds or until fragrant, then take it off the heat. Once it's off the heat, squeeze in half a tablespoon of lemon juice or add the lemon juice to taste. Divide that sauce into ramekins to serve as a dipping sauce for that scrumptious crab meat. All right, our crab is all done and that was ridiculously easy and pretty fast. So now it is time. It is time for the taste test. Who's hungry? Okay, let's get real here. Just gonna get a little, just kidding, just kidding. But we will need that. Okay, serve this of course with that yummy flavored butter that we just made and we're gonna dig right into this. Just kind of go at it. So if you don't have a crab cracker, you can just on these parts, crack. And really, these are so good. Where there's a will, there's a way. Okay, and then the meat should come right out. Look at that. Like, wow. I'm really excited inside. Okay, and then dip, dip, dip and give it a little swirl because the tasty stuff kind of sinks down to the bottom and you've got that butter layer on top. So I want some garlic flavor. Yum. And then you can also serve this with lemon wedges. So I like to put them on the platter when I serve. You can just squeeze a little bit more lemon on your meat. Mm. That is so, so delicious. So with crabs, anywhere there's a pocket, there's meat inside. So make sure you don't miss anything. And then you can use a nut cracker for these bigger claws that are tougher to get through. Sometimes they're pre-cracked. Sometimes it's not good enough. So I like to use this crab cracker. But again, nut cracker would work. I'll link to this one in the notes. There we go. Give it a little crunchity crunch. Okay, take this part off first because it gets rid of that tough part that you don't want to eat. Just crack that open to get to the good stuff. And if you don't know what the good stuff looks like, it's right there. That's the good stuff. Yum, okay. Again, dip, dip, dip in that super yummy garlic lemon butter. Wow, I mean, crab tastes great on its own, but when you've got this dip added to it, it's like restaurant style. So, so delicious and such a treat. All right, and one more thing, don't forget. Remember, our motto is no crab meat left behind. So don't forget these little clusters on the ends that hold the legs together. They are actually loaded with crab meat. So you can peel back and you'll find some yummy, yummy pockets of crab meat inside like this. All right, and we have a very special taste tester who also loves crab meat and she has been waiting very patiently. So we're gonna get her out here. Come on, come over. Pretending to be a kitty cat. Kitty cats love crab too. Okay, here we go. You ready for this? Yeah? Let's crack this for ya. Yeah, hi-ya! Okay, here we go. Do you want me to dip it for you? All right. Okay, you ready? Ready? What do you think? All right. I hope you love all of these methods. Give all of them a try. My personal favorite, the Instant Pot, because it's so fast. For more special occasion or romantic dinner ideas, check out some of our favorites right over there and right down there. And if you like this video, make sure you click below to subscribe. And when you do, click that little bell icon so you'll get notifications every time we post a new recipe. We'll see you in our next video.