Ok, when our 19 year old traveled to Florida this month for a beach vacation with his buddies, we were definitely feeling some seafood-envy, so we scored some WONDERFUL frozen snow crab legs from our local HEB grocery store (we like snow crab because we find these the sweetest and easiest to cook just right) and made our own feast. They were big, meaty and just perfect – definitely going for them again sometime…and $22 a pound. I don’t know how that compares to more coastal places, but I think that’s not too bad for here in the north Texas area. We ate two pounds each, hehheh.
Ingredients
For the crab legs
Frozen (pre-cooked) snow crab legs from your butcher’s counter or best seafood source. I plan on 2 lbs per person, if you want to be generous – that was enough to fill both of our crab-loving selves up.
Butter – I used about 2 tbsp for each of us, melted in the microwave in a glass dish.
Fresh squeezed lemon juice from one lemon, can squeeze some into your melted butter when serving, or just cut up a few wedges to have on the side.
Optional – you can add a shake of cajun seasoning to your butter for a tiny bit of kick
For the salad
For two people, I used one bag of butter lettuce, you can mix with a little spring mix lettuce as well.
1 can pitted jumbo black olives – drain and use as many as you would like for who you are serving.
Couple tomatoes, sliced (I like campari tomatoes)
Couple small handfuls of fine Italian style grated cheese
Red onion, sliced thin – I just use a handful of thin strands in the salad
Olive Garden croutons
Olive Garden Italian dressing – just a bit
Red Lobster biscuits – found in frozen bread section of most grocery stores – bake per instructions on box.
Instructions
1. Start your oven so it can be heating up to bake your biscuits while the crab legs are simmering. I set the frozen biscuits on a sheet of parchment on a cookie sheet to help keep cleanup simple.
2. Prep your salad by mixing all the salad ingredients above, together. I wait to add the dressing until just before serving, and of course use tongs to mix the dressing in evenly…and I just add a little at a time – Olive Garden uses *just enough* to make you want another bite, I think that’s their secret, haha! Put salad in the fridge to keep cool and crisp.
3. Add water to the bottom of a large steam pot (til about 1/8 full, enough to steam for a few minutes without losing all the water). Add a steamer basket to the bottom of the pot and rinse your crab legs under cold running water.
4. Add crab legs to pot when you get your water close to a good boil, and cover with lid. Steam for about 7-9 minutes til done (or whatever the directions on the sticker that might’ve come with your crab legs from the meat counter specifies) and turn off heat. I think 7-9 minutes is pretty standard for crab legs in a steamer pot, though.
5. Keep legs in the steamer pot with lid on to keep warm. The secret to getting the legs cracked well so you can get the meat out intact, is doing it while they’re really warm. Here’s a tiny tutorial on cracking crab legs, LOL – this guy…!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vFce2tzJcw0
For the claws, we use a “cracker” and just hit it right in the middle of the claw – gently, just til it cracks – so it doesn’t just crush the entire claw.
Pro tip: We go for the biggest legs and the biggest claws first, cuz if you can hit em while they’re hot, the easier they are to get into and keep the meat intact.
Serve with lemon, butter on the side, salad and Red Lobster biscuits for a yummy crab leg feast. Hope you enjoy!