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 How to steam crabs

Do you want to know how to cook crab legs? Have you just spent a fortune on Alaskan King crab, Snow crab or Dungeness crab and you need some tasty solutions for cooking them?

You, my crab-nerdy friend, have come to the right place! We’ll show you how to make some yummy steamed crab legs for dinner.

Firstly though, we are cooking with only crab legs on this page. If you have a whole crab (the top shell is still attached) then you will need to clean your crab. You can find an easy step by step guide on how to clean crabs here.  

There are a few things that you will need to make cooking your crab legs an easy smooth process.

Equipment:

    1. A crab steamer or if you don’t have a crab steamer you can make one by rolling five balls of tin foil and placing them on the bottom of a large pot with a lid. The idea of a steamer is that the crab legs will not be touching the water at all –just the sweat of the water. We sell crab steamers in our store if you plan on steaming a lot of crabs in the future. See below.
    2. Sea salt, crab boil or neither. I usually use neither because I’ve already added salt when I initially boiled the crabs. However, I also have low tolerance to salt so I use it sparingly.
    3. A good pair of tongs for handling, burning hot crabs legs.
    4. Your crab legs that have been previously boiled and cleaned. Frozen crab legs are okay. Alaskan King crab legs and Snow crab legs always are purchased frozen, pre-boiled and cleaned. Dungeness crab or Red rock crab purchased from a store are usually pre-boiled but not cleaned. If you need help with cleaning your crab go to our crab cleaning page and then come back…we’ll wait!

 

Ready to get started?

Directions:

  • Add water to your steamer, or make-shift steamer pot, so there is water almost up to the start of the steamer tray (or the tops of the tinfoil). Place your steaming on your oven on high.
  • Add your sea salt, 3 Tablespoons to every gallon (or 4 liters) of water. Or add your crab boil according to the directions on the label. Less is best when using the crab boil because the flavors can be quite powerful.
  • At this point you can experiment and add your favorite spices and herbs. I sometimes will add garlic and lemon thyme if I’m not using a dipping sauce for my crab legs.
  • Once the water is boiling, put your crab legs into the steamer making sure that the lid closes properly.

If you have thawed or fresh crab legs –steam them for 10-12 minutes.

If you have frozen crab legs –steam them for 15-20 minutes.

*Tip – Keep half of your crab legs in the steamer (with the oven turned off) to keep them warm while you are picking away at the ones on your plate.

Crab legs go well with a variety of dipping sauces. Visit our crab legs dipping sauces page to find your favorite.

Do you still have questions about how to cook crab legs? We will be happy to answer any questions you have about crab legs. Simply leave your questions in the comments section below.

 

 

How to Cook Crab Legs
 
 
We’ll show you how to make some yummy steamed crab legs for dinner.
:
: Entree
Ingredients
  • A crab steamer or if you don’t have a crab steamer you can make one by rolling five balls of tin foil and placing them on the bottom of a large pot with a lid. The idea of a steamer is that the crab legs will not be touching the water at all –just the sweat of the water.
  • Sea salt, crab boil or neither. I usually use neither because I’ve already added salt when I initially boiled the crabs. However, I also have low tolerance to salt so I use it sparingly.
  • A good pair of tongs for handling, burning hot crabs legs.
  • Your crab legs that have been previously boiled and cleaned. Frozen crab legs are okay.
Method to the Rad-ness
  1. Add water to your steamer, or make-shift steamer pot, so there is water almost up to the start of the steamer tray (or the tops of the tinfoil). Place your steaming on your oven on high.
  2. Add your sea salt, 3 Tablespoons to every gallon (or 4 liters) of water. Or add your crab boil according to the directions on the label. Less is best when using the crab boil because the flavors can be quite powerful.
  3. At this point you can experiment and add your favorite spices and herbs. I sometimes will add garlic and lemon thyme if I’m not using a dipping sauce for my crab legs.
  4. Once the water is boiling, put your crab legs into the steamer making sure that the lid closes properly

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