Steamed Alaskan King Crab Legs

February 21, 2010

Instead of bearing the crowded restaurants on Valentine’s Day, Keenan and I decided to spend the night in and cook for ourselves. The menu consisted of salad, garlic bread, Mindy’s spicy chopped potatoes, Alaskan King Crab Legs with drawn butter, and chocolate dipped strawberries.

We purchased two pounds of crab legs (or four large legs) which ended up to be a little too much for us…the legs were so huge and rich that we could only eat one each. Most crab legs you buy in the store are pre-cooked so you basically just need to re-heat them. We chose to steam our crab legs.

Here’s what you need:

– 1 large pot
– Adjustable steamer basket
– Crab legs
– Butter
– Lemon (if desired)

Here’s how you make it:

(1) Lay steamer basket inside the large pot
(2) Add 1 1/2 or 2 cups of water to the bottom of the pot
(3) Arrange crab legs inside the pot
(4) Bring water to a boil
(5) Steam crab legs for 6 or 7 minutes
(6) While the crab legs steam you will have time to make the drawn butter for dipping. I used small, microwave-safe dishes to melt the butter and then removed the milk solids with a spoon
(7) Remove steamed crab legs with tongs
(8) Split crab legs with your hands, a cracker, a hammer, or kitchen shears (however you can…there’s no exact science to it) and remove meat
(9) Squeeze a fresh lemon wedge over the meat (if desired) and dip in drawn butter
(10) Enjoy!

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