Ingredients:
- 2 lbs king crab legs
- 2 each whole avocados
- 4 Tbls whole butter
- I Tbl fresh lemon zest
- ¼ cup fresh dill
- 1 tsp kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
Crack the crab legs and place on a cookie sheet. Brush them with whole butter and bake for 8-9 minutes.
While crab is baking prepare you lemon zest and chop fresh dill.
Halve each avocado by making cutting down to the seed and rotating the blade around the seed. Now pull the seed out and scoop the avocado meat out with a large spoon. Be careful, you want to keep the avocado flesh intact. Discard the skin.
Remove the crab legs and crack them completely open. Remove all the crab meat. Preheat a sauté pan over medium high heat. Melt butter and then sauté crab for three minutes. Add dill, salt, lemon zest, toss then fill each avocado cavity with the crab mixture.
TIP: If you are planning on buying crab legs, try not to buy ones that have been thawed, as they will tend to lose their taste and freshness upon thawing. Always try to buy frozen crab legs or pre-cooked and frozen crab legs.
Hey Dan, does this 8-9 minute cook time apply to FROZEN crab legs? Or to the thawed ones? I can get “cooked but frozen” real easy from the crab place down the street or from the grocery store. The crab place will even steam them for me. Thanks!
Lori
Lori,
This recipe is for FROZEN. Thawed crab legs can be re-heated any way you like…but as a chef I must tell you, the microwave is not your best friend!
If the crab place will steam them, then that is the freshest, and best option!
SWEET. Less work for me. I’ll have them steam ‘em and then I’ll crack ‘em open and start the saute’ process. Looking forward to this tomorrow night like you wouldn’t believe. Excited to be cooking again, who would have thought? Thanks for replying!
Lori
Wonderful!!! Let me know how it goes!
Now when I ordered those steamed crab legs the girl on the phone asked me, “do you want them spiced?” and I said “NO.” I think she spiced ‘em anyway because they were kinda salty. I used salted butter, also. I mean the crabs were really really good (we were shoving pieces in our mouths as we shelled ‘em). Took us forever to shell out 4 and a half pounds of the suckers so work that into your cooking time! These almost weren’t done in time. We’re not really great at it so it took us about 45 minutes to shell ‘em.
My advice: Make sure if you get them steamed that they aren’t “spiced” also. Turns out too salty. Also, I think the avocadoes I got were a little over-ripe. I wish they had had more texture. But I just love avocadoes and use any excuse to eat ‘em. Maybe I need a lesson on how to pick avocadoes…
FYI, I also had a TON of the crab meat left over, way more than stuffing 2 avocadoes could hold. I would definately make this again, but my technique needs refining. Might also just try a tub of the “lump crab meat” from the seafood counter at the grocery store, too!
Lori
thanks for posting this
Wow You did a really good job on this thing.
Thank you Bryanna