Throwing a fancy party? Broiled Lobster Tail should definitely be on the menu. This step-by-step guide will show you exactly what to do. Serve with a light brown butter and toasted hazelnut sauce!
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Fried Lobster Tail – the quintessential fancy dinner, isn’t it?
All you have to do is slice and eat.
Of course, this requires a little more effort on the part of whoever is preparing the lobster tail. The lobster’s hard shell must be cut open, the meat detached from the sides of the shell, and pulled out to rest before frying.
But you end up with a delicious meal that doesn’t require bibs, nutcrackers, or bundles of napkins.
Serve lobster tails with brown butter
For this lobster tail recipe we use a brown butter sauce with parsley, lemon zest, shallots and some toasted hazelnuts. If you don’t want to go through that trouble, you can just use melted butter with a little salt, pepper, and maybe some paprika to dust the top of the lobster meat before grilling.
But I highly recommend browning the butter first.
Just that extra step intensifies the buttery flavor that goes so well with lobster. I’ve made seared lobster both ways and will never go back to regular butter. Brown butter is so much better!
Roasted hazelnuts also have a rather buttery flavor and add a nice crunch to every bite.
Do you have a special way of preparing lobster tails? Please let us know in the comments. Thanks very much!
Looking for more great seafood recipes?
- How to cook and eat a lobster
- How to Make a New England Clambake at Home
- Classic king crab
- Moules Marinières (mussels in white wine sauce)
- Baked stuffed mussels
Grilled lobster tail with brown butter sauce
If you’re starting with frozen lobster tails, prepare a bowl with 2 liters of cold water and 1 tablespoon of salt. Stir to dissolve the salt. Place the lobster tails in the water. Add a few ice cubes. Let it sit for half an hour to thaw.
This recipe calls for lobster tails, 6 to 8 ounces each. If you are cooking smaller or larger lobster tails, you may need to adjust the grilling time up or down. For example, a 3-ounce lobster tail should take 3 to 4 minutes to grill.
The hardest part of working with lobster tails is opening the shell and loosening the meat enough to pull it through the cut you made in the shell. Depending on at what point in the lobster’s molting cycle the lobster was caught, the shell can either be very thick and strong or thin and easily handled.
Be careful when working with a particularly hard shell to avoid cutting yourself and use a strong hand. (I recommend watching this video for a good explanation of the technique.)
ingredients
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1/4 Cup unsalted raw hazelnuts
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8th tablespoon unsalted butter
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2 tablespoon chopped shallots
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1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
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1/4 teaspoon grated Lemon peel
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pinch of salt
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2 lobster tails(6 to 8 ounces each), fresh or frozen
method
If you start with frozen lobster tails while the lobster tails are thawing, prepare the hazelnut butter sauce to save time.
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Roast hazelnuts:
In a small skillet, toast the hazelnuts over medium-medium heat. When fragrant and lightly browned, remove the hazelnuts from the pan and place a dry, clean tea towel in the center.
Rub the hazelnuts together in the tea towel to remove as much of the papery dark skin as possible. Roughly chop and set aside.
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Fry butter:
In a small stainless steel saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. (Use stainless steel so you can easily tell when the butter is browning.)
After the butter melts, it foams up and goes back. The milk solids fall to the bottom of the pan.
Continue heating and the milk solids will begin to brown, giving the melted butter a wonderful nutty flavor.
Allow most of the milk solids to brown, then remove from heat and pass through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl to remove the browned milk solids.
Remove 2 tablespoons of the melted brown butter and set aside (this is brushed onto the lobster tails before frying. (See How to Brown Butter for more details.)
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Complete sauce:
To the remaining browned butter, add the chopped hazelnuts, parsley, shallots, lemon zest and salt. Put aside.
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Prepare lobster tails for frying:
Place the rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat grill. Place a layer of foil over a grill pan or roasting pan.
Using kitchen shears or strong scissors, cut the top of the lobster tail shells lengthwise from the open end to the base of the tail.
To make handling the shell easier, place the tail upside down in your palm and squeeze to break the translucent lower shell (see this useful video I found on YouTube).
Grab the sides of the shell and pull open about an inch or two.
Gently wiggle your finger between the lobster meat and the shell, separating the meat from the shell.
Then gently pull the meat through the gap created, leaving the meat attached to the tail, and allow the lobster meat to sit on the shell. Place the tails on the foil-lined grill pan.
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Brush lobster tails with browned butter and grill:
Pull back the lobster meat to reveal as much as possible. Brush the exposed lobster meat with the unadorned browned butter you set aside in step 2.
Grill for 7 to 10 minutes, until meat is tender (less time for smaller lobster tails) and shells are bright red.
I recommend using a meat thermometer, which should read 145°F when the lobster is done.
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Serve with Browned Butter Hazelnut Sauce:
When the lobster tails are cooked, remove from the oven and arrange on plates. To serve, pour the browned butter and hazelnut sauce over the lobster tails.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 621 | calories |
| 56g | Fat |
| 7g | carbohydrates |
| 25g | protein |
