Recipe: Crab Legs*

Every family has traditional foods for the holidays, some of which can be quite pricey (which is why we only have them once a year!)  Shopping ahead for ingredients you need for family dinners, parties, and neighbor gifts can save lots of money and last minute trips to town.  Our family Christmas Eve always includes homemade French Dip sandwiches, for example, so I have had my boneless beef roasts socked away in the freezer for a couple of months now—purchased when the price was to my liking.

I decided from now until Christmas I would feature some of our family holiday favorites that are definitely more special than our usual, ordinary meals.  One of these is Crab Legs, which just happen to be on sale this week at Smith’s for $6.99/lb.  In the ad it says these are frozen/defrosted, so I called the meat department to see if we could purchase them straight out of the freezer to take right home and freeze until ready to cook.  They said yes--so don’t just choose them out of the meat case already thawed, (unless you plan to cook them within a day or two at most); instead, have them pull you out frozen ones so you can put them in your freezer for later.  Don’t shop around with them in your cart—buy them last and hurry home so they stay frozen solid.  Crab is the easiest thing in the world to prepare, and if you love it like we do, it’s a great holiday treat.  

King crab Legs are already cooked when you purchase them. King crab legs are cooked on the fishing boats or immediately upon landfall to preserve freshness. They need only to be adequately heated before eating.  

Amount of King Crab Legs to Purchase: Purchase 8 ounces to 1 pound per person.

Storage: Thawed crab legs can be maintained in the refrigerator for two days, but they should really be cooked as soon after they have been defrosted as possible.

Preparation: Remove crab legs from freezer.  Arrange in shallow baking pan. Add hot water to fill pan 1/8 inch deep. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350 degrees until just heated through (15 to 20 minutes).

Garlic Dipping Butter - Melt butter in pan.  Add to this a few cloves diced garlic that has been very briefly sautéed in a small skillet (do not overcook or brown, just sauté a bit to make it more mild). Add this to the butter, then ladle into small servings cups for dipping the crab meat.  If some people don’t like garlic, remove part of the butter for them before adding the garlic.

Eating it!

To get to the crab meat, just use kitchen shears or clean scissors (unless you actually have some crab scissors).  Break the crab legs at the joints, and use the scissors to cut down the sides and split them open to get to the meat.  There are no rules—everyone does it their own way.

*Originally distributed December 2013