Crab Legs Recipe | Boiling Crab Legs Served with Old Bay Garlic Butter (2024)

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This crab legs recipe combines boiling crab legs in beer with a garlic Old Bay melted butter sauce. You’ll never wonder how to boil crab legs again!

My family would choose this crab legs recipe for dinner every day if they could! This easy way for boiling crab legs in beer is just delicious!

Since my munchkins love them just as much as my husband and I, we’re not left with much choice than to make crab legs at home unless we’d like to go broke in the process.

While you might not think of them as a “frugal” meal, grabbing a few pounds of crab legs on sale is sure a great deal compared to paying $25 or more at a restaurant for one meal.

We paid only $20 for 4 pounds for our little family feast! While it’s not often you’ll find a great price like this be sure to watch around the holidays and stock up. Usually I’ll find them for $6.99/lb or a little more, but definitely still a lot cheaper than eating out even at that price.

Take a look at my daughter woofing them down for her birthday…yep, she’s wanted crab legs each year since her 3rd birthday! As you can see in the photo she also loves this Baked BBQ Shrimp recipe 😉

What’s the best way to cook crab legs?

Since I was young, my family’s favorite way to cook seafood was to simply boil it.

We always just threw it in a little boiling water with some Old Bay seafood seasoning and wah-lah! Delicious lobster, shrimp, and crab legs!

Now of course there are many other ways to cook crab legs – bake, broil, even grill maybe? But if you are looking for easy and delicious, boiling crab legs is the way to go.

How long to boil crab legs

Ten minutes seems to do the trick for us!

As I mentioned above, boiling crab legs really can’t be much easier…just boil your water, add a bottle of beer and some Old Bay seasoning, and add the crab legs.

I can’t remember when exactly I found the idea to add a bottle of beer to the boiling water in this crab legs recipe, but let me tell you, we tried it once and have done it ever since! In fact, we add a bottle of beer to any seafood that we boil now.

It just seems to give the seafood even more flavor and (I might be crazy! lol) but the shells look cleaner and prettier too 🙂

Ingredients Needed for this Crab Legs Recipe

• 3 lbs Frozen crab legs
• 1 Can of beer
• 1/4 cup Old Bay seasoning
• 1 Lemon
• 4 tsp Garlic
• 1/2 cup Butter

Helpful Kitchen Tools

• Crab legs crackers and forks
• Large stock pot
• Butter warmers
• Garlic press

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So without further ado, here is how to make crab legs our favorite way.

We usually use snow crab legs but I’m sure king crab legs would turn out just as good!

Beer Boiling Crab Legs Recipe with Old Bay Garlic Butter Sauce

To get started I fill a large stock pot only about half way with water and bring it to a boil. This allows room for the water to rise once you add the crab legs 😉

Once the water boils, I add a can of beer and enough Old Bay seasoning to give the water a “muddy” appearance.

I boil the crab legs for 10 minutes.

While they are cooking, I get my yummy melted butter sauce ready by adding about a teaspoon of minced garlic and about 2 tablespoons of butter to a microwave-safe small bowl or ramekin for each person. I then set the ramekins aside and wait to heat them up until just before serving so the butter is nice and hot.

Once the crab legs are done boiling, I drain them, set them on a large platter, and top them off with some fresh lemon juice and sprinkle them with Old Bay seasoning.

Then I just quickly heat the butter by microwaving at 20 second intervals and swirling in between until it’s melted. Once melted I sprinkle Old Bay on the top.

The sweet beer-boiled crab meat combined with super flavorful garlic Old Bay melted butter sauce…my mouth is watering just thinking about the deliciousness of these bad boys!

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