How Do You Cook A 1 Pound Lobster Tail
Brush the lobster with melted butter, and season with salt, pepper, and paprika if desired. Place lobster tails in a baking dish, then add just enough water or wine to cover the bottom of the pan, about ½ cup. Bake until the flesh is firm and pinkish-white, about 1 to 2 minutes per ounce.
How Long Do You Cook A 1 Pound Lobster
Boil lobsters for 10 to 20 min, depending on size: Note the time at which the water comes to a boil again. From that point, boil the lobsters for 10-20 minutes or longer, depending on the size of the lobster. 10-13 minutes for 1 lb lobster, 12-18 minutes for a 1 1/2 pound lobster, 18-23 minutes for a 2-3 pound lobster.
How To Cook Lobster Tail At Home
When you want to make lobster at home but you don’t want to wrestle with a whole lobster, just go for the lobster tail. It’s meaty and easy to cook, and delivers all the lobster goodness you’re hungry for. And if you want to skip the cooking altogether, you can buy ready-cooked lobster meat. Read on to learn what to look for when you’re buying lobster tail and get several methods for cooking lobster tail at home.
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How To Know When Lobster Is Done Cooking
The best way to know when the lobster is done cooking is to insert an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the tail. When the internal temperature reaches between 135 to 140ºF the lobster is ready to eat.
Visually, the dark shell will turn bright red due to the coloring agent astaxanthin transforming when heated. The flesh will turn from translucent to opaque pinkish-white color that is firm to the touch.
The Very Best Grilled Lobster Tail Recipe

Easy and simple, Grilled Lobster Tails are something extra special during the summer months but can actually be made all year long thanks to frozen lobster tails! Ready in minutes and served with a savory Garlic Butter Sauce, you can turn any night of the week into a celebration.
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Whats The Best Way To Butterfly Lobster Tails For Grilling
This method is great for the hotter cooking methods as it allows the tail meat to absorb the complementary smoky tastes from grilling. Butterfly lobster tails also make it easy to marinade in advance, and baste while cooking.
Interested in the other ways to prepare lobster? Read our article on the different ways to cook and prepare lobster.
Serving Grilled Lobster Tail Skewers
Finally, carefully remove the lobster tails from the skewers and set them on a serving dish. I topped each with a bit more of the butter sauce and also a squeeze of some lime juice and sour cream I had previously mixed together. Now, its time to serve! Best enjoyed with friends and family. Cheers!
Grilled Lobster Tail Skewers seasoned with my new Smoked Chipotle Mezcal blend. Topped with a butter sauce, these were delicious!
- 8Cold Water Lobster Tails
- 2tbspof Smoked Chipotle Mezcal
- 2tbspof Canola Oil
- 3tbspof Clarified Butter
- 1.5tbspof Agave Nectar
- 1tbspof Cilantrochopped
- 1.5tspof Scallionschopped
- 1.5tspof Minced Garlic
- 1tspof Jalapeñopurée or finely diced
- ¼cupof Sour Cream + 2 tsp of Lime Juicemixed
- Lime Wedges
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How To Thaw Lobster Tails Before Grilling
Thawing lobster tails for grilling is the same as if you were broiling lobster tails. There are two methods you can use:
- Fridge: Thaw the lobster tails in the refrigerator overnight. Make sure to check your tails an hour or so before you plan on cooking them, to ensure they are fully thawed!
- Cold Water: Place lobster tails in a zip lock bag and submerge in water for 30-60 minutes, until thawed completely.
How To Cook Frozen Lobster Tails
We think broiling is the best way to do it, but we’ll walk you through four other techniques too.
Surf and turf: dinner of steak and lobster tail. You might also be interested in these:
Fact: Homecooked lobster tails are fancy and impressive. And when it comes down to it, theyre not hard to cook if you know how to do it especially if you buy frozen lobster tails. Theyre usually slightly more expensive than buying whole live lobsters, but they save you the hassle of dealing with live, wriggling creatures. Below, we walk you through how to store, thaw and prep frozen lobster tails. As well as how to cook them a variety of ways, including broiling, steaming, boiling, baking and grilling.
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Can You Cook A Live Lobster On The Grill
Par boil your live lobsters first for approximately 4 minutes, drain and cool slightly. Turn lobster belly side up and cut the lobster lengthwise completely through the meat and shell to yield two halves per lobster. Start the lobster meat side down on grill, and then grill 8-10 minutes, turning once.
Make Sure You Pin Grilled Lobster Tails
Spiny lobsters are less sweet than Maine and are therefore perfect for the added flavor of garlic.
You also want to aim for smaller tails. Lobsters have very long lives and continue to grow. Older lobsters have less flavor and tougher meat. Smaller tails will also ensure even cooking.
Go too big and you need to poach to prevent drying.
Hubby and I in St. Lucia eating Spiny Lobster at a street festival.
We buy ours frozen, as lobsters need to be cooked or frozen soon after harvesting, so unless you are buying a live one, they will surely be frozen.
Luckily, at our store, once per month they go on sale for $5 per tail, so I buy a bunch and save them for later.
Serve with Grilled Beef Filet with Garlic Brandy Butter or Portabella Crusted Strip Steak.
Youll most likely find lobster than is broiled or even poached, but grilling is excellent cooking technique for the sweet meat. The most common issue making lobster at home is that people overcook it.
To get the perfect steakhouse style lobster tail, you want to cook it until it is just opaque. The meat will be slightly springy. At this point, remove it from the heat. Any longer and will end up with dried out, chewy lobster meat. No good!
If you are making this recipe for a crowd, a romantic night in or just want to be ahead of the game, you can even prep everything ahead of time.
Go ahead and cut the lobster tails in half, wrapping them tightly in plastic wrap and putting them back into the fridge.
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How To Bake Frozen Lobster Tails
Baked lobster tails usually have a fancy presentation that you might recognize from restaurants: the lobster meat is pulled up through a slit in the shell and bakes on top of it. Heres how to DIY.
How To Grill Lobster Tails On A Gas Grill

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Everyone enjoys eating a decadent lobster tail, but you may be intimidated to grill one at home. Whether its your first time preparing lobster or first time using a gas grill, you can make homemade lobster tails that rival those at your favorite restaurant. By setting up the grill, prepping the lobster, and cooking your tails, you will master this crowd-favorite for family and friends.
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What Are The Best Lobster Tails To Buy
There are two types of lobsters: warm water lobsters and cold water lobsters. The labels on many frozen lobster tails wont call out which variety they are, and thats fine. But if you do have an option to choose between warm water and cold water, opt for cold water lobsters. Their meat tends to be sweeter, more tender and less mushy.
How To Season Lobster For Grilling
Were keeping the seasoning really simple
- Before grilling: Brush the lobster tails with olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper.
- While grilling: Brush with the seasoned garlic butter after flipping. To make it, whisk together melted butter, crushed garlic, lemon juice, smoked paprika, and cayenne pepper.
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How To Grill Lobsters Without Ruining Them
Most lobster grilling recipes are all about how to grill lobster tails, however, this guide will show you how to barbecue whole, live lobsters. As you will discover there are many options and no one right way. Nevertheless, you must follow these simple rules of lobster grilling: 1. Buy only super fresh, feisty lobsters 2. Always check the heat because a well done lobster is not an option.
What youll need:
- A charcoal or wood fired grill is best, but a gas grill is a convenient option
- Live hard-shell Maine lobsters about 1 1/2 lb. each or heavier
- Kitchen Shears and/or a large, sharp chef knife
- Salt, pepper, crushed garlic or your favorite herbs
- 2 sticks of butter or olive oil
- Large, fresh lemons
- Pastry Brush
Buttery Grilled Lobster Tail
Lobster is such a treat, but that doesnt mean you need to go to a fancy restaurant to enjoy it! You can experience restaurant-quality lobster in your home, prepared with your own two hands. Its EASY!
It can be just a tad bit tricky to properly cook a whole lobster, though, so today were keeping it simple with quick and easy Grilled Lobster Tails. No snapping claws, no broken rubber bands, no worries!
I cant even begin to explain to you guys how much I love these buttery lobster tails. They are SO GOOD. Fresh lobster tails are slathered in a garlic and lemon butter sauce and then grilled until tender and juicy. The lobster meat will literally melt in your mouth by the time youre done thats how tender were talking!
Lobster can be enjoyed any time of year, but its especially great in the summertime. Theres nothing like that smoky taste that comes from the grill and combines with all the flavorful herbs and butter is your mouth watering? Just me!?!
Anyway, the bottom line is this: Its time to treat yourself to a delicious seafood dinner you deserve it!
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Cooking The Lobsters Claws
The lobster claws will take more time to cook than the lobster body and tail meat, since the shells tend to be a little thicker. Remove the claws from the carapace with a twisting motion. Next blanch the claws and finish cooking on the grill. Famed lobster cooker Jasper White keeps the claws intact and covers them with a roasting pans or pie tins so the whole lobster cooks evenly.
Buying Frozen Lobster Tails
Frozen tails are good choices if you don’t want a whole lobster, or if you’re making a recipe that calls for a little lobster meat. Available in a variety of sizes, these are perfect for thawing and cooking in a variety of ways. Due to the freezing process, these won’t be quite as good as fresh live lobster, but they can certainly be worth the convenience.
Buying: There are two kinds of frozen lobster tails on the market: warm-water and cold-water. You want to buy only cold-water lobster tails because the meat is more firm and of higher quality.
Thawing: As tempting as it might be, it’s not a good idea to cook lobster while it’s still frozen because the meat will become very tough.
- The best way to thaw frozen lobster tails is by letting them thaw slowly in the fridge for 24 hours.
- If you don’t have 24 hours to wait, seal the frozen tails in a plastic bag and run them under cold water for 30 to 60 minutes.
- Microwave-thawing is tricky because the meat will toughen up if it starts to cook.
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Seasoning For The Lobster Tail Skewers
After I removed the shells from each lobster tail I switched gears into seasoning. For this recipe, Im using my Smoked Chipotle Mezcal blend. This is one of four new blends in my Spirit-Infused line with Spiceology. It is spicy, citrusy and of course its smoky! The peppery citrus aroma had me ready to get these tails cooked so we could get to the even better part, eating them!
Back to the Grilled Lobster Tail Skewers. In a small bowl I mixed together a generous amount of the Smoked Chipotle Mezcal blend and some oil. I then used a basting brush to brush the seasoning across every inch of those lobster tails. You can add more oil or seasoning as needed to get a consistency thats easy to spread across the lobster tails here.
After each lobster tail is seasoned to your liking, its time to add them to the skewers. I used two large skewers for this process, but feel free to use whats available to you. I started by pushing the skewer through the back end of the tail and then had it come back through the lobster tail toward the front of the tail. This allowed the middle, meaty portion of the tail to sit on top of the skewers. See photos for more detail.
Grilling Tips For The Most Delicious Lobster Tails

To achieve maximum flavor, perfect tenderness, and beautiful presentation, follow these tips:
- Purchase your lobster tails from a trusted supplier. Fresh lobster might not be accessible to everyone, but frozen tails are still VERY delicious, especially if grilled properly! For the best results, though, buy from a source that sells good quality lobster.
- Keep your eyes on the grill. Watch the heat and make sure your lobster tails are cooking evenly on all sides. Every grill has colder and hotter spots, so be aware of where these positions are while cooking.
- Use a skewer to prevent curling. If you dont want your lobster tails to curl up on the grill, stick a skewer through them before cooking so they stay in place.
- Use a thermometer. Its difficult to tell if your lobster is underdone or overdone, especially if youre working with a large cut of meat. If your thermometer registers 135 degrees Fahrenheit at the thickest part, though, then youll immediately know its done! If you have a fear of RUBBERY, overcooked lobster, this is a great tool to have.
- Remember that seasonings and sauces TRANSFORM the dish. Dont forget your oil, butter, salt, pepper, and aromaticsthese will turn a bland-tasting lobster into a powerful punch of flavor.
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How To Grill Frozen Lobster Tails
What are two things that both scream summer? You guessed it: grills and lobster tails. Grilling has several benefits. First, it allows you to cook a big batch of tails. And second, its very easy to see when lobster tails are done.
How Long Does It Take To Boil Lobster Tail
Bring a large stockpot of salted water to a boil. Reduce heat slightly and keep water at a gentle boil stronger than a simmer, but weaker than a rolling boil. Add lobster tails, and boil until they are bright red and their meat turns white and tender. Each tail should take about 1 minute per ounce to cook.
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