This Baked Stuffed Lobster Tails recipe will have your mouth watering before it even hits the plate! This easy recipe pairs golden brown crab stuffing with delicate lobster for a meal that’s worthy of date night or any special occasion.
What are Stuffed Lobster Tails?
Crab Stuffed Lobster Tails are the quintessential “special occasion” dish and can easily be made at home. Lump crab meat is blended with seasoning and then stuffed into a buttery lobster tail.
There are a couple of things to remember so that your baked stuffed lobster tails are every bit as good as restaurant quality. First, try to find unpasteurized crab meat. For a crab imperial, you really want a blue crab, not stone or king.
You will generally find this already picked in the seafood section. There are several types of crab meat: backfin, claw, jumbo, and lump. Lump or jumbo work perfectly for this recipe. Backfin and claw are finer and don’t look as impressive, but can still work.
More Lobster Tips
Next, you’ll be tempted to get the biggest, baddest lobster tail you can find. For this type of recipe, larger isn’t always better.
You want a medium-large tail so the cooking times of the crab imperial and lobster tails are similar. If you are sure you want the mammoth-sized tail, baste it with butter and cook it for several minutes before removing it and topping it with crab imperial.
Lastly, here in Maryland, Old Bay reigns as the king of seafood seasoning. Owned by a major spice company, you can typically find it in many grocery stores in the spice section.
If you can’t find it or don’t care for the taste, just substitute fine sea salt. You can also top your Lobster Stuffed Lobster Tail with Clarified Butter or a “white butter” Beurre Blanc Sauce. You can also easily serve it with garlic butter or hot sauce.
And speaking of toppings and additions… While we in Maryland typically like our crab cakes and other seafood dishes fairly unadulterated, you can feel free to experiment with this recipe if you like. Try adding green onion, roasted red peppers, or bite-sized pieces of bell peppers. You can also sprinkle in some lemon zest, garlic powder, or finely grated parmesan cheese — or try substituting buttery cracker crumbs for the bread crumbs.
I serve my Crab Stuffed Lobster Tail with Oscar Style Steak, which uses the same crab imperial topping, and Burnt Carrots (just try them, they are life-changing).
Fun lobster facts!
- During Colonial times, lobster was considered to be the “poor man’s food”, a bottom feeding crustacean, it was fed to livestock.
- Only Maine lobsters have claws, Caribbean lobsters called spiny lobsters, have no claws.
- Lobsters can live as long as 100 years. They rarely get “sick” and die, they need to be preyed on.
- Lobsters continue to grow through their life, so a lobster can grow up to 40 pounds! That puts your pricy 7 pound lobster to shame. Ha!
- Lobsters are a great form of protein and omega-3 fatty acids and are low in fat and calories (until you add the butter….)
- Lobsters molt their shells through the lifecycle, also known as soft-shelled lobster, kind of like soft-shelled crabs. They are plentiful from July-October.
- Live lobsters aren’t red, they are blue, yellow or brownish. They turn red while cooking.
More Easy Lobster Recipes
If you’re a lover of lobsters like we are, you’ll want to check out these easy yet elegant recipes!
Stuffed Lobster Tail
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 ounces lump blue crab meat
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 teaspoon parsley finely minced
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon bread crumbs
- 1 Egg White
- 1/4 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning or fine sea salt
- 2 medium lobster tails
- 2 teaspoons butter melted
- 2 Lemon wedges
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together mayonnaise through Old Bay seasoning. Gently toss crab into mixture with a fork, making sure that you don’t break up the large pieces of crab.
- Pull the edges of the split lobster shells apart and gently lift the tail meat to rest above the shells. Place the prepared lobster tails on a baking sheet.
- Brush tops with melted butter. Evenly divide and gently press crab imperial mixture into the tops so it doesn’t fall off.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lobster tails are opaque and crab imperial is browned. Serve with lemon wedges.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was!
Made the stuffed lobster many times. Delicious every time. Making it tonight.
Yay! That is what we love to hear!
This was very delicious. I did alter the recipe to fit more into our keto way of eating. So I’m not sure if that’s why i had to add 5x the bread crumbs. I had to bake mine for about 20 minutes then broil for about 5 minutes to brown more. And i was not able to find the crab recipe called for so i used 1 can of lump crab, next time I will use 2 cans. My husband and i really enjoyed this, thank you so much for your recipe. It was the only one i found that didn’t use cream cheese which I’m a little leary of. Will cook again. FYI in case anyone wants to know: keto bread crumbs are 2 tbsp almond flour, 2 tbsp parmesan cheese grated + 2 tsp parsley.
You forgot to include the bread crumbs and eggs on step 2, I hope it comes out good because I didn’t add the egg
Hi Maria, step #2 states “whisk together mayonnaise through Old Bay seasoning”- through implies all of the ingredients from mayo until Old Bay, which would include the bread crumbs and egg. Hope they turn out well!
I found this recipe to be too crab heavy. Think I would halve it and add more breadcrumbs or ritz crackers.
Hi Denise! Thanks for the input. I think this is the only time I’ve ever had anyone tell me something was too crab heavy, but we appriciate the feedback!
Looks delicious and will be making it for hubby and I for dinner this evening! Thank you!
Question… Should this be broil on high or low?
Hi Dee- great questions. It is a high broil.
When do you add mayo ,egg white, bread crumbs, whorestire?
Hi Jim, step #2 says to “whisk together mayonnaise through Old Bay” which would include all of those ingredients. Enjoy!
How many ounces do you consider medium for the lobster tail?
Great question! I consider a medium tail to be 5-7 ounces.
Delicious!!!!
Thank you!
I don’t see all of the ingredients listed in the instructions
In instruction #2, it says to combine mayo through Old Bay- that is the majority of the ingredients. I just checked and don’t see any other missing. Which ones aren’t you seeing?