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Top down shot of boiled crab legs in a pot of water.

How Long to Boil Crab Legs (how to boil crab legs)

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  • Author: Erin Jensen
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 8 minutes
  • Total Time: 18 minutes
  • Yield: 8 servings 1x
  • Category: How-To
  • Method: Stove Top
  • Cuisine: American

Description

Learn how to boil crab legs with this simple tutorial! The quickest way to cook crab legs – serve with butter or use in your favorite recipe!


Ingredients

Scale
  • water
  • 4 snow crab leg clusters, thawed

Instructions

  1. Bring a large stock pot of water to boil. 
  2. Place crab legs inside. 
  3. Let boil gently 5-8 minutes of cook time. 
  4. Remove from pot and let cool before serving. 

Notes

  • King Crab: if you are wanting to make king crab legs, a regular pot won’t be big enough. You can try using a turkey fryer pot, otherwise you can always bake your crab legs
  • Number of Clusters: you can easily do this with 1 cluster or 4, the timing is the same. Just make sure your pot is big enough to fully submerge the crab.
  • Serving: you can eat the crab meat as-is with some melted butter (or clarified butter) OR you can you use it in your favorite recipe (like these Crab Cakes).