Butterflied Steamed Lobster Tails with Herb Butter

butterflied lobster tails with lemon and garlic butter

5 from 5 votes

Butterflied Steamed Lobster Tails with Herb Butter

These tender steamed lobster tails are butterflied, then steamed in a steamer pot, and served with homemade garlic butter. This recipe is written as a side dish, but can be used as a main course- just triple the serving size!

Servings:

Ingredients

Lobster

2 lbs lobster tails see note 1

Garlic Butter

4 tablespoon butter unsalted
4 garlic cloves
½ lemon large and juicy
2 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley optional (note 3)
pinch of salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Thaw the lobster tails if frozen.

How to Make the Garlic Butter Sauce

Mince the garlic. Chop the parsley. On medium-high heat, add the butter to a small saucepan. Once the butter is melted, add the minced garlic. Fry the garlic for about a minute, or until it starts to change colors.
Squeeze the lemon. Add the freshly chopped parsley continuing to stir for about 30 seconds. Remove the garlic butter sauce from the heat.

Steam Lobster Tails

Cut the lobster tails in half longways where there is a meat side and a shell side. Add the butterflied lobster to the steamer tray, with the meat side facing down.
Steam the lobster until the meat turns red and is cooked through. Steam time depends on the size of the lobster. See note 2.
Pour the garlic butter sauce on top. Serve with some lemon wedges.

Video

Notes

If serving as a side dish, each person needs about a ½ lb. If serving this as a main course, each person needs about 1-½ lbs of lobster tails.
Lobster steam time depends on the size of the lobster tails. See the chart below. You can steam up to 2 lbs of tails at a time.

Tail Size	Steam Time
3 oz to 6 oz.	3-5 mins
7 oz. to 10 oz.	6-9 mins
11 oz. to 15 oz.	9-11 mins
16 oz. to 19 oz.	10-12 mins
20 oz. to 28 oz.	10-13 mins

3. Fresh parsley (optional): This fresh herb is entirely optional. I like to use Italian flat-leaf parsley, but curly parsley is great too.

4. Storage: Cooked lobster tails last about 2 days in the fridge. Raw uncooked lobster tails last about a day. Seafood is always best to eat right away, especially if purchased from the grocery store because you don't know how long it's been sitting out. If you need some flexibility for cooking the lobster tails, I recommend purchasing frozen tails and thawing them when needed. It's convenient, and the tails taste the same!

Nutrition