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The best ways to prepare cooked Dungeness crab legs.
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The Best Ways to Prepare Cooked Dungeness Crab Legs

If you have some luscious Dungeness crab but unsure about the best way to reheat it, I will show you The Best Ways to Prepare Cooked Dungeness Crab Legs.
Whether it is Dungeness crab from the Pacific coast caught and cooked or cooked crab from your local grocery store, I will show you how to reheat it to perfection in a flash.
My comprehensive guide will show you two fantastic ways to reheat your Dungeness crab by using an Instant Pot or by the traditional boiling water method.
Prep Time0 minutes
Active Time2 minutes
Cooking Time3 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: crab boil, crab legs, gluten free dinner, instant pot, keto dinners
Cuisine: American
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Yield: 4 crab leg clusters
Author: www.melissaraecarr.com
Cost: 20

Equipment

  • Instant Pot or Stock Pot
  • Steam Basket or Trivet
  • Large cutting board
  • Strong fork
  • Nut meat digger
  • Nutcracker
  • Wooden mallet

Materials

  • 3-4 leg clusters Dungeness Crab
  • Sea Salt
  • Herbs and Seasonings like Old Bay Seasoning
  • Water

Instructions

Instant Pot

  • Fit crab legs clusters inside your Instant Pot without exceeding the fill level.
  • Use the trivet that came with your Instant Pot or steamer basket to keep the crab from touching the bottom and effectively steaming them.
  • Add 1 cup of cold water to the bottom of the electric pressure cooker pot with some sea salt and set the pressure to LOW.
  • Turn the timer to zero, secure the Instant Pot lid to sealing and then start.
  • If your model does not go down to zero, just set it for 1 minute on LOW to start the cooking process and then once it comes up to pressure, hit CANCEL and proceed to quick release the pressure and remove the lid.

Stock Pot Boiling Water Method

  • Fill a large stock pot with water halfway then add in your seasonings and salt.
  • Stir up the seasonings, for the best flavors to be distributed well, then fill the pot up with enough water so the Dungeness crab clusters will be submerged.
  • Put the stock pot on the stove at high heat to bring to a boil.
  • Once the large pot of salted water has a good boil, gently place the crab into the boiling water and let the crab boil for 3-5 minutes.
  • If you leave it in the boiling water too long, it will start cooking the crab and make the delicious meat dried out.

Notes

  • Remember to always salt the water before steaming or boiling as the Dungeness crab is from salt water and if you use plain water, it will pull the natural salt out of the crab meat, and you do not want that.
  • If you are working with a whole crab, it is best to remove the legs from the body before heating and cooking crab. The method used to prepare cooked crab is very similar to how you would cook a raw crab. You must follow steps to clean Dungeness crab before eating, including cracking the top shell of the crab and removing the innards so it does not acidify the crab meat. Cooking Dungeness crab only takes a little more time versus reheating, so it is still an easy meal.
  • Watch the cooking time closely so you do not overcook it. Overcooking the meat can result in a rubbery texture, so keep an eye on the crab.
  • If you have any leftover crab meat, you can keep it for 2 days but not past this time as it may become spoiled.
  • After the initial first time of cooking crab from raw, you can save your leftover crab. I give you all of the instructions you need with the Best Ways to Store Leftover Crab Legs.