Perfectly Cooked Snow Crab Legs Every Time! (2024)

Crab legs, no matter how you cook them are a simple and delicious treat for the entire family.

Steaming crab legs, in my experience, is the best way to avoid overcooking the crab meat which can result in it being rubbery and hard to release from the shell.

I used to steam my crab legs on the stove until I bought the Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker & Air Crisper which is a pressure cooker, steamer, slow cooker, air fryer, and more all in one appliance and it works great! Now I exclusively use the Ninja Foodi because there isn't any guesswork involved and the snow crab legs are perfect every time.

The crab meat is very different from a Maryland blue crab and they are a whole lot easier to get the meat out of! Both snow crab legs and Alaskan King Crab legs have tender and sweet meat that pulls right out of the shells in huge chunks when they are cooked correctly. I prefer them over lobster!

I've seen recipes for adding all kinds of ingredients to the steaming liquid and you can certainly do that, but personally, I like the simplicity of tasting just the crab. The only ingredients you need for this recipe are crab legs, water, and of course clarified butter for dipping!

I make my clarrifed butter right in the Ninja Foodi using the pressure cook function and small canning jars. It works great!

Suggested Kitchen Tools for Steaming Crab Legs

• Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker & Air Crisper OR Large Pot with Steamer Basket & Lid
• Tongs
• Serving Platter

Ingredients & Substitutions

Snow Crab Legs

In this recipe, I use Snow Crab Legs because they are easier to find, less expensive, easier to eat, and I happen to like them better than Alaskan King Crab Legs. However, you can absolutely substitute the snow crab legs with Alaskan King Crab Legs or Dungeness crab legs.

I do not thaw my snow crab legs before steaming, but you can if you want to. You want to thaw the crab legs in the refrigerator and decrease the steam time to 2 minutes if you are using the Ninja Foodi and about 5 minutes if you are steaming on the stove. Keep in mind that crab legs we purchase in the grocery store are fully cooked so the steaming is to thaw and warm them up so they are hot when we eat them.

I would add a minute or two of steam time for the Alaskan King Crab Legs because they are much larger.

Cooking Liquid

I steam my crab legs with plain water because in my experience the natural flavors of the snow crab legs is so delicious nothing else is needed. I also don't feel like a flavored liquid actually infuses into the crab meat itself and therefore not necessary. However, many people disagree with me and like to add things to the cooking liquid or broth to infuse flavor.

Here are some popular choices:

• Fresh Garlic in the cooking liquid
• Old Bay Seasoning in the cooking liquid
• White Wine instead of water
• Lemon juice in the cooking liquid
• Cajun Seasoning in the cooking liquid

Dipping Sauces

My favorite is melted butter or clarified butter because it compliments the sweet briny taste of the snow crab perfectly. I also usually serve some lemon wedges on the side.

Here are some other options that people enjoy.

• co*cktail Sauce
• Tarter Sauce
• Garlic Butter Sauce
• Cajun Butter Sauce

I'm sure the garlic butter sauce is absolutely delicious and you can make it by adding some roasted or sautéed garlic cloves to melted butter. If you want a different flavor profile, try the Cajun Butter Sauce I make for my Cajun Shrimp Boil.

As far as co*cktail sauce goes, it goes better with steamed shrimp in my opinion.

Tarter Sauce is also something I would skip for crab legs, but love it with fried fish and chips!

Ingredient

How to Steam Snow Crab Legs in the Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker & Air Crisper

You can steam snow crab legs or any crab legs for that matter right in the Ninja Foodi using the steam function which all models have. This is my preferred method because of the easy setup and hands-off cooking. You never have to watch the pot or worry about it boiling over!

It does not matter if you have the one-lid model or the two-lid model, the steps are the same. The only difference is sometimes the pin in the pressure lid on the two-lid models will pop up during the steam time and lock the lid in place. If this happens, you will just wait until the pin drops to open the lid. The short time this takes does not affect the outcome of the snow crab legs in my experience.

Preparing the Snow Crab Legs for Steaming

Remove the amount of crab legs that you want to steam from the freezer and quickly run them under cold water to remove any ice crystals.

While I am rinsing them off, I also look for tiny black dots on the crab leg shells that look like tiny barnacles and I scrape them off under the running water.

This step is completely optional, but if you are serving the crab legs to guests I recommend doing it to avoid the conversation at the dinner table about what those spots are.

First and foremost, they are completely harmless to humans. You can leave them on the shell without any problems. They are only on the shell and have no effect of the crab meat inside.

Okay, so what are those clusters of dark spots on the crab shell that look like tiny barnacles? They are the eggs of marine leeches. Not exactly appealing to think about, but the eggs are no longer viable so you don't have to worry about them hatching. They are also not harmful, they just don't look that attractive!

So, do everyone at your table a favor and just scrape them off before steaming, and let's just keep all of this marine leech stuff to ourselves.

Setting Up the Ninja Foodi for Steaming

Put 2 cups of water in the inner pot and place the air fryer basket or the rack in the low position into the Ninja Foodi. I prefer the rack because it's easier to fit the crab legs on it when they are frozen.

In the 6.5 qt Ninja Foodi, I can fit about 2 pounds of snow crab leg clusters at one time. In the 8 qt Ninja Foodi, you will be able to fit about 3 pounds. There isn't any problem with stacking the frozen snow crab clusters on top of each other. The steam time remains the same no matter how many crab clusters you cook at once.

I usually crisscross them so steam can circulate around each cluster to evenly thaw and heat the crab legs.

You don't want the crab legs sitting on the bottom of the pot or you will be boiling them and not steaming them which can lead to soggy crab meat.

Steaming the Snow Crab Legs

Place the lid on the Ninja Foodi. If you are using the two-lid model, you want to use the pressure lid and make sure the valve is in the VENT position.

The valve position doesn't matter on the one-lid models (these models use the same lid for all the functions) because the vents are in the lid. The slider should be all the way to the right for steaming. Steaming is different from SteamCrisp, so make sure you choose the correct function for the best results.

There isn't a temperature control when steaming so just set your time to 5 minutes and hit start.

It will take about 8 minutes for the water to boil and create steam. During this time you will see the display showing the preheat mode. Once the steam has started to build, the display will start the countdown timer.

When the time is up, you can open the lid. Be careful doing this and open the lid away from you because it will be very steamy inside the pot.

Serving Steamed Snow Crab Legs

Use tongs to remove crab leg clusters and place them on a serving tray. Serve them immediately because they cool down quickly.

Enjoy the crab legs dipped in butter and they will be better than a seafood restaurant serves!

Steaming Snow Crab Legs Stovetop

Preparing the snow crab legs is the same no matter which steaming method you choose to use. Please refer to the above section for specifics.

Bring about 2-4 cups of water to a boil in a large pot. The amount of water you use is based on the size of the pot. You want to have at least 2" of liquid covering the bottom of the pot.

Place the steamer basket or a metal colander into the pot. Usually they will rest on the lip of the pot. Place the lid on and turn the stove on a high temperature to boil the water.

Once you start to see steam forming, remove the lid and place the crab legs into the steamer basket and put the lid on.

Steam for 7 minutes to thaw and heat the crab legs. If they are already thawed, decrease that time to about 3-4 minutes.

When the crab legs are hot, they are ready to serve to and eat.

How to Eat Snow Crab Legs

One of my favorite things about eating snow crab legs is you don't need to have anything special to crack the shells because they are soft enough to break with your hands.

Sometimes I will use two butter knives for the claw if they are a bit stubborn. One butter knife is used blade side down on the middle of the crab claw leg and the other one is used as a mallet to hit the top of the butter knife blade to crack the shell.

The longer legs are super easy to crack open and they are my favorite to eat!

First pull off one of the crab legs to separate it from the body of the crab. When cooked perfectly, you will see a bit of crab meat on the end. Dip that into butter and eat it!

Then crack the leg where the knuckle is, this is the place where the crab leg bends, and pull it apart. The shorter side will have the cartilage pulled out and the longer side is ready to break in half.

Most of the time you can break the long side and have the crab meat pull out in one large clump. Dip that in butter and enjoy!

Here is a quick video showing me breaking open the crab leg.

Don't forget to break open that shorter piece, there is meat inside there as well.

You can also eat the meat inside of the body of the crab, but sometimes it can be a bit too briny(salty) tasting.

What to Serve with Snow Crab Legs

What you serve with your snow crab legs depends on if you want a few simple side dishes or if you want to create an indulgent seafood feast!

Simple side dishes to consider serving with crab legs would be a salad or another vegetable along with a potato dish. Here are a few recipes that would pair nicely with snow crab legs.

As far as a seafood feast goes, consider serving the crab legs alongside a seafood boil or with other seafood dishes like the ones below.

ABOUT THE RECIPE AUTHOR, LOUISE LONG

Louise is a full-time recipe creator and food blogger @ The Salted Pepper. She has over 30 years ofexperience with cooking and recipe development. She owned a restaurant for several years and was a full-time RN until retiring to blog full-time.

She published her first cookbook in the Fall of 2018 and is very interested in writing several more.

Louise is also the creator of an online Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooking Course with over 100 instructional step-by-step videos. People absolutely rave about the course and all the value they have received from it.

Louise has several very active Facebook groups that help people with the basics of cooking and getting the most out of the Ninja Foodi.

Ninja Foodi 101

Simply Cooking with Louise

Louise is also a YouTube creator and you can find most of her recipes in video format onThe Salted Pepper YouTube channel.

She is very responsive to messages and eager to help in any way she can.

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