Broiled Maine Lobster Tail with Clarified Butter

Broiled fresh Maine lobster tails with clarified butter for Mother’s Day is an affordable and easy meal to prepare and can go a long way toward making this Mother’s Day celebration a really special occasion. And the good news is that even if you have never tried before, broiled Maine lobster tails are so easy to prepare at home it is almost impossible to mess up.

Sometimes Smaller is Better 

When broiling lobster tails for the first time, please note size does matter … a smaller tail (4 oz.)  can be the way to go. Larger tails take longer to cook and care must be taken not to overcook or the large tail can become tough.  Broiling smaller tails is much more forgiving. Smaller tails are also a bargain and can usually be bought and delivered for less than $10 a tail. Compare to the cost of a whole lobster at $20 to $30 or more.

Broiled Maine Lobster Tail with Clarified Butter

The concept behind the broiled lobster tail with clarified butter is that the lobster can be the star of the meal or it be combined with a filet or other steak to make a surf and turf dinner. The choice is up to the chef.

Clarified Butter

The Clarified lemon butter  is the key to making this lobster-tail dish absolutely delicious. It’s well worth the additional work so don’t cut any preparation corners here.

So now let’s get started on a meal for a Mother’s Day Celebration:

Time: 25 minutes
Serves: 2-4

Ingredients

(4) 4-oz Maine lobster tails, thawed

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (about 3 sticks)

Juice of 2 medium lemons

½  Tsp ground black pepper

Preparation
1. Cut the top of each shell all the way down the center with kitchen shears. Stop cutting just before the fan tail.  Insert fingers gently into the shell incision to loosen the meat. Gently pull the meat and fan it on top of the shell. Set tails aside.

2. Cut and squeeze lemon juice into a bowl.

3.  Place butter into a medium sauce pan. Heat over medium-high heat until the butter begins to turn white and foam. The milk solids will begin floating to the top. With medium sized spoon, skim off the milk solids and discard. Repeat the skimming until there are no more milk solids. Stir in lemon juice and add ground black pepper. Lower the heat to keep butter mixture warm.

4. Baste the lobster tails with the warm, clarified lemon-butter mixture. Place the remaining butter in ramekins.

5. Preheat broiler oven. If using a temperature gauge, broiler should be pre-heated to about 425 degrees.

4. Place lobster tails on broiler pan and adjust pan so the tails are about 6-9 inches away from the broiler flame. Broil for 3-4 minutes (longer if using larger tails). Keep a close watch and take care not to overcook. The lobster tails are done when the shell turns bright red and the meat has turned an opaque white.

5. Serve immediately with a ramekin of clarified lemon butter.

© Wayne Howe 2015