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Smoked Lobster Tails

Grilled Lobster Tails on Grill Grates

Lobster is a delicacy you usually see cooked, steamed, or boiled. Although these preparing methods are trendy, there are other ways to cook lobster to improve its taste.

Smoking the lobster tails over wood chips makes the flavor of the lobster meat very palatable.

Ingredients

  • Whole lobsters
  • The BBQ rub of your choice
  • Salted butter

Instructions

To Prepare the Lobsters, you will need to remove the lobster meat from the shell to absorb the full flavors of smoking. Follow these steps to prepare the lobster for smoking:

  1. Cut the tail lengthwise along the top of the lobster by using poultry scissors. You can do this by gently pulling each of the halves of the shell apart from each other.
  2. Detach the meat from the shell by running your fingers along the inner part of the shell. It will allow the air from the smoker to move through the tails and cook them.
  3. Melt about a half stick of salted butter with some pepper and two minced cloves of garlic.
  4. Finally, pour the whole mixture over the lobster’s tail and between the lobster meat and the shell.

How To Prepare the Smoker

  1. Now that you have prepared the lobster for smoking, you also need to prepare the smoker. The first step is to set the temperature of your smoker to 225 degrees. You can brush the smoker grates with some oil to prevent the lobster meat from sticking to them.
  2.  Find a grill pan that you will use to carry the lobster to and from the smokers. Ensure you use a smoker to make it very easy for you to move the lobster without any issues. Weber grill pans are great for this purpose.
  3. You can also place the lobster tails on the smoker’s grate. Depending on the weight of your lobster tails, they can take about 30 minutes to reach a temperature of about 135 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. If you prefer lobsters with more tenderness and flavor, you can go for lobsters with more petite tails as the larger ones will take more time.
  4. After placing the lobster tails in the smoker for about 25 to 30 minutes, spread the shells apart and put about a tablespoon of the butter mixture you prepared earlier on the meat in the lobster tail. The mixture will not run off quickly from the meat since you have prepared it early and it has been left to thicken. It will make more of the spices in the mixture penetrate the meat when you are grilling the lobster tails.
  5.  Monitor the temperature of the meat, and when it gets to 135 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, your smoked lobster tails are ready, and you need to remove them from the smoker immediately.

Notes

But how do you handle the claws?

That’s why you need to boil the whole lobster for some minutes. Cooking the lobster makes the tail curl up.

Some people don’t like boiling lobsters because of the screaming sound they make when steam escapes from the shell. However, that shouldn’t be an issue.

Since the claws take some time to cook, you can boil the lobster for about 3 minutes and then simmer the claws for an additional 2 minutes.

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