Smoked Lobster Tails
Regular lobster tails boiled or oven-baked are great, but why not up the flavor even more by smoking them on the pellet grill or smoker! These smoked lobster tails are basted with clarified butter and garlic for succulent and smoky goodness – a great new way to cook lobster on the grill.
Servings: 4 lobster tails
Equipment
- kitchen shears
Ingredients
- 4 lobster tails *See notes
For the Compound Butter:
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon hot sauce
- juice of ½ lemon
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- ⅛ teaspoon ancho chile powder *Or substitute regular chili powder
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Prepare the grill - Heat pellet grill or smoker to 250℉ with your choice of wood or pellets.
- Make the compound butter - Add one stick of butter to a small saucepan. Place on the grill to smoke for 30 minutes (during this first 30 minutes, prep the lobster tails). After 30 minutes, carefully remove the saucepan from the grill and use a spoon to skim the milk solids off the top of the melted butter. Add minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, hot sauce, lemon juice, paprika, chili powder, and salt to the saucepan with the butter. Mix well and return the saucepan to the grill. Smoke an additional 30 minutes at 250℉. Then, pour about half of the melted compound butter into a small bowl or ramekin for serving. *You can leave the remaining half of the butter in the saucepan to use for basting the lobster as it cooks.
- Prepare the lobster tails - While the butter is smoking, prepare the lobster tails by "piggybacking" the meat. *See notes.
- Smoke the lobster tails - Place the prepared lobster tails on the grill. Use a basting brush to brush about a spoonful of the melted compound butter on to each of the lobster tails. Then close the grill lid and smoke at 250℉ until the internal temperature of the lobster tails reaches about 120-125℉. *It took our lobster tails about 30 minutes to reach this internal temp, but cooking times will vary based on the grill used and the size of your lobster tails.
- Baste the lobster tails and continue to smoke - Once the internal temp reaches about 120-125℉, baste the lobster tails with another spoonful each of the melted butter. Continue to cook until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the tails reaches 140-145℉ as read by an instant-read meat thermometer (about another 25-30 minutes). Then remove from the grill. *Total smoking time for the lobster tails was 1 hour at 250℉ for us. Cooking times will vary, so always cook to internal temperature.
- Serve smoked lobster tails - Serve the smoked lobster tails immediately with lemon wedges and the reserved compound butter from step 2.
Video
Notes
- For the Lobster Tails - We used 4 large lobster tails that we found at Costco for this recipe. The tails weighed about 8 ounces each. For smaller lobster tails, be sure to adjust the cooking times as needed.
- How to Piggyback Lobster Tails - 1) Use kitchen shears to cut down the top of each lobster tail shell, taking care not to cut too deep into the meat. 2) Place your thumbs on the cut area, and carefully pull apart to expose the tail meat. *Be careful, the joints of the shell can be sharp! 3) Starting at the end of the tail that would be closest to the lobster’s middle, carefully slide your thumb in between the lobster meat and the shell. Gently pull the meat out of the shell, leaving the tail end attached. 4) Rest the lobster tail meat on top of the shell, fanning it out a bit so that it cooks evenly on the grill.
- For the Compound Butter - We chose to go with more of a cowboy-style butter for this recipe (hence the Worcestershire, hot sauce, and chili powder). For more of a mild, herby flavor, you can omit the hot sauce and chili powder and substitute more herbs like parsley, chives, or oregano. Feel free to experiment with flavors for your compound butter.
- Cooking Times Will Vary - The cooking times in this recipe are provided as a guide only. As with most meats, you should always cook to the proper internal temperature, rather than to a specific time. Times will vary based on size of lobster tails, what grill you are using, etc. Safe internal temp for lobster is 145°F.