Butter and Garlic Grilled Lobster Tacos with Spicy Green Sauce
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REVIEWS)
PREP:
15 minutes
TOTAL:
SERVES:
6
Grilled lobster tacos with lobster tails that are basted in a butter and garlic. Drizzled with a spicy serrano pepper sauce to crank up the heat and add a level of flavor to up your taco game.
Lobster tacos are few and far between, otherwise I’d need to take up another job. But when I make a batch of grilled lobster. It’s gotta go into a taco and go out in style!
They’re highly addicting, so you better sell off your baseball cards to fund your new lobster habit!
How to keep your butter sauce liquid
The trickiest thing I’ve come across is making a butter based sauce for any dish is. Keeping it from hardening back up in the fridge while its marinading.
Here’s a trick I’ve discovered – oil.
Now you can clarify your butter, and it will definitely help as the water content burns off, but once introduced to cold, it will begin to solidify again.
What I like to do is add about 2 tbsp of avocado oil to a stick of butter and melt it down on medium low while the garlic is in the pan.
Sometimes I’ll add some herbs as well – And this is my go to butter sauce for seafood. It’s simple but effective.
Now I’m no chemist, and can’t find anything from a quick google search to explains why exactly this works, without writing up a whole other article. So I’ll just say this. SCIENCE.
But whether its grilled lobster tacos, or shrimp skewers, this butter sauce goes on pretty much any seafood dish.
What type of meat to use for lobster tacos
Unless you’re blessed enough to live where lobster isn’t ridiculously priced, or live where you can drop a few baskets off the pier and harvest your own, lobster can be pricey.
Sometimes you can get a decent deal at Wild Fork. Here’s what I normally look out for:
Frozen lobster tails: Sometimes you can get a good deal on 4-6oz tails
pre-packaged lobster meat: this will contain claws and tails. It’s a little pricier up front, but the per ounce cost is a much better deal.
langostino lobster: This is not technically lobster, but its close and will get you there if you’re in a pinch or see them on sale
colossal shrimp: Another non-lobster option, but the texture and flavor is spot on. The cost is probably close to the same per pound, but there’s a lot of other dishes that can be made. Check out this recipe to see what I’m talking about
For grilled lobster tacos, I tend to give with the larger pieces of meat, so if you’re getting prepackages you may want to find tails only, or you can always use a rack, to prevent that amazing lobster meat from falling through the grates.
The key to whatever you get is frozen. When it comes to lobster do not risk “fresh”. If its not live or precooked, lobster goes bad much quicker than other shellfish, and you’re best to ask for it frozen.
If you’re at a store that sells live lobster, keep it live or humanely dispatch it by placing it in the freezer and keep it frozen until ready to cook.
The Spicy Sauce
This sauce is inspired by the green aji style sauce I make for pollo saltado. It’s a Peruvian style sauce that is so good! It contains:
- serrano pepper (aji if you can find it)
- garlic
- iceberg lettuce
- mayonnaise
- cilantro
- lime
- cumin
- smoked paprika
- salt
I know what you’re thinking.. LETTUCE? yep. it definitely sounds weird but hear me out.
As long as you’re pulverizing this, it’s ads a smooth luscious texture to the sauce, but by all means can be opted out and isn’t going to affect flavor at all.
How to make grilled lobster tacos
- Make your butter sauce: Simmer on low in a pan until it becomes aromatic. You can do this ahead of time and store in the fridge.
- Marinate the lobster meat: Let it the sauce come to room temp and pour about half of the sauce over your lobster meat and let it sit in the fridge while your grill preheats
- Fire up the grill: set up a two-zone cooking area, one on high heat and one on low.
- Let it sear: sear the tails over the high heat zone, occasionally bring it to the low heat zone and baste, bring it back to the high heat zone and continue to sear. This method will keep flare ups to a minimum.
- Serve it up: Chop into bite size piece add them to a taco with cabbage, some radishes and an abundance of that green sauce
I’ve come to realize I make a crap-ton of taco recipes. I probably should make it a category.
It’s not just grilled lobster tacos that I adore, but all tacos. I’m a tacos enthusiast. An equal opportunity taco man. tacos are yeet litty fire. I could figuratively eat tacos everyday – no cap.
I like tacos. That’s I’m trying to say.
Grilled Garlic Butter Lobster Tacos
Ingredients
- 2 8 oz lobster tails
- 2-3 tbsp avocado oil
- 8 tbsp butter or clarified butter
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 lemon
- 6 corn tortillas
GARNISHES
- 1/2 green cabbage
- 1 cup chopped radishes
Spicy green sauce
- 1 serrano pepper
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 head iceberg lettuce
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1 lime
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
FOR THE GREEN SAUCE
- Place serrano pepper, garlic clove, iceberg lettuce, mayo, cilantro. in a food processor and pulse until blended. squeeze in lime juice, cilantro, cumin, smoked paprika and salt. blend until smooth. Store in the fridge until ready.
FOR THE TACOS
- Cut open your lobster tails and remove the meat. Place in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- In a pan, melt some butter in with the oil and with a clove or two of garlic and let it simmer on low for about 3-5 minutes until aromatic.
- Preheat grill on high. Toss about 2 tbsp of the garlic butter into the bowl of lobster tail meat and toss. Squeeze in some lemon juice and place on the grill.
- Grill tails for about 5-7 minutes until they're opaque and just begin to curl. Remove from the grill and chop into bite size bits. Toss in a bowl with the remaining garlic butter.
- Place on some tortillas with cabbage and radishes. Pour on some of that spicy green sauce and enjoy!
Nutrition
