Sous Vide Butter Poached Lobster Tails

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This simple butter poached sous vide lobster tail recipe shows you the easiest way to create the most tender, flavorful lobster every single time. Anyone can have juicy tender lobster meat that will impress every time and can be used in a wide array of dishes from eggs benedict to buttery lobster rolls or eaten on its own.

Sous vide lobster is one of those proteins that doesn't have to be seared, which makes it the perfect thing to make for someone who just started sous vide cooking. This rich, sweet buttery lobster tail that is perfectly cooked every time without any babysitting or cooking skill.

This recipe is a basic everyone should know. All you need are lobster tails and salted butter, along with an immersion circulator, to have perfectly tender butter poached lobster.

Jump to:

• Equipment Needed for Sous Vide Lobster
• Cold Water Lobster versus Warm Water Lobster
• How to Remove Lobster Meat from the Shell
• How to Butter Poach Lobster using the Sous Vide Method
• Tips for the Best Sous Vide Butter Poached Lobster
• How to Serve Butter Poached Lobster
• Other Sous Vide Recipes
• 📖 Recipe

Equipment Needed for Sous Vide Lobster

A sous vide immersion circulator or sous vide water oven. Yep, a sous vide cooker is necessary for this sous vide recipe. The immersion circulators range in price, I have a whole post on my favorite sous vide equipment and my top picks for sous vide cookers of different price ranges, but the one I use most frequently is my Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker with Wifi.

A large container. Before we bought the kit with a large sous vide water bath container, we would use large stock pots and even the Instant Pot's inner metal pot in a pinch. Whatever large, food-safe, water-tight container you have, use it.

Sous Vide-Safe Bags. It's so important to use bags that can be used in heat. Some plastic zip-top bags can be used in the sous vide, but you do have to think about how it degrades in the hot water bath. To be safe and have a successful sous vide cooking experience, use sous vide-safe bags.

Vacuum Sealer. Of course you can get away with using that sous vide safe zip top bag and carefully use the water displacement method to remove all the air, but a vacuum sealer is less fussy and gives safe, consistent results. A vacuum sealer can be really affordable; I also talk about my favorite vacuum sealers in the Best Sous Vide Equipment for All Price Ranges post, so check it out!

Cold Water Lobster versus Warm Water Lobster

Cold water lobster meat is light and sweet with a buttery texture. You can find it at the store under the names 'Maine Lobster', 'North American Lobster', 'Atlantic Lobster', or 'Canadian Lobster', but in the U.S. 'Maine lobster' is the most common name you'll find it under because it's incredibly popular on the east coast of the northern u.s. where it's abundant.

Warm water lobster (aka Spiny or Rock Lobsters) don't have claws and the only edible part of them is their tail. They're covered in sharp spikes and have large white spots on their shell even when cooked (cold water lobster turns just red, these turn orange with the white spots very obvious on their shells).

What do warm-water lobsters taste like? Not like cold-water lobsters. They taste more like fish, with a little bit of an ammonia smell, and tougher meat. Unless you go lobstering in California or the Caribbean, you won't find it whole or fresh. Only frozen tails.

For the best butter poached lobster, we are using cold water lobster tails.

How to Remove Lobster Meat from the Shell

Removing the lobster tail meat from the shells is simple and straightforward: cut the shell down the top or underside of the lobster tail (use kitchen shears, they make life a whole lot easier), then push the lobster meat up and out.

The little tail-flap-meat may get stuck in the flaps, just gently wiggle the lobster tail loose. It'll come out if you're careful.

Save those lobster shells for stock that's great for lobster bisque and seafood stews by freezing them in a freezer-safe large zipper lock bag.

How to Butter Poach Lobster using the Sous Vide Method

Now that you have your lobster tails ready, it's time to sous vide!

This recipe is possibly the most simple and easy thing I have ever made in my life. Definitely easier than traditional methods.

Put salted butter in your sous vide bag, then add your lobster tails. That's it.

Seriously, that's it. You can hook it up with fresh tarragon or thyme, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, but it's perfect as is.

My first time testing out this idea, I was sure that vacuum sealing the lobster would smash it and result in an inferior quality dish, but the one I use has a great sous vide sensor and didn't mash the lobster tails flat. Keep that in mind when vacuum sealing; you can also use the water immersion method to remove the air from the cooking pouch.

Add the vacuum seal bag to your water bath. We like the temperature at 140 degrees F when we plan to use the lobster for other dishes like lobster rolls, but if we are eating them on date nights surf and turf style and we want that more traditional firm texture go with 150 degrees F.

Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hours. Remember, the magic of sous vide is that you really can't cook anything past the set temperature.

Once done, remove from their bags and serve your succulent butter poached lobster with a delicious butter sauce and lemon wedges. Perfect lobster every single time.

Tips for the Best Sous Vide Butter Poached Lobster

Use 'really good butter'. A popular butter Honey buys in bulk is salted Kerrygold.

The best lobster tails (in my opinion) are fresh cold-water tails, but if you only find them frozen, by all means use them they're just as good.

If you've got a live lobster on your hands, use this guide for dispatching and shelling whole lobsters.

Don't have salted butter? Use unsalted butter with a scant pinch of salt.

How to Serve Butter Poached Lobster

You can serve your lobster tails as is with a sous vide steak for a surf and turf that will wow your partner. Make it oscar-style with tender-crisp asparagus and bearnaise sauce.

Chop the lobster up and make the best new-england style warm butter lobster rolls. If you can't find split top buns, hot dog buns work just as good.

Chop those lobster tails up and serve them on top of english muffins with sous vide poached eggs and sous vide hollandaise sauce for the ultimate Sous Vide Lobster Benedict. It sounds intimidating, but rest assured that it is the easiest way to make eggs benedict with minimal skills and it will definitely wow everyone you show it to.

Other Sous Vide Recipes

• Sous Vide Buttermilk Fried Chicken
• Sous Vide Frozen Steak
• Butter Poached Lobster Mac and Cheese

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