Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab Recipe

Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab is “finger-linkin good!”  This is the absolute best way to enjoy Dungeness Crab.  The buttery sauce that coats the crab meat and the shells of this crab is part of the pleasure of eating crab.  So use your fingers and dispense with the utensils to enjoy this treat.  Serve it with plenty of wonderful and delicious sourdough bread.

Dungeness Crab can only be found in the oceans of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California.  When crab season starts on the West Coast (usually between November and December, depending on location), there’s a mad dash to cook and eat as many fresh live crabs as possible before it ends. – from Easy Steamed Dungeness Crab.

This Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab recipe and dinner menu were generously shared with my by Linda Sandberg of Newberg, OR.  Linda belongs to a Gourmet Dinner Group that delights in making wonderful foods that they share together.  Check out An Evening for Valentines which includes this recipe.

 

Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab

 

Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab Recipe:
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
12 mins
Total Time
42 mins
 
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab Recipe
Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon shallot, minced
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons red pepper, dried and crushed
  • 2 large (about 4 1/2-pound) Dungeness crabs, cooked, cleaned, and cracked
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped, divided
  • 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped, divided
  • 1/2 cup blood orange juice or regular orange juice
  • 1 teaspoon blood orange zest or regular orange zest, finely grated
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

  2. Break the cooked crab into pieces, leaving shells on, and clean.


  3. In a heavy large over-proof skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter with the olive oil.  Stir in garlic, shallot, and red pepper.  Add crab pieces and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon chopped thyme and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley over the crabs.  Stir just to combine and then remove from heat.

  4. Place the skillet in the oven and roast crabs until heated through, stirring once, approximately 12 minutes.  Remove from oven.

  5. Using tongs, transfer the heated crabs to a large platter.

  6. Add orange juice and zest to the same skillet; boil until sauce is reduced by about half, approximately 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and spoon the sauce over the crabs.  Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon thyme and 1 tablespoon parsley and serve.

  7. Makes 2 servings.

Sources:  Recipe slightly adapted from Bon Appetit magazine, February 2005 and the Epicurious.com website.  Photo by Christopher Hirsheimer.

Categories:

Crab    Crab Appetizers    Pacific Northwest    Winter   

Comments and Reviews

One Response to “Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab Recipe”

  1. Kiz

    Only amateurs wash the inside. And nothing beats steaming.

    Reply

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