Why You Should Avoid Reheating Crab Legs In The Microwave

If you love seafood, crab legs are going to be among the most luscious and savory meals you could dream of, but they have to be cooked properly. Whether you've got leftovers from a restaurant, a home-cooked seafood meal, or bought pre-cooked crab legs — like Costco's king crab legs – that you have to reheat, do yourself a favor and keep them away from the microwave. Yes, microwaves are a fantastic way to heat up food quickly, but it's not always your best option. There are many things you should think twice about microwaving, and one of them is crab legs.

The problem with reheating crab legs in the microwave is that microwaves notoriously don't heat food evenly. This means you'll get parts that are still cold and others that are piping hot and horribly overcooked. While butter can help salvage crab legs that are overcooked, it won't be as succulent, and you'll definitely notice a difference as the meat will be much more rubbery. 

Ultimately, it's best to ditch the microwave when you're reheating crab legs and turn to steaming or oven roasting instead. These will produce much more uniform results and keep your crab legs moist, tender, and as delicious as when they were first cooked. 

If you want to bring new life to your leftover crab legs, there are two solid methods you can turn to: baking and steaming. Now, you can technically reheat them by boiling them, but crab legs can lose a lot of their flavor when boiled, and it's easy for them to turn rubbery. 

When reheating crab legs in the oven, you'll want to place them evenly on a rack inside a roasting pan filled with about an inch of water. (You can also use beer, an ingredient that makes any seafood boil more flavorful.) As the crab heats at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, this water will start to steam and keep the crab legs above it from drying out. To lock in more moisture, you can cover the dish with foil with a few holes for venting. Reheating crab legs this way only takes five to eight minutes because you don't want to cook them anymore, just get them heated thoroughly. 

With steaming crab legs, you'll want to add a few inches of water to a large pot and let it come to a boil. You can then place the crab legs into a steamer basket to avoid submerging them. This process will take about eight to 10 minutes, but it offers the most even heat transfer, so you don't have to worry about some spots being overcooked. Steaming is easily the best method for reheating crab legs without losing tenderness and flavor, and while it's more work than using the microwave, the effort is totally worth it.