Air Fryer Lobster Tail

This air fryer lobster tail recipe is by far the easiest, quickest, and best tasting you will find. When you think of the word gourmet, lobster is definitely one of the first things that comes to mind.

Lobster is a deliciously decadent meal usually reserved for special occasions and the top of the price list on a swanky restaurant menu. If you’ve never cooked it at home, it can be a little intimidating! However, preparing lobster at home is most likely going to be cheaper than it would be served at your favorite seafood place, and it really is a lot simpler than it looks. Start to finish, you can have fresh lobster tails on your dinner table in less than twenty minutes.

Links related to this post:

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• Pyrex FBA_1105395 Basics 8.1″ Square (2 Quart), 8 inch, Clear
• Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven 7 in 1 with Rotisserie, 10 Qt, EvenCrisp Technology

Lobster tails are arguably the best part of the crustacean, and also where you’ll find the richest meat. You may have wandered through the seafood section of your local grocery store and seen whole lobsters still swimming away in their tanks. Talk about intimidating! Buying just the tails means you can keep those live snappers away from your fingers, simplify the process and focus on the most delectable part of the lobster. 

Choosing your tails

Usually, you can buy lobster tails at the seafood counter of your local grocery, but it is also frequently sold frozen. As with most food, fresh is best, but if you’re shopping frozen, look for lobster that is labeled as cold-water raised. The greatest majority of America’s lobsters come from Maine or the Atlantic provinces of Canada. Lobster raised in cold water tends to have a fresher, meatier taste, whereas lobster caught in warm water closer to the equator sometimes has an ammonia smell and flavor.

It goes without saying that the larger the tail, the more meat it provides – but it also means a slightly longer cook time. There is some speculation that smaller lobster tails provide a more tender finished product, but I have found that the toughness of the meat has more to do with overcooking than the size of the tail.

Cooking the lobster

There are a multitude of ways to cook lobster, but the allure of an air fryer is often the time savings. For this dinner, I thinly sliced a fresh lemon and laid the slices side-by-side in two rows on the bottom of the Pyrex oven safe dish. I then added butter and freshly minced garlic. I laid one tail on each row of lemons and sliced open the top of shells with kitchen scissors.

Once cooked, the lobster shell turns a bright, appetizing shade of orangey-red. The meat should be an opaque white color, but to be sure it’s fully cooked, the meat thermometer should read about 135 degrees.

Lobster tails are most frequently served butterflied, which makes for a fancy-looking plate. Let the tails cool just long enough that you can butterfly the meat. Gently pry back the shell, lift out the meat and then tuck the shell back underneath. The meat revealed, brush it again with melted butter, sprinkle with paprika, top with chives, and now you’re ready to plate it!

Serve your air fryer lobster tails with some steamed green vegetables, wild rice, homemade biscuits, or better yet…a big juicy steak for a meal that will look like you slaved for hours in the kitchen!

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