Buttery Sous Vide Lobster Tail Recipe (2024)

The best sous vide lobster tails are sweet and buttery, delicate and meaty. In this recipe you’ll learn the best time and temperature for sous vide lobster tails and how to finish them on the grill. Let’s sous vide!

Why it’s my #1 sous vide lobster dish

• You can’t mess it up! Sous vide seafood is an amazing option for home chef’s new to cooking delicate seafood dishes at home.
• Perfect texture. The texture of lobster cooked sous vide style is somewhere between shrimp and crab. It melts in your mouth and will never be chewy.
• Simple ingredients.
• Ready out of the bag. Unlike sous vide steak, you can serve it immediately.
• Get tips to finish the lobster tails on a grill. I’ll teach you how.

This is a recipe feature from my sous vide cookbook.

Ingredients for sous vide lobster

Here’s what you need to sous vide lobster tails.

• Lobster tails – To make four servings, get about 6 pounds of lobster tails – about 4 tails at 1.5 lbs each. The lobster tails in my photos were cut in half lengthwise then skewered, which makes them easier to grill.
• Salt
• Butter
• Olive oil
• Parsley
• Garlic

TIP: Don’t be fooled by the largest lobsters when purchasing them. Often, the smaller lobsters are the most flavorful.

New to sous vide techniques?Learnwhy is sous vide so popular.

How to sous vide lobster – step by step

Step 1. Preheat sous vide machine to 130º. Skewer lobster tails and season them with salt. Add lobster to vacuum sealed bag with garlic and butter. Vacuum seal in a flat layer, using multiple bags if needed.

Step 2. Sous vide lobster tails at 130ºF for 25 minutes. When cooking is done, move the vac seal bag to an ice bath for a couple minutes to stop the cooking process.

Step 3. Remove sous vide lobster tails from the bag, keeping them on the skewers, and pat dry. The lobster tails are ready to eat now, or you can grill them according to the next step.

Step 4. Preheat grill to 500°. Lightly brush lobster meat with olive oil. Add lobster tails to the grill directly over heat with the meat facing down. Grill lobster for 1 to 2 minutes, then move lobster meat perpendicularly to create crossing grill marks for another 1-2 minutes.

Step 5. Remove from grill and sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Another seafood recipe to check out include this air fryer scallops dish.

FAQ for this lobster recipe

The Perfect Sous Vide Setup

Everyday I’m asked, “what do you need to sous vide food?”. Here’s my answer.

1. A sous vide machine.
   Option 1: “stick” models like the Joule, Anova, or Instant Pot Slim.
   Option 2: “multipot” models like the SousPreme or InstantPot Duo Evo Plus.
2. Sous vide container.
   If using a sous vide “stick” model, you need something to hold the water the food cooks in, like a bucket or stockpot.
3. Bags to cook sous vide food.
   Keep it simple and sous vide in ziplock gallon bags, or get fancy like me with a vacuum sealer setup.
4. Nice-to-have accessories for sous vide cooking.
   – Sous vide weights to hold down food that floats.
   – Mini mason jars for desserts and sous vide egg bites.
   – Cast iron skillet to sear sous vide steaks to finish them.
5. My sous vide cookbook with 100+ recipes.

Try a new sous vide recipe…

• Sous vide salmon
• Sous vide frozen steak
• See how long to sous vide chicken
• Learn how to sous vide frozen chicken breast
• Sous vide chicken wings
• Sous vide chicken breast tenders
• Sous vide pork chops

Are you a foodie, too?

I’m passionate about sous vide cooking, and since publishing my sous vide cookbook, I’ve been on a mission to sous vide everything. Maybe that’s why Sip Bite Go has become one of the most popular sous vide blogs on the web.

Want to see my latest sous vide experiments? Connect with me on Instagram @sipbitego. And check out my latest sous vide recipe videos on the Sip Bite Go channel.