Oven Baked Lobster Tails (Red Lobster Copycat)
These oven baked lobster tails with as much or as little seasoning as you like, are a stunning addition to a homemade seafood dinner that you can easily make anytime.
The perfect meal for a cozy restaurant style meal at home. Simple to prepare, and they are a great choice for a special occasion.
Oven baked lobster tails are often on the menu for Valentine’s day, New Year’s Eve, birthday’s and anniversaries.
For the longest time, we enjoyed these on rare occasions, and only at restaurants. We just hadn’t realized how easy they are to make at home.
Now that we are aware of how easy they are to make, we still usually enjoy these on special occasions, but a lot more frequently than before.
In comparison, it’s more economical to make your own, along with a few more easy seafood restaurant style dishes than it is to go out.
Plus, we find they are all quite easy to prepare, so it really doesn’t take a whole lot of time.
It’s also very satisfying to be the chef behind these super awesome homemade seafood dishes.
Impress your family and friends with lobster tails and more easy restaurant style seafood dishes that you can easily make in your own kitchen!
Content in this Post
- Ingredients in Oven Baked Lobster Tails
- How To Make Oven Baked Lobster Tails
- STEP 1: Make the Butter Glaze
- STEP 2: Cut The Lobster Tails
- STEP 3: Pull Meat Over the Lobster Tails
- STEP 4: Season Lobster Tails With Butter Glaze
- STEP 5: Bake Lobster Tails
- What To Serve With Oven Baked Lobster Tails
- More Red Lobster Copycat Recipes
- Best Uses for Leftover Oven Baked Lobster Tails
- Storage Tips For Oven Baked Lobster Tails
- You’ll Also Love
Ingredients in Oven Baked Lobster Tails
- Lobster Tails — two lobster tails fresh or frozen (thawed).
- Butter — melted butter, salted or unsalted, you may want to reduce the salt in this recipe to half a teaspoon if using salted butter.
- Lemon Juice — fresh lemon juice, put through a press.
- Cilantro — we love chopped, fresh cilantro, but you can sub fresh chopped parsley or dried parsley flakes.
- Hot Sauce — optional, gives a nice little kick but it’s not necessary.
- Garlic — garlic powder or a fresh clove, peeled and minced.
- Paprika — smoked paprika, optional, but adds flavor.
- Salt –Himalayan pink salt, ground.
- Pepper — freshly ground black pepper.
How To Make Oven Baked Lobster Tails
STEP 1: Make the Butter Glaze
Melt butter and add any of the following ingredients from the butter glaze ingredients list. Feel free to omit hot sauce, or any others.
Butter, garlic, lemon and chopped fresh or dry parsley provides a more basic glaze that tends to be more popular.
STEP 2: Cut The Lobster Tails
Use a pair of clean kitchen scissors to cut upwards through the center of the lobster tail shell. Stop at the last piece of the tail.
STEP 3: Pull Meat Over the Lobster Tails
Pull up the lobster meat through the center cut you just made with the scissors. Fold the lobster meat over as shown in the pic below.
STEP 4: Season Lobster Tails With Butter Glaze
Use a silicone kitchen brush to brush on the seasoned butter sauce. If you like, you can keep it plainer with melted butter, lemon, garlic, parsley and salt.
We like our lobster tails with the additional seasoning, especially when we use the lobster meat in recipes such as lobster artichoke dip.
STEP 5: Bake Lobster Tails
Transfer the oven safe dish with lobster tails to the preheated oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lobster tails have reached a safe temperature.
*With a food thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the lobster meat, check that the internal temperature of the lobster tail has reached 135 to 140°F.
What To Serve With Oven Baked Lobster Tails
Oven baked lobster tails are perfect with Red Lobster inspired menu items, like cheddar bay biscuits, Caesar or house salad and New England clam chowder or lobster bisque.
Side dishes like regular or lobster mashed potatoes and creamy lobster stuffed baked potatoes are a nice touch!
In addition to those, we really love Swedish style Hasselback potatoes that you can make with regular or sweet potatoes.
If you like a surf and turf style menu, serve the lobster tails with a steak.
And for a copycat Red Lobster Ultimate Feast dinner, serve the baked lobster tails along with crab legs, shrimp scampi, green beans, rice pilaf and air fryer butterflied shrimp.
For the most part, any steamed or roasted and seasoned veggies are a lovely choice.
Oh, and don’t forget to include a bit of melted or clarified butter on the side.
More Red Lobster Copycat Recipes
- Stuffed Mushroom Caps With Crabmeat
- Escargot Stuffed Mushrooms
- Parmesan Crab Dip
- Lobster Artichoke Dip
- Red Lobster Style Crab Pita Pizza
- Garlic Lemon Butter Salmon
- Spicy Maple Ginger Salmon
- Shrimp Scampi
- Instant Pot Wild Rice Pilaf
- Crispy Instant Pot Brussel Sprouts
- Seasoned Broccoli
- Garlic Green Beans
Best Uses for Leftover Oven Baked Lobster Tails
I don’t know if there is really such a thing as leftover lobster tails. They are just so tasty as they are, with butter. But if you are in the fortunate position to have extra cooked lobster tails, read on!
Cooked lobster tails can be incorporated in so many dishes. You can use the lobster meat in any recipe that lists lobster meat as an ingredient.
A great option is to whip up a batch of lobster salad sandwich mix to use in Maritime style creamy lobster rolls or Scandinavian style open faced sandwiches.
If you really want to go all out, you can enjoy the lobster salad sandwich mix as one layer in this epic Swedish inspired lobster sandwich cake (smörgåstårta). For an extra special touch, you can even place baked lobster tails on top of the cake. It’s a perfect choice for a milestone birthday and other very special occasions.
Lobster tail meat is outstanding in this delectable lobster artichoke dip appetizer and unforgettable in this Red Lobster style pita pizza appetizer.
However you choose to serve it, you can’t go wrong with oven baked lobster tails!
Storage Tips For Oven Baked Lobster Tails
Uncooked, fresh lobster tails can be refrigerated for up to a day, and should be well planned in advance to cook them as soon as possible.
Keep cooked lobster tails in your refrigerator, tightly covered for up to three days.
Lobster tails can be frozen, tightly sealed in a freezer safe Ziplock bag or freezer safe container for up to six months.
Reserve your lobster shells, to make Instant Pot lobster stock, to be enjoyed in more recipes, such as lobster bisque.
You’ll Also Love
Add some easy Shrimp Scampi to your homemade restaurant inspired seafood dinner menus! Flavorful garlic butter sauce with a kick from hot pepper flakes is amazing on top of wild rice pilaf or linguine.
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Baked Lobster Tails Recipe (Red Lobster Copycat)
Ingredients
- 2 Lobster Tails, approx. 4 ounces each
- 3 tablespoons Butter
- 2 teaspoons Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 teaspoon Himalayan Salt
- 1 teaspoon Black Pepper, freshly ground
- 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Hot Sauce, Frank's
- 1 teaspoon Parsley, finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F. Melt butter.
- Add remaining butter sauce ingredients (all ingredients except lobster tails, optionally you can leave out the hot sauce and paprika).
- Mix well.
- Place lobster tails in an oven safe dish. Use clean kitchen scissors to cut upward through the center of the lobster tail shell.
- Pull lobster meat up through the center cut you just made with the scissors. Fold the lobster meat over as shown in the picture.
- Use a silicone kitchen brush to brush on the seasoned (or plain) butter sauce. Transfer the oven safe dish with lobster tails to the preheated oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lobster tails have reached a safe temperature. *With a food thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the lobster meat, check that the internal temperature of the lobster tail has reached 135 to 140°F.
Nutrition
Note
The above nutritional values are estimates and should only be used as a guide. If you are following a specific diet or have dietary restrictions, please use your preferred nutritional calculator. If you have a food allergy please ensure that none of the listed ingredients are part of your restrictions. As well, always use a food thermometer to ensure safe cooking temperature of the food items.
