10 Minute Butter Poached Lobster Tails in Garlic Lemon Cream Sauce

Name: 10 Minute Butter Poached Lobster Tails in Garlic Cream Sauce
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: italian
Ingredients: 2-4 lobster t, Tails, de-veined and shells removed; salt and pepper, to taste; 5 oz butter; 1/4 cup diced garlic; 1/4 cup diced cilantro or parsley; 1 tsp red pepper flakes; 1 tbsp italian herb seasoning mix; 1/2 cup white wine or stock; 1 cup heavy cream; 1 lemon, sliced into thin rounds, and then wedges

By Courtney ODell

Aug 29, 2017, Updated Jun 13, 2023

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10 Minute Butter Poached Lobster Tail in Garlic Lemon Cream Sauce is a rich, indulgent and romantic lobster tail dinner recipe that is simple and done in less than 10 minutes!

cast iron skillet with creamy lemony spicy sauce and lobster in it

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Quick Butter Poached Lobster Tails in Garlic Lemon Cream Sauce
How to cook lobster tails
Tips and Tricks Perfect Creamy Lobster Tails
Other One Pot Dinners You’ll Love
Lobster Tail Dinner Serving Size Notes
10 Minute Butter Poached Lobster Tails in Garlic Lemon Cream Sauce Recipe

Quick Butter Poached Lobster Tails in Garlic Lemon Cream Sauce

Lobster is one of my all-time favorite dinners – it’s delicious, buttery, rich, and romantic – plus, it is so incredibly easy to cook, once you know how! Poaching a great way to add tons of flavor to the lobster tails. I love the mixture of garlic, lemon, and cream for a rich romantic dinner.

Lobster tails are my favorite way to make lobster at home – they are often on sale (I live in Colorado, where live lobster is something of a rarity), they are easy to prepare, and they seem incredibly indulgent, even though they cook in less than 10 minutes!

This 10 Minute Butter Poached Lobster Tails in Garlic Cream Sauce recipe is simple, easy, and totally delicious – perfect for a lobster tail valentines day dinner, romantic dinner party, date night, or just a special meal – this recipe is amazing, and so quick!

How to cook lobster tails

If you want to leave the lobster tail shell on for presentation, simply prepare your lobsters using my 10 minute perfect broiled lobster tail recipe (click below for video instructions), and make the creamy garlic and lemon cream sauce on the stovetop, then drizzle over the top of your lobster tails for a pretty and insanely professional presentation that will wow your dinner guests!

This is also a great way to add the sauce to grilled vegetables (this perfect pan fried asparagus is heavenly with lobster – or try this meyer lemon broccolini for a bright, citrusy side!).

Tips and Tricks Perfect Creamy Lobster Tails

Let the butter poach the lobster tails and flavor the sauce – you want the lobster to cook in all that rich, amazing flavor!

Don’t overcook lobster – it takes on a fishy flavor and gets gummy and tough when cooked too long. Once the lobster is opaque, like a shrimp, and curls back a bit on itself, it’s ready!

If you’re cooking the lobster without the tail, it’s not going to be bright red – so don’t wait for it to turn bright red – rather, it will turn bright white and slightly pink (and redder on the underside.)

Stay away from clarified butter for this recipe – you need regular butter to help your sauce not break.

Turn off or greatly reduce heat when adding your cream to the sauce to help prevent breaking and whisk vigorously when incorporating the cream to help it form a nice thick sauce.

chicken with lemony, garlic, spices on it

Be sure to lower the heat in your pan when whisking in cream – or turn it off fully. Then slowly add cream as you whisk, and increase the heat after that. This will help prevent the sauce from breaking.

Use real butter when making the sauce – not clarified butter. I’ve made this recipe a couple of times, and a couple times I didn’t have butter on hand, but used clarified butter. This causes an over-oily sauce, which usually breaks. Use the real stuff in this dish.

Other One Pot Dinners You’ll Love

If you love this easy and delicious one pot creamy lobster tail dinner, you will love these deliciously easy and elegant recipes, too!

Also try 10 Minute Broiled Lobster Tails, Creamy Shrimp Florentine, and Salt and Pepper Shrimp.

Lobster Tail Dinner Serving Size Notes

This recipe is pretty versatile – and has one noted serving size issue. In the recipe I am calling for 2 to 4 lobster tails – this is using a medium sized lobster tail (ones regularly found fresh-frozen at the grocery store).

You might wonder why I say 2-4 – and it’s a sauce issue!

If you want a lot of sauce (so you can ladle it over spaghetti, vegetables, or rice for a creamy dinner), stick with two lobster tails, so there is more sauce for your dinner.

If you want just enough sauce for a creamy lobster tail, go ahead and add 4 into the recipe! You can always add more cream and butter for additional sauce for pasta enough for 4 people.