Best Lobster Roll Recipe

5 from 13 votes

A warm buttered lobster roll is the best lobster roll out there. This lobster roll recipe is simply fabulous, requiring only 4 ingredients!

Prep Time30

Cook Time25

Total Time55

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American, New England

Servings: lobster rolls

Add 1-2 inches of water into an extra-large pot. Bring water to a boil. Add lobsters to the pot and cook (covered) for 20 minutes, keeping the water at a gentle boil. Lobsters should be bright red at 20 minutes.
Remove lobsters from pot and let cool long enough to crack them without burning your hands. Use lobster crackers to remove lobster meat from the tails, claws, and knuckles (see video below for step-by-step instructions!).
Rinse any tomalley (green stuff) from the tail meat with warm water. Chop lobster meat into bite-sized pieces. Set aside in a bowl.

Note: if you bought pre-cooked lobster meat, skip the above steps, and chop lobster meat into bite-sized pieces. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Use a quarter stick of butter to generously butter both sides of each bun.
Preheat a large pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the rolls so one side toasts for 1-4 minutes until golden. Flip rolls to the other side and toast for another 1-4 minutes until golden. Remove rolls from heat.
Melt the rest of the butter (three-quarters of stick). Toss lobster meat in the warm butter and chives.
Use tongs to stuff warm buttered lobster meat evenly into each roll. Serve right away with lemon wedges if desired.

Fresh lobster meat, cracked yourself, can’t be beaten! I recommend buying 4 or 5 lobsters that are 1 ½ pounds each. If they are soft shell lobsters, 4 will yield a little less than a pound of meat, whereas 5 will yield a little more than a pound of meat. Purchase 4 or 5 depending on how stuffed you like your rolls. If they are hard shell lobsters (less common), I recommend 4 lobsters for 4 rolls.
If you decide to purchase pre-cooked lobster meat instead of live lobsters, 1 pound of meat will yield 4 delicious lobster rolls. Keep in mind the fresher the meat, the better the rolls! Also, I recommend bringing the meat to room temp for about 30 minutes so you don’t have to reheat lobster which can make it chewy/fishy.
It’s best to enjoy the lobster rolls right away.
New England hot dog buns are the BEST! They are also known as split-top buns. These have flat, no crust sides that are great for buttering and toasting. If you can’t find them, you can use regular hot dog buns or even hamburger buns flipped inside-out for easy buttering/toasting surface.