Oven-Baked/ Roasted Soft Shell Crabs

Order soft shell crab maki rolls (also known as Spider Rolls most of the times) and those few tempura/ batter-fried tiny crab claws are never enough to satisfy. Depending on luck, some eateries may serve whole soft shell crabs tempura/ batter-fried, but they are not going to be wallet-friendly.

I chanced upon an awesome online deal for soft shell crabs recently and impulsively bought too many too fast. However, soft shell crab is highly seasonal and in limited quantities in the West Coast of the United States; so, if you enjoy this prized delicacy and lucky to find them in stores - get them quick, get them now! Because this Chesapeake Bay, Maryland delicacy will be exhausted right about in July.


This is my first time preparing and cooking soft shell crabs at home. In fact, there are only few dishes I make using crabs e.g. Steamed Dungeness Crabs in Sake.

To be more accurate with my earlier statement on "preparation", actually there is not much prep. involved for these soft shell crabs as they came properly cleaned - gills/lungs, aprons/flaps, eyes all trimmed. Too good! All I need to do is...cook. Soft shell crabs are usually coated in batter and deep-fried, perhaps to give more structure but an easier fuss-free method will be without batter and no-oil-splatter oven-grill/roasted method.
Easy Oven-Baked/Roasted Soft Shell Crabs
Ingredients:
Seven soft shell crabs (3 crabs per serving/per person), thawed if previously frozen (Note: the crabs purchased* have been properly cleaned - gills/lungs, aprons/flaps, eyes all trimmed; however, if you need to do it yourself, this might be a good reference - How to clean soft-shell crab)
Olive oil to brush on baking tray/ parchment paper lined tray

Directions: Preheat oven 400F. Roast belly-side up for 4-5mins, then turn the crabs to the other side shell-side up and continue grill/roast for 5-6 mins.


*The soft-shell crabs (availability subjected to change) are purchased online from Feastin - which offers groceries at farm fresh prices, with Bay Area wide delivery.

This is not a sponsored post. Any opinion expressed in the post is my own.