Tempura fried lobster tail cooling on a wire rack.

Easy Tempura Fried Lobster Tail Recipe

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Lobster is an expensive ingredient, so follow our tempura fried lobster tail recipe for an easy, tasty, and crispy dinner at home.  

In our house we’d love it to be lobster season all year round, it’s truly one of our favorite proteins but because of its higher price you need to be sure to not mess it up when cooking it.   

Lobster tails removed from their shell for a tempura lobster tail recipe.

We like to cook lobster in a variety of ways. Once we mastered How to Grill Lobster, we love to put some lobster tails on the grill on a nice sunny day.

When we’re making a fancy surf and turf meal at home we usually make our Sous Vide Lobster Recipe, because it always results in tender, perfectly cooked seafood.

When we’re craving a taste of the coast we whip up our Brown Butter Lobster Roll Recipe. It’s like a classic New England lobster roll, but with an added depth of richness due to the brown butter.

Flour on lobster tails prior to being dipping into the lobster tempura batter.

No matter which way you choose to cook your lobster, don’t miss our roundup of the 40 Tastiest Sides for Lobster!

Making a lobster tail tempura batter recipe.

Follow our recipe below if you want to make fresh tempura batter at home.  

The coating was light and flaky and added a perfect texture to our Lobster Taco Recipe (we even topped it with our Sweet Cilantro Sauce Recipe, which complemented the lobster meat perfectly.)

Pouring the correct flour for a tempura fried lobster tail recipe.

But, if you don’t want to make your own tempura batter, there are two great options on Amazon. Assi is a premium mix that has fantastic reviews, and Kikkoman makes an affordable entry mix. 

When you get the hang of making tempura batter, it is so quick and easy to make you could put it all together in 4-5 minutes.  

Making homemade lobster tempura batter.

What type of flour should be used for Tempura batter?

When making homemade tempura batter, it’s important to choose the right kind of flour. You want to avoid flours that include too much gluten.

Seafood being dipped into homemade lobster tempura batter.
  • Cake flour is the ideal flour to use because it has a lower amount of protein and gluten compared to AP flour.  Using this flour your batter will be more delicate, light, and crispy lobster tail. 
  • All purpose flour can be used for tempura, but if you do you should add a tablespoon of cornstarch for each cup of flour.
Tempura fried lobster tail being placed in hot oil.

What type of hot oil should be used to deep fry Tempura?

To start, the most important part to remember is to maintain a specific temperature when frying.  

By maintaining a proper temperature your lobster will be cooked properly, and the batter won’t burn too quickly.  

To do so, we recommend using a thermometer fit for deep frying

Tempura lobster tail frying in hot oil.

Here are oils you can use to make this temperature fried lobster tail recipe:

  • Sunflower oil – has a heat point of 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and is our typical oil of choice for deep-frying 
  • Peanut oil – has a high heat point as well, and will provide a nutty flavor to your food.  We don’t recommend it for lobster, but it would be good for vegetable tempura and fried chicken.  
  • Vegetable oil and canola oil – You can use these oils, but watch the temperature carefully so they don’t burn. 
Homemade tempura fried lobster tail cooling on a wire rack.

Tips for Perfect Tempura Fried Lobster

The two most important things to remember when making tempura batter is that keeping the ingredients cold is a must, and to not over mix your batter.  

To keep your ingredients cold you can put everything, even the flour, in the fridge prior to mixing it.  The other way to keep everything cold is to have an ice water bowl below your batter bowl.

Sweet cilantro sauce being spooned on a tempura fried lobster tail taco.

When it comes to mixing the batter you want to mix the dry ingredients slowly with the wet, and instead of whisking lightly use a fork or chopsticks to more incorporate the flour mixture with the wet. 

There will be some clumps, and you want it to look way more watery versus a consistent pancake batter as an example. 

Tempura fried lobster tail in a lobster taco.

Easy Tempura Fried Lobster Tail Recipe

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cook Time: 3-4 Minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

  • 4 raw lobster tails (4 oz.) with the shell removed
  • ⅛ teaspoon of salt and black pepper
  • 2 cups cold soda water or ice water
  • 1 cold egg
  • 2 cups cake flour (or all purpose flour with 1 teaspoon cornstarch) 
  • Optional: a dash of onion powder and/or garlic powder (can be added for flavor but it’s not traditionally in a basic tempura batter recipe)

Directions:

  1. Prepare the lobster meat and separate from the lobster shells. You may need to use kitchen shears or a sharp knife to open the shell slowly.
  2. You can leave the tail meat whole to make lobster corn dogs (feel free to use a wooden skewer for fun), or cut into raw lobster pieces for smaller tempura bites.
  3. Pat the lobster meat down with paper towels.
  4. In a large bowl add in dry ingredients.
  5. In a second bowl, mix the ice cold water with the egg.
  6. Slowly add the dry flour mixture into the cold wet ingredients using a fork or chopsticks.
  7. Lightly mix the ingredients, you don’t want it to look like a traditional batter, it will look more watery with clumps.
  8. Pre-heat your oil in a frying pot to 340-350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  9. You don’t need an egg wash with egg yolks, but you should dust your raw lobster tail pieces in flour prior to dipping into the tempura batter. 
  10. Dip your lobster tails into the cold tempura batter lightly, and then carefully lay directly into the pre-heated oil, one at a time.
  11. Fry for 3-4 minutes, flipping every minute, until golden brown.
  12. Remove and let the tempura lobster tail cool on a wire rack with paper towels below for one minute to drip off excess oil.
  13. Finish with kosher salt or your favorite finishing salt.
  14. Top your lobster with some lemon juice, lemon or lime zest, or make a fun dipping sauce like our Sweet Cilantro Sauce or a soy based sauce.
  15. Enjoy your golden brown crispy fried lobster tail!
Tempura fried lobster tail cooling on a wire rack.

Easy Tempura Fried Lobster Tail Recipe

Yield: 4 Lobster Tails
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 4 minutes
Total Time: 14 minutes

Crispy, sweet and delicate, this tempura fried lobster tail recipe is amazing on it's own or perfect as a lobster taco!

Ingredients

  • 4 raw lobster tails (4 oz.) with the shell removed
  • ⅛ teaspoon of salt and black pepper
  • 2 cups cold soda water or ice water
  • 1 cold egg
  • 2 cups cake flour (or all purpose flour with 1 teaspoon cornstarch)
  • Optional: a dash of onion powder and/or garlic powder (can be added for flavor but it's not traditionally in a basic tempura batter recipe)

Instructions

  1. Prepare the lobster meat and separate from the lobster shells. You may need to use kitchen shears or a sharp knife to open the shell slowly.
  2. You can leave the tail meat whole to make lobster corn dogs (feel free to use a wooden skewer for fun), or cut into raw lobster pieces for smaller tempura bites.
  3. Pat the lobster meat down with paper towels.
  4. In a large bowl add in dry ingredients.
  5. In a second bowl, mix the ice cold water with the egg.
  6. Slowly add the dry flour mixture into the cold wet ingredients using a fork or chopsticks.
  7. Lightly mix the ingredients, you don't want it to look like a traditional batter, it will look more watery with clumps.
  8. Pre-heat your oil in a frying pot or tempura fryer to 340-350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  9. You don't need an egg wash with egg yolks, but you should dust your raw lobster tail pieces in flour prior to dipping into the tempura batter. 
  10. Dip your lobster tails into the cold tempura batter lightly, and then carefully lay directly into the pre-heated oil, one at a time.
  11. Fry for 3-4 minutes, flipping every minute, until golden brown.
  12. Remove and let the tempura lobster tail cool on a wire rack with paper towels below for one minute to drip off excess oil.
  13. Finish with kosher salt or your favorite finishing salt.
  14. Top your lobster with some lemon juice, lemon or lime zest, or make a fun dipping sauce like our Sweet Cilantro Sauce or a soy based sauce.

Notes

For best results, keep the batter as cold as possible during the cooking process.

Did you make this recipe?

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Tempura Fried Lobster Tail Recipe.

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