Lobster Thermidor Recipe

This recipe is much easier than Julia Child's complicated but AMAZING recipe. Taking the best ideas from both, make this recipe but add 1 tablespoon of dried or fresh tarragon to the sauce. Instead of fish stock, boil the lobsters in 2 cups white wine, 2 cups water, sliced onion, 1 carrot and 1 celery stalk. This is a dramatic dish that can be made ahead of time, popped in the oven for browning, sure to impress your guests!

Wow! Never had Lobster Thermidor before but this turned out really, really good. While it’s hard to tell if the sauce would have thickened on its own as written or not (when cooked long enough, heavy whipping cream WILL thicken!), I didn’t want to take a chance tonight. So after sautéing the butter and onions (no scallions on hand), added 1 TBLS flour and treated this like making a roux - slowly adding the seafood stock (vs fish stock) a little at a time - stirring constantly. Then, once the stock was all in, added the wine and cream. Continued to cook on high heat - stirring constantly to not let burn - for about 15 min. Sure enough! This both thickened and reduced by half. Once done, stirred in the lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper (easy on the salt since Parmesan is a saltier cheese) and a squirt of Dijon mustard (vs English hot). I poured over the lobster. In my oven, the broil/cook time was closer to 6 min. This was decadent good! And minus that i was attached to the stove for the sauce cook time - mostly easy too! Picture attached doesn’t look amazing but the taste was! Thanks for a great recipe Robyn!!

First, make and use your own fish stock using a white fish bones and head (remove gills and fins.) Generally, I use red snapper. Just ask at your high end fish market and they will both save and give you these often discarded items. Follow any fish stock recipe, but add one teaspoon of corn starch which will help thicken the thermador sauce faster. I also add 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese in the sauce during the reduction process. Gives the sauce a little extra zing. In addition to sprinkling Parmesan cheese on top prior to broiling, I also use some bread crumbs that I make out of left over sour dough bread. And lastly, after cubing the lobster, I add some coarsely chopped raw baby Bella mushrooms and then placed the meat/mushroom mixture into the shell. This adds an additional hearty flavor and bulk to the filling. I've made this recipe about 10 times now and this final rendition is by far the finest way to prepare it. The comments I have received from those that I have served this to are exceptional with many stating it is one of the best things they have ever eaten in their life - and generally high end "foodies."

I made this for Christmas dinner and it was a huge hit. Here's what I did different: I shelled the lobster and boiled in 2 cups water, 2 cups white wine, a little celery salt (didn't have any celery and a few onion slices. I removed the lobster and cut up into chunks. This left me with true lobster stock for the recipe. I made the sauce exactly the same EXCEPT I didn't use the mustard or the double cream. I used cream of mushroom soup and some half and half. The result was delicious. Not too fishy at all and creamy. It was a little thin like some of the reviews stated so I pulled out some of the sauce, added some cornstarch, and returned it to the pan. This thickened it up. I layer out the lobster chunks in a casserole dish with low sides and poured the sauce over it. Placed in oven and broiled at last minute. Garnished with some fresh parsley. Everyone loved it! I prepared the lobster chunks and the sauce earlier in the day. Returned the lobster to the refrigerator with a damp paper towel covering and left the sauce on the stove (no heat). When I was ready to put it all together, I heated up the sauce again and poured over the lobster as mentioned above. Great recipe and it was easy.

I made as written except I used a medium cooked lobster tail which I chunked into two individual casserole dishes. It had a wonderful flavor but I agree with other reviewers that it could be thicker. Next time I will reduce the fish stock to 1 cup and increase the cream to 1/2. I may also put the shell into the sauce as I reduce it and put the lobster in raw just before the mustard, etc. Then I can broil it until the cheese is brown and bubbly without the lobster being too done. I served it as an appetizer with toast rounds. It was a huge hit. I'd like to try the sauce over pasta too.

Last night I cooked this recipe for the first time and my wife said "wow, this is restaurant quality good". It was very good. The only thing I had to add was about a tablespoon of all purpose flour to thicken the sauce otherwise, it would be a 5 star rating.

This was a good base recipe. Used the boiling water from cooking tail (with some old bay). Started with butter/onions, added flour to make a roux, also added some roasted garlic, didnt really measure anything cause I made a smaller batch. Wish I made more, going to use the leftovers on some imitation crab, and add to pasta. This would make a great sauce for a lobster pasta too, I almost made it that way, wish I did. Would have stretched the meat and filled me up, just wanted more after I ate it. *Also, served with lemon on the side to taste instead of mixing it in, might save some headaches that way.

Made this as a birthday dinner for my girlfriend who loves lobster. She was skeptical at first, but as soon as she took the first bite she made a face like she'd just tasted the best thing ever. She said it was great, rich and creamy with lots of lobster flavor. I'm not the biggest lobster fan in the world, but I thought it was okay too, definitely one of the better seafood dishes I've made. Adjustments I made: instead of fish stock, I added some white wine and mirepoix to the lobster cooking water and simmered it to create a makeshift lobster stock. I also added maybe 2 tbs more cream after reading some comments that the sauce was too thin. Since she liked it so much, I'll probably make this again the next time my girlfriend has something to celebrate.

I would definitely Make it again. I didn't have any fish stock so I did what another reviewer suggested and boiled the lobster tails in water, wine with a few spices, onion and carrots for flavor and then used a cup of that liquid in place of fish stock. Quite good. Be sure to make plenty of sauce!!

Hello! This recipe was pretty easy, and took about 45 minuets to prepare. Forgot to gather Whipping cream, so we used 3 table spoons of melted butter and 1/3 cup of milk as a sub. Also could not get fish stock, so we used (as recommended by the fish guy at the counter) vegetable broth and about 2 teaspoons of tai fish sauce mixed together. The sauce, after being cooked, was DELICIOUS! Overall it was a flattering dish!

delicious. like all baked lobster, this is better and easier with bigger lobster. I used a 5 lb critter. I also subbed rum for wine, onion (and garlic) for shallot, milk for cream (about a cup or more). I topped it with a TON of gouda.

I made this for New Year’s Eve dinner. We really enjoyed it! The flavor was great, though I thought the sauce was too thin. I had about 4 6 oz tails so had the lobster with sauce over linguini to stretch it out. Next time I will double the recipe so there is more sauce. As written it served my husband and I adequately. I always read the reviews before I try a new recipe. I followed advice to add flour to the sauteed onions prior to adding liquids. I used 1/2 tbsp but next time will use 1 tblsp. I used canned seafood stock for the fish stock which worked well. Next time I will let shells simmer in seafood stock for a bit to get a deeper seafood flavor. All in all , delicious & easy to make!

We had a half lobster each as a starter for our Christmas dinner… the recipe was easy to follow, and it was absolutely delicious! Will definitely be making this again!

So yummy I can’t even 😋

I would have reduced the sauce more- mine was too watery but it was still delicious

I love this dish. My stepmom used to make it for me for my birthday every year. I always look for it on the menu in good seafood restaurants. This recipe is the same as my stepmoms and very well worth the effort.

I ate every bite…

Great recipe, needed thickening, used corn flour. Omitted wine used brandy instead. I will next time use the liquid from the steamed crayfish/lobster in the sauce instead of some of the fish stock.

I thought this was a great recipe. Taste is excellent. The first time I made it I found the sauce to be way too thin. I reduced it a lot but still way too thin. The next time I made it, before I added the shallots I added 2tbs flour to the butter and made a rue similar to how you would start bechamel sauce. If you add the following liquids slowly, keep stirring constantly with a whisk so as not to get flour lumps and let the rue take up the liquids slowly you finish up with a much better result. I believe the flour has simply been omitted when the recipe was created. Good luck!

It was very delicious. My husband was extremely surprised at how good it came out, especially because I had never had lobster therimor before. I will certainly make it again.