There are many different ways for serving king crab legs. I for one, like my king crab served hot with garlic butter. But the problem with this is that the legs are too hot to break and eat. The solution to this is to precut or split your legs before you cook them.
Some fish markets or stores might already have split king crab legs or you could ask your fishmonger to split the legs for you when buying them.
Once thawed, use a pair of high quality kitchen shears and cut down each side of the leg, leave the shells altogether and heat accordingly, when ready to serve just lift off the top shell and you have ready to eat crab legs.
Another way of them is to cut the legs up in 1 ½ pieces, before you heat them up. This way you or your guest can easily push the meat out with those tiny crab forks. This also works good is you are serving your king crab cold as an appetizer, great for party type finger food.
It all boils down to the type of dinner or party you are having. There are a number of ways to get into the meat. People use nut crackers, knives and hammers. All work fine if you are into a lot work and mess when eating your crab legs.
Alaskan King Crab Serving Size
A good rule of thumb on the serving size per person is 1 pound of in the shell king crab. Another thing to remember when trying to figure out the servings is who you are serving and the type of meal or party you are having. King crab served at a cocktail party as finger food will require less per person, probably around 1/2 pound.
If you are serving crab as an all you can eat dinner, I would suggest at least 2 pounds per person. If you have some really big crab eaters this may have to go even higher.
