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This lobster bisque is restaurant quality but easy to make at home. Inspired by the deliciously rich lobster bisque at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, this recipe creates a luscious creamy soup with flavors of brandy, sherry, and plenty of lobster!
🥣 What Makes This Recipe So Good
- It’s thick and creamy and full of incredible flavors. You’ll love this bisque on a cold fall or winter evening.
- Lobster. Um. Do I really need to say more? Besides the incredible lobster meat, the bisque starts with a homemade stock made from lobster shells and aromatics, so you know it’s super rich and delicious.
- It’s a top-notch, restaurant-quality bisque that’s really easy to make but looks and sounds super luxurious. Keep this recipe on hand for special occasions (anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, etc.) or anytime you need to entertain someone you really want to impress.
- Looking for a make-ahead meal? You can make the majority of this recipe up to one day in advance and finish it right before dinnertime. This recipe does not freeze well, and the finished bisque should only be stored in the refrigerator up to 2 days, in an airtight container.
🦞 Key Ingredients
Lobster – Lobster is a delicious, decadent shellfish that’s full of nutrients and is an excellent source of lean protein. It doesn’t have the same kick of Omega-3 fatty acids as, say, salmon, but it does have significant amounts of zinc, calcium, and potassium. Oh, also it tastes amazing.
Brandy & Sherry – No, that’s not a singing duo. These ingredients put this lobster bisque over the top and really deliver that restaurant-quality flavor. Nothing really replaces the flavors in these liquors, but you can try substituting white wine for the sherry if you want or need to. If you’re looking for non-alcoholic subs, I would recommend replacing the 1 cup total alcohol with a mixture of 1/4 cup sugar-free apple juice, a splash of vinegar, and 3/4 cup more lobster stock.
🔪 What’s the Best Way to Remove Lobster Meat from the Shell?
The easiest way, in my opinion, is just to cut away the shell from the meat. No really, it’s that simple.
Take your cooled lobster tails from their water bath and use shears to cut straight down the back of the tail. Then, you’ll need to pop the hard membranes on the inner side of the tail using your thumbs. Once you’ve done that, you should be able to open up the shell and pull the meat out in one piece.
If you don’t have kitchen shears (or a sharp knife) or if you just want another option, you can do this with your bare hands, too.
Lay the cooled lobster tail on its side on the kitchen counter or on a cutting board. Using both hands, press down on the shell until it cracks.
Hold the tail with the shell facing down and the fins pointed toward you. Pull on both sides of the shell to crack it open the rest of the way so you can remove the meat.
Now you’re ready for lobster bisque!
👩🏼🍳 Chef’s Tips
- If you’re a big fan of lobster, you can totally use more than this recipe calls for. Fresh lobster meat is best, and we absolutely recommend it over anything else, but frozen or canned can be used instead. It won’t taste quite the same as fresh lobster, but it’ll work. If you use frozen tails, make sure to thaw them first!
- Want even more flavor? Try sautéing your lobster before adding it to your bisque. Melt butter and sauté garlic in a skillet over medium heat. Season your lobster with salt and pepper (and a little cayenne or Tony Chachere’s if you like things spicy) and sauté it just long enough to warm it through. Add the sautéed lobster to your bisque, stir everything together, then enjoy!
- If you can swing it, use cold-water lobster tails instead of warm-water ones. Cold-water tails are more expensive, but they’re also a little sweeter (as opposed to fishier warm-water lobsters) and have a nicer texture.
- Mix it up! Use crab, shrimp, or crawfish in place of (or along with) the lobster meat for extra flavors and proteins.
🐟 More Incredible Seafood Recipes
- How to Broil Lobster Tails + Garlic Butter Sauce
- Healthy Authentic Seafood Gumbo (Gluten Free, Whole30, Paleo, Low Carb)
- Seafood Salad
- Easy Salmon Patties & Lemon-Garlic Sauce
- Tuscan Shrimp (Whole30, Paleo)
- Seafood Salad
- Addictive Hot Crab Dip
- She Crab Soup
- Shrimp Bisque
- Baked Fish with Lemon-Garlic Butter
- Seafood Soup
The Best Lobster Bisque (Ruth’s Chris Copycat Recipe)
Equipment
- Large pot
- Tongs
- Large bowl
- Medium bowl
- Kitchen shears
- Sieve
- Large saucepan
Ingredients
- water to boil
- 3 small lobster tails or 2 large
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion sliced
- 1 large celery stalk sliced
- 1 small carrot sliced
- 1 head garlic cut in half crosswise
- 1 medium tomato sliced
- 2 sprigs fresh tarragon optional
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon black peppercorns
- ½ cup brandy
- ½ cup sherry
- 2 cups bottled clam juice
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- ½ cup whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- freshly cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring large pot of water to boil. Add lobster tails to water, and boil until cooked through and bright red, approximately 5 minutes.
- Using tongs, transfer lobsters to large bowl. Reserve 2 cups cooking liquid, saving as much loose lobster meat with the liquid as possible.
- Cool lobster tails by running under cool water. Crack tails and remove meat using the method of your choice – see Notes.
- Coarsely chop lobster meat, then cover and chill.
- Coarsely chop lobster shells and transfer to medium bowl. Reserve juices from lobster in a bowl.
- Heat large pot over medium-high heat. When pot is warm, add olive oil and heat, swirling pot occasionally to coat bottom of pot in oil. When oil is hot and shimmery, add lobster shells. Sauté shells in oil until shells darken, approximately 5 minutes.
- Add onion, celery, carrots, garlic, tomato, tarragon, thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns. Stir in brandy and sherry, then boil until almost all liquid has evaporated, approximately 5 minutes.
- Add clam juice, reserved liquid from boiling lobster, and reserved lobster juices. Cook at strong simmer for approximately 15 minutes.
- Strain soup through sieve set over large saucepan, pressing firmly on solids. Whisk tomato paste into soup. Simmer until soup is reduced to 3 cups, approximately 15 minutes. If making bisque ahead of time, stop here. Cover and refrigerate up to 1 day.
- Add whipping cream to soup and simmer 5 minutes. Dissolve cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water. Add to soup. Boil until slightly thickened, approximately 2 minutes.
- Season with salt and black pepper. Mix lobster meat into soup and stir until heated through.
- Ladle soup into bowls and serve.
- Make it Dairy Free: Use coconut cream instead of whipping cream.
- Make it Gluten Free: Pure cornstarch is gluten free, but be careful to avoid any brands that might cross-contaminate. Alternately, you can use 2 tablespoons arrowroot in place of the 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in this recipe.
- Make it Keto: Most of the carbs in this bisque come from the veggies and the cornstarch. Leaving out the onion will save you approximately 2-3g net carbs per serving. Replace the cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of xanthan gum. Use heavy cream instead of whipping cream for extra fat. Also, look for the lowest carb tomato paste you can find, with no added sugars.
- To remove lobster meat with kitchen shears: Take your cooled lobster tails from their water bath and use shears to cut straight down the back of the tail. Then, pop the hard membranes on the inner side of the tail using your thumbs. Once you’ve done that, you should be able to open up the shell and pull the meat out in one piece.
- To remove lobster meat with your hands: Lay the cooled lobster tail on its side on the kitchen counter or on a cutting board. Using both hands, press down on the shell until it cracks. Hold the tail with the shell facing down and the fins pointed toward you. Pull on both sides of the shell to crack it open the rest of the way so you can remove the meat.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
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Had Ruth’s Chris’ bisque last night. Had many better versions. This recipe sounds like one of them. So, no, haven’t tried this recipe yet, but I intend to.
Please let us know when you do! 🙂
Made this today. It came out awesome, however, like other reviews here it was a little on the thin side, but absolutely delicious! I up the Sherry and Brandy by about half added additional cornstarch, but still wasn’t quite thick enough, but the flavor was awesome!
Thank you so much, Casey! I’m so happy the flavor was a hit!
“Coarsely chop lobster shells.”
Is that really necessary? I’ve made lobster bisque before, and this is the first time I’ve seen this step.
Only if you want to use the shells to impart more flavor into the bisque base. Feel free to skip it. This is the recipe for the bisque from Ruth’s Chris so other versions may not do it that way.
Awesome…….sort of labor intensive for an 82 year old with little stamina but very well worth the effort. Total cost near Seattle was about $15 for a serving for 2, got small lobster for $4 each/2. Flavor out of this world, had to purée it all due swallowing issue and that worked out quite well except for the lack of splatter control.
“If something is really worth the effort just do the work and reap the rewards😀”.
Thanks much lass!!!
Thank you so much, Patrick. It’s definitely a more involved recipe but I’m so happy you felt it was worth it in the end!
Made this exactly as directed and it was wnderful
I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Donna! Thank you so much for your review!
I made this for the first time 2 days ago. My sister in law always comes over to try what I cook. It was absolutely AMAZING!!! It came out perfectly! So good that she asked me to make it for the entire family for Xmas and she bought all of the lobster needed. I followed the recipe exactly. The only thing I changed was the tarragon, I used dry bc I couldn’t find fresh. It was unbelievably delicious. I just hope I don’t mess it up by doing 5xs the recipe!!! Thank you!
So happy to hear it came out perfectly! And, what a special dish to make for Christmas! Thanks for sharing, Brittany. 😊
Biggest complaint is I should have doubled this it was delicious. I did make a few changes. I used spicy sherry and omitted brandy(forgot to buy it). I removed the shells and used immersion blender to mix all the veggies. They really added a nice flavor and smooth body.
So glad you loved it, Marla!! Thanks for the helpful tips as well! 😊
I had such high hopes. Followed the recipe exactly (so I thought) but it wasn’t thick at all and very bland. Almost more of a tomato bisque taste.
I’m so sorry, Sandra! I hate that you were disappointed with this recipe. This is the exact recipe for the bisque from Ruth’s Chris Steak House, so I totally understand it not living up to expectations if you’re used to other versions. Still, we’re definitely making a note of your feedback and plan to revisit this recipe ASAP!
I never leave comments, but this recipe deserves one:
It costs a fortune, over $75, for ingredients. Way too thin. Not enough body or flavor; just “okay.”
Ridiculous number of steps and dirty prep utensils. Takes FOREVER to make.
I added two tablespoons more cornstarch to get it barely thickened. I added extra cream and 4 tablespoons butter to try to bring the flavor up. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly.
A fourth of the tarragon would still almost be too much.
I’m so sorry that was your experience with this dish, Lisa. We didn’t have those results when we developed and tested this recipe, and several other readers have had success with it, so I truly hate that it turned out so badly for you. I know how frustrating that can be with any recipe, but especially one that utilizes expensive ingredients.
The number of steps we list to cook the lobster and prepare the bisque, as well as the approximate 1 hour and 15 minute recipe time, are fairly typical of an involved dish like a lobster bisque.
As for the bisque not thickening, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what might’ve gone wrong since we weren’t in the kitchen with you. There are 3 points during cooking that the liquid is simmered or boiled until evaporated, considerably reduced, or generally thickened. Those points combined with the tomato paste, whipping cream, and cornstarch slurry should’ve resulted in that rich bisque consistency. It’s possible the liquids weren’t reduced enough at each of those points, leaving you with too much liquid (and thus a thin consistency) by the end of the dish, but I can’t say for sure.
Again, I’m sorry this recipe was a miss. I appreciate your honest feedback and we’ll certainly keep your comments in mind.
I tend to agree with not reducing the liquids enough. The recipe calls for a five minute reduction, which at sea level, where I’m at is not nearly enough time to truly reduce the liquids. I would recommend revising the recipe for those unfamiliar with reduction for a longer period of time at each reduction step.
Thank you for sharing that, Casey, that’s very helpful! We recommend “approximate” times to allow for some variance and recommend going by the results rather than the clock, but you make a great point. We’ll definitely revisit these instructions!
I made the recipe over the weekend & had the same experience. I omitted the terragon & only used 1 cup of clam juice (didn’t buy enough) but otherwise made it exactly as written. Even though we sautéed the lobster in butter, the flavor was too mild, and the texture wasn’t thick enough. I was disappointed with how it came out, especially considering that I spent so much money on the ingredients
Hi, Rachel! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. I’m so sorry this recipe let you down. I’ve made a note of your feedback as well as Lisa’s and we’ll definitely take it into account as we review our recipes.
I liked this recipe. Thank you. I had nowhere to begin with this request. It turns out very well.
Glad you enjoyed it, Kellie! 😊