Maine Lobster Bisque

5 from 3 votes

This creamy, super-flavorful, and perfectly-calibrated Maine lobster bisque gets rave reviews. Don't miss it.

Prep Time20

Cook Time40

Total Time1

Course: Fish + Shellfish

Keyword: maine lobster bisque

Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

In a 5-quart pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat.
Add the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook, stirring only occasionally, until softened and well-browned in spots. Don't rush this step — the browning adds lots of good flavor to the soup.
Add the garlic, give it a stir, and cook for a minute.
Sprinkle in the flour, stir to coat the vegetables, and cook for a minute more.
Stir in the tomato paste and cook for one additional minute.
Pour in the wine and give it an aggressive stir, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pot. The mixture will start to thicken immediately. Simmer briskly for one minute.
Pour in the lobster stock. Add the tarragon sprig and the bay leaf and give it a stir.
Bring to a boil, then simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes.
Stir in the heavy cream, salt (if using), pepper, and cayenne, and simmer five minutes more.
Remove tarragon sprig and bay leaf. Carefully transfer the entire remaining contents of the pot to a blender and puree until perfectly smooth. I love my Vitamix for creating beautifully silky results, but a regular blender is just fine. Alternatively, use an immersion blender.
Wipe out the pot and pour the pureed soup back in.
Stir in the lobster meat and taste for seasoning.
Ladle into serving bowls and garnish with snipped chives.

To keep things simple, good old all-purpose flour helps thicken up the soup. For the record, strictly traditional bisque recipes use a paste made of ground lobster shells, and sometimes rice, as thickeners — I don't put you through that here. To make this recipe gluten-free, substitute your favorite 1:1 GF baking blend or all-purpose GF blend, whichever you have on hand.
Use a dry white wine that you'd be happy to drink (and serve the rest of the bottle at the table!)
Lobster bisque is incredibly delicious when made with homemade lobster stock, and I really recommend using it. If that's not in the cards for you this time around, you can use lower-salt commercial shrimp or seafood stock.
There are so many ways to arrive at a pound of cooked lobster meat that I've dedicated a whole section to it below. You may be familiar with bisque having only a bit of lobster as a garnish, but I like to be generous and stir quite a bit of it into the soup. You can reserve the most beautiful pieces to garnish.
Maine lobster bisque will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for a week, and it holds up well to gentle reheating on the stovetop or in the microwave. I don't recommend freezing it.
If you're making it in advance on purpose (as opposed to just dealing with leftovers), I'd recommend adding the lobster meat to the soup toward the end of reheating, rather than in advance, so it won't overcook.