I love shrimp a lot. It's one of my favorite proteins, whether it's grilled, sauteed, or in ceviche. Spicy, or covered in butter and garlic, shrimp is always a yes. This spicy grilled shrimp recipe was built from a love of this delicious seafood and my husband and I always trying to find new ways to make it.
📖 Instructions
I'm not gonna lie, there is a decent amount of spices that go into this recipe. Sorry, not sorry and I promise it's worth it. As you are measuring it all just keep remembering this is gonna be really really good.
This doesn't need to sit and marinade for long either. I would suggest around 15-30 minutes if you can. If you're in a rush and need to cook them right away it isn't the end of the world either.
Once they have taken their flavor bath, you'll want to cook them for about 2 minutes per side. Whether that's in a grill basket, metal skewers
🧄 Ingredients
Shrimp: Need to be peeled and deveined! We recommend 16/20s generally.
Chipotle Powder: Adds a little heat, but mostly a wonderful smokey flavor.
Smoked Paprika: Less spicy than chipotle powder, but it also adds smoke flavors and a little bit of heat.
Chili Powder: Adds more heat by using a blend of different peppers to spice things up a bit.
Cumin: Popular in Mexican/Southwest dishes, cumin adds an earthiness to your dish.
Honey: Adds a bit of sugar and liquid at the same time. Honey helps hold our ingredients together and helps us get a beautiful sear when cooking.
Fresh Garlic & Herbs: Brightens up all the heavy spices and gives us a pop of flavor.
Lime Juice: The acid helps round out all the flavors, and gives the final zest of flavor that makes this dish stand out.
🥘 Equipment
There are lots of different ways to go about grilled shrimp and it all boils down to personal preference and cost.
Metal Skewers
We personally use metal skewers 99% of the time. They are reusable, easy to clean, and don't require soaking like wood skewers. The downside is they cost more, and if you are feeding a crowd you might need quite a few.
Wood Skewers
Wood skewers are super cost-efficient, but take a little more time to get ready.
Metal Grill Basket
Using a grill basket is another great way to grill food! You can completely skip the time-consuming step of individually adding shrimp to a skewer. Downside? You lose some of the direct contact areas of the grill. Leading to less char, and less flavor.
👩🏼🍳 Chef Tip
#1 While huge shrimp look fun to buy, if they aren't cooked properly they can become chewy. We lean toward a medium-size 16/20 (which means 16- 20 shrimp per pound).
#2 Grilling adds another whole layer of flavor, but these also taste amazing pan-seared.
🍽 Sides
I'm always developing more recipes and trying to pair them up together. Until I get a few more recipes added here to Tabetha's Table, I would suggest putting these with Tacos, taco bowls, burritos, cut up in quesadillas, as an appetizer, or serving them just sitting on some guacamole! Use your imagination while I get to work!
🥡 Storing Your Shrimp
If you find yourself with leftovers, you can absolutely throw these in the fridge for a few days and enjoy them on a salad for lunch the next day, or in a yummy quesadilla!
I would not recommend eating them after more than 3 days. Seafood in general doesn't like to keep well and will stink up your fridge quickly. The more realistic problem is having any leftovers at all 😉
Enjoy!
📖 Recipe
Spicy Grilled Shrimp
Ingredients
- 2 Pounds Shrimp - Peeled & Deveined
- ¼ Cup Olive Oil
- ¼ Cup Lime Juice
- 1 teaspoon Honey
- 1 tablespoon Fresh Cilantro
- 1 tablespoon Garlic - Minced
- 1 tablespoon Red Onion - Diced
- 2 teaspoon Dry Oregano
- 1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
- ½ teaspoon Chipotle Powder
- ½ teaspoon Cumin
- 2 teaspoon Kosher Salt - Diamond is Prefered
- 1 teaspoon Fresh Ground Pepper
Instructions
- Make sure the shrimp are thawed, peeled, and deveined then set aside.
- Add all remaining ingredients to a bowl. You can cheat on some of the prep here and add it all to a small blender or food processor if you'd like. I'm obsessed with my immersion blender which would also work beautifully.
- Add Shrimp to a bowl and marinate for at least 15 minutes. **Don't marinate overnight as the lime juice will cook the shrimp and make them chewy*.
Cooking Methods
- Grilling: Kabobs are one of the easiest ways to cook shrimp on the grill, but you can also find some neat grill baskets that prevent them from falling through. I suggest kabobs so you get as much color/char on them as possible. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side.
- Pan Sear: If you don't have access to a grill you can easily cook this on a stovetop. The key here is to get your pan really really hot, add oil to your pan to prevent sticking, and only add enough shrimp to cover about ½ of the pan. If you add too many at once, all the moisture will drop the temperature of the pan and you will boil your shrimp vs sear them. Browing = Flavor. Flip the shrimp after 2-3 minutes. Cook another 1-2 minutes on the other side or until the center of the shrimp is no longer opaque.
- Broil: This would be my last option, but it will work. Layer a pan with foil. Add shrimp and spread out. Cook on high broil for 3-5 minutes. They may need to be flipped if they are extra-large. Test if they are done by removing one, cutting it open, and checking to see if the center is no longer opaque.
- In most cases, the shrimp should only take 3-5 minutes to cook depending on your cooking method and the size of your shrimp.
- The key sign to look out for when trying to see if they are done is the color. When they switch from translucent to opaque/white, they are done.
Notes
- The fresher your shrimp are, the better. Even if they were previously frozen, just try and use them within the first day or 2 of defrosting. No one wants fishy shrimp.
- Always devein your shrimp or buy your shrimp deveined. It’s a little more effort or costs a little more money but is well worth it.
- Want a shortcut? Add all the marinade ingredients into a small blender OR a bowl with an immersion blender. Just leave yourself some fresh cilantro to finish with.
- I prefer larger shrimp for this recipe. Something around 20/25’s (the count of shrimp per pound which is generally noted on the bag).
Nutrition
Handy Tools
Want to take your cooking game to the next level? Here's a list of some of the tools I use every time I make this recipe that help make this a breeze!
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