062 Easy Grilled Shrimp | Grill Like A Mother Podcast

In this episode, Taryn teaches you the perfect way to grill shrimp! You’ll learn how to make juicy, flavorful shrimp that people are sure to gobble up. Taryn gives you some helpful tips, plus suggestions of delicious sides to make your grilled shrimp a complete family dinner.

promo image for Grill Like A Mother podcast episode 62: Easy Grilled Shrimp. A picture of shrimp on skewers is shown on a dark purple background with white text at the bottom showing the episode name and number.

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RECIPES MENTIONED

These are some of the recipes mentioned in the episode, all of which are on Hot Pan Kitchen.

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Transcript

Taryn Solie: Hello grillers, and thank you for tuning in today! I am your host, Taryn Solie, and I am here to give you some grilling inspiration.

I am really excited about today’s episode because it is one of the easiest and fastest grilling recipes on my website. I’m talking about grilled shrimp.

Shrimp is great to make when you want something quickly because they take about 5 minutes to be cooked all the way through – and that is not an exaggeration. Plus this recipe uses a really simple seasoning of a couple of spices with some salt and that’s it. On top of that, these shrimp pair well with so many different foods – tacos, fajitas, salads, I could go on.

But before we get into what to eat WITH the shrimp, let’s go over what you’ll need to MAKE them. Go ahead and grab:

16 ounces of large, raw, and thawed shrimp that are peeled and deveined – this is about 20 shrimp;
¾ teaspoons of Diamond Crystal kosher salt;
½ teaspoon of smoked paprika;
¼ teaspoon of garlic powder;
¼ teaspoon of ground cumin;
⅛ teaspoon of ground black pepper; and
2 teaspoons of a high heat oil – I like to use avocado oil.

You’ll be putting the shrimp onto skewers before putting them on the grill, otherwise they’d just fall through the grill grates. And I have a couple of notes about skewers.

First, if you can, invest in metal skewers. They are not that expensive – I’ve seen them as low as $5 – and they’re so much better than wood skewers. I’ve never had wood skewers that didn’t disintegrate on me when grilling and that makes it hard to handle the meat.
If you do only have wood skewers, which I know will be the case for some people, make sure to give them a good soak in water before you put your shrimp on them. I would say at least an hour, more if you have the time. This will help delay them burning up on the grill.
If you are purchasing metal skewers – look for ones that are flat instead of round. Flat skewers help the food stay put when cooking, whereas on round skewers the food tends to twirl around and become loose, which makes it hard to rotate the skewers for even cooking.
Also think about the length of the skewers and the length of your grill grates. If you have a small grill you may want shorter skewers.

I’ll provide a link on the show notes page to some metal skewer options if you’re in need of some.

A couple of other quick notes about this recipe:

First, I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt in this recipe. I use this brand as it’s less salty by weight than other salts, which leaves a little more room for error when you’re cooking. If you’re using a different type of salt, you’ll want to use less. I’ll put a resource on the show notes page for how to calculate that.
Next, make sure your spices aren’t stale – if they’ve been sitting in the back of your pantry for the last year they won’t be as flavorful. It might be time to invest in some new spices.
And last, you can either leave the tails on the shrimp for grilling or take them off. I like to remove them before I cook them so I can get straight to eating, but it’s fine to leave them on while grilling and remove them after the shrimp are cooked through.

Alright, let’s get to the instructions!

First you want to make the spice blend. Use measuring spoons to measure out the kosher salt, smoked paprika, garlic powder, ground cumin, and ground black pepper and place them all into a small bowl. Stir them together until they’re well combined – you can just use one of the measuring spoons for this. Set the bowl aside while you prep the shrimp.

Get out a large bowl and place the raw shrimp in it. Take some paper towels and dry off the shrimp as best you can, discarding the paper towels when done. Sprinkle the seasoning over the shrimp, then measure out the oil and add it the bowl as well. Use your hands to rub the shrimp with the seasonings and oil, coating them as evenly as you can.

Take out one skewer and gently push one shrimp onto it – I like to place the skewers through each shrimp twice, with the shrimp kind of folded in a C shape. Slide it down to the bottom of the skewer and repeat until the skewer is full – I usually fit about 5 shrimp on my 12 inch skewers.

A couple quick tips here:

One, don’t crowd the shrimp. You want them to have a little room to breath so they cook evenly.
And two, try and place similar sized shrimp on the same skewer. You will have some that are smaller and some that are larger, and the smaller ones will cook a little faster than the larger ones. If they’re all on the same skewer you can remove that skewer from the grill first so those smaller shrimp don’t overcook.

Go ahead and finish placing the shrimp on the skewers, then wash your hands!

Now it’s time to warm up the grill. Heat the grill to 350 degrees F and once it comes up to temperature, place the shrimp skewers on the grill grates. Close the lid and cook for 2 minutes, then flip the skewers – you’ll want to use oven mitts for this as the skewers will be hot. Close the lid again and cook for another 2 minutes.

At this point, check to see if the shrimp are done – they should be completely opaque and white-ish pink. Their internal temperature should be 145 degrees F. Some of the larger shrimp or shrimp that were in a cooler spot on your grill (like toward the front) may need an extra 2 to 3 minutes to cook through.

Once all the shrimp are done, remove them from the grill – again, making sure to wear oven mitts – and place them on a platter or plate for serving!

Earlier I mentioned some ways you could serve these shrimp – in tacos, with fajitas, in a salad – and I have recipes for all of those on my site. I particularly love the shrimp salad with corn, tomatoes, and avocado – it’s really crisp and fresh.

But you could also eat them plain with a side of veggies and a starch. If you’re wanting an all-grilled meal you could do the shrimp with grilled zucchini, onions, and corn on the cob. Or you could do them with grilled asparagus and potatoes. They are really versatile and just so delicious – my mouth is watering just thinking about them.

I’ll include a link to the full printable recipe for these grilled shrimp, as well as the other recipes I’ve mentioned, on the show notes page. To get to it you can either go to my main website at Hot Pan Kitchen dot com and click on podcast in the main menu, or you can click on the link provided in whatever podcast app you’re listening on.

If you enjoyed this recipe, consider subscribing to the show on your favorite podcast platform so you don’t miss out on future episodes! I’ve got so many more great grilling and smoking recipes you’re going to love.

That’s it for today, thank you so much for listening, and until next time, keep grilling like a mother.