Garlic Butter Shrimp

If you are a fan of shrimp, then you need to give this garlic butter shrimp recipe a try. The combination of flavors from the shrimp, seafood rub, and garlic butter is amazing. It also is very quick to prepare so you can use it for a meal just about anytime.

Living up in Maine, seafood is always a popular choice for meals and it is reasonably priced. This shrimp recipe is one of my go-to meals that we have quite often. You can use the smoker or grill for this recipe. I always prefer the smoker just because I love the hint of smoke you get. We usually have this for a meal but the great thing about this recipe is that it could also be used for an appetizer for a get together.

Cooking Basics

The amount of prep work you will need to do for your shrimp will really depend on what you go with for shrimp and how much shell you want left on while cooking. If you get fresh shrimp, you may have to peel and devein the shrimp but if you get packaged shrimp, there may be no prep at all. Even if you go the packaged route, you should start with raw shrimp so that the flavor has a chance to cook into the meat. I usually remove all the shell when I am preparing this recipe because I like the shrimp to be more exposed to the butter mix and the smoke, but a lot of people choose to leave the tail on to have something to grab onto. I think recipes always taste better with fresh ingredients but I have also made this with recipe before with frozen raw shrimp for convenience and it still turned out great. I would recommend using jumbo sized shrimp for this recipe so they can be on the smoker / grill for the longest amount of time before being done. Once you have done the necessary prep work, the last step in preparing the seafood is to apply a seafood rub. I usually use Fish Monger from Fire and Smoke for this recipe. It is made up of a nice combinaiton of spices and also has a bit of a citrus flavor to it that goes really well with shrimp. If you have a favorite seafood rub, feel free to substitute with that for this recipe.

The next step will be to prepare your garlic butter. This is a fairly simple process. You will first need to melt your butter and then combine this with oregano, parsley, garlic, and lemon juice.

You will then proceed to lay out your seasoned shrimp in an aluminum pan and slowly pour the garlic butter over the top. Once this step is done, you are ready to fire up the pit.

Preheat your smoker or grill to 250 degrees. You will want to use indirect heat to cook if using a grill. Otherwise the shrimp will cook very quickly and not have as much chance to take on the flavor of the butter. If using a smoker, I suggest using some type of fruit wood. If you only have a grill but would still like to smoke the shrimp, you can buy yourself a smoke tube which can sit on your grill and produce the same effect as a smoker. This could be used with most of the recipes on my blog. I have included a link below if you are interested. Once the smoker / grill is up to temperature, throw the shrimp on and let them cook for about 30 minutes. If you have an instant read thermometer, you want the shrimp to reach an internal temp of 120 degrees. If you dont have one then you can just look at the shrimp. You want them to turn an orange color to know they are done.

Once the time is up, you can remove these and then you’re ready to eat.

Recipe