Eating on a Budget: New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp

When it comes to eating on a budget, it doesn’t mean you have to banish expensive items like shrimp from your dinner table.  Sale or not, you can generally find the medium-sized raw shrimp at a relatively good price.  Use it correctly to make a filling enough meal and a little bit goes a long way.  At our house, neither of the kids like shrimp (at least yet anyway), so a little bit goes even further. As soon as I saw the picture for this New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp in a recent holiday appetizers cooking magazine, I ripped it right out and declared it dinner.

Anything with a buttery sauce that is perfect for mopping up with bread deserves to be made… at least once.  Go on and make Paula Deen proud.

I made this on a night when I knew we had leftovers in the fridge, that way I could eat something I knew the kids wouldn’t want, but they’d be set.  I halved the recipe, since it was just for me, and still have some leftover.  The shrimp cost me $3.11 for a little more than half a pound, and the rest of the ingredients I already had on hand.  Honestly, with a buttery wine sauce with shrimp and a hunk of bread alongside it, you really can’t go wrong, can you?  Dig in!

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New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp
Recipe courtesy of Appetizers magazine

1 pound fresh or frozen large shrimp in shells (I took shells off)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup butter
12 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
2 bay leaves
4 springs fresh thyme
3 tablespoons dry sherry (I used white wine)
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
lemon wedges
crusty French bread slices

Thaw shrimp if frozen.  Peel and devein shrimp, if desired, leaving tails intact.  Rinse shrimp, pat dry with paper towels.  In a large skillet, combine oil, butter, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme.  Cook and stir over medium heat until butter is melted.  In a medium bowl, combine sherry, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, and kosher salt.  Add shrimp.  Toss to combine.  Add shrimp mixture to the hot skillet.  Cook and stir shrimp for 3-5 minutes or until shrimp are opaque.

To serve, transfer shrimp mixture to a serving dish.  Serve with lemon wedges and French baguette slices.

Makes 8 appetizer servings.