Jolts of grill flavor and spicy heat can enhance the delicately sweet and briny flavor of shrimp, but it’s easy to overdo it. Most recipes overcook the shrimp and finish them in a bath of mouth-numbing sauce; we wanted juicy shrimp with a smoky crust and chili flavor that was more than just superficial.
To achieve this, we sprinkled one side of the shrimp with sugar to promote browning and grilled this side for a few minutes. Then we flipped the skewers to finish gently cooking on the cooler side of the grill.
We created a flavorful marinade with pureed jalapenos, garlic, cumin, and cayenne to give our shrimp skewers a spicy, assertive kick, and then set some aside to double as a sauce. Butterflying the shrimp before marinating and grilling them opened up more shrimp flesh for the marinade and finishing sauce to flavor. We also packed the shrimp very tightly onto the skewers so they would cook more slowly.
You will need four 14-inch metal skewers for this recipe.
GRILLED JALAPEÑO AND LIME SHRIMP SKEWERS
Start to finish: 2 hours (20 minutes active)
Servings: 4
Marinade:
1-2 jalapeno chills, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon grated lime zest plus 5 tablespoons juice (3 limes)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
Shrimp:
1 1/2 pounds extra-large shrimp (21 to 25 per pound), peeled and deveined
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
Nutrition information per serving: 211 calories; 91 calories from fat; 10 g fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 214 mg cholesterol; 1110 mg sodium; 6 g carbohydrate; 0 g fiber; 1 g sugar; 24 g protein.
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