Marinated Grilled Shrimp is a perfect summertime recipe for cooking on the grill (or grill pan)! Jumbo shrimp, marinated in an Italian dressing, then threaded onto skewer sticks and grilled to perfection! A super easy recipe for a quick weeknight meal but yet fancy enough for your next get together!
August here in Miami. You know the drill, we ‘don’t turn on the oven’ if we don’t have to. These Marinated Grilled Shrimp are just the thing to whip up whether you’re using a real grill and can bear the outside heat OR you have a grill pan and simulate a grilled effect. It doesn’t get any simpler than making seafood on a hot summer day for a quick and easy weeknight meal. Did I mention these are also fancy enough to wow your guests at your next get together?
The American Heart Association recommends eating 2 servings of fish (particularly fatty fish) per week. A serving is listed as 3 ounces cooked, or about 3/4 cup of flaked fish. Fatty fish include: anchovies, herring, mackerel, black cod, salmon, sardines, bluefin tuna, whitefish, striped bass, and cobia are all high in omega-3 fatty acids. So you may be wondering why I’m writing up a shrimp recipe. Shrimp is often blamed for raising ‘cholesterol’, however, similar to the egg, shrimp have received all the blame over the years. Shrimp while they may have cholesterol doesn’t mean they’ll increase your blood cholesterol level. Rather it’s the saturated fat that increases one’s cholesterol and does the ‘sticking’ to the artery walls. This recipe uses heart healthy extra-virgin olive oil (and not butter!) and can be included for your seafood inclusion during the week! Let’s get to this simple and easy recipe!
Grilled Shrimp Ingredients
- Jumbo Shrimp: opt for jumbo shrimp since we’re threading them on skewers. You want them large and juicy! Jumbo shrimp will give you 21-25 shrimp per pound, which will give you 5-7 shrimp per 3 ounce serving. Jumbo shrimp will take about 10 minutes to grill. If using smaller shrimp, adjust the grill time and they can take as little as 2-3 minutes per side.
- Wooden Skewer Sticks: not an ingredient per se, but an important item in making these shrimp ‘on the grill’. Soak your wooden skewer sticks for at least 20 minutes. The damp skewers will get hot, however, they will not burn. Additionally, this also helps to avoid any wood breaking and/or splintering off into the food.
- Grilled Shrimp Marinade: This is just my Italian Salad Dressing repurposed as a marinade! A blend of extra-virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic powder, smidge of mayonnaise, dried rosemary, basil, and parsley, red pepper flakes, parmesan cheese, and black pepper. If you’d like to switch up and use fresh herbs, I listed the fresh amounts in the ingredient list. You will have just a tad extra of the dressing and can drizzle on after to use the remaining up!
How To Grill Shrimp
- Soak the skewer sticks in warm water for 20 minutes.
- Make the marinade. In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, all the spices, and parmesan cheese.
- Marinate the shrimp. Add the shrimp (deveined, peeled, and with the tail on!) and drizzle with the Italian salad dressing, leaving about 2 tablespoons as reserve. Let it marinate for 15 minutes, no more as then it will start to ‘cook’ from the acid.
- Thread onto skewers. You could grill without the skewer sticks, however, I’ve found that it’s actually easier to have the shrimp all on a stick cooking and flip as one versus having to flip them one by one.
- Cook the shrimp skewers on the grill. Add the skewers to the preheated grill (and/or grill pan), and let the shrimp cook until opaque, flipping halfway through. Depending on the size of your shrimp this can take just 2-3 minutes per side and up to 5 minutes per side (for those jumbo shrimp!)
- Enjoy! Garnish with lemon wedges, a sprinkle of parsley and/or the reserved dressing/marinade. Eat and enjoy!
A Few Notes on the Shrimp
Shrimp cook quickly! If you use smaller shrimp, they can get overcooked and overcooked shrimp can be rubbery. Aim for a large to jumbo shrimp size.
You definitely want to peel the shrimp as you’ll want the shrimp to absorb the marinade for the ultimate flavor! Look for shrimp that is peeled and deveined (if you can) with the tail. If you can’t find peeled and deveined shrimp with the tail, opt to peel on your own so you can leave the tail on.
Sorry, the answer is no. You need raw shrimp that you’ll be cooking on the grill. If you purchase already cooked shrimp and then cook again on the grill, you will definitely get rubbery shrimp.
Ideally you can leave the shrimp in the refrigerator overnight and they’ll thaw on their own. However, if you forget, simply cover the bag in a bowl of cold water the day of and they do defrost quite quickly
Other Shrimp Recipes
Print
Marinated Grilled Shrimp
Marinated Grilled Shrimp is a perfect summertime recipe for cooking on the grill (or grill pan)! Jumbo shrimp, marinated in an Italian dressing, then threaded onto skewer sticks and grilled to perfection! A super easy recipe for a quick weeknight meal but yet fancy enough for your next get together!
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined, tail on (15-18 count/pound)
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon mayonnaise
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley (or 1 tablespoon fresh)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary (or 1 tablespoon fresh)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil (or 1 tablespoon fresh)
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- Skewer Sticks
Instructions
- Soak the skewer sticks in warm water for 20 minutes.
- Make the marinade. In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, all the spices, and parmesan cheese.
- Marinate the shrimp. Add the shrimp (deveined, peeled, and with the tail on!) and drizzle with the Italian salad dressing, leaving about 2 tablespoons as reserve. Let it marinate for 15 minutes, no more as then it will start to ‘cook’ from the acid.
- Thread onto skewers. You could grill without the skewer sticks, however, I’ve found that it’s actually easier to have the shrimp all on a stick cooking and flip as one versus having to flip them one by one.
- Cook the shrimp skewers on the grill. Add the skewers to the preheated grill (and/or grill pan), and let the shrimp cook until opaque, flipping halfway through. Depending on the size of your shrimp this can take just 2-3 minutes per side and up to 5 minutes per side (for those jumbo shrimp!)
- Enjoy! Garnish with lemon wedges, a sprinkle of parsley and/or the reserved dressing/marinade. Eat and enjoy!
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 10
- Category: Dinner
1 thought on “Marinated Grilled Shrimp”
No grill no problem! Love the use of the salad dressing for a marinade! Adding this to my list to make!