Easy Grilled Shrimp

Made with a sweet and spicy honey garlic marinade and grilled to perfection, this easy recipe for Grilled Shrimp produces outrageously delicious results.

Grilled Shrimp is a fast and flavorful easy recipe that you will find yourself making again and again! Whether enjoying as an appetizer, or paired with Grilled Vegetable Kabobs or Succotash for a simple dinner, you can't go wrong with these Grilled Shrimp Skewers!

Notes on Key Ingredients

• Shrimp: I recommend using peeled and deveined large or jumbo shrimp for this recipe. The larger size shrimp still cook insanely fast, but are much easier to skewer than smaller-sized shrimp and less prone to burning.
• Grilled Shrimp Marinade: The marinade is made with garlic, honey, lemon juice salt, paprika, and cayenne pepper. It adds a slightly sweet, slightly spicy, slightly acidic flavor to the shrimp that is perfectly balanced.
  • Garlic: Use minced jarred garlic, grated, or finely minced fresh garlic.
  • Lemon Juice: Be sure to use FRESH lemon juice, not jarred lemon juice. The flavor is simply not comparable.
  • Cayenne Pepper: A bit of cayenne pepper adds a nice little kick to the marinade and helps to balance out the sweetness of the honey. Feel free to omit the cayenne if you are sensitive to spicy foods.

How to Make Grilled Shrimp Skewers

• For the marinade, whisk together the lemon juice, honey, olive oil, garlic, spices, and salt in a large bowl. Use a large bowl so that you can add the shrimp right to the bowl rather than dirtying another dish.

• Remove ¼ cup from the marinade and set aside for brushing onto the shrimp while grilling. That is really going to finish this grilled shrimp with amazing flavor.
• Then add the shrimp to the remaining marinade and toss to coat.
• Cover the bowl and refrigerate to marinate the shrimp. Allow the shrimp to sit in the marinade for 15 minutes and up to 1 hour. Do not marinate the shrimp for longer than 60 minutes or the acid from the lemon juice will begin to cook the shrimp.
• Preheat a grill or grill pan to medium-high heat.
• While the grill is preheating, remove the shrimp from the marinade and thread them on the skewers.

• Grill shrimp until they are pink and opaque, about 2-3 minutes per side, brushing with reserved ¼ cup marinade before and after flipping the skewers.
• Once the shrimp are cooked, remove them from the grill and serve immediately.

How to Defrost Frozen Shrimp

If using frozen shrimp for this recipe, your shrimp will need to be fully thawed before adding to the marinade.

To thaw shrimp, you have two options.

• Traditional Method: Place a bag of frozen shrimp in a large bowl to catch any potential leaks, and place it in the refrigerator to thaw overnight.
• Fast Method: For faster thawing, take the shrimp out of its package and place them into a sealed storage bag. Submerge the bag of shrimp in a large bowl of cold water and let sit at room temperature for no longer than 15-20 minutes, allowing the shrimp to thaw.

Storing Leftover Shrimp

Grilled shrimp is best enjoyed the day it is prepared. However, if you have leftovers, allow the shrimp to cool, and store the cooled shrimp in an airtight container for up to 2 days in the refrigerator. Enjoy the leftover shrimp cold on a salad or in a wrap, or heat to enjoy in shrimp tacos or over cheese grits.

To reheat the leftover grilled shrimp, lightly heat them in a dry skillet over medium heat until just warm. Do NOT microwave, as that will cause the shrimp to become rubbery.

More Favorite Grilled Entrees

• Grilled Pork Tenderloin
• Grilled Burgers
• Grilled Chicken Kabobs
• Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
• BBQ Chicken Burger

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This grilled shrimp makes one of the fastest, most flavorful meals. I would love to hear how much you enjoy the sweet and spicy marinade on this Grilled Shrimp. Please leave a comment and review below.