If you like shrimp and you like bacon (who doesn’t?) then you are not going to want to miss this incredible recipe. In this guide we are going to take a nice piece of shrimp, wrap around some bacon and smoke it till it is perfect. Finally, we are going to dip it into an irresistible bourbon glaze. This is an incredible party piece to get people talking or just an amazing snack when you feel like something a bit more special than normal.
These bacon-wrapped shrimps are excellent as a starter or you can use them as a side item to a nice piece of meat. Shrimp can come in a variety of different ways. When purchasing shrimp make sure you get uncooked shrimp and also make sure you get the tail on. You are going to be using the tail as a handle when eating. Another thing to remember is the size of the shrimp. Personally, I think the bigger the shrimp the better when it comes to preparing.
Prepare the Shrimps
When making this recipe the first thing you need to do is peel the shrimps. I like to take my thumb and put it right in the middle and just go around the outside of the shrimp. This removes the outer skin but pay careful attention to make sure you are leaving the tail in place.
Preparing the shrimp is incredibly easy and should not take you more than a couple of minutes. With the shrimps prepared its time to think about the bacon. You can use any bacon that you like. When i make them i use half a piece of bacon for every one shrimp that you end up cooking. So, if you’re doing ten shrimp you will we need five whole pieces of bacon. Just wrap the bacon around the shrimps pretty tightly so that they don’t come loose.
Time For the Smoker
Before they go in the smoker you need to add some seasoning to them. I like to add a rub to them. For myself I like to use the same rub that I use when preparing pork. They always seem to have a nice balance of sugar and salt. If you want to add chili that is always a nice addition as well. What I also like about the rub is the color that it’s going to put on the shrimp’s as well. Arrange your shrimps in a pan and put them in the smoker at 350 degrees until the bacon is about 95% cooked through.
There is another little trick I want to show you. This is how to make a garlic butter that you are going to use to baste the shrimp’s with during that last 25% of the cooking process. You will need to melt off one stick of salted butter. Add three cloves of garlic to it and cook until the garlic is soft and the butter melted. After about 20 minutes you should see that the shrimps are about 75% of the way cooked through. You can tell this by the color on them and that the shrimp is starting to turn orange. It is at this point that you can go ahead and give them a coating of the garlic butter.
There is another step before we finish and that is to make the glaze. I like to use a cocktail sauce and some barbecue sauce and of course some bourbon. For the cocktail sauce I like a nice horseradish cocktail sauce. I like it to really give a big kick when i eat them. For the barbecue sauce, I recommend one that is nice and balanced. Nothing too sweet and nothing too spicy. Regarding the bourbon I think it is important what tastes good so don’t don’t use the cheap stuff. Get get some good stuff. I like to use Jim Beam single-barrel, its good value and I like the taste.
When making the glaze you are going too about one part cocktail sauce to four parts barbecue sauce. To this you should add about a half a part of bourbon. By the tine you have made this i would expect your shrimps to be completely finished.
Pull the shrimps off the smoker and give them one more coating of the garlic butter. You are ready to go and i am pretty sure you are going to love them!
Want to try making your own bacon for this recipe? Check out this great guide.
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