This smoked shrimp recipe is an easy appetizer or main dish. You can smoke them in a smoker or with indirect heat on a grill.
Serve them with a simple herb garlic sauce or your favorite seafood dipping sauce.
Smoked shrimp are an easy appetizer or main dish to make for a quick dinner or to feed a crowd. And they can be made with thawed frozen or fresh shrimp.
The possibilities are endless for dipping sauces — cocktail sauce, honey mustard, even guacamole — but today I served them simply tossed with a garlic herb butter (made with grass-fed ghee). They were perfect with a quick summer tomato and cucumber salad.
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How long to smoke shrimp
Think smoking shrimp is complicated or time-consuming? It's not---it's actually one of the quickest and easiest foods to smoke once you learn how to do it.
The key to smoking shrimp is not to overcook them. I can't emphasize this enough. Unlike a thick cut of meat, shrimp smoke quickly and will be done in 20 minutes or so, depending on the heat of your smoker and the size of your shrimp.
You definitely need to keep an eye on them. I start checking them at 10 minutes and keep checking them until they are just cooked through. Jumbo shrimps will take longer than small or medium sized ones.
How to smoke them
I've smoked shrimp both peeled and unpeeled, and they are good both ways. If you have shell-on shrimp, go ahead and throw them on the smoker that way and serve them as "peel and eat" shrimp with the garlic butter sauce for dipping.
Either way, toss them with a little olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper before putting them on the smoker. This helps keep them from drying out while they smoke. I like to use a garlic-infused olive oil for a little extra flavor.
And serve them with this simple herb garlic sauce, your favorite dipping sauce or a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and melted butter or ghee.
More easy seafood recipes
- 15 Easy Keto Shrimp Recipes
- Garlic Roasted Shrimp with Zucchini Noodles
- Spicy Shrimp and Chorizo Soup
- Shrimp and Arugula Salad
- Easy Roasted Shrimp Cocktail
- Chimichurri Grilled Shrimp
- Easy Baked Salmon with Roasted Asparagus
Easy Smoked Shrimp Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound shrimp deveined
- 1 tablespoon garlic infused olive oil
- sea salt to taste
- fresh ground pepper to taste
- ¼ cup grass-fed ghee melted
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil and/or parsley minced
Instructions
- Preheat smoker or grill on low heat and add wood chips according to manufacturer's instructions.
- Toss shrimp with olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Lay shrimp on smoker rack in a single layer and close the lid. Check shrimp after 10 minutes and keep a close eye on them. Smoke shrimp until just cooked through, about 15-20 minutes total.
- While shrimp are smoking, stir together ghee or butter, garlic, herbs and salt to taste in a small bowl. Drizzle over cooked shrimp and toss to coat. Serve remaining garlic herb butter mixture as a dipping sauce.
Sabrina B.
great reminder, I delve into shrimp every once in a long while, usually because of the prep, but love the idea of smoking shrimp, nice flavor addition, thank you!
madison
Amazing! My all time favorite! I like your blog because the recipes that you post is very easy to prepare. I think the only trick to this dish is not to overcook them.
Phil
What temperature?
Lisa
Use a low temperature (in the 200 to 250 range).
Elana
Hi Lisa We have some shrimp in the shell not deveined. do you smoke them in shell vein in and pull vein out after it’s cooked or do you have to devein before you cook them
Lisa
Hi Elana, I would devein them before cooking.