Pellet Smoker Cooking: New Orleans BBQ Shrimp

Yesterday started out cloudy but turned into a sunny afternoon, breezy & a comfortable 75 deg. I was looking forward to today’s cook, New Orleans style BBQ shrimp. Not very heart healthy but it sure do taste good! I found some wild caught Key West pink shrimp, large 15 to 20 count at Krogers. They were frozen & set it in fridge the night before to thaw. I had some crusty sourdough bread to have with it & a couple of Anaheim peppers I would stuff with a cheese mix. If you have never had this it’s not what most would think of as BBQ. It is usually just some shell on shrimp cooked in bacon, a lot of butter, onions, garlic, spices, hot sauce & sometimes course grained mustard, served with rice & bread to dip in the sauce. My take on this dish has some added tomato paste and garlic chives from my garden. I prepared the peppers first, mixed equal amounts of cottage cheese, shredded sharp cheddar, & a TBS of chipotle ranch dip to stuff them. Usually I would wrap these in bacon but decided not to with this dish. I lost about half the cheese mix when they were not quite done to suit me I tried to flip them over. With the bacon you can start by sealing the end & a toothpick before wrapping. Otherwise it is best to just leave the stem on, slice in half & fix boat style to keep all that good cheese.

You can just prepare this on top of the stove but I wanted to use the smoker & do the peppers & relax with a cold one while cooking. I got all my ingredients chopped & diced and started this on top of the stove. I used Penzey’s Cajun seasoning, on the mild side & omitted the hot sauce. Moved it to the smoker to simmer for 20 min at 325 deg. I should have put the peppers on then too. After 20 min. I added the shrimp & some more beer to cover & cooked another 25 min. at 300 deg. In my plated photo missing is a bowl of the sauce for dipping some sourdough bread in. I served this with Zatarains New Orleans style yellow rice. This is a little messy since you have to shell the shrimp so serve with a wet one. I would suggest using an oil tablecloth too, my wife had to wash her crocheted one after I was done!

Printable Shrimp Recipe

Shrimp, rice, & peppers