SPICY SOUTHERN SHRIMP

My good friends from Dallas insist on these spicy barbecued skewered shrimp every time they visit. These are on the spicy side, but by simply adjusting the amounts of the spicy ingredients you can control the HEAT!!!!!!

There are a lot of ingredients but worth all the work. I like to serve these with other skewered marinated meat and chicken. A skewer party - finger food - easy to eat..and my husband is the grill guy so I only have the prep work to do.

When shopping for the shrimp buy shrimp that

are at least a 21-25 count which means there are 21-25 shrimp per pound. I prefer buying fresh shrimp, but you can use frozen, thawed and deveined. This recipe would serve 8 people as a main course or about 12 people as an appetizer.

Ingredients

4 lbs fresh shrimp (no smaller than 21-25 count), deveined.

3 shallots finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 lemon sliced, reserving 3 tbl juice

2 sticks of butter

1 cup ketchup

1 cup olive oil

1 cup worcestershire

5 tbl light brown sugar

5 tbl chili powder

3 bay leaves

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp cayenne

2 tsp dried thyme

1 tbl, plus 2 tsp salt

Tabasco to taste

After you have taken the shell off the shrimp and cleaned and deveined them, put them in a 13 x 9 pan. Combine 3 tbl chili powder and 1 tbl salt in a bowl. Rub this mixture over all the shrimp, cover the pan and put it in the refrigerator while you make the marinade.

In a saucepan over medium high heat melt all the butter. Add the shallots and garlic and cook about 5minutes. Don't let the garlic burn. Add ketchup, oil, brown sugar, worcestershire, lemon with juice, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, cayenne, 2 tbl chili powder and 1 tsp salt. Cook covered for 20 minutes until it starts to thicken. Remove form the heat, uncover and let cool to room temperature. Take out the lemon slices and bay leaves. Taste and add Tabasco to your desired spiciness.

Take the shrimp out of the refrigerator and pour about 1-1/2 cups of the marinade over the shrimp. Stir so all the shrimp is soaking up the marinade. Cover the pan and refrigerate the shrimp for at least 1-1/2 hours. Cover the rest of the marinade so you can use it for a dip when the shrimp is done.

Skewer the shrimp about 3-4 on each skewer. Toss the marinade that was on the shrimp. Cook skewered shrimp on a grill for about 2-3 minutes a side until shrimp curl up and are pink all the way through. Heat the rest of the marinade that was saved.

Serve on a platter with a bowl of the marinade....a SUPERBOWL favorite!! So great to munch on.

ENJOY!