This easy Smoked Shrimp recipe is the perfect main dish or delicious appetizer for any occasion. All you need is 4 ingredients, a pellet smoker, and 10 minutes to enjoy the best shrimp with a rich, smoky flavor.
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📋 About the Recipe
- Can be served as an appetizer or main dish. Smoked shrimp are incredibly versatile and are delicious as both an appetizer or a main course. Simply pair with your favorite dipping sauce or cocktail sauce. Serve as a main protein in shrimp tacos or with healthy side dishes like a simple green salad, Spicy Cucumber Salad, Instant Pot Asparagus, and Air Fryer Green Bean Fries.
- Great for beginners. Smoked shrimp has less room for error compared to grilled shrimp or pan-fried shrimp, reducing the chance of overcooking. If you're just learning how to cook fresh shrimp yourself, smoked shrimp is a great place to start.
- Fast prep and clean-up. Nothing's better than a dinner recipe that requires very little prep work and few dishes. This shrimp not only has amazing flavor, but requires just minutes of hands on time.
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Large shrimp: Buy larger shrimp so they don't fall through the grill grates. Make sure to pat them dry prior to cooking. This will help them crisp up instead of just steam.
- Oil: Brushing the shrimp with a little olive oil not only helps the salt and pepper to stick, but coats the exterior of the shrimp in a bit of fat, helping them retain their juiciness and preventing them from drying out.
- Salt and pepper: I keep the seasonings pretty simple so that the smoky flavor can really shine through. However, if you want a boost of flavor, feel free to add more of your favorite seasonings.
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
- Spice variations - You can add additional flavor by seasoning your shrimp with your favorite seasoning blend. Similar to my Smoked Corn on the Cob, you can season these shrimp with a BBQ dry rub, cajun seasoning, chili powder, garlic powder, Old Bay seasoning, or lemon pepper.
📓 Instructions
- Preheat and prep. Preheat your smoker to 225 degrees F, then peel and devein the shrimp, if needed.
- Pat the shrimp dry. Before seasoning and smoking, it is important to pat the deveined shrimp completely dry with clean paper towels. This allows the seasoning to adhere to the shrimp properly and distributes the flavors evenly. Dry shrimp is also easier to cook well and can help the exterior of the shrimp to sear and brown instead of just steam.
- Season. Add the shrimp to a medium-sized mixing bowl and drizzle with olive oil, salt, and black pepper. Toss to coat the shrimp evenly.
- Skewer the shrimp. Thread the large shrimp onto skewers so they don't fall through the smoker grates.
- Smoke the shrimp. Place shrimp skewers directly on the grill grates and smoke, covered, for 30 to 45 minutes or until the shrimp turn pink and opaque. Depending on the size of your shrimp, you may need to adjust the shrimp cook time.
❄️ How to Store
To store: Smoked shrimp is best enjoyed fresh, but leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Allow the shrimp to cool completely and place them in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
To freeze: You can freeze shrimp in a freezer-safe container up to 1 month for best taste and texture.
To reheat: Leftover shrimp can be reheated, but it must be done carefully (overcooking shrimp is easy to do when reheating!). To reheat, place the smoked shrimp in a hot skillet on the stove until warmed through, about 2 to 3 minutes.
🔍 Recipe FAQs
When smoking shrimp, it is best to use wood pellets with a mild, subtle blend that won't overpower the delicate flavor of the seafood.
Fruitwoods like apple, cherry, and peach all work very well. Pellet blends are also great because they are well balanced with bold and mild woods.
If you are looking for a quality pellet blend, I purchase my pellet blend from Costco. It is a good mix of cherry, hickory, and maple and works well for other smoking recipes such as my Smoked Baked Beans.
Shrimp is considered fully cooked and safe to eat once the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F. For best results, use an instant-read thermometer. This will allow you to quickly gauge the internal temperature and prevent overcooking the shrimp.
💭 One More Tip
If you are threading your smoked shrimp with wooden skewers, make sure to soak the skewers in water first! This helps prevent the skewers from burning or becoming excessively dry and brittle.
🍴 Related Recipes
Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!
Smoked Shrimp
Equipment
- pellet smoker
Ingredients
- 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined with the tail on
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your smoker to 225 degrees F.
- Pat shrimp dry with a paper towel.
- Add shrimp, oil, salt, and pepper to a medium bowl. Toss to coat the shrimp.
- Add shrimp to skewers, so they don’t fall through the grill grates.
- Place shrimp skewers on the pellet grill and smoke, covered, for 30 to 45 minutes or until the shrimp turn pink and opaque.
Notes
- Use larger shrimp. This will help prevent the shrimp from drying out while smoking.
- I kept the seasoning pretty simple, so you can really tasty the smoky flavor, but feel free to add any seasonings you like.
Nutrition
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Lanie says
I had the BGE smoking away so I added a skewer of shrimp using your recipe ( I did add a bit of Tajin seasoning, I would do this again, but leave out the kosher salt). This was really tasty served over Corn Salad w/Easy Lime Vinaigrette (from 'small town woman' blog). Perfect summer meal, thank you.