It doesn’t happen too often around here, but every once and a while, we can find head-on shrimp. If we see them, we buy them – it is the perfect “Adam and Joanne” meal, quick, easy and a little messy. It just so happened that right next to the seafood counter, there were wine bottles for sale — our explanation for the image below.
A little bit about head-on shrimp – we love it, we bake the shrimp with the head still intact, then eat the shrimp by peeling the shell, ripping the head off and sucking out any juices from the head (it’s delicious). If that really isn’t something you’re in to, just buy shrimp without the head and follow the recipe below, it will still be tasty. For this, we did not devein the shrimp, but we are cool with that, if you want to, add in the step.
All you need for this is melted butter (you could use olive oil, too), soy sauce and a fresh chili paste. You can usually find a small jar of it in the international aisle of your grocery store and larger jars (like ours) in an Asian or international store. Look for a jar with “Sambal” on the label — there are lots of varieties, but any that we have tried or found have been great.
How to make Baked Chili Shrimp
Start by adding melted butter to the shrimp.
Then, soy sauce (we always use low-sodium soy sauce, but that is just our preference).
And finally, some fresh chili paste — we love this stuff, we use it on almost everything.
Toss and spread on to one layer on a baking sheet. When we did this, our shrimp were cooler than the butter, so the butter solidified — don’t worry if this happens to you, it will melt once you place the shrimp into the oven.
Bake in a 450°F oven until the shrimp are cooked through, stirring occasionally, 8 – 10 minutes.
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fresh chili paste (look for Sambal on the label)
- 1 pound uncooked large shrimp
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Combine melted butter, soy sauce and chili paste in a large bowl.
- Add shrimp and toss until well coated.
- Bake until shrimp are cooked through, stirring occasionally, 8-10 minutes.
About the Author
Adam
I'm Adam Gallagher and alongside my wife, Joanne, I photograph and share favorite recipes from our kitchen. Sharing our recipes began as a hobby, turned into a dream and now has become our business. I just love that.
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I am always on the lookout for head-on shrimp, too but they are definitely hard to come by. This look like such an easy and flavorful dish. Lovely!
Your shrimp are gorgeous and the recipe is blissfully simple! But yeah, while me and my uptight self would be ok with the heads, I’d have to do something about the vein.
I seriously might die right now.
Oh no, please don’t Bev! We will just send you some, how about that?
Joanne
Nice post. The shrimps look so delicious. Would you mind sending me some cause I know i can’t bake my shrimps this good
It’s not fair to make me drool over shrimp at 8:35 in the morning. Your lead photo is stunning.
Thanks, Wendi — Sorry for the whole drooling thing! Although, we won’t judge if you wanted to eat shrimp so early in the morning, we would!
-Joanne
Why do you cook the shrimp at such a high temperture
The high temp is so the shrimp cook quickly. Also, roasting the shrimp at this temperature actually helps the shrimp caramelize slightly as well as intensify its flavors. You could certainly bake the shrimp at a lower temperature, say 350, but from what we have tasted, the flavors just are not as intense.
Have you tried cooking in sous vide at 122,
Then coating the shells with your marinade, that should help with the millaird reaction also.
Then fry at very high temperture.
you should end up with softer more delicate and complex texture to the flesh.
Crispier and by far mroe flavoursome shell.
We have sous-vied chicken, steak and veggies – not shrimp. A bit too much work for our style, but thank you so much for sharing, we’re sure it’s delish!
love me some head-on shrimp – when we lived in New Orleans, they were readily available and used to make hubby’s fav New Orleans style BBQ Shrimp (no bbq sauce) all the time. For some reason, here on the Gulf coast of FL they are much hardier to come by. Will def try this as soon as I can.