These New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp are so buttery, spicy, and good. Fresh shrimp are baked in a sauce flavored with lots of spice, garlic, lemon juice, and green onion. Serve with crusty French bread for an out of this world appetizer or meal. An accompanying cold beer is a must.
My favorite restaurant in Charlotte, The Cajun Queen, has a too-die-for BBQ Shrimp Appetizer. This one is almost as good.
The most important thing about eating BBQ Shrimp is the sauce. You need lots of it. And lots of crusty French bread to mop it up with.
Also, make note that you will get your fingers very messy and greasy peeling the shrimp. It’s not pleasant, but it’s unavoidable.
For me the key to good New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp is lots of butter, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce. Ironically BBQ Shrimp has nothing to do with the barbecue. It is either cooked stove-top or in the oven. I prefer oven-baked BBQ Shrimp. The shrimp have a little longer to linger in the sauce and pick up the flavors.
It’s important to cook the shrimp in the shells. Yes, it’s messy to peel them, but the shells really help keep the shrimp tender and moist and they flavor the sauce.
Tips for making New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp
- This is a fairly salty dish. If you want it to be less salty, try using reduced-sodium Worcestershire sauce or a reduced-sodium Creole seasoning.
- You may want more heat. If so add a little extra cayenne pepper or serve it with Tabasco sauce.
- If you can get your hands on shrimp with the heads still on, use them for this recipe. The heads will add even more flavor to the sauce.
Watch the video below to see how easy it is to make New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp
New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 3 green onions, sliced
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 lemon, sliced
- 2 pounds medium to large fresh shrimp, unpeeled
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine all ingredients EXCEPT shrimp in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat. Taste mixture and add a little salt if needed.
- Place shrimp in a 9X13-inch baking dish.
- Pour butter mixture over shrimp.
- Bake 15 to 20 minutes, stirring once.
- Serve with French bread to mop up the liquid.
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Loved the recipe. It was delicious eventhough I had to use balsamic vinegar because I had no Worcestershire sauce. Loved it…
Born and raised in New Orleans by far the best barbecue shrimp recipe ever!
If you like Pascal’s Manale restaurant you will love this recipe. I cooked mine with the heads on. Make sure you have bread to dip in the sauce you’ll be sorry if you don’t.!!
Easy recipe to follow.I added 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary.This is New Orleans BBQ shrimp the way I remember eating years ago – from dive bar to upscale.
Thank you, Christin! This recipe was perfect and a keeper. I am from the south and been to NOLA so many times and there are NOLA style restaurants everywhere around me. Every restaurant makes this dish a little differently (so don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t quite right) and this is as good as any I have had. Both of my son-in-laws were born and raised in NOLA and they agree. It wasn’t spicy enough for them – but that means the rest of us could eat it just fine.(haha This recipe is easy to tweak to your taste preference. Please, people, don’t whine if your taste is slightly different. Haha Tomorrow I will make a pasta dish with the leftovers. Also, I agree with everyone else: good crusty French bread is a must.
Perfect light dinner. Very tasty but not overpowering.
Addictive!
Love this! Made it many times. I cut down on the lemon & butterfly my shrimp. Everybody loves it. Sopping sauce with french bread.
I absolutely loved this recipe! I did tweak it a bit with a bit more lemon and extra garlic cloves as well as Cajun spices but it was definitely on point. Best recipe I have tried online period ! Great job and thanks for sharing !
We made without creole seasoning or cayenne and it was still pleasing and yummy. Thumbs up.
I love New Orleans style BBQ shrimp. I had a recipe years ago and wanted to make it again. I first had this dish at Bozo’s in NOLA, but they made it with whole garlic cloves, not minced, and lots of them. For me, the perfect bite was bread dipped in the butter sauce, topped with a clove of garlic, topped with a piece of shrimp. Running out of garlic before shrimp is just sad, so I counted the shrimp ad used that many garlic cloves. I made this recipe, less the cayenne, plus about 3 heads of garlic, separated into cloves, and it took me back to that evening at Bozo’s. Awesome recipe!
Absolutely the best BBQ Shrimp and a fail safe, easy recipe with baking in the oven. A crowd favorite!
Look, this is yummy but it doesn’t taste anything like New Orleans BBQ shrimp which I’ve eaten at many restaurants in New Orleans.
What’s it like?
Made it and let me tell you was delicious. Problem is now family wants it every day. Thank you!!!
I have made this recipe last night and it blew all the others away with its depth of flavor. My wife normally is on the fence with this dish, but not this recipe! We had heads on shrimp and that will make a difference with the natural juices but-wow!
Delicious! Good French bread is a necessity to sop up the savory sauce.
Very tasty! Don’t deviate from this recipe unless you cannot have butter in your diet!
Delicious. Make this several times a month.
Everything came out just perfect!!
Not as flavorful as I was hoping. I live in New Orleans area so I’ve had some of the best.
This is the best bbq shrimp recipe ever
This recipe is awesome! Let the shrimp sit in the juices a little while after cooking. The flavor is amazing! And dip the bread in the sauce. Yummy! We like lemon with our shrimp so I cooked a couple additional lemons cut up with the shrimp. I will share this recipe with my family!
So freaking delicious!! This is by far my favorite version of this recipe! Thank you so much!