These bacon-wrapped shrimp start with frozen shrimp. The frozen shrimp take a little bit longer to cook, allowing the bacon time to crisp up. You get crispy bacon and juicy shrimp!
Bacon-wrapped shrimp are one of my all-time favorite appetizers, perfect for game day, New Years, or any day you’re craving them! The shrimp makes them special. The bacon makes them insanely delicious. And, the ease with which they can be made makes them a total winner.
These bacon wrapped shrimp are the easiest ever because they use frozen shrimp, and you don’t even have to defrost them first. In fact, it’s best if you don’t defrost them first. The reason is that the bacon tends to need more time to get crisp than the shrimp need to cook. By using frozen shrimp, the shrimp take that little bit longer to get cooked fully through, giving the bacon more time to crisp up. Pretty smart, right?
What Kind Of Shrimp Works Best?
For this recipe, you’re going to use frozen shrimp, as mentioned above. Don’t defrost them before you broil them.
I go with a large shrimp. That’s the ones that are 31-35 shrimp per pound. You’ll want to choose the ones that are already peeled and deveined but still have the tail on. That’s because the tail makes the perfect handle for this finger-food.
What Kind of Bacon To Wrap Shrimp?
I like to use a bacon that is on the thinner side in terms of thickness for this dish. Medium thickness is alright too. The issue is that if it’s too thick, it won’t crisp quickly enough and will be a bit rubbery near the shrimp. That’s not ideal. So choose a bacon that doesn’t say “extra thick” or “thick cut” on the package, and have a look to make sure that the slices don’t seem too thick.
While I do often get center-cut bacon for breakfast, I just get the regular length bacon strips for this recipe. The reason is that I cut the strips of bacon in half and use one half per shrimp. The full length strips are exactly the right length for cutting in half and then winding around shrimp.
Do I Need To Use Toothpicks?
In my experience, it’s not necessary. I have found the frozen shrimp much easier to wrap because they are still firm. Plus, the cold seems to help hold the piece of bacon onto the shrimp.
If you’d like a visual for wrapping them, take a look at this post on TheCookful. It’s my air fryer version, so you can get the timing to do it that way as well. It’s quicker, but you can’t do as many at once.
What To Serve With Bacon Wrapped Shrimp
I like to serve these little bites with a simple dipping sauce. In fact, my favorite is so simple that it comes from a bottle: Sweet Chili Sauce! Anything with a bit of sweetness and a bit of tang will work with the flavor though.
And actually, I think you’ll love this recipe so much that you’ll start making it as a dinner entree as well. The shrimp are amazing on a salad or alongside rice. Perfect for a special date night or when you want something a little more fun on a weeknight.
Enjoy! -Christine xo
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Easiest Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Appetizers
- Method: Broiling
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
These bacon-wrapped shrimp start with frozen shrimp. The frozen shrimp take a little bit longer to cook, allowing the bacon time to crisp up. You get crispy bacon and juicy shrimp!
Ingredients
- Cooking spray or oil
- 12 slices of bacon
- 24 large frozen shrimp, peeled, deveined, with tail
- Sweet chili sauce (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the broiler and arrange the rack in the oven to be about 6 inches away from the heat elements.
- Put an oven-safe baking rack over a large heavy-duty rimmed pan.*
- Spray the baking rack with cooking spray.
- Cut a slice of bacon in half such that it is half as long as it was when it started. Repeat with remaining bacon slices. I use kitchen shears and cut the entire package of bacon in half at once.
- Take the shrimp out of the freezer.
- Grab a hold of a still-frozen shrimp. Wind a halved bacon slice around it, leaving the tail uncovered.
- Place the shrimp on the prepared baking rack.
- Repeat by wrapping each shrimp in a bacon half, arranging them in a single layer on the prepared pan.
- Put the pan of bacon-wrapped shrimp on the oven rack under the broiler. Cook for 4-8 minutes, or until the tops look like they’re crisping up. Use tongs to flip over all of hte bacon-wrapped shrimp, being careful to not unwind any loose bacon.
- Continue to cook until the bacon all around the shrimp is cooked and looking a bit crisp in places, about 4-8 more minutes. If any bits of bacon start to seem burnt in spots, flip those one over.
- Remove shrimp from oven and serve immediately with sweet chili as a dipping sauce, if using.
Notes
*You need to use a baking rack so that the shrimp aren’t sitting in bacon grease as they cook. It also helps to get the bacon crispy if the air is circulating around them. Using a rimmed baking sheet is also really necessary so that the bacon grease doesn’t run off the pan and into your oven. Using a heavy duty pan helps also because the broiler is high heat and you want something that can withstand that. You can use a broiling pan. I find it best to use the bottom deep broiling pan with a baking rack set on top of it.
Fred Kreider says
You don’t state if you use frozen cooked shrimp or frozen raw shrimp?
Christine Pittman says
Frozen raw shrimp for this. Enjoy, Fred!