Grilled Garlic Butter Shrimp

This is the best way to make garlicky shrimp on the grill! You get perfectly cooked shrimp, so much garlic flavor, and dripping in butter too.

Shrimp is very quick-cooking—so it’s a busy cook’s best friend. For that reason, I almost always have some on hand. I recommend that you buy frozen shrimp because they’re frozen right on the boat when they’re caught, making it about as “fresh” as you can get. Shrimp that you see at the store that isn’t frozen was usually thawed by the staff there, and so, it will end up fresher if you just thaw it yourself right before cooking. Note that I often cook shrimp straight from frozen—but for this grilling recipe, because the shrimp are skewered, you’ll need to thaw the shrimp first, here’s how.

Shrimp Size

When it comes to grilling shrimp, you really want bigger ones. My favorites, and the ones used in the below recipe, are labelled large, extra large, or jumbo shrimp. That will be 20-40 count (that means how many there are per pound). These ones are great on skewers.

Anything smaller than 40 count is too fussy to get on the skewer, and without the skewer, they’ll fall through the grill grates. But, you can cook them on a wooden plank, grill pan, or grill sheet.

You can grill bigger than the 20 count jumbo shrimp, but then you don’t even need to skewer them, and they take longer than the recipe below. In my experience, they can get a bit tough on the outside by the time the middle is fully-cooked, so it’s often best to start them over medium-high heat and then move them to indirect heat to finish.

Peeled or Not, Tail or Not

If you know how to peel and devein shrimp yourself, then you can get them with the peel and vein. That can be a lot of work though, so I prefer to get them already peeled, or easy-peel.

If they’re already peeled, you can get them with or without the tail on.

If they’re easy-peel, you’ll want to remove the peel before cooking. When you’re doing that, you can also remove the tail or leave it on. Shrimp are a little bit messier to eat with the tail on, but that tail serves as a great handle for dipping, so the choice is up to you!

Garlic Butter During and After Cooking

There’s only one sauce here, and it’s made with—you guessed it—garlic and butter. Some gets brushed onto the shrimp before cooking, so there’s a flavorful sauce on it while it cooks, and the rest gets served at the table for dipping or drizzling.

Caution: Because you’ll be going into some sauce with your brush, which will then touch some uncooked shrimp, it is very important that you separate the sauce into two containers after you make it. One container will only be used for dipping the fully-cooked shrimp while the other will only be used for brushing on the shrimp before the cook.

As with any good garlic butter recipe, like this one, it’s important to let the butter and garlic hang out together for a bit after they’re combined. This allows the garlic to infuse into the butter, becoming not just butter with garlic—but garlic-flavored butter. I like to add some red pepper flakes for a little warmth, and that warmth infuses into the butter, too. You could also add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Another key is to chop the garlic pretty finely, because smaller pieces will more easily release their flavor. I like a garlic press or even a grater for that, but a fine chop with a knife will work as well.

Do I Need To Soak The Skewers?

If you’re using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes prior to grilling so that they don’t burn on the grill. You can also use metal skewers, which are great as they can be reused and don’t need to be soaked. But they will be quite hot, so be careful when serving and eating.

Temperature For Grilling Shrimp

Shrimp cook quickly! So if you grill them on a very hot grill, they can start to get tough after just a moment. Alternatively, if they’re cooked on a low-temperature grill, they will cook but won’t get any bit of charring on them. The ideal is to cook them over a medium-hot grill. They get a bit of smoky charring on the outside but aren’t instantly cooked.

My preference to use the large-to-jumbo shrimp is because they seem to get just a touch of char in the time it takes them to cook through.

The ideal temperature for cooking large shrimp on the grill is 350-400F. If your grill doesn’t have a temperature gauge, get your grill heated so that you think it is about correct. Then put the palms of your hands face downwards and 5 inches above the grill grate. If you feel uncomfortable enough to pull your hands away in 5-7 seconds, the temperature is probably correct.

This post originally appeared in August 2020 and was revised and republished in May 2024.