We went to visit our friends at the beach recently, and the husband of the couple was fishing. He didn’t catch anything worth keeping that day, so we did what any normal fish-less beach dwellers would do: we made this shrimp on the barbie recipe from the bait.

And by that, I mean, Pete made it.

And yes, this is leftover fish food. Our friend actually uses shrimp to catch fish. When they weren’t biting, he decided to wrap up the bait and serve it to his guests.

This recipe is definitely not fancy. It’s really quick and easy to whip up too.

Simple Shrimp On The Barbie Recipe

Simple Shrimp On The Barbie Ingredients:

• Shrimp
• Old Bay seasoning
• Raspberry vinaigrette dressing

How To Make Simple Shrimp On The Barbie:

Heat up your charcoal grill.

While that’s going on, clean your shrimp. You can devein them, peel them, pull off the heads and tails … or just leave them as is. Whatever you like.

Rinse the shrimp.

In a bowl, coat the shrimp with raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Then, dredge them in Old Bay seasoning. Toss to combine. 

Put a piece of foil on the grill, then put the shrimp on top of the foil.

Cook about two minutes on each side, until the shrimp is pink and cooked through.

What does Shrimp on the Barbie mean?

“Shrimp On The Barbie” is just a fun way of saying, “Shrimp on the barbeque.” “Shrimp On The Barbie” just sounds a lot catchier than grilled shrimp, or charcoal-grilled shrimp, which is obviously what these are.

The saying is actually taken from an Australian Tourism Commission commercial starring Paul Hogan. It ran from 1984 through to 1990.

The full line that Paul Hogan, the Australian actor who stared in Crocodile Dundee, says in the commercial is, “I’ll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you.”

Basically, come on down to Australia and we’ll just add some food on the grill. We say something similar all the time, basically, “We can throw another burger on the grill if you make it.”

Can you use frozen shrimp?

We used fresh shrimp in this simple shrimp on the barbie recipe. If you can only find frozen shrimp, you can use those. But, make sure that you thaw frozen shrimp before cooking them on the grill.

To thaw frozen shrimp, you have a couple options.

First, if you have time, you can take a bag of frozen shrimp from the freezer and leave it in the refrigerator overnight.

If you don’t have that kind of time, you can thaw the bag in cold water. Personally, we open the bag of frozen shrimp, pour cold water into the bag, and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can put the entire bag into a bowl of cold water and let it thaw that way.

You could also open the shrimp, put them in a colander in the sink, and leave the frozen shrimp to thaw.

What if you can’t find raspberry vinaigrette dressing?

You can substitute any citrus (like lemon or lime) for the raspberry vinaigrette. What’s good about the raspberry, though, is you’ll get good pop of color on the shrimp.

Yes, of course, shrimp get pink when you cook them through, but this enhances that.

What is Old Bay Seasoning?

Old Bay Seasoning is a seasoning blend made by McCormick & Company. It’s used mostly to season seafood, but you can use it for everything from seasoning chicken to rimming your margarita glasses.

McCormick’s website says Old Bay Seasoning contains celery salt (salt, celery seed), spices (including red pepper and black pepper), and paprika.

And. That’s. It.

McCormick doesn’t divulge the other ingredients and basically hides them under “spices.” I’ve heard there are up to 18 spices in Old Bay. So sure, you can try to make your own Homemade Old Bay Seasoning, but honestly, it’s just worth it to buy it.

Is it better to grill shrimp with the shell on or off?

You can grill shrimp with the shell on or you can peel the shrimp. Either way will cook the shrimp thoroughly.

If you’re marinating shrimp before you cook them, you’re able to infuse more flavor into the shrimp if you peel them before marinating.

But, you’ll get juicier shrimp with more of that salty shrimp taste if you grill them with the shells on. You’ll also have less of a chance of burning them because the shell will protect the shrimp.

So, honestly, either way is fine. It just depends on what way you want to go with your cooked shrimp.

How do you cook shrimp so it’s not tough?

One of the best tips I can give you for cooking shrimp is to remove the shrimp from the grill once the shrimp turns pink.

The shrimp will continue to cook from residual heat when you remove it, so when you’re ready to eat it, the shrimp will be at 120 degrees (the temperature you should cook shrimp until).

If you leave the shrimp on the grill after they’ve turned pink, and you allow the shrimp to reach 120 degrees on the grill, they’ll be really tough when you bite them and not too appetizing.

Can you use a propane grill?

For this recipe, we used a charcoal grill. It gives the recipe a little bit of a smokier flavor. But honestly, either grill is fine.

A propane grill is a lot easier to grill on because you just turn a dial and you’re ready to go. With charcoal, you have to babysit the coals and get them up to temperature so you can grill.

Food tastes great on a charcoal grill, but it will take longer from start to finish.

Want more grilled recipes?

If you’re making these super simple shrimp on the barbie, you should definitely grill a few sides to serve with them. Since you’re already standing at the grill anyway, tossing a few other things on will be a synch.

We recommend:

• Grilled Tomatoes
• Grilled French Fries
• Foil-Packet Grilled Vegetables
• Grilled Mushrooms
• Grilled Corn On The Cob