CrockPot Barbecued Shrimp Recipe

Day 246.

This recipe is taken directly from The Pioneer Woman. We had the best weekend, ever, and spent the night with our good friends at their new house. My friend, Nancy, says, "bring your crockpot and make something really good. I'm going to invite my sisters, and their boyfriends, too."

Nothing like a little pressure....

But you really can't go wrong with a PW recipe, and I had bookmarked her spicy barbecued shrimp eons ago, and was waiting for a good occasion to make it.

I know I've said it before, but the crockpot rocks. It totally and completely rocks. I love bringing food to people's houses, but it always becomes a bit awkward when you need to prepare and cook the food while you are there. Will the oven be available? How about a stove burner? You just don't come across that problem when visiting with a crockpot dish. There is always, always an available outlet, and you can easily stash the crockpot in the bathroom or garage if your host is low on counter space.

The Ingredients.
adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

--2 pounds fresh raw shell-on shrimp (ask the fish guy for shrimp in the 21-25 per pound size range)
--1 stick of butter (it's a lot, but it was supposed to be 2!)
--1/4 cup olive oil
--1/4 cup gluten free Worcestershire sauce
--1-2 T Tabasco sauce (I used 1 1/2)
--1 tsp ground black pepper
--1 tsp kosher salt
--3 lemons, juiced
--1 T chopped fresh basil

The Directions.

You'll need a 5 to 6 quart crockpot for this meal.
Rinse the shrimp, but don't soak them too much. Dump them into the crockpot.

Add the stick of butter, olive oil, and Worcestershire sauce. Measure out the tobasco, salt and pepper, and throw that in there, too. Juice the lemons, and add that, and top with the freshly chopped basil. Toss just a bit with a big spoon to mingle the flavors. The butter will be in a big stick, but that's okay.

If you are wearing a white shirt, it will get sprinkled with oily Worcestershire spots. You will feel sad, but a good friend will hand you a raspberry martini so you'll stop caring.

Cover and cook on high for about 2 hours, checking every 30 minutes. You'll know the shrimp is done when it has turned pink, and can be peeled easily. I turned ours off at exactly 2 hours. It was perfect.

Serve with bread to sop up the juice. We did do that. My little one who has celiac wouldn't touch a shrimp if it was covered in chocolate, so I wasn't terribly worried about gluten goobers. If you are GF, I'd make a fresh loaf of your favorite bread to go along with this. The juice is amazing.

The Verdict.

This was so good, I think I only got to eat one or two. We had 8 grown-ups and at least 2 kids who gobbled the shrimp. This is a very fun get-together dish, something that I would definitely serve again. I was thrilled with the way the shrimp cooked in the crockpot--they were perfect.