Easy Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Recipe [Party Appetizer] (2024)

Last updated March 15, 2024. Originally posted January 18, 2024 By Jyothi Rajesh 20 Comments

Bacon-wrapped shrimp is a quick appetizer you can make for a crowd. The sweet and spicy combination of flavors with crispy bacon, and juicy shrimp makes it a perfect finger food for any gathering.

Party perfect shrimp wrapped in bacon strips

These shrimps wrapped in bacon are easy to make, and taste delicious! A quick appetizer perfect for New Year’s Eve, Game day, or just about any party.

Simple ingredients, amazing taste!

Let’s talk about the prep work. Getting shrimp peeled and deveined from the store, reduced the prep work significantly. Then simply wrap bacon around it, rub spice mix, and grill.

Can you easily make for a large crowd, with help from family.

Bacon makes everything so good, that I could wrap anything with bacon and enjoy it. The saltiness from crispy bacon, juicy shrimp inside, smokiness from grilling in BBQ (can be grilled in oven) it gets caramelized to perfection with maple syrup/honey/brown sugar – enter food heaven!

You can easily change the flavors that work for your taste buds. (see below sections for advised flavor combinations that you can try).

Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need –

Ingredients notes:

1. Shrimp – fresh large-size shrimp are great for this recipe. It’s easy to handle large prawns to wrap with bacon and the meaty shrimp cooks beautifully and is great to present on the appetizer table. When you shop for shrimps, ask your fishmonger to remove the shell and devein (can leave the tail on for an aesthetic look). Getting shelled and deveined whip reduced prep work significantly. If you prefer to clean shrimp yourself, do it!
2. Bacon – use streak bacon strips. To avoid soggy, undercooked bacon inside cut bacon strips into half or to a length just enough to wrap around the shrimp once. While testing I noticed double or three layers of wrapping will result in soggy, undercooked strips of bacon inside, even though the outer layer of bacon looks crispy and golden.
3. Spice rub – A simple spice rub of cayenne pepper, salt, ground pepper, and maple syrup mixed in melted butter results in caramelized brown shrimp with bacon. Feel free to change the spices to your preference.
4. Toothpick – optional, highly recommended. It helps hold bacon wrap around the shrimp while grilling.
5. Scallion for garnish, optional.

Step-by-step instructions

Step 1: Add cayenne pepper, salt, ground black pepper, maple syrup to melted butter.

Step 2: Mix well.

Step 3: cut bacon strips into half.

Step 4: Take a strip of bacon, wrap it around the shrimp.

Step 5: Leave a small portion of the front and tail of the shrimp exposed. Note – double or three layers of wrapping will result in soggy, undercooked strips of bacon inside, even though the outer layer of bacon looks crispy and golden.

Step 6: To secure the bacon in its place, insert a toothpick to hold the bacon around the shrimp. You can skip this step if you feel the bacon is tightly wrapped and secured well to the shrimp.

Step 7: Arrange wrapped shrimps over a wire mesh placed over a baking tray.

Step 8: Liberally brush spice rub over the shrimp on both sides. Bake it oven at 400 F for about 12 minutes. Flip the shrimp once halfway through. At the time of flipping rub remaining spice rub.

See Also

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Note: if you don’t flip, shrimp may not turn brown and caramelized on both sides.

Serve it hot with your favorite dipping sauce. We love to serve this incredible shrimp appetizer with our favorite shrimp dripping sauce – bang bang sauce.

Variations

You can change the flavors by adding other spices and seasoning according to your liking. Below are some ideas to alter the flavors-

1. Chili-lime: One of the simplest and best flavors you can use on any seafood. Use lime zest, lime juice, and chili powder mixed with olive oil and rub on shrimp.
2. Chipotle: Basic but wonderful spice rub. Mix chipotle spice with melted butter and brown sugar and use it over shrimp.
3. Bourbon glaze: Mix bourbon, cracked black pepper, a pinch of salt, and light brown sugar. Mix and rub it over the shrimp.
4. Cajun brown sugar glaze: Mix brown sugar, Cajun, and seasoning in olive oil, and use it over shrimp.

Useful tips

1. Jumbo shrimp are great for this recipe. It’s easy to handle large prawns to wrap with bacon and the meaty shrimp cooks beautifully and is great to present on the appetizer table.
2. Use thin strips of streaky bacon. Cut bacon into half. If you use a long strip of bacon and wrap it in multiple fold-over shrimp, the outer layer of bacon will get cooked to crispy perfection, but the inner layer will remain undercooked and raw.
3. Highly recommend flipping shrimp during grilling. Shrimp on the bottom will not get caramelized and turn crispy.
4. There is nothing worse than overcooked rubbery shrimp. Don’t cook shrimp for long.
5. Use brown sugar in place of maple syrup to coat the shrimps for rich caramelization on the shrimps and bacon.
6. You will have to broil the wrapped shrimp a bit at the end to get the wrap crispier.

What to serve with bacon wrapped shrimp

It’s a great party appetizer that’s perfect game day party, birthday party, holiday gatherings or any time. Always serve is immediately hot with a terrific dipping sauce such as bang bang sauce, guacamole, mango salsa, avocado dip,

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