Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

Firing up the grill is a happy Summertime ritual and one way I love to use my grill is with this Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp recipe. Savory bacon and seafood flavors are grilled to perfection. The shrimp are kissed with honey, lime, and a dash of spice to make this a great skewer. This recipe is great for a weeknight meal, for your next cookout, or just because you want a bacon fix. Give our Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp skewer a try today. 

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Summary

Grilling shrimp is super fast and this is an easy recipe, but a bit of preparation makes these delicious. First, start with a brine and let the shrimp soak in a bit of sugar and salt. If using wood skewers, this is the time to allow them to soak in some water, as well. 

After the brine, give the shrimp a quick dip in a honey, lime, and spice mixture. This helps balance all of the savory flavors in the shrimp and bacon combination. Then, wrap each piece of shrimp in half a slice of bacon. Set the skewer through the bacon and shrimp.

Once all of the shrimp is on a skewer, put it on a well-oiled grill that has been preheated to 400° Fahrenheit. A quick four minutes on each side and make sure the meats are cooked to safe cooking temperature. Then, Enjoy.

There is a little bit of prep work with this recipe, but the recipe is cooked in under 10 minutes and can be on your plate lickety split. 

Choosing Shrimp For This Recipe

For this recipe, I am using raw large shrimp that have been deveined and still have the tail on. Specifically, I am using the Kirkland Signature frozen shrimp, so if you are a Costco shopper, you should be find the exact shrimp I used.

You might be in a place where you can find great quality seafood and if you are, I would suggest going there. While the grill and bacon may make this recipe a little forgiving on what shrimp you use, the ingredients can impact final flavor.  No matter where you get your shrimp, make sure to appropriately clean them.

I am also a firm believer in using what you have… so if you have some shrimp in your freezer you need to use, use that! There is one exception. This recipe will not work great for precooked shrimp. This does require a bit of time on the grill to ensure that the bacon is cooked and pre-cooked shrimp is precooked. So, you are likely to end up with overdone shrimp if you fully cook the bacon, which you always want to do.

Choosing Bacon For This Recipe

I use Hormel Original Black Label bacon for this recipe. Any good quality, regular-cut bacon should work for our recipe. A few notes if you choose other cuts of bacon.

Thick Cut Bacon

I did not test this recipe with thick cut bacon. I think there is some great potential for this, however, I would have a little concern about the bacon being done. If you use thick cut bacon, make sure it is cooked to safe temperatures.

Cheap Bacon

We did have some cheaper bacon around the house that used to experiment with this recipe. It did not work so well. Because of these lesser quality bacon slices, there just wasn’t that much to skewer through. 

When I use a good quality slice of bacon, it wraps the bacon well and then also makes it easier to use the skewers.

Why Brine The Shrimp?

Brining the shrimp in a salt and sugar mixture helps ensure that the seafood remains tender while cooking. The sugar helps ensure that the outside of the shrimp cooks a bit better on our grill.  

Honey Lime Quick Glaze

After the shrimp is brined, I add it to a mixture that contains honey, lime juice, paprika, and ground cayenne pepper. This helps to provide balance to the savory flavor bombs that are shrimp and bacon. 

When working on this recipe, I did like it without the glaze, but I thought it needed a bit of balance. To add balance, I decided to use this glaze that has sweet, citrus, and spicy notes. The shrimp only spends a few minutes in this mixture, but it is all it needs.

Honey adds some sweet. Lime adds some citrus, and finally, the cayenne and paprika add just a touch of heat. None of these flavors are bold in the final skewers, but help make it a well-rounded dish.

Wrapping Shrimp With Bacon

Use ½ of a slice of bacon for each shrimp. It is best you lay the bacon down and place the shrimp with the head side just above one end. The goal is to cradle the shrimp in the bacon so that each end of the bacon strip just overlaps itself at the head.

Then, we can skewer both ends of the bacon, the head, and then through the tail. This provides a secure skewer for cooking and almost all of the bacon will hit the direct heat of the grill.

Preheat Your Grill

An important step in this is making sure your grill grates are preheated to 400° Fahrenheit. This cook is a bit of a dance, as we need to make sure that our bacon is cooked to safe temperatures and we want to make sure our shrimp is not overdone. The direct heat of the grill grates at the temperature I indicate helps make that happen. Also, make sure to check your meat temperatures to ensure doneness. 

Grill Cook Times

A quick four minutes on each side should do the trick. Make sure to preheat that grill to 400° Fahrenheit and use a meat thermometer to perform temperature checks and you should be good to go. The bacon should be 145° Fahrenheit and the shrimp should be cooked until the flesh is pearly or white, and opaque.

Flipping Your Skewers

One risk with this recipe is that your bacon sticks to the grates. There are a few things you can do to help ensure this doesn’t happen. First, make sure your grill is clean. Second, make sure your grill grates well oiled before preheating. Finally, I mostly use my tongs for this recipe, but if it feels like the bacon is sticking, a spatula can come in handy to gently release the bacon from your grill.

Ideas to Serve This Grilled Shrimp Recipe With

Two things I love about this recipe is that it is quick to make and it is a grilled recipe. While you can eat it anywhere, it is a great recipe to sit outside and enjoy the weather. I tend to think of other recipes that are quick to make and are enjoyed outside when I think about this one.

We picture this with a slice of watermelon and a macaroni salad, which is a great combination. Maybe you could our Rancharoni Macaroni recipe a try or an easy coleslaw recipe might be perfect. If you have some people in your group that don’t like seafood, we have a delicious grilled chicken shish kabob that might be great for them.

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Cooking Tips

• The brining is optional, but I really recommend it.
• Buy good quality bacon for this recipe.
• If using wood skewers, make sure to soak them for a bit.
• Preheat your grill to 400° Fahrenheit before cooking.
• Use a Meat Thermometer to make sure everything is at safe temperatures

Products Used In This Recipe

• Genesis Weber
• Meat Thermometer
• Wood Skewers
• Grilling tongs and spatula

Did you Try This Recipe?

If you tried my Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp recipe, awesome! I am so happy that you gave it a try. If you liked it, it would be very helpful if you rated it in the comments area below and let me know how it went. I always appreciate hearing from you and when you can share the recipe on Pinterest or Facebook, it can help me out as well. Most of all, I appreciate you taking the time to visit Ramshackle Pantry and giving my recipes a try!

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