Cook Time: 20-25 Minutes
Serves: 30 Shrimp
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds colossal or jumbo shrimp 13- 15 count per pound: peeled, deveined and butterflied
- 1 Tablespoon of olive oil
- 2 teaspoon old bay seasoning (or a medium heat cajun seasoning)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 pound lump crabmeat (you can use jumbo lump, claw, or lump crabmeat)
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup breadcrumbs (Italian, panko breadcrumbs, or buttery cracker crumbs)
- 3 tablespoons Chipotle sauce (or chipotles in adobo, blended)
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Squeeze of lemon juice, for garnish
- 1 teaspoon cilantro finely chopped, for garnish
Directions:
- Start by preparing your shrimp. We bought easy peel colossal shrimp. We chose to peel the shrimp ourselves so that we could keep the tips of the tail on. The tail-on shrimp helps to create a perfect handle when serving it as an appetizer.
- Using a paring knife, butterfly the shrimp by slicing down the back of the shrimp. We liked to leave the tip still connected to the butterfly shrimp to make it easier to stuff.
- In a large bowl, toss all the butterflied shrimp in a drizzle of olive oil and then with the garlic powder, old bay seasoning, black pepper, and sea salt, until all the shrimp is well coated in the seasoning.
- In a medium bowl, mix the egg, mayonnaise, and chipotle adobo sauce. Then fold in the lump crab meat until all combined. Finally, gently fold in the breadcrumbs into the crab meat mixture.
- Scoop a tablespoon of the crab meat filling in the shrimp. Fold the tail back on top.
- Align the shrimp around the cast iron pan or a large skillet that is oven safe until it is filled. Either use your largest pan, or make these in two batches.
- Bake the shrimp at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes until the shrimp is fully cooked and the crab filling is golden brown. The larger the shrimp the longer it will take.
- Meanwhile, melt butter in a saucepan with the minced garlic. You can also add an extra tablespoon or two of the chipotle sauce in the butter if you want to kick up the butter dip even more.
- Prior to serving, drizzle the crab stuffed shrimp with the melted butter, chopped cilantro, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. If you don’t like the taste of cilantro, you can garnish the shrimp with chopped fresh parsley
