Cooked shrimp, sausage, and mushrooms in a spicy sauce in a pan stirred with a wooden spoon.

If you’re a barbecue shrimp fan, tune in to this Barbecue Shrimp Bowl recipe. It has all the flavor of the spicy, saucy New Orleans classic with a little lagniappe. That something extra!

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The Classic Barbecue Shrimp

The first time I tasted barbecue shrimp I thought they had mistakingly named it. There was no barbecue sauce taste to it. I then discovered their reason after reading this article The First ‘Barbecue Sauce’ Was for Shrimp, Not Ribs.

You see, that New Orleans dish was originally served in the mid-1950s before barbecue sauce became a household item in the 1970s. It got the name barbecue because of its reddish tint after cooking. You can read more about it in the article.

This Barbecue Shrimp Bowl has all the spicy taste you’d expect and more. I thought by adding smoked sausage and mushrooms it would stretch the dish into a more satisfying meal, and it most certainly has!

Enriching The Sauce

There is one important step that I need to share with you. It’s the browning of the shrimp peelings. That’s right, I said peelings! There are a lot of flavors trapped in those shrimp shells that come out after browning. So don’t throw the peelings away. Neat trick, huh?!

Shells from shrimp in a saucepan sautéed with butter, green onions, and other seasonings.

This is nothing new. That’s how seafood broth is made. You brown the shells of seafood then simmer them in water until voila! You have a tasty seafood broth to use in cooking, much like any other broth.

After the shells are browned, the other sauce ingredients are added. Like green onions, butter, garlic, Worchestershire and soy sauces, bay leaves, and a whole lemon after it’s squeezed in to simmer. This goes on until the juices thicken with flavor. Next, all is drained through a sieve reserving the sauce.

Lemons being squeezed into a saucepan of barbecue shrimp sauce.

Into the sauce goes the shrimp, mushrooms, browned sausage, and the Slap Ya Mama Cajun seasoning. And there you have it!

It’s easy and doesn’t take a lot of time. You can serve it with French bread to dip into the sauce or on top of grits if you prefer.

A bowl full of barbecue shrimp with mushrooms and smoked sausage.

Barbecue Shrimp Bowl

Print Recipe

A bowl food of sausage and mushrooms added to the classic spicy barbecue shrimp. It’s delicious served with a piece of French bread to sop up every bit of the flavorful sauce.

Total Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 4 servings 1x

Instructions

Heat oil in a large, heavy saucepan.

Brown sausage in oil on both sides, then remove sausage to a bowl, set aside.

Add shrimp peelings to the pan drippings and brown the shells, stirring until they turn pink and brown.

Add butter, green onions, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, bay leaves, and water to the shells, then cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the sauce before tossing the squeezed lemon halves in with the rest of the ingredients.

Bring sauce to a simmer on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes or until the sauce starts to thicken.

Drain the sauce ingredients through a sieve from the pan over a bowl, reserving the sauce and pouring it back into the pan. (The sauce should measure 1/3 to 1/2 cup, add a little water if needed to bring to this measurement.)

Heat the sauce to a simmer and add the shrimp, cooking for 1 minute on each side.

Add sausage, mushrooms, and seasoning to cook for 3 more minutes, often stirring until the shrimp are done, and the mushrooms start to shrink.

Serve hot with sauce in a bowl and a piece of French bread to sop up the drippings or serve over cooked grits.

Notes

If you only have peeled shrimp with no shells to brown, use 1 1/4 cups of chicken broth in place of the water. The chicken broth will add some flavor in place of the shrimp peels.

Shrimp tails are optional.