Chili-Lime Shrimp

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – August 18, 2010

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Recipe originally published by myRecipes daily e-zine “Dinner Tonight”.

There’s not much to this dish.  There are three basic ingredients: CHILI powder, LIME, and SHRIMP.  Shocking, right?  I went through a period where all I wanted was citrus in my food.  (It was very similar to my mushroom phase, which I’m still in, but not as intense as before).  I didn’t make any changes to this recipe, I just elaborated on the ingredients and equipment needed.

My finished product:

Picture published with recipe: © myRecipes.com

I was really proud of the way this dish turned out.  Of course, it wasn’t like I was making Baked Alaska, a soufflé or Coq au vin.  There’s only 6 ingredients and it’s mostly sauté and stir.  But cooking shrimp takes attention to detail or you could end up with little rubber pieces in sauce.

Assessment:

for more details about what my ratings mean, go to Gretchen’s Rating System

Mess:  EH – I almost gave this a worse rating because I hate cleaning and peeling shrimp… and in this recipe I had to do a pound and a half of it.  I didn’t think it was fair though and went with the “eh” rating instead.  Other than the shrimp, all you have to do is chop some green onions.

Start-to-Finish Time: MUCH LESS THAN AN HOUR – The longest task you’ll have in this recipe is peeling the shrimp.  Find some helpers and it won’t take you long at all, but even by yourself, it won’t take you too long if you buy deveined shrimp.

Prep Work: SLIGHT BLOOD LOSS – You have to chop up the green onions and clean and peel the shrimp.  If you buy deveined and peeled shrimp the day you cook, you will have barely any prep work to do.

Ease of Recipe: COOK IT IN MY SLEEP – There’s barely any work to this dish.  In fact, kids could probably do everything but the light chopping and the 5 to 6 minutes of cooking on a stove.

Overall:  SORRY HONEY, NO LEFTOVERS – We talked about this dish for a whole week after we ate it.  In fact, I went to have the leftovers a couple days later and they were gone.  I called my husband AT WORK demanding to know if he took the rest without telling me.  It was not one of my best days.

Recipe Information:

Time estimates are from the original publisher of the recipe, not the length of time it took me to create it.  Look for my comments below.  Nutritional Information is based on original recipe.  Any changes I make to reduce the caloric, fat, cholesterol or sodium content are not reflected in the Nutritional Information.

Prep Time: 4 minutes

Cooking Time: 6 minutes

Servings: 4

Nutritional Information (1 cup)

• Calories 186
• Total Fat 7g (Saturated Fat 4g)
• Iron 4.3g
• Cholesterol 267mg
• Calcium 67mg
• Sodium 644mg
• Total Carbohydrate 2g
• Fiber .5g
• Protein 27.5g

There is no way you can peel and devein a pound and a half of shrimp in 4 minutes.  No way at all.  Period.  Honestly, I think if you have 5 people helping you, there is no way you could get it done in 4 minutes.  You can get 4 servings out of this recipe, but it isn’t much shrimp.  If you have a serving with a salad and crusty bread, it should round out your meal.  I served mine on a bed of wheat linguine the second time around as well.  That definitely made it a hearty meal.

Then nutritional information really couldn’t be changed much, although you could probably cut down on the butter amount if you serve with pasta tossed in olive oil.  Of course, I followed the recipe, so I didn’t use this option at first, but you can try it if you want.

Ingredients:

Changes denoted by red text

Cooking spray

¾ cup chopped green onions, divided

1½ pounds peeled and deveined large shrimp

1 teaspoon chili powder

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)

2 tablespoons butter

½ teaspoon salt

Ingredient Notes:

Green Onions – to get ¾ cup, you should use 5-6 large green onions (which is usually a bunch)

Shrimp

• “Large” shrimp are considered to be 21 to 30 ct size shrimp.
• Buy frozen, deveined shrimp that you have to peel to save time, or to save even more time, visit the seafood counter of your grocery store the day of or the day before you are planning on cooking this dish and purchase deveined and peeled shrimp.

Equipment Needed:

Cutting board

Sharp knife

Juicer

Large skillet/Dutch oven

Large spoon

Equipment Notes:

Large Skillet / Dutch Oven – Make sure your skillet is large and deep or you won't be able to fit all the ingredients in it.  If you don’t have one that is deep, use your Dutch oven.

Directions:

(1)  Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray.

Be sure to remove the skillet AWAY FROM THE FLAME before using the cooking spray.  Trust me on this.

(2)  Add ½ cup onions; coat onions with cooking spray.  Cook 1 minute, stirring occasionally.

Again, remove the skillet AWAY FROM THE FLAME before using the cooking spray.

(3)  Add shrimp and chili powder; cook 4 minutes or until desired degree of doneness, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Pay attention to the shrimp while cooking.  Make when they turn a light pink and are opaque, they are done.

(4)  Add lime juice, butter, and salt, and stir until butter melts.

(5)  Sprinkle with ¼ cup onions.

This was a great dish and I enjoyed it with crusty bread, however, the second time I made it, I made some wheat linguine, tossed it with olive oil and served it with the shrimp on top of it.  Of course, I still had the crusty bread and salad, but the pasta seemed to make it more complete.