Steakhouse Barbecue Shrimp - Orleans Style

Barbecue Shrimp is an appetizer at Ruth Chris Steakhouse and whenever I have had the opportunity to dine there it is what I order. It's fabulous. I tried recreating it years ago and I must say it was fairly good, but not exactly like what I had at the restaurant. Determined to try it again, I went searching to see if perhaps there was a published recipe. There was. I found it on Food.com and am going to use that recipe because it sounds like the real deal.

The Steakhouse Barbecue Shrimp - Orleans Style is a restaurant quality dish you make at home. It's absolutely perfect for a date night dinner! And it doesn't cost nearly as much as what a fine dining restaurant charges. Also, this makes a great precursor to a meal as an appetizer and it will absolutely wow your guests.

Now don't faint when you read the recipe. There's a whole pound of butter used to make the barbecue butter and you'll have about 2 1/2 cups of which you'll use a cup for each pound of shrimp.This is not my typical cooking on a budget style dinner. It's one of those occasional splurges where I treat us to something out of the everyday. The remainder of the butter (unless you double the amount of shrimp and would also double the wine and scallions), can be placed in labeled containers and frozen for another time. The barbecue butter would actually go well with scallops too. Use your imagination and try different shellfish using this scrumptious butter mixture!

To say in words how fantastic this is, I am not sure I have an extensive enough vocabulary to describe and do this the justice it deserves. The barbecue butter makes the dish something extraordinary. And once you try it I think you will agree.

For the Barbecue Butter:

• 1 lb. butter - softened to room temperature
• 2 tsp.Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 tsp. Tabasco Sauce
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. dried rosemary - minced (I used some fresh which I had and made sure I minced it well.)
• 1/8 cup garlic - finely chopped (About 6 large cloves)

For the Shrimp:
The recipe calls for 16-20 ct shrimp. Because of price I went with 31/40 ct shrimp. 

• 1 lb. shrimp (16-20 ct) - peeled deveined (I used 31/40 ct)
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 tsp fresh chopped garlic
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• sourdough bread or other crusty bread for serving

1. For Barbecue Butter: Soften butter at room temperature to 70-80 degrees F. Place butter in mixing bowl; add pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, salt, rosemary, garlic, Worcestershire, Tabasco, and water. Whip on high speed 3 minutes or until thoroughly blended. Refrigerate to 40 degrees F. Makes about 2 1/2 cups.
2. For Shrimp: Pour olive oil in a hot sauté pan you've heated over high heat. Add shrimp to the sauté pan and cook on one side for 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium, turn shrimp, and add the chopped green onion. Cook for an additional 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the shrimp to a waiting bowl.
3. Add white wine to the pan and cook until reduced to 1/4 cup. Stir in 1 cup cold Barbecue Butter (reserve the remainder for another use), reduce heat to low, add the shrimp back to the pan and cook and stir frequently until shrimp are done, approximately 3-4 minutes. Take care not to overcook the shrimp. The shrimp should be white inside.

We were very quiet during dinner last night. The conversation if any was commenting on how delicious this is. My husband said that the dinner was incredible but asked what was I planning to do with all of the extra butter. I told him, "freeze it of course". Then he said he'd love to have a repeat for breakfast! It's all he's talked about this morning.

You must have some sort of crusty bread like sourdough or ciabatta so you can soak up all the delicious barbecue butter sauce. A nice tossed salad on the side and you have a complete and wonderful dinner. One pound of shrimp is plenty for two people as a meal, or four if you decide to make this as an appetizer before a meal. I came up with a cost of $14.00 for this Orleans style steakhouse barbecue shrimp. If you add in a bag of salad (we used a pre-made Caesar mix) and the bread it is about $5.00 more. You can't even come close to that price from a restaurant!