Looking for the perfect appetizer for your next get together? This bacon wrapped shrimp is it! They’re incredibly juicy, smokey, savory, and super easy to make.

Perfect Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

Picture this: juicy shrimp marinated in a zesty, lemony, garlic, and honey mustard sauce wrapped in deliciously crispy, smokey bacon. I don’t know about you, but I am already drooling.

What we love about this easy bacon wrapped shrimp is that it takes minimal prep and needs only 20 minutes to cook. It’s great for meal prep or as a simple party appetizer that’ll please any crowd!

What You Need for Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

This bacon-wrapped shrimp recipe uses simple ingredients you’ll likely already find sitting in your pantry, making for an easy appetizer that’ll provide the PERFECT balance of flavor.

• Shrimp: you’ll need 14 extra jumbo raw shrimp, tail on, peeled, and de-veined to make this easy recipe!
• Bacon: you’ll want thin-cut bacon for this recipe to help ensure the bacon can be easily wrapped around the shrimp.
• Ground pepper: freshly cracked pepper adds the perfect final touch to your tasty bacon-wrapped shrimp.

shrimp tips!

When you’re shopping for fresh shrimp at the grocery store, look for peeled and deveined shrimp. The deveining and peeling process is tedious, so this will save you time and frustration!

Can you use frozen shrimp? YES! But make sure it’s thawed before you make this recipe.

Can you use cooked shrimp? We don’t recommend using already cooked shrimp for this recipe.

The BEST Shrimp Marinade

If you have our homemade shrimp marinade on hand, you’re more than welcome to use that. Otherwise, here’s the blend we used in this recipe:

• Lemon juice
• Olive oil
• Garlic
• Mustard
• Honey
• Salt
• Chili powder
• Red pepper lakes
• Paprika

Why Cook Bacon First?

It’s important to cook your bacon slices first because shrimp and bacon have different cooking times. Shrimp takes about 8-10 minutes to cook to perfection in the oven, while bacon takes 15 to 20 minutes.

That’s why in our recipe, we cook the bacon a bit first before wrapping it with the shrimp. Otherwise, you’d have rubbery, overcooked shrimp or floppy, undercooked bacon, depending on your choice of cooking time.

How to Make Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

MARINADE SHRIMP

Place ingredients for the shrimp marinade in a large mixing bowl and whisk until combined.

Next, add your shrimp to the bowl and toss until completely coated. Allow the shrimp to sit in the marinade for at least 20 minutes.

COOK BACON

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place a wire rack over a tin foil-lined baking sheet and place the bacon halves, untouching, on top.

Place in the oven and bake for 6 minutes. Then, flip your bacon and cook for another 6 minutes.

LET BACON REST

Remove your bacon from the oven and allow it to rest until they’re cool enough to touch, about 5 minutes.

WRAP BACON

Next, place a jumbo shrimp at the end of a piece of bacon and carefully roll the shrimp so that the bacon starts to wrap around it. Make sure you wrap it tightly!

Then, use a toothpick to secure the shrimp and bacon together. Repeat until all your shrimp is wrapped in the bacon. Discard any excess shrimp marinade.

BAKE SHRIMP

Line up your bacon wrapped shrimp on the wire rack and place it back in the oven to bake for 5 minutes. Then flip your shrimp and bake for an additional 4-5 minutes.
Remove the shrimp from the oven and grind with freshly cracked pepper. Enjoy your bacon shrimp!

Our #1 Tip

So, how do you get crispy bacon on the outside but super tender shrimp on the inside? Our #1 tip is a metal baking rack!

Placing the shrimp on top of a rack allows the bacon grease to drip off the shrimp and onto the bottom of the baking sheet. Otherwise, the bacon would have difficulty crisping up if the shrimp sat in the grease.

First, line your baking sheet with tin foil (for easy cleanup), then place a metal baking rack on top!

Make-Ahead Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

Make your bacon wrapped shrimp ahead of time by prepping everything through step 4, and then store your partially prepared bacon wrapped shrimp in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Then, all you need to do is the last step right before serving your yummy shrimp: bake for 5 minutes at 425ºF, flip, bake for another 4-5 minutes and then remove the shrimp from the oven. 

Storage

To store your shrimp, let the bacon wrapped shrimp cool completely. Then, transfer to an airtight container and seal. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1-2 days.

We do not recommend reheating your shrimp as the texture will become rubbery and undesirable.