Best for: Crisp shells, juicy shrimp, tingling salt.
Salt and pepper shrimp is a Cantonese banquet-and-dai-pai-dong staple: shell-on shrimp cooked fast and hard until the shells go crisp, then tumbled with fried garlic, chiles, and the salt-and-pepper mix that gives the dish its name. On a ripping-hot griddle the shells crisp the way deep-frying does them, without the pot of oil.
Griddle: Flat-top griddle or large cast-iron griddle over direct high heat on the grill; 500°F. Equipment: Griddle, wide spatula, tongs.
Ingredients
8 minutes. Total: 23 minutes.
Shrimp and coating
- 1 1/2 lb large shell-on shrimp (16–20 count), deveined through the shell, patted very dry
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons neutral oil
Salt and pepper mix and finish
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fine table salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper, coarsely cracked
- 1/2 teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 fresh red chiles, thinly sliced
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
Directions
Stir the salt, black pepper, Sichuan pepper, and sugar into the salt and pepper mix. Toss the dry shrimp with the cornstarch until lightly coated all over.
Heat the griddle on the grill to 500°F until just smoking, and add the neutral oil.
Lay the shrimp out in a single layer and cook undisturbed for 2 minutes, until the shells crisp and char at the edges. Flip and cook for 1–2 minutes more, until just opaque and registering 145°F.
Push the shrimp to the cooler edge. Add the garlic and red chiles to the hot center and fry for about 30 seconds, until the garlic is pale gold.
Toss everything together with half the salt and pepper mix for 30 seconds, letting the mix stick to the shells.
Pile onto a warm platter, shower with the scallions and the remaining mix, and serve at once — eat the shrimp out of the crisp shells.
Grilling tip: Dry shrimp, thin cornstarch, screaming griddle — miss any one of the three and the shells go chewy instead of crisp.
