I recently had the opportunity to take a cooking class from the Mardi Gras School of Cooking in New Orleans, where I was introduced to this recipe. It makes an amazing appetizer for a crowd, or serve it as a main dish with other sides.

The flavor is buttery and rich in seasoning. The school uses their own variety of Creole/Cajun seasoning mix, though you could easily swap in your own mix.

Cajun cuisine is associated with the Louisiana countryside with farm-to-table ingredients available to that area. Creole cuisine is more associated with New Orleans and French/Spanish influence, with access to imported foods like wheat for bread and shrimp from the coast. As such, this dish is more closely associated with Creole cooking, but it uses the same seasoning as in the Cajun Chicken Andouille Jambalaya. Serve them both together for a Creole/Cajun meal.

The sauce for this dish has a little kick from adding Crystal hot sauce, which is the signature hot sauce of New Orleans. On its own, it’s not terribly spicy. You can serve this dish with more hot sauce on the side for friends who want a harder kick.

Notes: The butter in this recipe is divided into two separate entries in the list of ingredients, so be mindful that you will need a total of 9 tbsp. total (1 stick + 1 tbsp.). I’ve added the stove temperature in parentheses because the original recipe didn’t include them and I can’t for-sure remember what we did in the class, so I’ll have to come back and edit this after I make it again.

2 lbs. jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tbsp. Mardi Gras seasoning or other Creole/Cajun seasoning mix
4 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
6-8 garlic cloves, minced
4-5 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/2 c. amber beer
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp. hot sauce
1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter, sliced into pats
French bread (for serving)

Place the shrimp in a bowl and coat with the seasoning mix.

Heat the olive oil (on medium-high heat) in a large skillet. Sear the shrimp on each side, approximately 30 seconds per side. Remove and set aside.

Add the 1 tbsp. butter to the pan and sauté the garlic and rosemary for 1 minute. Add the beer and let it simmer to deglaze the pan.

Add the lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce. Let simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the rest of the butter, 1 pat at a time, waiting until each one melts. Keep the sauce moving to create a thicker, creamy sauce.

Add the shrimp and cook until done, about 2 minutes. Do not overcook.

Serve immediately with toasted French bread.