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Spiceology Collaborator Chef Chad White grew up traveling to Mexico and grilling on the beach with his grandfather where his love of seafood took hold.
Fast forward to Chad being dubbed “Seafood Maverick of San Diego”, competing in Top Chef, and then moving back to Spokane, WA and opening the award-winning restaurant, Zona Blanca. But grilling? Cooking over fire remains one of his favorite way to enjoy seafood.
Zarandeado-Style Charcoal grilling creates that amazing char flavor on your food while you still have temperature control by moving and breaking up the coals for different heat zones.
Originating in Nayarit, Mexico, zarandeado-style grilling is a hundreds-of-years-old method for grilling where the seafood is split in half from head to tail before it’s grilled over hot coals.
“Start with great charcoal, get your coals nice and hot, let them settle down, and then cook over a controlled fire. Then make a mayo-based marinade with herbs, spices and chiles and spread that over the shrimp while they’re on the grill; the fat from the mayo drips down onto the coals and creates a perfumed smoke that gives the shrimp even more flavor.”
Zarandeado-Style Grilled Shrimp Tacos
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 2–4 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 lb Mexican white shrimp (U-15) shell-on
- 1 pint Zarandeado mayo (recipe below)
- 1/2 lb thinly sliced sweet baby bell peppers
- 1 thinly sliced red onion
- 2 oz flakey sea salt to taste
- 1/2 cup Spiceology X Chad White Hot Bird spice blend
- 4 limes
- 2 bunches cilantro
Mayo Ingredients
- 4 oz Guajillo chiles
- 1 pint Mayonnaise
- 2 oz Yellow mustard
- 1 tsp Spiceology Mexican Oregano
- 2 tbsp Tomato Powder
- 1 tsp Fish sauce
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 2 oz melted Butter
- 2 oz Lime juice
- 2 oz finely minced cilantro stems
- 2 oz Garlic
- 1 cup olive oil
Instructions
Mayo Instructions
- Grab all ingredients, wash produce in the prep sink and transfer to sheet pans.
- Add olive oil, guajillo chiles, garlic and 1 tbsp of tomato powder to a blender and blend until smooth.
- Separate the paste from the chile oil by straining the oil through a fine mesh strainer. Set aside both separately.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to a mixing bowl including the other half of the tomato powder and chile paste (not the chile oil) and mix well with a whisk until smooth.
Shrimp Instructions Instructions
- Pre-start your coals so they are nice and hot before you start cooking. While they are getting hot you can start your preparation of the shrimp.
- Thinly slice peppers and onions and mix well with chile oil and season with salt and pepper and char on the grill and set aside.
- Finely chiffonade cilantro leaves and set aside. Don’t throw away the stems as they can be used in the zarandeado mayo.
- Quarter your limes and set aside.
- Remove shrimp from original packaging and rinse under cold water in a sink.
- On a sanitized cutting board, butterfly and skewer the shrimp. It’s important not to remove the shell as this imparts flavor, textures and structure while cooking over charcoal.
- Pat dry the shrimp, then cut from the underside of the shrimp where the shell is the softest and butterfly open shell side down on the cutting board.
- Line up two or three shrimp in a row and then skewer with two skewers. This will help keep the shrimp flat and allow more exposure to the marinade and charcoal helping develop even more flavor and will cook more evenly over the charcoal.
- Spread the zarandeado mayo over both sides of the shrimp and season generously with hot bird spice rub.
- Now that your coals are nice and hot you can start grilling. The word “zarandeado” loosely translates to shaking so you will turn the shrimp often side to side to prevent a flare up on the grill and even caramelizing.
- Don’t be afraid to get some char on the shrimp, that’s flavor is key in this recipe but there is a fine line between char and burnt.
- Once the shrimp is off the grill remove the tail and cut the shrimp into 1-inch pieces with the shell on. If not into the shell you can remove but the shell elevates the flavor and texture.
- Take your homemade or store-bought tortilla and top with shrimp, then peppers and onions, season with flakey sea salt, then garnish with cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Enjoy!
