My Recipe For The Summer: Gochujang-Butter Shrimp

Last summer the only thing I cooked was bruschetta.

I made bruschetta a lot. Every week. This summer I’m still making a lot of bruschetta. But I’m also making gochujang-butter shrimp. The sauce is inspired by the delicious gochujang-butter chicken wings a restaurant called Rabbit Hole used to serve in Midtown Global Market years ago before closing.

This gochujang butter sauce is composed of only two ingredients – a gochujang squeezy sauce and butter. I could be your Asian Sandra Lee.

You can buy jars or plastic tins of Korean gochujang paste and make your own gochujang sauce – it typically includes ingredients like vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and garlic.  There are plenty of other brands of gochujang sauce, too.

For this recipe, I like to buy these squeezy bottles of gochujang sauce we find at United Noodles.

All you have to do is mix it with some melted butter. There’s your glaze.

You could glaze a sandal in this and it would taste good. Use it to marinate or glaze anything else such as grilled veggies, burgers, chicken, pork, etc.

For shrimp, I like to marinate them for 30-60 minutes before grilling. Marinating delicate seafood for too long will break down the texture.

I skewer the marinated shrimp on wood skewers soaked in water (you could use metal ones) and grill, basting with more gochuang butter sauce upon flipping.

Shrimp won’t take very long to cook on a hot grill. I left the shells on these shrimp. They kept them nice and moist, but some shells were harder to peel.

You can also grill tail-on, shelled shrimp – just be careful not to overcook them.

While your grill is hot, throw on your favorite veggies to enjoy with your meal.