If you ever come to my house and look in the freezer, you'll always find a bag of individually quick frozen (IQF) shrimp.  Whenever jumbo / colossal deveined shrimp goes on sale, I stock up!  Shrimp is one of those quick thawing, easy to cook proteins that makes a delicious meal. These days, when the shrimp is on sale, it's about the same price or less than beef and I buy a bag for future use. This easy shrimp salad with all purpose seasoning is one way to turn a regular salad into an amazing one.  Here I showcase how easy sauteed shrimp can be made with the addition of Sammy Wong's Kitchen's all-purpose seasoning. Sammy Wong's Kitchen's ORGANIC all-purpose seasoning can now be purchased online.

Tips for making easy shrimp salad with all purpose seasoning.

Shrimp

Shrimp size

The shrimp is the focal point of this salad (and is usually the focal point of most dishes) so it has to be good and appealing!  My favorite shrimp size is under 16 count.  Shrimp are sold according to how many shrimp per pound.  These large shrimp can be bought frozen in bags.  

Buying big shrimp not only reduces the amount of work needed to clean or butterfly the shrimp, but also gives your salad a "wow" factor.   I also find that the bigger shrimp have less tendency of being mushy.  As for sauteeing butterflied shrimp.  It's less work to saute individual, big shrimp rather than a lot of smaller shrimp. So, pay a little more for larger shrimp for this recipe, because in the end, there's more work and the shrimp ends up being overcooked!

De-veined, De-shelled, Shell-on.

I definitely prefer de-veined shrimp, but it's not difficult to de-vein your own shrimp.  When butterflying the shrimp, it does require cutting the shrimp deeper along its spine so that it can be split in half and butterflied.  

De-shelled or shell-on shrimp is personal preference.  I actually like to suck and eat the shells because not only is it full of flavor, but it is also full of calcium! My husband doesn't like the shell so I will sometimes remove the shell for him and freeze the shells for future use.  These shells make excellent seafood stock for soups or paella.

Cooking the shrimp

Don't overcook shrimp!  When shrimp is overcooked, it is tough and chewy! Raw shrimp is translucent.  When it cooks, the shrimp shells and outer surface turns slightly orange and the meat turns white.  As soon as the meat turns color, remove from the heat.  When sauteeing butterflied shrimp, the tails will be in the air so make sure you press them down so the heated surface will cook the shrimp.

When sauteeing shrimp, combine the butter and olive oil in a 1:1 ratio.  The butter provides flavor and the olive oil helps increase the smoke point of the mixture.

Dressing the salad

Because the shrimp is so tasty and with the garlic bits and the butter, olive oil mixture, a very light vinaigrette or plain balsamic vinegar and good olive oil is all this salad needs.

Enjoy and bon appetit.  Let me know if you've made this salad and what do you think?