Shrimp go wild with jalapenos, garlic, cumin and cayenne
Jolts of grill flavor and spicy heat can enhance the delicately sweet and briny flavor of shrimp, but it's easy to overdo it. Most recipes overcook the shrimp and finish them in a bath of mouth-numbing sauce; we wanted juicy shrimp with a smoky crust and chili flavor that was more than just superficial.
To achieve this, we sprinkled one side of the shrimp with sugar to promote browning and grilled this side for a few minutes. Then we flipped the skewers to finish gently cooking on the cooler side of the grill.
We created a flavorful marinade with pureed jalapenos, garlic, cumin, and cayenne to give our shrimp skewers a spicy, assertive kick, and then set some aside to double as a sauce. Butterflying the shrimp before marinating and grilling them opened up more shrimp flesh for the marinade and finishing sauce to flavor. We also packed the shrimp very tightly onto the skewers so they would cook more slowly.
• America's Test Kitchen provided this article to The Associated Press