Today we are cooking from Matt Armendariz’s cookbook, On A Stick, at the request of a viewer from our Twitch community, busdriv3r!

A lot of times, I think the assumption with a cookbook like this is that it would be a bit gimmicky. But he’s got a ton of amazing-sounding recipes – from Japanese tofu dango, to chicken and waffles, and even bo la lot, which is a Vietnamese dish Son and I love!

The recipe I chose from On A Stick is Matt’s bacon-wrapped shrimp with a honey mustard dipping sauce.

Because you can’t go wrong with

bacon

shrimp

or honey mustard.

drools

First thing first, soak your cocktail picks. Toothpicks work fine if you don’t have cocktail picks, especially if your shrimp are on the smaller side.

Next, start the honey mustard sauce. This will need to rest in the fridge for an hour, so it can hang out while you make the shrimp.

The base of the sauce is mayonnaise. I always loved honey mustard sauce at restaurants, but could never get it right at home – because I always tried to mix just honey and mustard! The mayonnaise is what makes the sauce.

Next we’re adding some spicy brown mustard. It gives it a little kick, and adds the right flavors to the honey mustard sauce.

Of course, we’ve got to have the honey – wouldn’t be honey mustard without it!

And then a dash of cayenne for spice, a pinch of kosher salt, and a little fluff of white pepper, for a less-spicy, more earthy flavor than black pepper.

Mix it all together, and let it sit in the fridge while you prepare the shrimp.

Matt’s recipe calls for tiger shrimp, but I’m using some 40-50 shrimp I happened to have in the freezer. Make sure they’re mostly defrosted.

Zest a lime, making sure not to get too much of the bitter white pith.

And then squeeze the lime juice into your shrimp.

Chili powder for spice.

A pinch of salt, and black pepper this time.

And then a bit of olive oil to bring it all together.

Mix all that, and let the shrimp marinate in the fridge for 15 minutes or so.

Cut 6 strips of bacon in half (or, in my case, 12 – I made a double-batch). Once your shrimp is done marinating, wrap each piece of shrimp in a half-slice of bacon, and secure with one of your soaked cocktail picks.

Lay the wrapped shrimp on a pan that’s been lined with aluminum foil and then sprayed with cooking oil. At this point, take your honey mustard sauce out of the fridge so it’s not too cold when you eat it.

Bake at 375F for 20 minutes, flipping your shrimp halfway through. Mine released a bunch of liquid, so I drained the pan at the 10 minute mark before flipping my shrimp, so they had a better chance of crisping up.

At the end of your baking time, broil for 5 minutes to get the bacon nice and crispy.

Serve hot, with that honey mustard dipping sauce!

I’m SO happy with the honey mustard sauce. My absolute favorite honey mustard is the one from KFC, and this tastes SO similar. I’ve been searching my whole life for this!

The shrimp? Oh my gosh. I would never in a million years have thought that honey mustard would go well with bacon-wrapped shrimp, but we couldn’t get enough. The lime zest adds a bright pop of flavor, and the chili powder adds complexity without too much spice.

This is such a flavorful, morish dish, and it would be such a perfect party appetizer. It’s rather easy to make (and you could totally make the sauce ahead of time), and absolutely the kind of thing that your guests wouldn’t be able to get enough of. (It’s a good thing I doubled the recipe, because otherwise we wouldn’t have had any left for the video!)

And since I know we all want to have parties again, and soon! – then let’s all wear our masks, be safe, social distance as much as you possibly can, and beat that damn virus! And then once the virus is beaten, we can all have parties again and serve these shrimp, and tell me (and Matt!) how much all your friends loved them. Deal? Deal.

Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp

from On A Stick by Matt Armendariz

Ingredients

• 12 wooden cocktail picks
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 3 tbsp spicy brown mustard
• 2 tbsp honey
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• salt and white pepper, to taste
• 12 tiger shrimp, peeled and cleaned, with tails intact
• zest and juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp chili powder
• pinch each salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 6 strips thinly sliced applewood-smoked bacon, halved crosswise

Cooking Directions

1. Soak cocktail picks in water 30 minutes.
2. Make the sauce: Whisk the mayonnaise, mustard, honey, cayenne, salt, and white pepper in a small mixing bowl until blended. Cover and chill at least 1 hour. Before serving, let sauce rest at room temperature 20 minutes to allow flavors to meld.
3. Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat lightly with nonstick oil spray; set aside.
4. Place shrimp, lime zest and juice, chili powder, salt, pepper, and oil in a bowl and toss gently. Cover and refrigerate at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour. Remove cocktail picks from water.
5. Wrap each shrimp with half a slice of bacon and secure with a cocktail pick. Place skewers on prepared baking sheet and bake 20 minutes, turning skewers after 10 minutes. Broil 5 minutes. Serve hot.

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