North Shore Garlic Shrimp

15 min · Easy · Serves 4

The shrimp trucks of Oahu's North Shore made this dish world-famous from a gravel parking lot: shell-on shrimp drowning in garlic butter. Cooking it over live kiawe fire adds the one thing the trucks can't — island smoke.

The shells stay on, and that is not laziness. Shell is what the garlic butter clings to, it insulates the meat from a fire hot enough to turn naked shrimp to rubber in ninety seconds, and the shrimp head fat is where most of the flavor lives. Butterfly through the back with kitchen shears to devein — the cut opens a channel that carries butter and garlic straight to the meat while the shell stays put.

Cook the garlic separately in the butter over low heat before it ever meets the fire. Raw minced garlic on a hot grate goes bitter in seconds, which is the single most common way this dish gets ruined at home. And watch the shape: a shrimp curled into a loose C is done, an O is overcooked.

The Numbers

• Fire: hot and direct
• Time: 2-3 minutes per side, shells on
• Doneness: opaque and just curled — a tight C, not an O
• Burn: kiawe pellets or a chip pouch

Ingredients

• 2 lb large shrimp, shell on, deveined
• 1 stick butter
• 10 cloves garlic, chopped rough
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp chili flake
• Salt, and lemon to finish

Method

1. Skewer the shrimp. Melt the butter with garlic, oil, and chili in a pan at the edge of the grill — let it sizzle, not brown.
2. Toss a handful of kiawe chips on the fire.
3. Grill the skewers over high heat 2–3 minutes per side until opaque and C-shaped.
4. Pull them straight into the garlic butter and toss hard.
5. Salt, squeeze of lemon, serve over two scoops of rice like the trucks do.

On Your Rig

Same recipe, different fire. Two minutes a side over direct heat — the rig barely matters, but the shells and the butter do.

• Charcoal Grill (Kettle) — Kiawe Lump Charcoal + 2-3 Kiawe Chunks on the coals. Full charcoal grill setup
• Kamado / Ceramic — Kiawe Lump Charcoal + Kiawe Chunks buried in the lump. Full kamado setup
• Gas Grill — Kiawe Chips in a smoke tube, or a Kiawe Chunk wrapped in foil (poke holes) on the burner. Full gas grill setup
• Pellet Grill — Kiawe Pellets. Full pellet grill setup

On the Side

• Steamed White Rice — two scoops, truck-style
• Hawaiian Mac Salad — the third thing on the plate
• The Founder's Smash Burger — if the truck had a second item

Build this cook on the Kiawe Cook Matrix — pick your protein, cut, and rig for exact temps and fuel loads.