When Alex from The Defined Dish sent me her cookbook, The Comfortable Kitchen, I could not stop flipping through its gorgeous pages. I’ve always been a huge fan of Alex and her recipes because they’re not only super flexible to fit anyone’s dietary needs or taste preferences, but they’re also fun, creative, and just absolute go-to’s.
Her new cookbook includes “105 laid-back, healthy, and wholesome recipes,” and she 100% nailed it. There’s a huge range of recipes for literally every occasion, and they’re truly ones you’ll want to share with friends and family.
It was almost impossible to choose one to share on the blog, but I kept coming back to this gorgeous shrimp brochette skillet with fluffy, herby poblano rice. This is the second (yes, second!) shrimp recipe I’ve ever shared on AK, so you know it’s special. The shrimp is cooked with bacon, jalapeño, fresh herbs and a little butter, and served over a bed of beautiful poblano rice that reminds me of my favorite green rice recipe. It feels like a fancy dinner that just so happens to taste like a jalapeño popper. Okay, YUM.
Get this on your menu for date night or your weeknight dinner, and remember to grab your copy of The Comfortable Kitchen for even more!
What is shrimp brochette?
Yes, it sounds fancy, and yes, it’s absolutely delicious. Shrimp brochette is essentially a bacon-wrapped shrimp jalapeño popper. Seriously! Shrimp is stuffed with jalapeño, wrapped in bacon and grilled to crispy perfection. You can serve it with anything you’d like: often rice, crusty French bread, or a side salad.
In Alex’s version, she makes a deconstructed skillet version that’s even easier to prep and cook. Because we’re not wrapping the shrimp in the bacon, the bacon gets nice and crispy in the skillet by itself without having to worry about overcooking the shrimp on the inside. The shrimp, bacon and light butter “sauce” that you end up with is absolutely delicious served with homemade poblano rice.
Shrimp brochette skillet ingredients
The recipe may sound complicated, but the ingredients are actually super simple. Here’s everything you’ll need to make the shrimp brochette skillet and the poblano rice:
- Veggies & produce: you’ll be cooking the rice with white onion, garlic, a poblano pepper and fresh cilantro. You’ll also need a jalapeño, garlic, a lime and fresh oregano leaves for the shrimp.
- Broth: you’ll also need some low sodium vegetable broth.
- Rice: feel free to use any long-grain white rice you’d like such as jasmine rice.
- Bacon: instead of wrapping the shrimp in bacon, you’ll just need to cook it and cut it up!
- Shrimp: the star of the show in this shrimp brochette, of course.
- Oils & butter: you’ll want to use some avocado oil or olive oil to cook the veggies for the rice, and then unsalted butter, ghee or vegan butter to cook the shrimp.
- Seasonings: all you’ll need is some salt and pepper to season everything.
How to make this shrimp brochette skillet
- Cook your veggies. Start by sauteing the onion, poblano pepper and garlic in avocado oil, salt & pepper until tender. Add these to a blender or food processor with vegetable broth and cilantro and blend until smooth.
- Make the rice. Pour the blended veggie mixture back into your pot and add in the rest of the vegetable broth and the rice. Stir to combine and bring it all to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and cook it for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes remove it from the heat (keep the lid on!) and let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Cook the bacon. While the rice is resting, cook your bacon in a skillet. Once it’s done drain off the bacon fat while reserving about 2 tablespoons in the skillet.
- Cook the shrimp. Add the shrimp, garlic, jalapeño, salt & pepper to the skillet with the cooked bacon and cook them for about 2-3 minutes per side. Toss with butter and oregano.
- Plate & serve. Fluff the poblano rice and divide it among 4 plates. Add the shrimp and its juices from the skillet and serve with a lime wedge!
Why let the poblano rice sit?
Remember to keep the lid on your poblano rice and let it rest off of the heat after cooking. This will let the rice steam inside the pot and create a lovely, fluffy texture.
More ways to serve shrimp brochette
This delicious shrimp brochette skillet is perfect for serving with your fav sides! Here are some other ones I love:
- Try it over my go-to coconut rice or green rice (which is similar to the poblano rice!)
- Keep it lower carb with a side of cauliflower rice
- Serve it with a side salad (this vegan caesar would be perfect) and a hunk of crusty French bread
- Toss it with this warm brussels sprouts salad for extra bacon goodness
- Top your favorite pasta and add a sprinkle of parmesan! It would be delicious over this bacon parmesan brussels sprouts spaghetti
Storing tips
Store any leftover shrimp brochette skillet in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 3-4 days. Reheat in the microwave in intervals until heated through.
More seafood recipes to try
- Honey Lemon Garlic Salmon
- Date Night In Cilantro Pistachio Pesto Shrimp Pasta
- Damn Good Salmon Taco Bowls For Two
- Healthy Tuna Noodle Casserole
- Buffalo Tuna Melt Stuffed Peppers
Get all of my seafood recipes here!
I hope you love this wonderful shrimp brochette skillet with poblano rice! If you make it be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked it, and remember to get your copy of The Comfortable Kitchen: A Defined Dish Book for even more delicious recipes.
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Shrimp Brochette Skillet with Poblano Rice
Ingredients
- For the poblano rice:
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 1 cup medium-diced white onion (about ½ medium onion)
- 1 cup medium-diced seeded poblano pepper (1 large poblano)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cups (16 ounces) low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
- 2 cups white jasmine or other long-grain white rice
- For the shrimp brochette:
- 5 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 ½ pounds shrimp (31/40 count), peeled and deveined, patted dry
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- ½ large jalapeño, thinly sliced
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter or ghee (sub vegan butter for dairy-free)
- 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh oregano leaves
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Instructions
- Make the poblano rice: in a large saucepan, heat the avocado oil over medium heat. Add the onion, poblano, garlic, salt, and black pepper and cook, stirring often, until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer the sautéed veggies to a food processor or blender. Add 1 cup of the vegetable broth and the cilantro and blend until smooth.
- Pour the poblano mixture into the same saucepan you cooked the veggies in and add the remaining 1 cup vegetable broth and the rice. Stir to combine and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a low simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let rest, covered, for 10 minutes while you prepare the shrimp.
- Meanwhile, make the shrimp brochette: Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook, tossing occasionally, until it just crisps, about 5 minutes. Drain off any excess bacon fat, reserving about 2 tablespoons in the skillet.
- Add the shrimp, garlic, jalapeño, salt, and black pepper to the skillet with the bacon and bacon fat. Cook the shrimp over medium-high heat until they are just cooked through and golden brown, 2-3 minutes per side. You may need to work in two batches to avoid crowding the pan. Add all the shrimp back into the skillet along with the butter, let the butter melt, and toss to combine. Sprinkle with the oregano.
- To serve: fluff the poblano rice with a fork and divide among 4 plates. Spoon the shrimp and its juices over the poblano rice. Serve with a lime wedge.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: The Defined Dish | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
We love this recipe! I have made it for my son a few times, and now that he is cooking for himself at college, he asked for the recipe. He also asked what type of cuisine this would be. Do we have an answer for that? I can make it up based on the ingredients, but I wonder if there is a specific answer. Thanks so much.
So happy to hear that! Shrimp brochette is common in Tex-Mex cuisine 🙂
This makes a ridiculous amount of rice, enough for at least 8 servings. The flavor of the dish overall was bland. A waste of time, ingredients and money.
I just made this tonight and it turned out amazing! Your instructions are super detailed and very easy to follow. I just started getting into cooking recently and make a lot from your blog. This was the first time I cooked shrimp and they were perfect.
Amazing! Glad you enjoyed!
This was so good. I used brown rice which did take longer and needed more vegetable broth but it was delicious.
Perfect! Glad this recipe turned out great!
This recipe was great! The rice and the shrimp were delicious. To make the rice in my rice cooker, I sauteed the vegetables in a frying pan, then added the blended vegetable/liquid to my rice cooker with the rice. It came out perfectly. It made a LOT of rice. I upped the shrimp to 2 lbs and was glad I did because the 4 of us polished it off. Also, I used turkey bacon instead of pork and added olive oil for frying it. And I used the whole jalapeno, but it wasn’t spicy at all. I’ll definitely be making this recipe again!
Thanks for sharing all of this, Amy! I’m so glad you loved it 🥰
This was amazing and so flavorful! The squeeze of lime at the end really pulled out the flavors. I topped it with some additional cilantro and scallion. Will definitely make again!
This recipe sounds amazing but I have a question. Under ingredients you have 2 cups rice. Uncooked rice usually more than doubles cooked. That seems like a lot for 4 servings. Am I reading this wrong? Want to make for Valentines day. Thank you.
Hi, Karen! This actually isn’t my own recipe (it’s from The Defined Dish) so I’m not sure how it would work to reduce the amount of rice, but if it makes more than 4 servings worth, you can definitely enjoy the extra rice as leftovers 🙂
I guess the other thing I was concerned about was the ratio of rice to water. If I’m reading it right it’s 2:2. Where ‘ve always done 2:1 water to rice. Making it tonight I’ll let you know.
Hi there, what could I sub for the poblano pepper? Possibly a bell pepper? I rarely can get fresh poblano peppers at my grocery store. This dish looks so tasty!! Thank you!!
I would try a small can of green chilies! I have not made this yet…but making this week.
Hi, Lola! Green bell peppers would be great in here 🙂