Let the good times roll! Or in this case, the good flavors. This family favorite of ours brings a little bit of zip to this family favorite with some spicy shrimp, creamy cheddar grits, and delicious flavorful Andouille sausage!
Hey there, friends! I’m back with a new recipe, for what feels like the first time in forever (and okay, I’ve got that damn song stuck in my head again!). It’s been a hot minute since I’ve had the time to put together some food and photos for this little blog – but also a hot minute since I’ve had inspiration. I haven’t just been busy as hell, I’ve been stuck in a rut. What’s easy, what’s fast, or what can I just summon up on Doordash?
It gets you into a cycle, too. It takes energy to cook and be creative, and you get that energy from good food, and without the energy from good food, you order not so good food, and then you don’t have energy and…you can see where this goes. I’ll chalk a lot of this, too, up to being stuck in a rut in my job as well. I like exercising my creativity, coloring outside the lines, starting projects, building teams, and lately it has been all admin stuff. All necessary parts of creating a new organization, which I’ve done several times and actually like doing, but previously, well, I hadn’t had this much supervision. So I kind of skirted around the admin to start with and worked that up later, after I had a lot of my help in place. Now I have to do it the normal way and that’s BORING.
But lately, or at least with the advent of summer, something jogged me loose. And I got the bug again.
That something was exchanging recipes back and forth with my folks and seeing my dad’s pictures of him and my mom making shrimp and grits, a family favorite. That kicked off a craving. I started noodling on some updates and tweaks to our family recipe.
And that was that. The dam broke, the recipe and others evolved, and I broke out the camera again.
This tasty goodness is the result. Bon appetit!
Here’s your recipe card:
Shrimp and Grits with Andouille Sausage
Ingredients
Andouille Sausage
- 4 each Andouille sausages standard size
- 2 cups water
Cheesy Grits
- 3 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cups grits not instant!
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1/2 tsp black pepper fresh cracked
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese grated
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese grated
- 1/4 cup chives chopped
Spicy Shrimp
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 lb shrimp medium, peeled and deveined, tails on
Instructions
Andouille Sausage
- Heat 2 cups of water in a large saucepan to a simmer. Add sausage. Cook 7-8 minutes or until the internal temperature of the sausage is 165F. Set aside.
Make the Grits
- In a large saucepan, bring 3 cups of water to a boil with the salt.
- Add the grits carefully, in a gradual stream, stirring constantly. Once you have the first grits in there, you can add them more quickly. When they're all in the boiling water, reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 5-8 minutes or until most of the water is absorbed.
- Remove from heat and stir in the butter, pepper, grated cheddar cheese, and chives.
Make the Shrimp
- Preheat your oven to 400F.
- In a large bowl, mix the spices and the olive oil. Add the shrimp and toss to coat until the shrimp have a nice coat of spices.
- Spread the shrimp on the pan and roast 5-6 minutes, until the shrimp are opaque, pink, and curling.
- Serve shrimp and sausage over grits, sprinkled with the parmesan cheese, more chives if desired, and season to preference. Enjoy!
Tell us what you think!
