Let’s face it: cooking a fresh dinner every night can be pretty exhausting. Not only do you have to do all the prep work of looking up a good recipe, buying the ingredients, preparing them and cooking them, you also have to pick something that you think the rest of the family will enjoy as well. As if that weren’t enough, the end of dinner usually means a long clean-up process that you may or may not be getting enough help with. Sometimes, it pays to pick a dinner recipe that is a little easier to deal with.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to make a tasty meal where much of the clean-up gets eliminated from the get-go. Have you ever tried to make a foil pack dinner? If not, it’s where you take all your ingredients, wrap them in foil with some oil and bake them for single-serve dinners. Today, we’re making shrimp boil aluminum foil packs which come with plenty of delicious seafood flavor with way less of the hassle. You may have had the steak and potatoes versions of recipes like this, but this one is sure to be your favorite. So let’s get started.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1 pound of peeled and deveined shrimp
- 2 ears of corn
- 1/2 pound of andouille sausage
- 1 pound of baby red potatoes
- 3 tablespoons of Old Bay seasoning
- 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
- juice from half a lemon (plus additional wedges)
- 3 tablespoons of melted butter (plus an additional half cup)
- chopped parsley
- salt
- pepper
- aluminum foil
Here’s what you do:
1. To start, peel your corn and chop each cob into thirds. After that, take your thirds and chop them lengthwise. Similarly, take out your potatoes and chop those up into two-inch pieces before throwing them into boiling water with your potatoes. Let them cook for 10 minutes before draining and setting them aside.
2. Next, get out a big mixing bowl and throw in your prepared shrimp along with your sausage, corn and potatoes. In a side dish, mix your three tablespoons of melted butter, Old Bay seasoning, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper and mix it all together. Pour that over the shrimp mix and stir until everything is evenly coated.
3. After that, get out your roll of aluminum foil and divide it into four 12×12 inch sheets. Scoop your shrimp and veggie mixture into the middle of each one and wrap the edges up and around it to make a closed little packet for each one.
4. When it’s time to cook, you can set these packets on a pre-heated grill over medium-high heat or bake them in the oven at 400 degrees! If you’re grilling, cook them for five to six minutes on each side, flipping the packet in between. If they’re in the oven, bake them for 10 to 15 minutes.
5. In the meantime, melt the additional butter over the stove and keep stirring it until it turns from light yellow to a gentle golden brown (but be careful not to burn it).
6. When the time is up, check to make sure the shrimp are pink and the corn is soft when you take the packets out. If so, serve the packets with some freshly chopped parsley, lemon wedges and browned butter!
As you can see, the process of making these dinner pockets is incredibly straightforward and results in a seafood dinner with very little fuss. If you’ve never tried this dinner method before, this recipe is a great place to start—as you get more experienced with it, feel free to switch in your own spices and ingredients as well. As always, have fun and let us know how it all turns out!
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