One of my favorite seafood items to grill is scallops, because they turn out with a sweet and smoky flavor. I’m going to show you how to grill scallops that taste amazing. It doesn’t take long to grill scallops and it is really easy to do. You will probably start to grill your scallops all the time.
Check Out Stainless Steel Skewers for Scallops
They thing about scallops is they are pretty much all protein, so they tend to dry out when you are grilling them. To combat the drying of the scallops you will want to marinate them or wrap them in bacon. Wrapping them in prosciutto is another great choice.
You are going to want around 1 ½ pounds of sea scallops, this will be around 30 scallops. This should be enough for a meal for 4, or appetizers for 6 people. You can find scallops both fresh and frozen. Of course fresh is always better, but if you can’t find them fresh, frozen will do.
There are many different ways to grill scallops, but I prefer to either grill them on skewers, or grill them in an aluminum pan. If I use skewers I always either wrap them in bacon or prosciutto. Like I mentioned before, scallops tend to dry when grilled, so you will want to marinate them. I do this regardless of if I’m going to grill them on skewers or in an aluminum pan.
If using skewers, wrap each scallop with a strip of bacon then skewer it. The skewers will hold on the bacon. Place them in a pan and drizzle with olive oil on both sides and squeeze some lemon over them. If you are just grilling in an aluminum pan, follow the same process without the bacon. I then add a little bit of seasoning. A bit of salt and pepper will do. Easy on the salt if you’ve wrapped them in bacon.
With the aluminum pan method I like to add in some minced garlic and some butter. Feel free to experiment with the seasonings. Let the scallops marinate for about 15 minutes while you get the grill ready. We are going to grill them over high heat.
Set up your gas or charcoal grill for direct grilling over high heat. Once it is ready and the scallops are done marinating, remove the skewers from the pan if that is what you are using and place them on the grill over the heat. If you are using an aluminum try place it on the grill as well, right over the heat.
Grill the scallops for about 2 to 3 minutes per side. I use are using skewers, you will get nice grill marks. You will be able to tell that they are done when they feel firm and turn white. They should not be hard however. Once they are done, serve them immediately.
That is how to grill scallops the easy way. Choose which method you would prefer, or try them both. The nice thing about grilling is that you can really experiment. Try out different seasonings and marinades to find the flavor you love best. By the way, you can use either bamboo, or stainless steel skewers, I prefer the stainless steel ones since I tend to use skewers quite a bit. Here are the skewers I use.
image courtesy of avlxyz/flickr