Britomart's Oven-Barbequed Shrimp

Recipe from a friend of my mother's. Amazing. Sounds odd, but honestly, one of the most delicious meals. I'm a freak who's terrified of undercooking or overcooking shrimp & check compulsively for doneness during the process. I've made this many times with many ovens & it can vary since, as a society, we can send a man to the moon but can't consistently calibrate ovens. ::sigh::

Serve in bowls with sides of thickly sliced sourdough bread, on a table covered liberally with newspaper. Have lots of cold beer on the ready, drink beer, peel shrimp & throw onto newspaper, dunk bread in lovely butter barbeque sauce.

Trust me, this recipe is divine. And? Very, very, very easy. Except for the one notation below, these measurements are pretty approximate. If you follow exactly it'll be great; if you get creative & add or lessen amounts, it'll be great. It's almost impossible to mess this up.

• 2 lbs shrimp, larger enough to peel and eat without being annoying
  
• 1 lb butter
• 2 TBSP dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 TSP chili powder
• 1/4 TSP dried basil
• 1/4 TSP dried thyme
• 2 TSP black pepper
• 1/2 TSP dried oregano
• 4-5 garlic cloves, chopped very finely
• 1 medium onion, chopped as finely as you possibly can
• 1/4 C Old Bay's seasoning (I tend to generously round this, but I love this seasoning)
• Tabasco sauce to taste
• 1 TSP liquid smoke (I hate liquid smoke, but I've made this without and it isn't as good. Don't use more than the 1 TSP or it will overwhelm - it's the only exact measurement)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large skillet, melt a couple TBSP of butter & sautee garlic & onions until soft and translucent. Add the rest of the butter and all of the other ingredients except for the shrimp.

Place shrimp in baking pan (a deep 13x9 pan will work) and cover with butter sauce. Make sure shrimp is well covered by sauce; if not try another baking pan that's more appropriate to the shrimp/sauce ratio.

You'll bake the shrimp for approximately 25 minutes. At about 15 minutes, check it by taking out a piece of shrimp & cutting into it - shrimp needs to be firm & white throughout. Depending on your oven, it can take anywhere from about 15 minutes to 30 minutes. The majority of ovens I've used are around 25 minutes. After the 15 minutes check, I check every 5 minutes until done. And, of course, you only have to do this annoying exercise the first time you make this, then you'll know. Unless you move or buy a new oven. :-)