Making Vietnamese Grilled Shrimp Skewers with the Most Addictive Sauce

I recently took a trip down to Orange County to promote my Dear Mam Fish Sauce, and every time I go, I am reminded that Westminster/Little Saigon has some of the best Vietnamese food in the entire world. Everywhere you turn, there are so many different Vietnamese restaurants on every block. The competition is fierce, which means these restaurants have to put out incredible food if they want to survive. Now, one of my favorite spots in the area is OC and Lau, a Vietnamese restaurant that specializes in seafood and hot pot. The food there is authentic and so good. One of the dishes that completely blew me away was their tom nuong muoi ot do, or grilled shrimp skewers with red pepper salt sauce. The sauce was bright, tangy, slightly sweet, spicy, and absolutely addictive, which just took the smoked grilled shrimp to a whole other level; So I knew I had to recreate it at home!

If you have ever had Vietnamese seafood in Nha Trang, chances are you have seen muối ớt xanh, the green pepper salt sauce that is a staple dipping sauce throughout Vietnam. Muối ớt đỏ is its close cousin. Instead of green peppers and lime, the flavor is built on red peppers and kumquats. Both sauces share that perfect balance of salty, spicy, sour, and sweet flavors, but the choice of peppers and citrus gives each one its own unique personality.

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Tom Nuong Muoi Ot Do / Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Red Pepper Sauce

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:46 Prepping the shrimp
02:05 Making the marinade
03:04 Muoi Ot Do / Red Pepper Sauce
05:40 Grilling the shrimp skewers
06:43 Plating

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Orange County, California has some of the best 
Vietnamese food in the whole world. And one of my favorite restaurants there is Aken Lao. 
They have a vast menu featuring all things seafood and hot pot. And one of the best 
bites I had there was their tomonguyot or grilled shrimp with red pepper sauce. The 
shrimp skewers were perfectly charred and smoky. And the sauce just took it to a whole 
different level. And today I’m going to show you how to make it all from scratch at home. So 
do me a favor and make sure you like, comment, share, and save this video. Alright 
y’all remember to wash your hands. Now, the first thing we’ll do is get our wooden 
skewers into some water. We’ll let the skewers soak while we make everything else. And this 
will help prevent the skewers from burning too quickly when we grill our shrimp up later. 
Then I have 2 lbs of jumbo head-on shrimp. And we’ll just give that a thorough rinse in cold 
tap water. We’re going to depoop our shrimp. And the easiest way to do that is by using a 
toothpick or skewer and stabbing the shrimp along the curve between the fourth and fifth 
abdominal segment just below the tail and getting underneath the vein. Then we’ll just lift the 
dudu straight out of there. Now, traditionally, Vietnamese people love eating the shrimp head’s 
hole. So, to make it a little bit easier to eat, using a pair of scissors, I’m going to cut away 
the rostrum, which is the sharp point on top of the shrimp head. We’ll also trim away any long 
antennas, too. And if you like this recipe and you want to learn how to make more of your 
favorite Vietnamese and Asian dishes, make sure you subscribe and turn on your notifications 
to stay up to date on all my latest posts. Now, Vietnamese folks also like eating the shrimp with 
the shell still on, but that’s not for everybody, and Hannah prefers it peeled as well. So, for 
half the shrimp, I’m going to peel the shell off, making sure that the shrimp head and the tail 
is still attached. And the other half we’ll just leave as is. Once you’re done processing all your 
shrimp, we’ll get that into a big mixing bowl, and we’re going to marinate our shrimp with a 
tablespoon of minced garlic. To that, we’ll add in 1 tbsp of my dear mam fish sauce. And if you 
want your own bottle, we’re available nationwide on Amazon, Walmart, and Wii. You can also use our 
store locator at www.dearmamfish sauce.com to see which grocery store closest to you is carrying 
it. Then we’ll add in a tablespoon of sugar, a/4 teaspoon of white pepper, and to finish, 
some of this pasta sauce. I’m just kidding. This is some anado seed oil that I made, which 
will give our shrimp a really vibrant orange color. If you don’t have anado seed oil though, 
any oil you have on hand is fine. We’re going to give that a good mix, and then I’m going to let 
this vibe out in the fridge for 15 minutes. Now, while the shrimp is pretty tasty on its own, what 
really makes this dish incredible for me though is the sauce that Aken Laauo pairs it with. The sauce 
in Vietnamese is called muyat da or simply red pepper sauce. And the base of our sauce is a whole 
red bell pepper. And we’ll just remove the seeds and pith and cut that into bite-sized pieces. 
Now, for my recipe, I opted to use a red bell pepper as it’s a super accessible ingredient. 
But alternatively, you can also use Fresno chilies or goat horn chilies here. Honestly 
though, any red pepper is going to be fine. We’ll get the red pepper into a food processor 
or a high-speed blender. And because I like my sauce spicy, we’re also going to add five to six 
Thai chilies. And feel free to adjust the amount to better fit your own spice tolerance. To the 
sauce, I’m going to add in five lime leaves. And these leaves store really well in the freezer, 
so I just buy them in bulk and store them in a Ziploc bag for whenever I need them. Then 
for the citrus component of the sauce, I have 12 kumquats. And I’m just going to cut 
that in half. And we’ll squeeze the juice and the pulp from the kumquats. Now, the kumquats 
have a really tart sweetness with just a little bit of bitterness that works really well 
in the sauce. But if you can’t find them, the juice of half an orange or some 
calamani also works really well here. [Music] We’ll get that into our blender. And then I have 
a whole lime and we’ll squeeze that in as well. I’m going to season our sauce with half a 
tablespoon of MSG and a teaspoon of salt. We’re going to finish our sauce with 3 tablespoons 
of condensed milk. And I know that sounds kind of weird, but you’re just going to have to trust 
me on this one. The condensed milk adds a layer of creaminess that just compliments the spicy 
and sour notes. We’re going to pulse this a few times and then blend until it’s smooth. Let your 
sauce vibe out in the fridge for 5 to 10 minutes to allow the flavors to marry. And if you have 
time, making it the day before is even better. [Music] [Music] Now, the last thing we have to do is thread 
our shrimp on the skewers, and then it’s time to grow. Now, taking each skewer, I’m 
going to poke the shrimp below the telson, or the sharp bit on the tail, and I’m just 
going to gently guide the skewer through the body of the shrimp all the way up to its 
head. And it’s as simple as that. We’re going to rinse and repeat, and we’ll get 
the rest of our shrimp onto the skewers. Now, my apartment complex doesn’t 
allow propane or fire grills, so I have this Weber Lumen that does the job. 
And we’ll just get our grill heated up to 400°. We’ll get our shrimp directly on the grates. 
And these shrimp cook up super quick. Only needing about 2 to 3 minutes total, but 
every grill is different. So, make sure you cook the shrimp through and just get some 
nice grill marks. And then it’s time to plate. [Music] Now, my friends Frank and Thuyen 
just got me this beautiful plate from the motherland. And we’ll just get 
some lettuce on top of the plate for a little pop of color. Then we’ll place 
our grilled shrimp right on top. [Music] Now pour some of the sauce into a dipping bowl 
and pair that with the shrimp. And just like that, you’ve made the most incredible toy at home. As 
always, the recipe and measurements are on my blog at feedthepudge.com. And if you’ve made it this 
far, let me know in the comment section what’s the name of your favorite Vietnamese restaurant. 
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy.