We take sea scallops, wrap each of them with a strip of prosciutto and grill the prosciutto wrapped scallops on a cast iron griddle over charcoal in a kamado grill. The grilled scallops are finished with a lemon dill sauce that we cook right on the grill.

Grilled Scallops Recipe on a Cast Iron Griddle — GrillinFools Images ©

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I have to come clean. I am a seafood junkie. I’m also based about as far away from good seafood here in St. Louis. I mean, I love my home town, but getting great seafood here is not easy. So I don’t have a ton seafood on GrillinFools.com, but what we do, have we are very proud of:

And for this grilled scallops recipe, we pulled out al the stops. We added prosciutto and a lemon dill sauce with lots of butter. Throw in a cast iron griddle to make sure the scallops have the perfect flavor crust.

Grilled Scallops on a Cast Iron Griddle Ingredients:

1 dozen large, sea scallops, adductor muscles removed
4 slices of prosciutto
Salt, pepper, garlic seasoning
3/4 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons chopped shallot
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 stick salted butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped

You will also need some paper towels, 12 toothpicks, and an oven safe sauce pot.

You also need some sort cast iron product. A cast iron skillet will work, but can be cramped. Thus, I prefer a cast iron griddle to have more room.

Luckily for me, my Primo kamado grill has a couple different griddle accessories. I have the half griddle.

A cast iron griddle is worth every penny for breakfast alone.

Grilled breakfast out on the deck is absolutely awesome.

The paper towels are to pull the moisture out of the scallops:

The milky white stuff in scallops inhibits the browning of the scallops.

Indeed, moisture is the enemy of browning.

Top the scallops with another couple paper towels:

Between the two layers of paper towels, the milky white liquid will be drawn out.

Also, if you go up to the first pic of the scallops you will see that the adductor muscle is still attached.

I removed the muscle when I wrapped them in prosciutto

So it seems inflation, and shrinkflation, have hit the scallops industry. These scallops are not very thick

I’ve bought this same package of scallops for years and these are noticeably thinner than they have been in the past.

Wrap the Scallops in Prosciutto

So when you see me slicing the prosciutto in half, I could’ve actually cut the prosciutto into thirds and had plenty for each scallop.

Roll each scallops up in a third of a slice of prosciutto (rather than the half slices in the pic above):

Rolling Scallops in Prosciutto — GrillinFools Images ©

This looks perfect on this side, so in goes the toothpick to hold the prosciutto wrapped scallops in place:

But on this side, you can see that I could’ve used a third of a slice:

But honestly, it won’t be a problem when we make these.

Because, let me tell you a little secret.

Just Sear One Side

When you order scallops at a restaurant and they come out on the plate with the perfect flavor crust and they look absolutely amazing. Flip one over. The bottom will have no crust. In order to get that awesome crust, but also keep them tender, they only sear one side and present the scallops.

Not every restaurant does this. It sort of depends on the size of the scallop. Massive scallops can handle a sear on both sides and still stay tender.

But as more and more restaurants are cutting the sizes of the scallops to keep costs down, more and more are only searing on one side.

This still yields an absolutely delicious scallop. And with these, due to both the thickness of these and the width of the prosciutto, searing one side is all that is necessary.

Once all the scallops are wrapped in prosciutto, season with a dusting of the salt, pepper, garlic seasoning (SPG) on both sides:

Set the scallops aside and prepare the grill.

For this grilled scallops recipe, I sparked up my kamado grill.

Target temp for this cook is really hot.

Thus, north of 500F is the goal temp.

Lemon Dill Sauce

While the grill comes up to temp, let’s make the lemon dill sauce.

Dump the wine, lemon juice and shallots into an oven-safe pot on the kamado and allow to boil/simmer down by half:

While the liquid is cooking down in our pot, chop the dill:

Our pot was not boiling very much. We only had a slight simmer, which meant it would’ve taken way too long to cook down by half.

I decided to speed things up with a blow torch:

Blowtorch Lemon Dill Sauce — GrillinFools Images ©

That sped things up and also proves that a watched pot does indeed boil, particularly with the help of a blow torch!

Now add the fresh dill and one tablespoon of butter:

Whisk the butter into the lemon dill sauce and then drop the next tablespoon of butter. Repeat until all the butter is incorporated into the sauce:

How to Make Grilled Scallops

Then, dip the top of the scallops into the butter and place on the cast iron griddle that is at one end of my kamado grill:

Wait, what?!?!

You read that right. I realize I just talked about liquid being the enemy of browning.

And yes, all that white liquid the scallops ooze out makes it hard to get a good sear because it just keeps coming.

But a little bit of the lemon dill sauce will keep the scallops from sticking but cook away quick enough to get a good sear:

And that’s pretty much the goal here with this grilled scallops recipe.

Just a good sear on the one side because that’s all it takes to get these scallops to 145F internal, which is our target temp as you can see on our Temp Tongs

Prosciutto wrapped grilled scallops on a cast iron insert reading 145F on the Temp Tongs while the lemon dill sauce simmers at the other end of the kamado grill — GrillinFools Images ©

That’s right, my tongs can tell the temp of my protein!

And here are a couple more seared scallop pics right before I pulled them off the kamado:

A close up of prosciutto wrapped Grilled Scallops on a Cast Iron Griddle at one end of my kamado grill — GrillinFools Images ©

Finally, to plate our grilled scallops recipe, simply put the scallops, seared side up, and drizzle over the lemon dill sauce:

Additionally, use a little of the fresh dill sprigs as garnish:

Grilled Scallops on a Cast Iron Griddle Summary

I have to say, that these scallops have a lot going on. The salt from the thin prosciutto complements the sweetness of the scallops and that’s before we add that lemon dill sauce, which should be lemon, white wine, butter, dill sauce but that would’ve been more gratuitous than what this recipe already is. This one is quick and easy to prepare but an absolute explosion of flavor.

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Grilled Scallops on a Cast Iron Griddle 3 | GrillinFools — GrillinFools Images ©

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Grilled Scallops Recipe on a Cast Iron Griddle

Prosciutto Wrapped Grilled Scallops Recipe topped with a sultry Lemon Dill Sauce, all cooked on a charcoal grill with the help of a cast iron griddle insert

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Course: Appetizer, Scallops, Seafood

Cuisine: American, American Fare, Appetizer, Scallops, Seafood

Keyword: Butter, cast iron, Cast Iron Griddle, Cast Iron Pan, Cast Iron Skillet, Charcoal, Charcoal Grill, Dill, Dill Sauce, Grilled Scallops, Grilled Scallops Recipe, grilled seafood, Lemon Dill Sauce, Lemon Juice, Primo Grill, Primo Kamado, Primo Kamado Grill, Primo Oval, Primo Oval Grill, Primo Oval XL, Prosciutto, Prosciutto Wrapped Scallops, Salt Pepper Garlic, Salt Pepper Garlic Seasoning, Scallops Recipe, Shallots, SPG, SPG Rub, SPG Seasoning, White Wine

Servings: People

Equipment

1 Cast Iron Griddle
Paper Towels
12 Tooth picks
1 Oven safe sauce pan

Ingredients

12 Scallops Adductor muscle removes
4 slices Prosciutto Sliced into thirds
Salt pepper garlic seasoning
¾ cup White wine
3 tablespoons Shallots Chopped
2 tablespoons Fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons Fresh dill Chopped
4 tablespoons Butter Divided into 4 portions

Instructions

Place a couple layers of paper towels down and spread the scallops across them. Set another couple paper towels on top and allow the milky white liquid to be drawn out.
Slice the prosciutto into three long ribbons. Remove the adductor muscle from a scallop and lay it on the side and roll it up in the ribbon of prosciutto. Use a toothpick to secure the prosciutto to the scallop. Repeat for the rest of the scallops. Dust both sides of the scallops with the SPG rub. Set the scallops aside and prepare the grill
Target temperature inside the grill is north of 500F.
Place the oven safe pot on the grill and add the wine, lemon juice and shallots. Allow to cook down by half. If the pot is not boiling hard enough, hit the side of it with a blow torch. Once reduced by half, add the dill and one tablespoon of butter and whisk until the butter is blended. Add the second tablespoon and whisk until blended through. Repeat for the last two tablespoons.
Dip the surface of the top of the scallop in the lemon dill sauce and place the glazed side down on the cast iron griddle. Sear until there is a good amount of browning on each scallop. Once all the scallops are browned, remove from the cast iron griddle and set on a platter, browned side up. Drizzle the lemon dill sauce over the top of the scallops and serve

Video

Grilled Scallops Recipe on a Cast Iron Griddle at one end of my kamado grill — GrillinFools Images ©

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

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