Polynesian Sausage and Shrimp Skewers ( Copycat Disneyland Moana Skewers)

Polynesian Sausage and Shrimp skewers are super easy to make and incredibly delicious. A perfect summertime grilling recipe.

Happy Summer Solstice! Summertime is officially here, which I am so excited about since it is my favorite season.

Long days, lots of sunshine, time at the pool, the beach, shorts instead of pants, lazy mornings ( well sort of. My kids play tennis just about every morning so maybe just a few lazy mornings a week for us), lots of popsicles, and lots of grilled dinners. 

The other day I shared my sweet and spicy guava chicken skewers that were inspired by Disneyland's Bengal BBQ. These Polynesian sausage and shrimp skewers are also inspired by Bengal BBQ, but from a few years ago. I am so quick to sharing recipes that inspire me...

We took our girls to Disneyland for the first time two years ago at Christmastime. I wanted their first time to be something they could remember, and with them old enough to walk around because I didn't want to be juggling nap times, diaper changes and pushing a stroller all over the park.

Plus, because I am slightly selfish, I wanted my kids to be big enough to ride the rollercoasters since they are my fave part of the park. I think we rode the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 10 times the first day. My younger daughter couldn't get enough of it. It was awesome.

Because we were there right before Christmas, the park was decorated so beautifully for the holidays, but the weather wasn't the best.

We spent two of our three days wearing rain ponchos. My kids were total troopers and went with it and didn't complain at all. They were just stoked to be there.

Because I hadn't been to Disney for a long time, even before kids, I asked friends about the food and what was good there. Everyone said that Bengal BBQ was a must. It is a relatively small stand in Adventureland across from the Jungle Cruise and Indiana Jones rides.

There was no seating at that time for Bengal BBQ so we ordered our food and stood under umbrellas to eat. Moana was the theme for the specialty items at the time, there was also a photo area to get pics with Moana nearby as well.

We had just seen the movie in theatres so we were all about anything Moana. One of the specialty skewers was the "Moana Skewer". A Polynesian skewer of sausage, shrimp, pineapple and a sauce with furikake sprinkled over it.  

Furikake is a popular seaweed and sesame seed seasoning in Japanese and Hawaiian cuisines. 

I took a picture for Instagram, of course being the good food blogger/influencer that I am LOL, and vowed to recreate it for my blog. 2 years later, here we are. The Moana skewer isn't offered at Disneyland anymore. It might return under a different name, which I am hoping for because it is one of the best things I have ever eaten.

And not just because I am partial to anything with pineapple. It was such an amazing combo of flavors. 

It took me a bit to try to figure out the sauce as best I could from memory and looking at my pic. I couldn't find a recipe online, usually Disney has recipes that you can make at home. But these I had to figure out.

Disneyland's skewers looked just like the ones I made here with the two shrimp in the middle arranged to look like the spiral of the Heart Of Te Fiti stone from Moana. 

I used BIG shrimp for my skewers. I wanted each sausage and shrimp skewer to be a good amount of food, so I used the collosal 8-15 per lb. Partially because they were on sale at Whole Foods, partially because I really like grilling bigger shrimp.

You can also use the extra jumbo 1-20 count per pound, I wouldn't go any smaller. You want the sausage to get some char, and the pineapple to cook too before the shrimp is done. The smaller shrimp tends to cook really fast before other items on the skewers are cooked. 

For the sauce I made a garlic, lime, butter sauce that I basted the shrimp and pineapple with as it grilled. Once the skewers were ready to grill I brushed the grill lightly with oil, but not the skewers since I wanted the seasoning to come from the sauce and the Furikake seasoning. 

I used wooden skewers for these, which I soaked in water for a few hours before grilling and I used two per skewer. It keeps the food in place and doesn't spin when you flip them. 

Polynesian Sausage and Shrimp Skewers ( Copycat Disneyland Moana Skewers)

Shanna

Salty Portuguese sausage, colossal shrimp and sweet pineapple grilled with a garlic lime butter sauce seasoned with Furikake.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Servings 12 Skewers

Equipment

• Organic Sprinkling AOSA Seaweed Japanese Furikake from ChefShop.com

Ingredients

  

• 24 Jumbo Shrimp 8-12 or 16-20 per lb. No smaller
• 1 medium Pineapple
• 2 ½ lbs Hawaii-made pre-cooked mild Portuguese Sausage*

Butter Sauce:

• 12 tablespoon Butter unsalted. If using salted butter, omit kosher salt
• 2 tablespoon Lime zest
• 2 tablespoon Lime juice
• 5 large Garlic cloves peeled and minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher Salt

Garnish:

• Furikake**
• Lime slices

Sides:

• Sticky rice

Equipment needed:

• Skewers. If using wooden skewers soak in water for a few hours so they don’t burn on the grill.

Instructions

 

• Peel and devein shrimp if not cleaned already. Leave tails on.
• Slice the pineapple into four ½”-¾” rounds. Slice each round into 6 wedges. Trim the core off if desired. You want these thick enough to stay on the skewers, but not too thick they don't grill at the same time as the shrimp and sausage.
• Slice the Portuguese sausages into 24 one and a half inch rounds.
• To skewer start with one sausage round, piercing through the casing, not the cut side, so it doesn’t spin when the skewers are flipped on the grill. Then add a pineapple wedge, then two shrimps that are in a yin-yang like shape. Skewer through end of the tail of one, thicker part of tail of the next, thicker part of tail of the first one then back through the end of the tail of the second one. The trick is to get it to look like a spiral. It takes one or two for practice to get it down then it is easy to do. Then add another piece of pineapple and finish with another sausage piece. Each skewer has two of each sausage pieces, pineapple wedges and shrimp. Repeat with remaining sausage, pineapple and shrimp.
• Once all the skewers are made, preheat grill to medium high, then make the butter sauce.
• In a saucepan over medium heat, melt half of the butter then add the garlic. Stir until fragrant and garlic starts to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining butter, lime zest and juice and stir until combined and butter is fully melted. Remove to a bowl.
• Time to grill. Clean heated grill with grill brush then lightly brush or spray grates with oil. Brush one side of the shrimp and pineapple (don’t brush the sawith the butter sauce and place butter side down on the grill and then brush the top of the shrimp and pineapple with more butter sauce. Repeat with remaining skewers. Grill for 4-5 min a side, turning 1-2 times while cooking, brushing the shrimp and pineapple with butter until the shrimp is cooked through. Transfer to a serving platter.
• Brush the shrimp and pineapple one last time with the butter sauce and sprinkle with furikake. Serve with steamed rice and some Hawaiian iced tea!

Notes

You can find Hawaii-made Portuguese sausage at any well stocked Asian or international markets, especially ones with Hawaiian sections. Portuguese sausage is often found in the frozen section. Hawaii-made Portuguese sausage is different from traditional Linguiça or Couriço sausage. You definitely want the Hawaiian kind for these skewers. We like Frank’s Foods, Redondo’s, Hawaiian Brand, Rego’s Purity to name a few. Once in a while we find Hawaii-made Portuguese sausage at Costco.

** Furikake is a Japanese dry seaweed and sesame seed rice seasoning. It is amazing on rice, seafood, vegetables etc. We even love it on popcorn. You can find this also at any well stocked Asian or international grocery. Can also be ordered from Amazon. There are a few brands we like, and they come in different flavors from miso, hot chili, salmon, umeboshi etc. For this recipe I use a traditional furikake.

Furikake is a Japanese seasoning. With nori flakes and sesame seeds as the main components. Many brands have different ingredients added in. We put it on everything from fish, to rice, to popcorn, to eggs. We love it and it is so good on these Polynesian Sausage and Shrimp Skewers. Happy first day of summer!