Coconut Shrimp! Where this sudden obsession came from, I have no idea. I have no warm memories of Red Lobster and their sea captain’s rum enhanced Coconut Shrimp, much less any memories of seaside tiki bars, drinks with tiny umbrellas, and hot, crispy, coconutty shrimp hovering over a sweet and spicy dipping sauce.

My ever-ambitious Cookbook Club selected the theme “Tropical” for this month. It sounded like a great theme until I realized I’d already shared my best tropical recipe, Coconut Mango Cheesecake, during Cheesecake Month…phoooey.

Then, having had no previous connection to Coconut Shrimp, it hula-hula-ed its way into my consciousness and just would not hula out—I wanted Coconut Shrimp. Badly.

So like a every good cookbook clubber, I tested four different recipes. Three were pretty much the same, and the fourth, although I thought it was tastier with the addition of pineapple juice, it was a bit of a problem child, being as how it was a thick batter which resulted in huge shrimp, with rather more batter than shrimp. If you want to try it, I found it at Taste of Home.

After the initial recipe try-outs and taste testing, I did what any reasonable cookbook clubber would do: I frankensteined the best bits of the four recipes into one great recipe! Then I took a batch to Cookbook club, along with a batch of the pineapple kissed Coconut Shrimp. We have a winner! Everyone preferred the recipe below over the pineapple kissed version, yay!

So here’s a great recipe for hot, crispy, coconutty shrimp hovering over a sweet and spicy dipping sauce 🙂 Don’t be surprised if it shows up at my next five parties!

Coconut Shrimp

INGREDIENTS

For the Shrimp

• 1/3 cup (44 g) all-purpose flour 
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• ¾ cup Panko bread crumbs
• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 1 pound raw large shrimp, peeled and deveined with tails attached
• Approximately 1/3 cup vegetable oil—the amount of oil depends on the size of your pan, of course, adjust up as needed.

For the Dip

• 3 Tablespoons Thai chili sauce
• 6 Tablespoons apricot jam

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine the dip ingredients, mix thoroughly, and set aside
2. Take out 3 shallow bowls, or pie tins—combine flour, salt, and pepper in one, beat the eggs in the second, and combine Panko and coconut in the third bowl.
3. Dip the shrimp into the flour, then the eggs, and then dredge the shrimp into the coconut mixture, pressing gently to adhere as much coconut as possible—set shrimp aside on a plate.
4. Cover the bottom of a large skillet with approximately ¼ cup of vegetable oil and heat to 360°.
5. Fry the coconut shrimp in batches, depending on the size of your skillet, but no more than 7-8 shrimp at a time. Do not crowd the shrimp in the pan! Fry for about 2 minutes, then flip and fry the other side for 2 additional minutes or until golden brown.
6. Place the finished shrimp on a rack placed over a cookie sheet or on a plate covered with paper towels to drain the shrimp of any excess oil.

Serve with the dip, and enjoy! This is a finger food, which makes it great to serve as an appetizer.

NOTES:

1. Shrimp can be coated and stored in refrigerator for at least an hour before frying up, which is great—get all the messy stuff out of the way before guests arrive! Just pull the prepped shrimp out of the refrigerator, start frying up—they only take 4-5 minutes to cook—and then serve hot with practically no mess! One site said the shrimp can be prepped up to 12 hours in advance. I did not test this.
2. Some recipes specify frying in coconut oil—I did try this. It made no significant change to the taste, it was harder to control the heat, and it was way more expensive—save your money and the aggravation, and use your favorite vegetable, corn, or canola oil.
3. Leftover shrimp can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, but the coating will be soggier when reheated.
4. Likewise, fried coconut shrimp freezes well, up to 2 months and can be reheated for 10 minutes in a 350° (177°C) oven or until thawed and warm, but again, the coating will be soggier than freshly fried coconut shrimp—I have not tested this either. 🙂

Original recipe from SallysBakingAddiction.com, but modified by me.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today. Next month’s Cookbook Club theme is Tomatoes! Fresh Tomato Lasagna? Tomato Tart? Caprese Garlic Bread? What’s a tomato-loving cook to do? 🙂