Coconut Shrimp
Jumbo shrimp in crispy coconut coating with sweet chili dipping sauce
- 1 lbjumbo shrimp(peeled, deveined, tails on)
- 1 cupunsweetened shredded coconut
- 0.5 cuprice flour(for gluten-free)
- 0.5 cupcornstarch
- 2eggs(beaten)
- 1 tspsalt
- vegetable oil(for frying)
- 0.5 cupsweet chili sauce(for dipping)
- 1Set up breading station: rice flour mixed with cornstarch and salt in one bowl, beaten eggs in second, shredded coconut in third
- 2Pat shrimp completely dry with paper towels
- 3Dredge each shrimp in flour mixture, dip in egg, then press firmly into coconut
- 4Heat oil to 350°F in deep pan or fryer
- 5Fry shrimp in batches for 2-3 minutes until golden brown
- 6Drain on paper towels and serve immediately with sweet chili sauce
Use unsweetened shredded coconut for best results—sweetened gets too dark. Gluten-free option uses rice flour and cornstarch instead of regular flour. Fry at 350°F for crispy coating without burning. Make sauce ahead to let flavors meld.
Coconut shrimp belongs to the American tiki restaurant tradition of the 1950s and 1960s, where restaurateurs including Donn Beach (who opened the first Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood in 1934) and Victor Bergeron (who opened Trader Vic's in Oakland in 1934) created elaborate fantasy versions of Polynesian and tropical Asian cuisines for American diners captivated by the Pacific theater of World War II. These restaurants drew on vague, romanticized ideas of Pacific Island, Chinese, and Southeast Asian cooking to create dishes that were entirely American inventions presented as "exotic." Coconut shrimp as a composed appetizer — large shrimp dipped in a coconut-flake coating and deep-fried — became a signature of this genre, combining the sweetness of coconut with the richness of a large Gulf or Pacific shrimp. Coconuts (Cocos nucifera) are native to the Indo-Pacific tropics and have been a food staple across Pacific Island, South Asian, and Southeast Asian cuisines for thousands of years; the use of coconut in savory preparations is deeply authentic to the region the tiki tradition was appropriating. By the 1980s and 1990s, coconut shrimp had moved beyond tiki restaurants into mainstream American casual dining, where it became a fixture on the appetizer menus of chains including Red Lobster, which helped establish it as one of the most widely recognized American seafood appetizers.