These tacos were so good, with a great balance of flavors. When we made our monthly trip to the awesome (though faraway) grocery store Wegman’s recently, I bought my standard 2 lb. bag of shrimp. Since I often have some on hand, I am always looking for new, good things to do with the shrimp. While browsing Food and Wine online, I saw a recipe for tacos that featured fried shrimp and a spicy slaw. I knew I wanted to make a version of them, but I made the recipe all my own based on what I had on hand and our own tastes (mainly, that is, the fact that we’re avocado lovers).
Avocado and crispy shrimp tacos with spicy slaw
Makes 4 tacos (2 servings)
ingredients
for shrimp:
16 shrimp – peeled, deveined, and tails removed, patted very dry
½ cup milk
2-3 Tbsp. plain yogurt
¾ cup panko
Canola oil for frying
for tacos:
1 large, ripe avocado
½ lime
Salt
4 small flour tortillas
for slaw:
1 ½ cups shredded Napa cabbage
¼ cup canola mayonnaise
6 pickled jalapeno slices
1 Tbsp. juice from jar of pickled jalapenos
Up to 1 Tbsp. water as needed
Salt and pepper
directions
1. First, prepare slaw. Finely mince pickled jalapenos until they are almost completely crushed. Place in a medium mixing bowl with the mayo and add the juice from the jalapeno jar and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk together, adding water if needed to make a dressing with a vinaigrette-like consistency. Fold in shredded cabbage and toss to coat cabbage with dressing. Set aside.
2. Next, bread shrimp. Whisk together milk and yogurt in a shallow bowl, adding more yogurt if necessary to make the milk the consistency of buttermilk (so that it just coats shrimp) – the original recipe called for buttermilk, so you can use that if you have some on hand. I made this substitution because the only buttermilk left at the store was in quart-sized containers; that’s definitely not an amount I could use up!
Place the panko in a second shallow bowl. Dip the shrimp first into the milk mixture and then into the panko, pressing to coat shrimp in the crumbs. Set breaded shrimp aside on a clean plate.
3. Roughly dice avocado and toss with juice of ½ lime and a sprinkling of salt on the cutting board.
4. Fry shrimp. Heat about ½ inch of canola oil in a cast iron skillet or another heavy pan over medium-high heat. Oil is ready when a small pinch of flour sizzles and immediately dissipates when added. Fry shrimp for a total of 2 minutes, turning once. Drain shrimp on paper towels.
5. Warm tortillas by wrapping them in a clean kitchen towel and heating in the microwave for 20-30 seconds on high. Plate tacos by dividing shrimp and avocado among the tortillas and topping each with slaw and a drizzle of additional dressing.
Enjoy!
For the Food and Wine recipe that inspired me to create this dish, click here.
oh my gosh — this looks so delicious. This is my kind of meal! The balance of flavors and textures sounds so good.
What a great dish! I love the combo of avocado and shrimp… especially with a little bacon mixed in 🙂
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