- Hey, I'm John Kanell
and today on Preppy Kitchen,
we're making coconut shrimp.
So let's get started.
For this delicious recipe,
you'll want two pounds of shrimp,
sweetened shredded coconut, that stuff is amazing.
Panko breadcrumbs, some eggs, flour, salt and pepper,
oil for frying, and at the end,
we're gonna be dipping it in sweet chili sauce.
First off, I want to talk about the shrimp
for just a moment.
This recipe, in my humble opinion,
is best when you have shrimp with the tail on.
They're like little handles,
so you can just om-nom-nom, enjoy them.
If someone happens to buy you fully peeled shrimp,
that's fine, too.
I'll show you how to do it.
It's okay.
It's still gonna delicious.
Even if your shrimp are totally cleaned
when you got them, double-check.
Here I found one with a vein.
It's actually a digestive tract.
We remove those.
They're not delicious.
Just make sure the shrimp are totally thawed
if you bought them frozen
and also give them a little pat,
make sure they're really well-drained.
Now we're gonna set up our dredging station.
This is really easy and it goes by fast.
So in my first bowl,
I want 120 grams or one cup of all-purpose flour
to which I am gonna be adding
three quarters of a teaspoon of salt, just about.
Measuring the way my mom does.
And then a quarter teaspoon of pepper.
Give this a little whisk to mix it up.
And you can season this with whatever you'd like.
Extra seasonings are always appreciated.
Set that aside and in another bowl,
I'm gonna add three eggs.
Just crack 'em in.
This is gonna be the glue
that holds our delicious coconut Panko situation
onto the shrimp.
Shrimp are one of my favorite things to eat.
I love them in many different preparations.
And if you watch this channel,
you know I am addicted to coconuts.
So this is like my dream recipe come true.
Give that a quick whisk.
The last part of my dredging station
is gonna be the coconut Panko breadcrumb situation.
One and a quarter cup or 70 grams
of Panko breadcrumbs.
They're very light.
Oh my gosh, the house is so quiet now.
Brian is on a scenic drive with the kids.
When they come home, we're gonna have a delicious dinner,
which includes these coconut shrimp.
This stuff is magic.
My brother and I would always just eat tons of it
because my mom makes German chocolate cakes a lot.
125 grams of sweetened shredded coconut.
That's one and a quarter cup, too.
Scale's done.
I'm just gonna use my hands to mix this together
because we want all the Panko breadcrumbs to be mixed in.
And the best way to do that is with your clean fingers.
This smells amazing right now.
So good.
I just like start shoveling this into my mouth.
These shrimp are often served
with a delicious, sweet chili sauce.
If you can't find it at your market,
you can use regular chili paste and some light corn syrup.
Just mix them up in a bowl
and you can actually make it as sweet or spicy as you like.
And it's really tasty.
Set your dredging station up,
and you're gonna want a wire rack.
You can put it over paper towels or a pan.
That's the end.
Coconut, egg, flour, shrimp.
And because my shrimp are missing their tails,
I'm using some tongs.
I also have a cast iron skillet
at the very end of my assembly line.
So since this is gonna go quickly,
I'm gonna start heating it up right now.
I want one inch of oil
and it's gonna be 350.
So a little bit of oil, there we go.
All right, let's get started.
Grab a shrimp.
We're going to dust it with some of the seasoned flour.
That's step one.
Give it a bit of egg.
That's the glue.
And now you do not just whip your tail around.
You wanna cover and press a bit
because you really want coconut, Panko breadcrumbs,
everything amazing on there.
You're gonna repeat that process for all of your shrimp.
And you can do a few at a time, one at a time,
whatever you prefer.
This is one of those recipes
that I would have at restaurants
when I was like a teenager.
I just love coconut everything.
And kind of like the taste of tropical flavors.
It really brings back a lot of memories.
Those restaurants are not where I live now.
So I'm on my own.
And I'm like recreating like a childhood memory, basically.
This recipe is really nice
because it comes together just so quickly.
And it's really easy, too.
So if you have some helpers in the kitchen
that wanna give you a hand,
just make some coconut shrimp.
You can serve this with like, ooh,
like a nice kind of mango coconut rice to go with this.
Or even a stir fry would be good, too.
Or like a slaw with some peanuts in it.
All these things are delicious options.
You can let me know in the comments
what you would serve this with,
or if you would just have this on its own.
It's kind of a great snack.
You know, maybe you could freeze these.
It's kind of interesting.
I might give that a try and report back.
If you do, though,
you would freeze them on a sheet of parchment paper,
all separate.
So make sure they're not like a big mountain.
And then once they're completely frozen,
you can pop them into a freezer bag
and you would just have to defrost slowly.
So grab a couple shrimp, toss them around.
Mmm.
Always pat that down
'cause you really want as much coconut as possible.
If you're wondering what the Panko does,
it gives you that extra crunch, which is really great.
Getting these without tails
might've been a really happy accident.
Normally the tails are a great handle.
Like nom, so delicious, and you just like toss them aside,
but kind of that's kinda gross.
And if you get a bite of the shell,
it's not the best either.
So here, the whole thing is edible
and you get like even more coconut on top.
My one tip for you is if you're using a fork or tongs
or whatever, to go from station to station
in your dredge,
press, press, press that coconut on at the end
and then just use your hands to transfer them over here.
That way there'll be like fully coated
because the tongs kind of rip some off.
Ooh, 316, we're getting close, 340.
Just keep on dredging
and then you'll have like a full assembly line
to completion.
If you are not comfortable with that,
just heat your oil up later.
Everything will be ready to go.
The end of my assembly line is a double layer
of paper towels right there, and a clean set of tongs.
You don't wanna have like the raw tongs
and the cook tongs mixing.
Now we're gonna carefully add this into the oil.
They cook really quickly, you know, shrimp cooks fast.
So just keep an eye on it
and you're gonna flip them over once.
Mmm, I love that sound.
One of my favorite things in the world.
Golden brown and so pretty, too.
Okay, I think I'm fully pro no tail.
So while those are frying,
we're just continuing our dredge
and it happens so quickly now.
Pan frying is super easy,
but one thing to keep track of is the temperature.
Whenever you add these shrimp in, it's gonna drop,
but then it'll rise back up.
Just be fully attuned to what's happening on here,
or keep a thermometer handy
so you can see, hum, is this 350 still?
It was a minute ago.
You never want to overcook shrimp.
Perfectly cooked shrimp is like just melt in your mouth,
it's a wonderful, like buttery texture.
You overcook it, it'll be rubbery.
When you fry these,
once the outside is golden brown,
the inside is perfectly cooked.
They're gonna be amazing fresh out of the fryer.
If people are running late for dinner,
things like that happen.
I like to warm them back up in my air fryer.
Just a couple minutes at 400 heats them back up,
keeps them nice and crispy,
kind of gives them a re-crisp.
No one even knows.
It tastes like they're fresh out of the fryer that way.
They're not gonna do well in a microwave.
(John laughs)
So if you don't have an air fryer,
just pop them into the oven on a sheet
really quickly at a high heat.
If you're getting mountains of coconut and Panko
onto your shrimp, I am so proud of you.
It's gonna be delicious.
But you might have a lot of flour,
a lot of eggs, and be running low on this.
Just add equal parts and you'll be fine.
You can keep on going.
These shrimp are delicious on their own,
but they're that much better
with a little homemade sweet chili sauce.
(shrimp crunching)
Mmm.
That is sweet, crunchy, spicy, amazing!
There aren't gonna be any leftovers.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.
And if you like this video,
check out my easy dinner playlist.