This Chinese salt pepper shrimp is one of the famous Chinese take out dishes because it is not only lip-smacking delicious, it is a very easy shrimp recipe. It can be served with steamed rice or by itself as a delicious snack.
Another famous Chinese take out dish that you can't miss. I mean, who doesn't once in their life order these delicious off the to-go menu of any Chinese restaurant (or Panda Express), right?
This recipe is somewhat similar to this salt and pepper chicken nuggets. The difference between the two is instead of dredging the protein in flour mixture, it is coated in beer batter to enhance the crispiness.
Both recipes share the amazing salt pepper lime dipping sauce that for sure will blow your mind. The combination and two most basic cooking seasonings with a squeeze of acidic is the ode to everyone's taste buds.
Cooking schedule for this Chinese salt and pepper shrimp
Plan to cook this easy shrimp recipe for dinner? I have a cooking big picture planning ahead for you:
- 4:00 pm - gather ingredients for beer batter
- 4:10 pm - make beer batter and let it rest for 1 hour under refrigeration
- 4:30 pm - peel and devein shrimps
- 4:45 pm - gather the rest of the ingredients
- 5:00 pm - make lime dipping sauce
- 5:10 pm - heat vegetable oil for deep fry and take beer batter out of the fridge
- 5:15 pm - start frying beer battered shrimps in 3 batches
- 5:45 pm - quickly sauté vegetables, shrimps with salt and pepper seasoning
- 5:50 pm - serve
Fresh or frozen? Pre-peeled or shell-on shrimps?
What I prefer and recommend for this recipe you should use frozen shrimps. Unless you really can get access to fresh, live shrimps then frozen is out of the picture.
But the chances are relative low. Because the vast majority of shrimp sold in the US supermarket were frozen at sea. The fresh shrimps you see in your neighborhood grocery store were probably thawed out from the frozen bags.
So you're better off buying frozen shrimps and defrost them yourself.
Then peeled or shell-on? Technically, I prefer shell-on shrimps not only for this salt and pepper prawn recipe, but also for any other recipe.
Pre-peeled shrimps tend to be overhandled and mangled. Making them too mushy and soft to work for most recipes. You can read more about shrimps and their specs here.
Shrimps used in this recipe: peeled, deveined with tail on.
How to make this salt & pepper prawn
Deep fry shrimp
- Whisk together beer batter ingredients (include AP flour, corn starch, cold beer, baking powder and Kosher salt) and let it sit for at least 1 hour under refrigeration. Make sure the batter is lump free.
- This beer batter can be kept in an airtight container, in the fridge, for up to 2 days. So you can make it ahead of time.
- In a large round cooking pan, fill it half way with vegetable oil and heat over high heat. Make sure the oil temperature reaches 350F before frying.
- Holding the tail, lightly dredge peeled shrimp in AP flour first, then carefully dip it into beer batter.
- This extra dredging step is to make sure the batter to stick on the shrimps and provides such crispiness to the fullest.
- Carefully lower the shrimp into hot oil. It is important to not throw the shrimp in the oil or you will get burnt.
- Add few more shrimps to the pan. Don't overcrowd or shrimps will become soggy as the temperature of the oil drops.
- Shrimps are done when their outer layers turn deep golden brown and become crispy. Approximately 7-9 minutes. Use slotted spoon to transfer cooked shrimps to a large plate lined with oil-absorbing papers or paper towels.
- Continue the process for the rest of the shrimps.
Make Chinese salt and pepper shrimp
- In a sautéed pan, heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add bell peppers, jalapeno and white onion and cook for 1 minute.
- Add deep fried shrimps and cook for 30 seconds.
- Followed by seasoning mixture, give the pan a few shakes to coat everything evenly, approximately 5 to 10 seconds. You should be able to smell strong pepper fragrance at this point.
- Turn off the heat. Serve immediately with lime dipping sauce.
Related Chinese food inspired recipes
- General Tso's chicken - the most famous Chinese take out
- Vegan sesame tofu
- Chinese egg noddle soup with roasted duck
- Soya sauce chicken
- Roasted crispy pork belly
Did you make this recipe? If so please leave a rating and let me know how it went in the comment section. Also, don't forget to tag me #cookmorphosis on Instagram and Pinterest.
Chinese Salt & Pepper Shrimp
Ingredients
For S&P Shrimps
- 1 lb shrimps about 20 counts, peeled, deveined, tail-on
- 1 small green bell pepper cut into bite size
- 1 small red bell pepper cut into bite size
- 1 small yellow bell pepper cut into bite size
- ½ small white onion cut into bite size
- 2 small jalapeno sliced
- vegetable oil as needed
For beer batter
- 1 ½ c AP flour
- ½ c cornstarch
- 1.5 + ¼ c cold beer
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp Kosher salt
Lime dipping sauce
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp Kosher salt
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
Instructions
Make beer batter
- Whisk together beer batter ingredients (include AP flour, corn starch, cold beer, baking powder and Kosher salt) and let it sit for at least 1 hour under refrigeration. Make sure the batter is lump free.
- This beer batter can be kept in an airtight container, in the fridge, for up to 2 days. So you can make it ahead of time.
Deep fry shrimps
- In a large round cooking pan, fill it half way with vegetable oil and heat over high heat. Make sure the oil temperature reaches 350F before frying.
- Holding the tail, lightly dredge peeled shrimp in AP flour first, then carefully dip it into beer batter. (This extra dredging step is to make sure the batter to stick on the shrimps and provides such crispiness to the fullest.)
- Carefully lower the shrimp into hot oil. It is important to not throw the shrimp in the oil or you will get burnt.
- Add few more shrimps to the pan. Don’t overcrowd or shrimps will become soggy as the temperature of the oil drops. (I separate 1lb of shrimps into 3 batches to fry).
- Shrimps are done when their outer layers turn deep golden brown and become crispy. Approximately 7-9 minutes. Use slotted spoon to transfer cooked shrimps to a large plate lined with oil-absorbing papers or paper towels.
- Continue the process for the rest of the shrimps.
Sauté shrimps & vegetables
- In a sautéed pan, heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add bell peppers, jalapeno and white onion and cook for 1 minute.
- Add deep fried shrimps and cook for 30 seconds.
- Followed by seasoning mixture, give the pan a few shakes to coat everything evenly, approximately 5 to 10 seconds. You should be able to smell strong pepper fragrance at this point.
- Turn off the heat. Serve immediately with lime dipping sauce as a snack or with steamed rice
For lime dipping sauce
- In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients. It can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.
Notes
- It's better to use shell-on, frozen shrimps instead of pre-peeled shrimps. Pre-peeled shrimps tend to be overhandled and mangled. Making them too mushy and soft to work for most recipes.
- If the batter is too thin, add 1 tbsp of flour, whisk, then check the consistency before adding more flour.
- If the batter is too thick, add 1 tbsp of cold beer, whisk, then check the consistency before adding more beer.
- Always add 1 tbsp of flour or cold beer at a time to prevent unfixable batter.
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