Food historians aren’t entirely sure about the provenance of coconut shrimp: No one knows whether the nutty-sweet deep-fried crustaceans were dreamed up on the shores of the Caribbean, on the Polynesian islands, or in post–World War II American tiki bars, where they transported happy hour revelers to the paradises of the South Pacific.
But there’s one thing for sure: The shrimp snack with island vibes is wildly popular, found everywhere from seafood joints to urban steakhouses to the supermarket freezer case.
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Taste of the Tropics
The thing about coconut shrimp is that for a food that’s meant to give off a breezy, beachy aura, it can skew a little dense and heavy.
So for my take, I started off by springing for jumbo shrimp, whose generous measurements would provide lots of sweet, succulent meat to support a substantial cloak of coconut shards and panko bread crumbs. The latter are typically mixed with the coconut, as their coarse, airy constitution helps to create a light texture without holding on to excess oil.
As I slipped the peels off the shrimp and dispatched the veins, I made sure to leave the tails on since they would serve as a convenient handle during the breading stage.
They’d also be handy for my guests, who would be dunking the piping hot shrimp into the zippy sauce (a standard accompaniment) that I planned to whip up. I sprinkled the prepped crustaceans with salt and baking soda and popped them into the fridge for 15 minutes. The salt would season the shellfish, and baking soda would raise the pH of its muscle, helping it stay moist and tender.
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Both unsweetened and sweetened coconut browned beautifully, but the fruity perfume and milky-sweet taste of the latter was much more pronounced.
While the shrimp sat, I lined up a triple-dip dredging station. Most recipes call for flour or cornstarch, beaten whole eggs or whites, and a 50:50 coconut-panko blend. When I gave the flour, whole egg, coconut-panko routine a go, I wasn’t surprised when the gluten-forming proteins in the flour made the coating a little tough.
Trading the flour for cornstarch eliminated gluten—and therefore toughness—from the equation.
Next, a comparison of whole eggs versus whites. A whole-egg coating was denser and not as crispy as one made with whites alone. Removing the yolk left just the protein and structure provided by the white, resulting in a lighter, more crackly coating. That’s because the fat in the yolk prevented the formation of crispiness-enhancing air bubbles.
Creating a Shattery, Supercoconutty Crust
For big, meaty bites of seafood cloaked in coconut, we start with jumbo shrimp. Then, we give the crustaceans a triple-dip treatment that’s specially designed to produce maximal crispiness and coconut flavor.
1. Dredge in Cornstarch: The gluten-forming proteins in flour can cause it to fry up dense. Cornstarch, however, doesn’t form gluten, so it fries up significantly airier and lighter.
2. Dip into Frothy Egg Whites: Tacky egg whites help the coconut adhere to the shrimp. Whipping the whites (along with a little salt to denature their proteins and make them more fluid) to an airy foam creates a cocoon of tiny bubbles around each shrimp that is able to sustain an ethereal crispiness.
3. Coat in Sweetened Coconut . . . When we sampled shrimp made with sweetened versus unsweetened shredded coconut, the sweetened kind tasted far more coconutty. Why? After the shredded fruit is dried, it is dunked into a viscous sugar solution that helps it hold on to moisture, and moisture is critical for retaining volatile flavor compounds. Meanwhile, unsweetened shredded coconut is simply dried, which results in a loss of flavor compounds.
. . . and Panko: Airy panko helps break up the milky-sweet shreds, so the coating is light, not dense.
But the coating was patchy, even bare in spots. So I added a little salt to thin the gloopy egg whites and took a whisk to them to create a loose foam. Now it clung more evenly and helped the slivers of coconut stick better. I was delighted to find that the mini air bubbles in the egg white foam had good staying power too.
Cooking set the bubbles, so they remained after frying, giving the coating an even lighter, crispier texture.
Going Coconuts
As for the shredded coconut, both unsweetened and sweetened types browned beautifully, but the fruity perfume and milky-sweet taste of the latter was much more pronounced.
That’s because the sugar solution that the shreds are dipped into after drying helps prevent the volatile flavor compounds from escaping by locking in moisture. Reducing the amount of panko by one-third also helped the tropical fragrance and flavor of the coconut to shine.
Not-So-Deep Frying
With the shrimp encrusted in coconut, it was time to fry.
Deep frying typically requires a large amount of oil and a pot that retains heat well (such as a Dutch oven) to keep the temperature of the oil from dipping too much when you add the food.
But because shrimp have a relatively small mass, the oil temperature stayed steady even after the seafood went into the pot. This made me think that I might be able to reduce the oil and move to a smaller pot, where less oil would still provide enough depth. Indeed, just 1 quart of oil in a large saucepan heated to 325 degrees cooked the shrimp through and turned the coconut from chalk-white to coppery in two quick batches.
Fry Shrimp in Less Oil
Our coconut shrimp cook in just 1 quart of oil—a big reduction from the 3 quarts that we typically use for deep frying. We can get away with it because shrimp have a relatively small mass and cook quickly, so they don’t cool the oil much when they enter the saucepan.
For the dipping sauce, I wanted something a little sweet, a little sour, and a little spicy to complement the sweetness and richness of the shrimp. I pulled a few jars out of the pantry and stirred together a fruity number centered around apricot jam: The stone fruit preserve provided a sweet base to echo that of the shrimp; rice vinegar contributed tang, and sriracha, heat.
Pour the sauce into a bowl and arrange the piping hot shrimp on a platter alongside, and these plump, crispy, coconutty shrimp will fetch all the attention at cocktail hour (or the dinner table).
Coconut Shrimp with Spicy Apricot Dipping Sauce
Encrust plump jumbos in tropical-sweet shreds of coconut and fry until they’re hot, golden, and delicately crispy.
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