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One of my favorites: salt and pepper shrimp that's so crispy you can eat the shell and tail!

Salt And Pepper Shrimp

Deep-fried shrimp with colorful toppings that's so crispy you can eat the shell and tail.
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Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: Shrimp

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs shrimp (1 bag) For frozen shrimp, already deveined shrimp are the most convenient. Make sure they have their shells and tails on as this makes the shrimp crispy.

Shrimp batter

  • 2 tbsp white wine
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ¼ c corn starch

Vegetable toppings

  • 1 chopped jalapeno
  • 1 handful chopped green bell pepper
  • 1 handful chopped green onions
  • 1 handful roughly chopped Chinese parsley Optional, but adds some nice color and flavor.
  • 2 red chili peppers Or red bell pepper if you don't want the heat.
  • ¼ c chopped onions
  • 2 tbsp chopped ginger
  • 5 cloves chopped garlic

Instructions

Preparation

  • In a medium sized pot, add 1 - 2 inches of vegetable oil (not olive oil) and adjust heat to high as you prepare. The oil must be very hot when you start frying.

Shrimp batter

  • If your shrimp is frozen, let it defrost naturally in the sink for a couple of hours. Devein if fresh. In a large mixing bowl, combine the shrimp, wine, salt, and corn starch. Mix.
    Shrimp batter.
  • While your oil is heating up, cup up all your vegetable toppings.
    Chopped up some green onions, green bell peppers, onions, garlic, red chili peppers, and chinese parsley (not pictured).

Frying the shrimp

  • Once the oil is very hot, add the shrimp into the pot a few at a time and make sure they don't touch or overlap in the oil or they'll stick together. Mom used a small sift about 45 seconds in to mix and turn the shrimp and make sure they were all separate from each other.
    Mom adding the shrimp very carefully to the hot oil. The oil can splash so release the shrimp away from your body.
  • Cook about 2 minutes and once the shrimp turns into a light gold color, take them out and put them on some newspaper and paper towel to let the oil drip. Fry the rest of the shrimp until all are cooked.
    Take out the shrimp after about a minute. You don't want to overcook it.
  • Once all of the shrimp have been removed from the pot, let the oil reheat for about a minute and deep-fry the shrimp for an additional 1 - 2 minutes. This will make the shrimp extra crispy even when the dish has cooled off a bit. Remove and place on the newspaper and paper towel once more.
    Mom likes to use a small sift utensil to move the shrimp around once or twice as it cooks.

Adding the vegetables

  • On a large frying pan, add a couple tablespoons of oil and adjust the heat to medium high.
  • Add the garlic, ginger, onions, and red chili pepper. Let this cook for about a minute.
    Add the non-green vegetables into the fry pan with some oil and let it cook for about 40 seconds.
  • Add the bell pepper and cook for another minute.
    Add the green bell peppers.
  • Add the shrimp and stir so that the vegetables go all over the shrimp.
    Add the shrimp and stir so the vegetables get stuck on the shrimp. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  • Add salt and pepper (about 1 tbsp each) and mix once more. I personally like extra pepper in this dish. Cook for another minute.
  • Turn the heat off and add the green onions and Chinese parsley. The parsley is optional but our family loves the flavor so we'll add extra.
    Once the stove is turned off, add the chinese parsley and plate. You don't have to stir in the parsley as it's more for looks and color contrast.
  • Remove from the stove and plate on a large serving dish.
    One of my favorites: salt and pepper shrimp that's so crispy you can eat the shell and tail!

Notes

  • Mom recommends using a pot instead of a large pan for frying because this dish tends to splatter since the shrimp are wet. The deeper the pot, the less splatter you'll have going onto your countertops, floor and yourself.
  • Because the shrimp splatters so easily, add the shrimp into the oil away from your body.
  • For this recipe, we actually ran out of jalapenos and used green bell peppers instead. However, ideally you want to use red chili peppers and jalapenos for a nice all around heat. Remove the seeds if you don't want it to be so hot or substitute with red/green bell peppers.
  • While all of the vegetable toppings are optional, it's best to have some green and red vegetables because that's what makes this dish so attractive.
  • Fresh shrimp can be used, but it's a lot more work as you'll have to devein them.
  • Frozen shrimp: Mom uses 21-25 shrimp in a bag per pound, which is the easiest to get and usually a cheaper option here in Hawaii. She also uses 16 - 20 if that's all available. Do not use 40+ as these shrimps are just too tiny.
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