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4.87 from 171 votes
Fried Shrimp is so much easier to make at home than you think. Just a few, simple pantry ingredients to create this fried shrimp batter using flour and cornmeal to make it crispy, and now you’ll know how to make pan fried shrimp for easy dinners and it will become a true favorite!
Roll up your sleeves, break out your pans and get to dredging. You’re less than 30 minutes away from crispy fried shrimp and old bay co*cktail sauce or the dipping sauce recipe I share below, at home tonight.
Post originally created in 2021, updated in September 2023.
Serving tip: Serve this with steak! Not sure how to make steak? Here’s my favorite restaurant-quality steak recipe to use: How to Cook Steak!
Jump to:
- ❤️ Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- 🤔 How do you make crispy fried shrimp?
- 🧾 Recipe Ingredients
- 👩🏻🍳 Step by Step Directions:
- 🥫 Dipping Sauce Recipe for Shrimp
- 💭 Recipe Pro Tips
- ✅ Tips for How to Batter Shrimp
- ⏲ How long do you fry shrimp for?
- 🍟 Side Dishes to Serve with Southern Fried Shrimp
- ❄️ How to Store Leftover Shrimp
- 🍤 More Recipes You’ll Love
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
Hey there! Meg here and I’m so excited to share another recipe with you all! I know how much you loved this grilled shrimp so this will be another seafood recipe to add to your cookbook!
❤️ Why You’ll Love this Recipe
I don’t know about you but sometimes I find making fried foods at home kind of intimidating unless it’s air fryer shrimp.
When frying, there’s the whole dredging process and the sometimes messy, frying of the food in hot oil. But I’m here to tell you, you will LOVE how easy this recipe is and it’s way better than the store-bought, frozen breaded shrimp, that’s for sure!
Plus, using cornmeal and flour together in the batter, creates a crispy shrimp that’s hard not to love!
🤔 How do you make crispy fried shrimp?
The mixture of flour and cornmeal adds such a delicious crust to the shrimp. The cornmeal adds a crazy crunch and the flour adds its own wonderful touch for the crispiest fried shrimp!
A good amount of onion powder, garlic powder, kosher salt, and a nice sprinkle of cayenne pepper in the batter also bring lots of flavor and interest.
🧾 Recipe Ingredients
The ingredient list for this fried shrimp recipe is small and basic but it packs a punch! You’ll find that ingredients are similar for other fried recipes on the blog, so if you have pork chops handy, you’ll also love this fried pork chops recipe!
*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*
Shrimp + Oil
- Canola oil for frying (or vegetable oil)
- 24ounceslarge raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
Egg Wash
- 2largeeggs
- 1cupbuttermilk (or milk)
- 1/2tsp.kosher salt
- 1/2tsp.black pepper
Batter and Shrimp Seasoning
Keeping the seasoning simple is key for a crispy coating! Just a few favorite spices really give this shrimp, tons of flavor! You’ll be using these spices to mix with the flour and cornmeal!
- 1 1/2cupsall-purpose flour
- 1cupcornmeal
- 2tsp.kosher salt
- 1/2tsp.black pepper
- 2tsp.garlic powder
- 2tsp.onion powder
- 1tsp.cayenne pepper
Optional Dipping Sauce:
This sauce recipe is optional but highly recommended.
- 3/4cupmayo
- 1/2cupsweet chili sauce
Similar to this sauce, this boom boom shrimp is coated in a delicious tangy sauce!
👩🏻🍳 Step by Step Directions:
Before beginning: Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Line a large plate with a paper towel, set aside.
- In a cake pan, pie plate, shallow dish or shallow bowl, whisk together eggs and buttermilk. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper. (Image below.)
- In another cake pan, mix together the flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne pepper.
- Add shrimp to the egg mixture and coat shrimp well.
- A few at a time, add the shrimp to the flour/cornmeal mixture and coat completely. (Place on a clean plate while you bread the remaining shrimp.)
- Add shrimp to skillet in a single layer, making sure not to overcrowd the pan. Let shrimp cook and fry for 3 minutes, until crispy and to a golden brown perfection.
- Remove shrimp from oil with a slotted spoon and drain on a prepared plate that has layers of paper towels to soak up any excess oil. Continue until all shrimp is fried.
🥫 Dipping Sauce Recipe for Shrimp
Mayo and sweet chili sauce mix up to a creamy, spicy, slightly sweet sauce that really compliments the crispy, tender fried shrimp.
- Place the may and sweet chili sauce in a separate small bowl.
- Mix together the ingredients until evenly combined and serve with the cooked fried shrimp.
💭 Recipe Pro Tips
The Key to Less Mess: Ideally, set up two pie plates to create a breading station. You can use bowls if necessary but the wide, shallow shape of pie or cake pans makes the process much easier. One cake pan will have the liquid ingredients, in this case, an egg and buttermilk. The second pan will hold the dry ingredients, flour, cornmeal, and spices for a major flavor punch.
✅ Tips for How to Batter Shrimp
This is by far the best shrimp batter, and after so many others have made this too and left reviews saying they think it’s delicious too… it’s safe to say it’s an easy recipe that you’ll want to cook shrimp in from here on out!
Use one hand (I usually use my left since I move through the process left to right) to coat the shrimp in the egg mixture. Pick up the shrimp with the wet hand and place it in the dry mixture. Now use your other hand to gently coat the shrimp.
Because you aren’t going back and forth with both hands they aren’t getting goopy and gross. One hand will have egg and one hand flour but not a big lumpy mess.
It’s not anything revolutionary but it makes a big difference in the mess level of battering and frying.
⏲ How long do you fry shrimp for?
Once the shrimp are all nicely coated, to the oil they go. You can fill a rimmed skillet with a few inches of oil or you can use a deep fryer if you have one. Either option will work well and fry those shrimp up super quick. We’re talking 3 minutes quick.
So the whole process from start to finish is about 15 to 20 minutes. Restaurant quality fried shrimp at home in less than 20 minutes. I call that winning.
If you don’t want to make the sauce recipe above, here are some other dipping options for your shrimp that you will love:
- honey mustard
- co*cktail sauce
- spicy ketchup
- country gravy
- tartar sauce
- hot sauce
- remoulade sauce
- ranch
🍟 Side Dishes to Serve with Southern Fried Shrimp
Serve this southern fried shrimp recipe (or so we think it’s “southern”) with Amish potato salad or a side salad to round out your meal and enjoy. P.S. that side salad will give you LIFE.
Or, serve popular side dishes for fried shrimp, such as:
- fried mushrooms
- hush puppies
- potato wedges
- french fries (or polenta fries or eggplant fries for healthier options)
- roasted brussels sprouts
- corn on the cob
Or, if you want to serve it alone, you can easily add lemon wedges to the side and even a little chopped fresh parsley if you like!
❄️ How to Store Leftover Shrimp
To store any leftover shrimp, store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
How to Reheat Fried Shrimp
When ready to reheat the fried shrimp, using the air fryer works amazingly well! Or, you can bake it in the oven or a toaster oven (around 400 degrees for a few minutes until heated through) to crisp it up a little.
Using a microwave can leave the fried shrimp soggy but it’s definitely a way you can reheat if preferred.
🍤 More Recipes You’ll Love
Want more yummy recipes?You’ll also love this shrimp baked potato, grilled shrimp marinade recipe. Or, if you love fried recipes, this country fried steak is a great southern staple.
This fried rice recipe is perfect to create a fried shrimp rice recipe.
Or serve up this fried shrimp recipe as an appetizer with some of our other favorite easy appetizer recipes that we have here on the blog.
📖 Recipe
Crispy Fried Shrimp Recipe
Jessica Burgess
Classic, crispy fried shrimp is so much easier to make at home than you think. Just a few, simple pantry ingredients and you’re on your way to fried perfection.
4.87 from 171 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 6 minutes mins
Total Time 21 minutes mins
Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Servings 6 servings
Calories 492 kcal
Ingredients
- Canola oil for frying
- 24 ounces large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
Egg Wash
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk (or milk)
- 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
Batter
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 2 tsp. garlic powder
- 2 tsp. onion powder
- 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
Dipping Sauce:
- 3/4 cup mayo
- 1/2 cup sweet chili sauce
Instructions
Heat 1/2-inch of oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Line a large plate with a paper towel, set aside.
In a cake pan or pie plate whisk together eggs and buttermilk. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper.
In another cake pan, mix together the flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne pepper.
Add shrimp to the egg mixture and coat well. A few at a time, add the shrimp to the flour and coat completely. Place on a clean plate while you bread the remaining shrimp.
Add shrimp to skillet making sure not to overcrowd the pan. Fry for 3 minutes, until crispy and golden brown. Drain on prepared plate. Continue until all shrimp is fried.
Dipping Sauce
Mix mayo and sweet chili sauce in a bowl for dipping.
Notes
Breading the shrimp with less mess:
Set up your breading station using two pie plates. (Bowls can be used but the wide, shallow shape of pie or cake pans makes the process much easier.
One cake pan will have the liquid ingredients and the second pan will hold the dry ingredients, flour, cornmeal, and spices.
Use one hand to coat the shrimp in the egg mixture. Pick up the shrimp with the wet hand and place it in the flour mixture. Now use your other hand to gently coat the shrimp. Because you aren’t going back and forth with both hands they aren’t getting goopy and gross. One hand will have egg and one hand flour but not a big lumpy mess.
Nutrition
Serving: 1g | Calories: 492kcal | Carbohydrates: 57g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 82mg | Sodium: 1217mg | Potassium: 197mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 460IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 27mg | Iron: 2.9mg
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
