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You don’t have to be a fan of the movie Forest Gump to love these copycat Bubba Gump shrimp.
Delicious Copycat Bubba Gump Shrimp
Haven’t seen Forest Gump in years but I remembered my husband and I enjoyed the film. I vaguely remember he owned a shrimp boat.
My memory was jogged when I saw this recipe on CD Kitchen and decided I had to make this. Mainly I love shrimp and coconut. Together, they’re outstanding. The shrimp are pretty sweet so a nice cocktail sauce or horseradish sauce is the perfect accompaniment for these shrimp. With most fried seafood, I prefer tartar sauce, but not with this. Cocktail sauce is it.
Deep Frying
These shrimp are deep fried. If you have an oil deep frying machine, that’s good but you are going to have to ditch the oil after making these. The coconut is the thing that makes the oil useless after frying. So I recommend doing these with about 1-inch/2.5-cm of oil in a regular skillet. Again, the oil should be discarded after cooking but it’s less wasteful than the gallon-or-so oil that fills a deep fryer.
Now the next question: no, you cannot air fry these. Anything batter dipped is an air frying disaster. Don’t even try it.
Batter
Where I generally make a batter with plain flour, this one uses baking mix–like Jiffy or Bisquik. The recipe stated “pancake mix” but then said, “Like Bisquik.” To me, pancake mix is the so-called complete stuff where you just add water. I don’t call Bisquik that, but maybe some do. Anyway, it’s what is used and I was surprised at the excellent results.
The liquid used is beer, just like you use for fish and chips (a famous food of my people) batter. The recipe didn’t state flat beer as most batters do. I used beer right out of the bottle and it worked just fine. The beer acts like yeast so let it stand about 15 minutes to rest.
The Recipe
Copycat Bubba Gump Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 lb large shrimp 26-30 per pound
- 3/4 cup baking mix i.e. Bisquik
- 3/4 cup beer
- vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 cup flaked coconut
Instructions
- Peel shrimp, leaving tails intact. Devein, if needed. Rinse well and drain thoroughly.
- Pour oil to depth of 1-inch/2.5-cm into a Dutch oven or deep fryer; heat to 350F/180C.
- Combine baking mix and beer in a small bowl; stir until smooth. Mixture should resemble pancake batter.
- Dredge shrimp in flour; shake off excess. Dip shrimp into batter; dredge in coconut. Fry, a few at a time, 45 seconds on each side or until golden. Drain on paper towels.
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