Southern Beer Battered Shrimp Recipe

One of my favorite foods in the whole entire world…shrimp.  Shrimp are amazing no matter which way they are cooked, but it’s really hard to beat fried shrimp.  Living in the south you learn a bit about shrimp and which ones are the sweetest, biggest, or best for your shrimp salad or scampi recipe.  There’s a huge difference and my favorite shrimp are always from Key West or Savannah.  Luckily, we’re close to both areas.  We’ve even caught our own shrimp in the Keys!

Now that you know just how serious shrimp are around here, you’ll trust me when I tell you this Southern Beer Battered Shrimp recipe is something you should keep on hand.  This is the best batter ever!

Here’s a look at what I made the other night for dinner.  It’s a rather traditional type meal around here that reminds us of Sunday Supper at Grandma’s house.  That’s hard to beat, right?!

I started with about 3 pounds of beautiful Savannah shrimp that Tim’s grandma brought home with her on a trip to visit family in Savannah.  Grandma Shuman usually brings back some type of food…she’s awesome like that.

You’ll notice these shrimp are large and light colored. 

Here’s what you’ll need for the batter…

• 1 cup beer
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• salt & pepper to taste

This should give you enough batter for about 1 1/2 pound of shrimp.

Slowly blend the beer into the flour.  Add salt and pepper. 

Now, cover it and let it sit at room temperature for a couple hours.

Prepare your shrimp.  You can drink any leftover beer while you work…you can’t just waste it!

Remove the shell up to the tail.  I usually remove all the legs at the bottom first to make the shell easier to peel off.

Devein your shrimp by using a sharp knife to cut along the back of your shrimp and run it under cold water to wash away and yucky looking stuff.

Repeat this step over and over again.  It always seems to take forever…but it’s worth it!

Once your batter is ready and your shrimp are cleaned it’s time to fry them up!

• Fill up a large pot half way with oil and heat it up to 350 degrees
• Pat 4-5 shrimp dry with a paper towel…this is a key step!
• Dip them in your batter and let them drip a second over the bowl
• Gently drop them in the oil and fry them for 3-5 minutes.
• Remove them and let them dry a bit on some paper towels
• Repeat until you’ve fried them all up!

While you’re waiting on the shrimp to fry you can snack on peanuts…

These are Georgia peanuts…also brought back from Savannah.  They are small, but super sweet and yummy.  If you are ever passing through Georgia this is the type of peanut you’ll find at the local fruit and vegetable stands.

They are a bit of work, but they’re worth it.

I always have cocktail sauce for me and tarter sauce for my husband.  The waffle fries just go together with shrimp and always disappear fast.

You could use this batter for fish, oysters or anything else.  It’s light and goes perfectly with seafood.

There you have it…the best fried shrimp recipe ever!

Are you a seafood lover?  What’s your favorite?  Shrimp, oysters, lobster?

~Kim