Shrimp Taquitos
Normally when you think of taquitos, you think bits of ground meat inside a thinly rolled tortilla, but these shrimp taquitos have a whole shrimp inside! A crispy fried tortilla with a shrimp tail poking out the back! Grab it by the tail and take a big bite- the juicy shrimp is perfectly cooked and the tortilla locks in all the flavor! Scoop up all that delicious cocktail sauce and sour cream and take a bite! You are already trying to figure out how many of these you can eat in one sitting aren’t you?
Where did this recipe come from?
I was lucky enough to visit my sister in San Clemente twice this summer, and there are a few things you need to make sure to do when you are there. First is drink a lot of beer, second is catch a sunset on the pier.
Third is go to South of Nick’s for some shrimp taquitos. I loved these so much that I had them both times I visited and still felt the need to recreate them at home. I waited a few months until the fall to post this recipe, because I think these would be great to serve at a small cocktail party that we all have so many of in the coming weeks.
Wrapping the shrimp taquitos
These are very simple to make but it might take a few before you really get the hang of it, so let’s go!
First you need to slightly soften the tortilla by warming it up. I used the microwave but you could also do it in a dry frying pan. Just a few seconds on each side until it is soft! Then dip the tortilla in some egg wash. There is hot sauce, cumin, and paprika mixed in the egg. Wrap the shrimp tightly in the tortilla.
Place the shrimp taquitos on a plate seam side down so they can seal. You could also use toothpicks at this point and take them out after frying, but I had no problem just doing it this way.
Frying the shrimp taquitos
I shallow fried these cause i don’t like wasting a ton of oil. Just put a couple inches of oil in a pan and fry them evenly on all sides.
It only takes a few minutes for them to get browned and crispy!
Pop them onto a drying rack and season with salt and pepper as they come out of the fryer.
Serving the shrimp taquitos
The sauce I served with these is just cocktail sauce and sour cream. I wanted to keep it simple! One of the ingredients is the best thing to serve with shrimp and the other is the best thing to serve with taquitos so it’s a perfect match if you think about it. Instead of fully mixing the sauce, I gently swirled the sour cream into the cocktail sauce so it looked unique on the plate.
Then just pile up the crispy shrimp taquitos! The best thing about the tortillas is they stay crispy unlike some types of breading that will easily get soggy.
Just a great simple idea that tastes so good. The shrimp stays extra juicy wrapped up in the tortilla, and the tortilla itself gets crispy like a chip. I could easily eat a couple orders of them myself if I wasn’t paying attention.
Variations on this recipe
These shrimp taquitos are so simple it’s hard to say what I might change. Mainly I guess it would be the sauce. You could serve this with a salsa and sour cream mixture to be a little more classic taquito. Also GUAC would be awesome, but when is it not?
I think if you got some really huge shrimp it would be interesting to see how the flavors would change. You would probably definitely need toothpicks to hold them together though! If you do use toothpicks, just put them in after wrapping and take them out after frying.
If you want to check out my other taquitos, I have made taquitos with a crispy cheese shell, cheeseburger grilled taquitos, and pulled pork and pickle taquitos!
Shrimp Taquitos
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 corn tortillas plus more for messups
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- salt and pepper
- 12 shrimp peeled with tail still attached
- oil for frying
- 1/4 cup cocktail sauce
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 10 chives
Instructions
- Wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave for 45 seconds
- Beat the egg with the hot sauce, paprika, cumin, and some salt and pepper.
- Cut a tortilla in half and dip the tortilla in the egg mixture. Lay on a flat surface and place the shrimp on it. Roll the tortilla tightly around the shrimp with the tail still poking out. Place on a plate seam side down and repeat until you do all the shrimp.
- Add a few inches of oil to a frying pan. preheat oil to 350. Fry shrimp until golden brown and crispy.
- Remove shrimp from oil onto a cooling rack and season with salt and pepper.
- Put the cocktail sauce into a serving bowl and add the sour cream. Swirl it lightly so you can still see the swirl. top with chives. Serve
Excellent presentation in photos and recipe technique is pro yet simple. These are what size shrimp, must be quite large to fill even half a corn tortilla?
Thank you! yes they are jumbo or 16/20 per pound