One thing I love about making shrimp is how quickly it cooks. Add on a few extra minutes to mix up the sauce in this Sweet & Spicy Shrimp recipe, and you’ve got a tasty dinner on the table in 15 minutes or less.
Copycat Bang Bang Shrimp
This recipe could be considered a better-for-you (and not as spicy) version of Bang Bang Shrimp (which is deep-fried), and my child who “thinks” she doesn’t like shrimp was even willing to try it. Hey, with all the tasty stuff this shrimp is coated in you might just forget what you’re biting into on the inside!
Featured Comment
We tried this tonight and it was so good! My whole family loved it! It came together much quicker than I anticipated, too!
How Long Can Shrimp Marinate in Buttermilk?
While I made this recipe so that you can quickly pull it together for dinner, you can leave it marinating in the fridge for up to 3 or 4 hours.
Can You Double Fry Shrimp?
If you’d like them to be extra crispy, readers have suggested double coating them. Do one layer of buttermilk, then roll in flour, then back in the buttermilk, and one more layer of flour.
What to Serve with Sweet & Spicy Shrimp
Serve this Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with a green veggie, or even some slaw, and brown rice (we love those quick-cooking packets), and your quick and easy dinner is done!
More Shrimp Recipes You Might Enjoy
Sweet & Spicy Buttermilk Shrimp
Ingredients
For the shrimp
- 1 pound shrimp peeled and deveined
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
- coconut oil for cooking
For the sauce
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco hot sauce
- 1 clove garlic minced
- small handful sliced green onions (optional garnish)
Instructions
- In a shallow bowl, combine the shrimp and buttermilk and let sit while you make the sauce. Alternatively, store it for up to 3 or 4 four hours in the fridge.
- To make the sauce, whisk together the sour cream, vinegar, honey, soy sauce, Tabasco, and garlic in a large bowl.
- Spread the flour out on a plate. Shake the buttermilk off the shrimp and roll it in the flour until well coated. I find it's helpful to keep one hand designated as your "wet hand" (buttermilk) and one hand as your "dry hand" (flour).
- Heat a thin layer of coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Pan fry the shrimp until golden brown on both sides and done, white and firm all the way through the middle, 2 to 3 minutes per side. (Tip: Try not to flip them until you see they are golden brown on the bottom. The more you handle and move around anything with a coating like this the more chance it could flake off!)
- Toss the shrimp in the bowl with the sauce until coated, top with green onions (if desired), and serve.
The pan fried shrimp was great, however when I made the sauce and tried it, it was really not good. I didn’t bother to put it on the shrimp, it had a weird mix of sour and spicy. The sour cream was not a good choice here, maybe a mayo based or sweetened condensed milk based sauce would have worked much better here.
Thanks for your feedback on this recipe. In most of our recipes, we try to avoid mayo since store-bought mayo isn’t exactly what Lisa calls “real food”. You can certainly try again with that substitution and let us know if you like it better. – Nicole
Is there a good dairy-free sub for buttermilk? Can I use oat milk and vinegar?
Hi Amy, while we haven’t tried a dairy-free sub, it looks like oat milk and apple cider vinegar or even lemon juice would work. – Nicole
We tried this tonight and it was so good! My whole family loved it! It came together much quicker than I anticipated, too!
Sorry about that! That step accidentally got deleted but we’ve fixed it. Please refresh the page to see the entire recipe. – Nicole
I don’t usually have buttermilk on hand. Is it necessary or can you substitute it for something else?
You can make your own buttermilk easily. For this recipe you would put 1 1/2 tsp of vinegar in your measuring cup then fill to the 1/2 C line with milk. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Lisa, you forgot to tell us how to cook the shrimp! I’m guessing it’s air fried?
Hey Stacey – Oops! I deleted one of the steps by mistake, but just fixed it. Please refresh the page to see the entire recipe. – Jason
Sorry about that! That step accidentally got deleted but we’ve fixed it. Please refresh the page to see the entire recipe. – Nicole
Do you use already cooked shrimp? If yes, what do you use the coconut oil for? This looks amazing, but I feel like you left a step out.
Ha! I just said the same thing and guessed air fried. But you are right, the recipe did call for coconut oil! I think the cooking step is missing because eating wet flour would not be delish, haha.
Sorry Patti, I deleted one of the steps by mistake. Just fixed it…please refresh the page to see the entire recipe. – Jason
Sorry about that! That step accidentally got deleted but we’ve fixed it. Please refresh the page to see the entire recipe. – Nicole
Sorry about that! That step accidentally got deleted but we’ve fixed it. Please refresh the page to see the entire recipe. – Nicole
Sorry about that! That step accidentally got deleted but we’ve fixed it. Please refresh the page to see the entire recipe. – Nicole
Sorry about that! That step accidentally got deleted but we’ve fixed it. Please refresh the page to see the entire recipe. – Nicole