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Hi, I’m Catherine.
Mama of three. A Kentucky girl living in California. Here’s what I know: all kids can be great eaters and mealtime must be easy. I create simple, healthy recipes the whole family will love.
Coconut Baked Shrimp
When I want to cook the kids dinner, but also serve the same dish for an extra special date night at home for me and hubby, I make these delicious Baked Coconut Shrimp! They're so family friendly!
When I first moved to New York City in my late teens, I lived across the street from a restaurant called The Coffee Shop. Friends and I would spend hours there hanging out, watching people on the street walk by and enjoying the delicious Coconut Shrimp (that's still on their menu to this day!) I'm sure the shrimp were deep fried, but they were so good I still remember the incredible flavor over 20 years later.
I wanted to share this special food memory with my kids, only with a version that was a bit more healthy, so I opted for baking instead of frying. With a crispy coconut outer shell and sweet tender shrimp inside, this recipe is super easy to make and kids will have fun dipping in the sweet and sour sauce on the side.
I may not be able to get everyone on a plane to New York to try the original version, but it's nice to know I can easily recreate something so special from my childhood in our kitchen whenever I want! Shrimp is one of our favorite entrees. At least once every couple weeks we have some sort of shrimp dinner, whether it be Asian Sautéed Shrimp, Mango Shrimp Ceviche or this super simple One Sheet Pan Shrimp and Vegetable Dinner.
I promise your family will go nuts for these Baked Coconut Shrimp. They're crispy yet juicy and the sweet and sour sauce on the side takes them to another planet. Let me know what you think and tag me on social media if you make them!
Coconut Baked Shrimp (Serves 4)
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 6 mins
nut free
gluten free
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 eggs, whisked (you could also use 1/2 cup buttermilk to coat the shrimp instead)
- 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
- Sweet and Sour Sauce:
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoons minced ginger
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to “broil” setting.
2. Pat dry shrimp with a towel and season with 1/2 tsp salt.
3. Arrange three separate bowls in an assembly line. Place flour in one, whisked eggs in the second, and shredded coconut in the third.
4. Lightly coat the shrimp in the flour and gently tap to remove excess flour.
5. Dip the flour coated shrimp in the egg/buttermilk and then roll in the shredded coconut to coat.
6. Place coconut shrimp on a baking rack sprayed or greased with oil over a cookie sheet. When all the shrimp are on the rack, lightly coat them with cooking oil spray.
7. Place cookie sheet on the middle rack of your oven and broil for 3 minutes on each side.
8. Serve with dipping sauce.
For the Sweet and Sour Sauce:
1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.
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27 comments
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I make baked coconut shrimp as well, although I use panko because I like them really crispy. They are a HUGE hit with my son. I love making them too because besides being delicious, shrimp are just do easy. I'm sure a lot of your readers will find that they love baked coconut shrimp too!
I can't wait to make these!! One of my all time favorite foods!!
Yumm! I'll try this for sure!
@Michelle..do you use the panko in place of the flour? I have some I need to use up.
Hi,
I would love to make this for my family, but have an ancient gas oven and don't have the broil feature option. Is there any way I could bake these? How would I do it?
Thanks :)
You can definitely bake them at 350 but they will not get a golden crust that the broiler can give. But they will still be delicious! I would bake them for 5 minutes since shrimp cooks fast :)
Can you use egg whites or egg beaters instead of eggs??
You can use the egg whites :)
Sounds delicious! Do u think u can put the shrimp directly on a baking sheet? I can't see myself wanting to take the whole rack out of the oven to clean it. I know .... Lazy. :)
You can put it on the baking sheet directly, but the baking rack allows all the sides to evenly cook. Whatever works for you :)
The \"baking rack\" is a cookie cooling rack placed on the cookie sheet. (Not the oven rack) The baking rack really helps both sides to brown nicely. Chicken strips and \"Zucchini Coins\" are perfect every time with this method. :)
Can this recipe be used for any other protein?
This would be good with any white fish like halibut or sea bass. :)
I love coconut shrimp, but never knew of a good way of making it, thank you!
just wanted you to know that this was a huge hit in my house tonight. My 2 year old gobbled them up fast!!! I have to admit my hubby and I were almost hoping the kids would not like them so we could eat them all!
Thanks for the great idea!
sylvia
I made these tonight - they came out great! I used the buttermilk suggestion instead of eggs and I used sweetened coconut since that is what I had on hand. The coconut was sticky to apply, next time I will try the unsweetened, but they came out really good. This is a keeper. Thanks!
The unsweetened is sticky, too!
Yum! Can I substitute Agave Nectar for the Honey? Or will it come out too runny??
So shellfish is fine for an 18 m/o with no allergy history in our family? I love seafood and want to try these- also she's not a big met eater so these would be great.
What about cooking these on the barbeque? Would that work?
Just made these for my 2 year old daughter... she is on her 4th helping. \"More shrimp please.\" What a hit! They go well the Island Rice Recipe off of the Food Network website!
Do you think u can freeze these after they are breaded? How would that change cooking instructions, straight out of freezer?
[...] Baked Coconut Shrimp with Broccoli and Roasted Sweet [...]
I just made them with tilapia directly on a greased baking sheet at 400
Degrees.
They turned out great and were actually golden brown.
[...] eat brine shrimp. So, I think this Coconut Baked Shrimp by Weelicious would be a fun way to bring the seahorse theme to the family dinner table. If your kids are small, [...]
I made these tonight, but used chicken strips instead of shrimp (my crew isn't big on seafood). I just baked them at 350 for about 20 min on each side. They were SO good--even my picky 2 year old loved them! Thanks so much for another great recipe!
Wow. These were so good, and so easy, and so quick! I could only find unsweetened coconut in the flake variety, but was able to finely chop it in the mini food processor (mixed it with some panko crumbs too). The whole family devoured them. Thanks for this recipe!