Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos were not on my list when I flew into Tampa last March. They were not even on Marisol’s list, honestly. I had come down to see her after a layover-shaped week of cancelled flights, and the plan was simple. Grouper sandwiches. The Salvador Dali museum. Maybe a beach.
Marisol works the seafood counter at the back of a tiny grocery on 4th Street North in St Petersburg, Florida. She is also one of those friends I made the way most travel agents do, by booking her dad a complicated multi-city itinerary nine years ago and then never quite losing her number.
She talks fast. She wears the same plastic apron whether she is shelling shrimp or hosting you for dinner. And she had decided, somewhere between my second cafecito and the drive back to her place, that I needed to leave Florida understanding what she calls the only good thing the chain restaurants ever gave us.
Meeting Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos at a St Petersburg Counter
Before we cooked, she walked me back to her counter and pulled out a tray of Gulf shrimp. The cut, the salt, the rest, all explained right there in the fluorescent light while a customer waited for snapper.
Pat them dry. Salt the soak, not the dredge. Let them sit a quarter of an hour, not less, so the buttermilk does its work. And cornstarch, never flour. Flour gives you a soft crust that collapses the second the sauce hits. Cornstarch shatters. That is the whole game.
I scribbled this in the back of my notebook while a woman next to me bought half a pound of stone crab claws. Marisol did not stop talking the entire time.
Where Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos Actually Come From
The taco version is not a Mexican dish. It is not a Thai dish either, despite the sweet chili sauce. It started in 2000 at Bonefish Grill, which opened its first location right there in St Petersburg, a few blocks from where Marisol grew up.
The appetizer caught on the way certain restaurant dishes do, and by the early 2010s home cooks were folding the sauced shrimp into tortillas with slaw and calling it a taco. American fusion. Florida fingerprints. The bang bang name borrows from Sichuan bang bang chicken but shares nothing with it beyond the syllables. The Sichuan version uses sesame paste and chili oil. The sauce here is mayo-based. Different planet.
Marisol thinks the taco version is better than the original, partly because the slaw cuts through the sauce, partly because she is from a city that takes its tacos personally.
Bringing the Tacos Back to My Kitchen
Back in LA I tried to recreate the whole thing on a Thursday after work. The first attempt was not great. I rushed the oil. I dropped a batch of shrimp in at 320 F because I was hungry and stopped trusting the thermometer, and they came out flabby and grease-logged. Lesson printed in oil splatter on my stovetop.
Patience is the whole story here. This dish punishes impatience in three places. The buttermilk soak, where you cannot shortcut the fifteen minutes. The oil, which must come back to 360 F between batches or every shrimp suffers. And the saucing, which has to happen at the absolute last second before the tacos hit the plate.
I get the shrimp from the Santa Monica seafood place on Wilshire when I can be bothered to drive over, and from the regular supermarket when I cannot. Frozen and thawed is fine. I tried fresh from a different counter once and the texture was no better, just more expensive.
What I Used
- Large shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails off
- Buttermilk, full fat, for the soak
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Cornstarch for the dredge, no substitutions
- Neutral oil for deep-frying, about two inches deep in a Dutch oven
- Mayonnaise, full fat, both for the sauce and a spoonful for the slaw
- Thai sweet chili sauce, Mae Ploy is the one
- Sriracha, two tablespoons to start, more if you like it loud
- Fresh lime juice, in the sauce and again in the slaw
- Green cabbage and a smaller pile of purple cabbage for color
- Fresh cilantro, scallions, more lime for serving
- Small flour or corn tortillas, eight of them, street-taco size
The Patience Part of Frying
If you only remember one thing from this whole post, remember the oil temperature. 360 F, on a thermometer, not on vibes. Below 340 and the cornstarch crust drinks oil. Above 380 and the outside burns before the shrimp is opaque inside.
I fry in batches of eight to ten. Never more. Crowding the pan drops the oil temperature like a stone and that is the end of crispness for that batch. After each batch I let the oil climb back up, and only then do I start dredging the next round, because the cornstarch turns gummy if it sits on damp shrimp too long.
The shrimp comes out pale gold, which throws people who expect deep brown. Pale gold is correct. They are not breaded, they are dredged, and the cornstarch does not brown the same way flour does.
Saucing and Building
This is the part most recipes get wrong. They tell you to toss the shrimp in the sauce and pile them up. Then by the time you build the third taco the crust has gone soft.
So do this instead. Warm the tortillas in a dry cast-iron skillet about twenty seconds a side, until they have a few toasty spots. Pile the slaw down the middle. Have everyone at the table ready, plates out, lime wedges cut.
Then pour three-quarters of the sauce over the hot shrimp, fold them gently with a spatula about four times, and start building immediately. Three shrimp per taco. A drizzle of the reserved sauce on top. More cilantro. A squeeze of lime. Eat it while the crust is still loud.
A Few Twists I Like
I have made these with air-fried shrimp when I did not want to deal with deep frying. Eight minutes at 400 F, shaken halfway. Not as shattery as the fried version. Still good.
I almost added chipotle to the sauce once. Actually no, the sriracha already does the heat job. Pickled red onions on the side are a yes. Black beans alongside are a yes. Avocado in the taco itself I find too rich against the sauce. Skip it.
Marisol and I still text most weeks. She sends me pictures of whatever weird fish has come into her counter, and I send her pictures of the tacos I just made, which she always rates out of ten. Last batch got a seven and a half. The crust apparently looked thin in the photo. She is a hard grader, and that is exactly why I trust her.
Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Pat the shrimp dry, then combine them in a bowl with the buttermilk, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and the black pepper. Stir to coat and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes while you prep everything else.
- Make the slaw. In a large bowl, toss the green cabbage, purple cabbage, chopped cilantro, scallions, 2 tablespoons lime juice, 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, and 0.5 teaspoon kosher salt. Mix well and set aside in the fridge so the flavors come together.
- Whisk the bang bang sauce. In a small bowl, combine the 0.5 cup mayonnaise, Thai sweet chili sauce, sriracha, and 1 teaspoon lime juice until smooth and glossy. Taste and adjust the sriracha for heat. Set aside.
- Pour the neutral oil into a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven or deep skillet to a depth of about 2 inches. Heat over medium-high until the oil reaches 360 F on a thermometer.
- While the oil heats, spread the cornstarch in a shallow bowl. Lift the shrimp out of the buttermilk one at a time, letting excess drip off, then dredge thoroughly in the cornstarch, pressing gently so it sticks. Place coated shrimp on a plate.
- Fry the shrimp in batches of 8 to 10, never crowding the pan. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, turning once, until the coating is pale gold and crisp and the shrimp are opaque and just cooked through.
- Transfer the fried shrimp to a wire rack set over a sheet pan. Let the oil come back up to 360 F between batches and repeat until all the shrimp are fried.
- Warm the tortillas in a dry cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, about 20 seconds per side, until pliable and lightly toasted in spots. Stack them under a clean towel to keep warm.
- Working quickly, transfer the still-hot shrimp to a clean bowl, pour about three-quarters of the bang bang sauce over the top, and toss gently with a spatula just until each shrimp is coated. Do not let them sit and steam.
- Build the tacos. Lay a generous pile of slaw down the center of each warm tortilla, top with 2 or 3 sauced shrimp, and finish with extra cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and a drizzle of the reserved bang bang sauce. Serve immediately.