Forgive me for not making the sandwiches

Time: 1 Hour (if you peel the shrimp yourself)

Difficulty: 1/5

Ingredient Availability: 1/5

Although this recipe is for a whole Po-Boy sandwich, I’m going to just be reviewing the shrimp. Arguably, the shrimp is the most important part of a Po Boy, possibly followed by the bread. After that, people have their own taste when it comes to the toppings. I don’t recall ever making fried shrimp from scratch before, but since shrimp cooks so quickly, I think this will be one of the easiest foods to fry.

Key Ingredients and Omissions:

I didn’t omit anything from the fried shrimp portion of this recipe. Everything is very easy to find. I did buy easy to peel, deveined shrimp instead of pre-peeled shrimp to save a few dollars. If you go with the latter you could probably cut your cooking time in half.

Tools:

• Frying Vessel

Cooking Review:

Peeling Shrimp: 20 minutes

Before doing anything else, I went ahead and removed the shells from the shrimp. The bag was labeled as easy to peel, and they indeed were. Still, it took a good amount of time to get through them all.

Dredge shrimp: 12 minutes

Next, I added buttermilk to my shrimp and tossed them to coat them evenly. Then, I combined the flour, cornmeal, and seasonings in a separate bowl. The shrimp were then added to the cornmeal/flour mixture in batches to coat them completely. I transferred the shrimp to a baking sheet as I completed coating them.

Frying: 24 minutes

While the oil heated, I cleaned up the kitchen a little bit. Once it was hot, I added the shrimp in batches, cooking them for 3 minutes per batch. I had a total of 4 batches. After about 15 minutes, all of the shrimp were cooked.

Analysis:

I cooked the shrimp for the perfect amount of time, as they were tender and moist. The exterior contrasted against the interior quite well, with a very nice crisp crunch. The seasoning was light, but good. The flavor wasn’t anything special, but I think it’s a good staring point. Adding the ingredients of a Po-Boy might make the whole experience better given the right toppings. Now, I’m going to give this recipe a 8/10. It is super easy to make, tastes pretty good, and can be made in well under an hour if you buy pre-peeled shrimp. Not much to complain about given the effort it requires.

P.S.

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