Bang bang shrimp, with a spicy and sweet sauce, is a perfect copy of Bonefish Grill. Crispy little shrimp, deep fried to perfection. A perfect appetizer for any occasion.
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Recipe was updated May 22. 2023.
Bonefish Grill bang bang shrimp, $12.90 for an order. Mary Jo and I like to get an order for each of us and get a side salad and call it supper.
Add to that a happy hour-priced chardonnay, (4 pm until 6:30 pm in Florida). Yummy eats.
I’ve been wanting to try to re-create this and finally got around to it. This recipe is pretty darned close to the original recipe from Bonefish Grill.
Copycat Bang Bang Shrimp Recipe
One of the keys to this is getting the sauce right. It’s spicy but not terribly hot.
It’s creamy, but not a heavy cream. It tastes Asian inspired and is a good blend of spicy and sweet.
The best thing about it is that it compliments the slight crunchiness of the pint-sized shrimp so well.
I made mine with mayonnaise, Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce, and Huy Fong chili garlic sauce.
These particular ingredients were mentioned in a comment section of another blog by a guy who said he worked at Bonefish Grill. Hey, if he makes it, he should know.
It ends up tasting like Bonefish Grill. The proportions could be a little different.
The chili garlic sauce is made by the Huy Fong company which makes the famous Rooster brand sriracha sauce and it is plenty spicy.
I added two tablespoons to the sauce but you can add less if you don’t like it so spicy.
I just ended up adding a teaspoon at a time and then tasted it. After 6 teaspoons were added, my taste buds were pretty much accustomed to the heat.
Mary Jo thought the heat was just right so I’m sticking with that.
Frying the Shrimp
Another thing is the frying method. Bonefish has nice deep fryers to use.
For the home cook, it can be a little harder. I first tried to fry the shrimp in a skillet with about 3/4 inch of oil.
After dropping the coated shrimp into the oil and the cornstarch would touch the bottom of the skillet and a lot of the breading stuck to the bottom.
It just didn’t work very well. When I thought about a deep fryer, I thought that a basket might be the solution.
I couldn’t find a separate basket but picked up a kitchen spider. This made dropping the shrimp into the oil really easy.
Lower the basket into the oil and fry for about 2 minutes or so, it’s easy to check how brown the shrimp are getting when using the kitchen spider.
Then dump the fried shrimp onto a cooling rack set over a layer of paper towels.
The cooling rack keeps the shrimp from getting soggy like they would if placed directly on paper towels.
Bang Bang Shrimp Ingredients
The shrimp was purchased at Walmart. It was 60-80 size, frozen, shelled, and deveined…and it cost $5.00 for 12 ounces.
I thawed them, then soaked the shrimp in buttermilk for 30 minutes.
Marinating in buttermilk is a step that can be used for other fish, chicken, mutton, or even liver to eliminate any fishy or gamey flavors.
Bonefish Grill bang bang shrimp has a distinct crunch, and this was a little harder to recreate.
I tried breading with all-purpose flour, straight cornstarch, flour/cornstarch combined, then cornstarch with a little panko breadcrumbs.
Straight cornstarch is pretty good, but adding some panko breadcrumbs gave the shrimp a nice crunch that was closer to the Bonefish Grill shrimp.
*After making the recipe again, I added 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the cornstarch dredge and the shrimp browned much better.
It makes a really nicely browned shrimp.
What do you Serve with Bang Bang Shrimp?
Bang bang shrimp is an appetizer but it sure could be the main course of a light meal.
Fix a leafy greens salad of romaine, arugula, and spinach. Then add an olive oil, vinegar vinaigrette.
Creamy dressings such as blue cheese, ranch, or French would be too heavy tasting.
Throw on some tomatoes and cucumber if you’d like also. A dry white wine or a not-too-sweet rosé wine would be perfect too.
For a non-alcoholic drink, have some water with a wedge of lemon.
This is the type of appetizer to make if you are having an informal gathering with friends.
Once all the ingredients are laid out, the frying goes quickly and you want to eat these soon after they’re done.
Serve on a bed of chopped lettuce and garnish with some green onion. This is delicious!
Looking for more menu ideas?
- Air Fryer Shrimp from Carole at My Kitchen Escapades (Delish!)
- Perfect Salmon Loaf
- Shrimp Penne with Vodka Sauce
- Smoked Salmon, Dill and Capers Appetizer
- Crepes St Jacques
- Extra Spicy Shrimp Stir Fry
Bonefish Grill Bang Bang Shrimp
Ingredients
- 12 oz . shrimp , 60-80 size, raw, shelled and de-veined, thawed
- 1 to 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 3 to 4 cups sunflower oil (or other high smoke point oil)
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 2 tbsp panko breadcrumbs
- *1 tsp baking soda
- Lettuce
- green onions
Sauce
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise , (or Miracle Whip for slightly sweeter sauce)
- 3 tbsp Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce
- 2 tbsp Huy Fong chili garlic sauce
Instructions
- Place thawed shrimp in a bowl and cover with buttermilk, soak for 30 minutes or more
- Mix cornstarch, panko crumbs and baking soda in a shallow bowl.
- Place cooking oil in a 2 quart sauce pan and heat oil to 375°
- Remove 10 to 12 shrimp from the buttermilk, pat dry on paper towels, coat with cornstarch/panko mixture, place shrimp in a spider mesh basket and lower into hot oil. (You can also carefully lower the shrimp into the oil one at a time, fry and remove from the oil with a spider).
- Fry for 2 minutes, or until the shrimp is medium browned.
- Remove the shrimp and place on a cooling rack.
- Repeat for the remaining shrimp.
- Coat the shrimp with the sauce, serve on a bed of chopped lettuce, garnish with chopped green onion.
Sauce
- Mix ingredients well in a small bowl, set aside
Notes
- Nutrition information is estimated.
- Larger shrimp can be used but I was trying to duplicate the authentic Bonefish Grill size.
Nutrition
Made this recipe last night. Delicious! So easy and fast. Will definitely make again. May try this recipe with boneless chicken. Not everyone in my family likes shrimp.
Hi Susanne. Thanks for the comment. This recipe works really well with small chicken bites.
Do you think this would do well as an airfryer recipe?
Appreciate your help and output ahead of time.
Hi Natalie, thanks for the comment. Sorry but an air fryer would not give you the the same results as deep frying.
So I wanted to make this tonight for dinner and found shrimp on sale but it was 26-30 count. Should I cook them whole or cut them in half? Can’t wait to try!
Julie, just keep them whole. Since they are larger, they may take a few seconds longer to cook, but they will be fine. Enjoy!
I would like to try this recipe but seafood has an image problem for me they live in their own toilet lol we have a bonefish grill here in Cleveland but I have never been I was wondering can I use my Dutch oven to fry the shrimp in? That is my go to fryer no basket please advise.
Hey Davey…if you don’t agree with shrimp, best not eat this,lol. A dutch oven is perfect for frying in. A basket strainer is the best tool to use for frying these shrimp, but a large slotted spoon would work too. Just work in smaller batches. With the spicy sauce, I think you will love it. Don’t skimp on the sauce ingredients. I don’t know of or recommend substitutes.
Chicken works great with this recipe for those who do not like seafood,
Thanks Dean. That sounds good.
Daughter Made these last night and they came out terrific. We have them as a whole meal so used larger shrimp and cut in half, used 46 shrimp. Use an electric wok at 375 degrees in canola oil, a small jar was more than enough oil. Cooked crispy 2 minutes each batch and used the mesh spoon to get them out. Otherwise followed his directions. They were spot on delicious. Thank you for the recipe. Looking for more ideas.
Hi Peg. Thanks for the nice comment. Glad you liked the shrimp.
Do you use egg at all before placing shrimp
in the Panko dredge? Making this for Super Bowl!????????
Hi Jenn…no egg is used for these. If you soak the shrimp in buttermilk, just pat them with paper towels but keep the shrimp slightly moist. The batter mixture will stick to the shrimp really well.
I made this for my family and they loved the recipe so much they asked for it the next night as well. Quick and easy meal, thanks for sharing
Thanks Nikki. Glad you and your family liked it.
In searching for Bang Bang recipes I found one prior to yours wherein an actual employee confirmed the ingredients. I was leery. Then I saw yours which had the exact same ingredient but added panko. I think you nailed it!
Hi Leann. Thank you for the nice comment.
Thank you for the tips. I used the basket to fry mine. The breading was great and crunchy. I cut down the spicy a bit but we loved this recipe. We did more shrimp and put it on lettuce like a salad. Delicious.
Thanks for the comment Sheila. Glad you liked it.