Crispy Tempura-Style Popcorn Shrimp Recipe

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It's hard to beat sitting down at a table with a group of friends, sipping on some cold drinks, and feasting on a heaping plate of fried shrimp. While larger shrimp often get the spotlight — hanging off the edge of a glass filled with cocktail sauce or floating atop a vibrant Thai red curry — small shrimp get their chance to shine by way of popcorn shrimp. And when they're coating in a light, crisp tempura-style batter and dipped into a chili crisp mayo, shine they do.

Each little shrimp in this tempura-style popcorn shrimp recipe, from developer A.J. Forget, is peeled and then dipped into a simple tempura batter flavored with garlic, ginger, onion, and salt. A quick trip to the fryer (deep fryer or stovetop fryer both work here) cooks the shrimp through and crisps up the batter, creating a wonderful textural contrast between crunchy batter and tender shrimp to accompany the myriad flavors. And no fried shrimp would be complete without a dipping sauce. The one in this recipe is made from creamy mayonnaise, tangy rice vinegar, and a few spoonfuls of bright red chili crisp, lending a wonderful balance of salty, spicy, sweet, and savory flavors.

For the dipping sauce, you will need mayonnaise, chili crisp, and rice vinegar. For the popcorn shrimp you will need flour, garlic powder, onion powder, ground ginger, salt, cold seltzer water, small peeled shrimp, and oil for frying. Once you have all of these ingredients together, you are ready to begin cooking.

Combine the mayonnaise, chili crisp, and rice vinegar in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside.

Add the flour, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and ground ginger to a medium mixing bowl and stir together.

Pour the seltzer water into the flour mixture and stir until a thin batter forms. Do not overmix — lumps in the batter are fine.

Bring your frying oil to 350 F in a pot over medium-high heat.

Using chopsticks, dip the shrimp into the batter.

Once coated, carefully drop the shrimp into the oil. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes, or until lightly browned and crisp. Make sure not to overcrowd the pot, and work in batches if necessary.

Once fried, remove the shrimp to a plate lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil.

Serve the shrimp hot, with plenty of chili crisp dipping sauce on the side.

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If you've ever eaten tempura, you know just how wonderfully light and crisp the batter is. It makes a perfect coating for all sorts of different vegetables and proteins, adding a delightful salty crunch without making whatever is hiding under the batter heavy, as fried foods can often be. While tempura does not always rely on seltzer water, using cold bubbly water in the batter is one tried and true method for creating this light and airy fried shell.

The seltzer water in the batter creates an effect similar to that of a beer batter, but without, of course, the malty flavor or the added sugars. Without the flavor of the beer interfering, the spices in the batter and the flavor of whatever you dip in it are free to shine through.

A notable difference between tempura and beer batter is the final color. The sugars in beer caramelize in the hot oil, lending dishes like beer battered fish their signature hue. With just flour, spices, and seltzer water, tempura batter tends to stay a paler color. For the first batch, you may need to check the crispness of the batter to know when it is done. When the batter is crisp, the shrimp will be cooked through. After pulling a few crunchy shrimp from the fryer — and using the angle trick to drip off excess oil — you'll get a feel for the different color of tempura versus other battered and fried foods.

Both bright red in color, chili oil and chili crisp are oily condiments flavored with chili peppers, so what is the real difference between the two? Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the biggest differences has to do with texture — to put it another way, chili crisp is crispy.

Chili oil, by definition, is just oil that has been imbued with chile peppers. The chiles are cooked in the oil and then strained out. This lends the oil some fragrance, but primarily chili oil is used for its fiery nature, allowing one to add heat to a dish.

Chili crisp, on the other hand, is full of additional ingredients that lend aroma and flavor. Just like chili oil, chili crisp is made with oil and chile peppers, but the chile pieces are left in. Additionally, chili crisp often features ingredients like garlic, shallots, ginger, fermented soybeans, sichuan pepper, and sesame seeds or peanuts, all of which add to the signature crunch. Generally, chili crisp is also flavored with salt, sugar, and MSG, which allows it to serve as a standalone condiment overflowing with flavor.

In addition to flavoring mayonnaise sauces (as in this recipe), chili crisp is a great secret ingredient for your next bowl of ramen, is excellent for dipping steamed dumplings, and can even be drizzled over ice cream for an elevated dessert that strikes a delicate balance of hot and cold, sweet and spicy.

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