🦐 Chipotle Shrimp Tacos
Ingredients
- 1 lb shrimp
- 8 tortillas
- 1 avocado
- Cabbage or slaw mix
- 2 limes
- Chipotle or hot sauce (pantry staple)
- 2 tbsp olive oil (pantry staple)
- Salt & pepper (pantry staple)
Instructions
- Toss shrimp with chipotle, oil, and salt; sear 2 min per side.
- Warm tortillas; mash avocado with lime.
- Build tacos with avocado, slaw, and shrimp; extra lime on top.
Tips
- Two minutes a side and no more. Shrimp go from tender to rubbery in about thirty seconds — pull them when they curl into a loose C, not a tight O.
- Get the pan properly hot first. A moderate pan poaches the shrimp in their own liquid and they never colour.
- Pat the shrimp dry after tossing them with the chipotle. Wet shrimp steam; dry shrimp sear.
Substitutions
- Shrimp
- Firm white fish in chunks, scallops, or cauliflower florets roasted with the same chipotle for a vegetarian version.
- Chipotle
- Chipotle in adobo brings smoke and moderate heat. Smoked paprika plus a little cayenne approximates it with no heat surprise.
- Avocado
- Guacamole, or a crema of sour cream thinned with lime.
- Cabbage slaw
- Any crunchy raw vegetable — shredded carrot, radish, fennel. The crunch matters more than the specific vegetable.
Storage & reheating
Cooked shrimp keep 2 days but firm up considerably on reheating. Better to prep the slaw, avocado and tortillas ahead and cook the shrimp fresh — it takes 4 minutes.
Common questions
Fresh or frozen shrimp?
Frozen, almost always. Most 'fresh' shrimp at the counter was previously frozen and thawed at an unknown time. Frozen thaws under cold running water in 10 minutes.
Should I remove the tails?
For tacos, yes. Tails look good on a platter but are a nuisance inside a folded tortilla.
How spicy is chipotle?
Moderate — roughly a jalapeño, which is what it is, smoked and dried. The adobo sauce it's packed in is milder than the pepper itself.