Shrimp Taco Bites

These Shrimp Taco Bites are the perfect quick appetizer. Spicy and easy, these tasty little bites with a cilantro cream sauce can be made in less than 15 minutes!

Ingredients

Don’t be intimidated by the list of ingredients you need for this shrimp appetizer. I promise it’s not as complicated as it seems. Just gathering up the ingredients takes most of the time! Here’s what you need:

• Raw shrimp- for this recipe use small, uncooked, peeled and deveined shrimp.
• Taco seasoning – this is something I always have on hand. But if you don’t you can use a bit of chili powder, cumin and paprika.
• Olive oil – extra virgin olive oil works great.
• Tortilla “scoops” chips – If you can’t find tortilla chip scoops at the grocery store, see below for an alternative.
• Cabbage – buy a head of cabbage and slice yourself or save some time and get a pre-shredded bag.
• Diced avocado – pitted and diced into small pieces.
• Cilantro – this is to taste, because some people love it and some people love to hate it.
• Sriracha – if you want an extra kick to your shrimp appetizer, add a few dashes of this delicious condiment.
• For the cilantro cream sauce, you’ll  need:
• Sour cream – for a little added protein, you can substitute plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream.
• A bunch of chopped cilantro – you can find it in the produce section of your grocery store, or grow it in your garden.
• A tablespoon lime juice – use fresh lime juice or from a bottle. But you could sprinkle a teaspoon of lime zest to add even more flavor to the sauce mixture.
• One tsp salt and pepper – to taste.

Additions/Substitutions

There are so many variations you can make with these easy little shrimp taco bites. 

• Use guacamole instead of diced avocado.
• Top each shrimp bite with a tsp of avocado mixture and a tsp of sour cream mixture to get all the flavors in a single bite.
• If you want to skip the cilantro cream sauce or you are in a pinch for time, just use a little dollop of sour cream instead. 
• Add a scoop of salsa fresca or your favorite salsa to the taco bite as well. My favorite thing to top them with is SRIRACHA.. but I like my fish tacos SPICY. I made this an “optional” ingredient in the recipe but if you like spicy food I highly recommend it. So good!
• Sprinkle a teaspoon chili powder, a teaspoon lime zest and some lime juice on the shrimp to create chili lime shrimp.

How to Tell if the Shrimp is Done

Shrimp cooks fast, so here’s how to know if it’s done:

• Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat, then place shrimp in a single layer in the pan.
• Cook on each side for just about two minutes until the shrimp no longer look opaque, but have a pink color. The tail will also curl up slightly.
• You can also use olive oil spray or non stick cooking spray instead of vegetable oil. 
• Place cooked shrimp on a plate or wire rack.

The Scoops

If you can’t find the tortilla scoops at a store near you, that is totally ok. You can always just make your own. There are a couple of different ways you can do this:

• Cut some corn tortillas into quarters, place them in a muffin tin, and bake at 350-degrees for 5-7 minutes. If you want them to be more crispy, spray them with cooking spray before putting in the oven and then bake them a few minutes longer until crisp. If that seems like too much effort, you can also just layer them on regular tortilla chips too.
• Use wonton wrappers or and place them in a muffin tin to create wonton cups. Follow the same baking method as the corn tortillas.

Gluten-Free

The only thing you need to watch for with these shrimp taco bites is the taco seasoning. If you have a gluten allergy, just be sure you are using GF taco seasoning and you will be good to go. Everything else is naturally gluten free!

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