Now I know the traditional ingredients of making coconut shrimp aren’t in here, but trust me here – you won’t be missing the old, traditional recipe. You’ll get all the crunch, all the sweet and spiciness in the sauce, and all of the taste of regular coconut shrimp. Except, this time there won’t be anywhere close to as many carbs. It doesn’t take long to make, and it turns out fantastic!
While I was cooking the shrimp, I decided to look online for an interesting way to make a dipping sauce. I found an awesome idea for a dipping sauce using apricot preserves. I know my favorite brand, Polaner, has sugar free fruit preserves so I ran to the store really quick (seriously, the store is like 2 minutes away from me) and I grabbed some. Ran back home and made the sauce just as the timer for the shrimp was going off – can you say perfect timing?
The sauce is absolutely fantastic. Yeah, sure, it has some carbs in it – but it’s barely more than sugar free ketchup, which is fine by me. The shrimp? Well they turned out awesome. The coconut doesn’t exactly brown up as well as I wanted it to, but the taste and crunch make up for it. It’s such a simple dish and takes under 30 minutes from prep to plate, so make sure you try this one out. Share with your family too, but if you do they’ll have you make it again!
Yields 3 Servings of Coconut Shrimp with Leftover Dipping Sauce
The Preparation
Coconut Shrimp:
- 16 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 large egg white
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce:
- 1/2 cup sugar-free apricot preserves
- 1 1/2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 medium bird's eye chile pepper, diced
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
The Execution
1. Yep, I’m using frozen, pre-cooked shrimp for this. If you’re doing the same, make sure you give them time to defrost and come to almost room temperature (this will take overnight in the fridge and then draining them). If you’re using raw and you’re not lazy like me, then peel your shrimp and make sure that they’re devained.
2. Separate 2 egg whites from the yolk and put them in a bowl. You can save the egg yolks for another recipe (or eat them for breakfast tomorrow).
3. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form using a hand mixer. You can use only 1 beater on the hand blender to make for less mess.
4. Gather all the ingredients. In one bowl, add 1 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes and in another bowl add 2 tbsp. Coconut Flour.
5. Dip the shrimp in the coconut flour, then the egg whites, and then the coconut flakes. Lay the shrimp out on a PRE-GREASED baking sheet. You can alternatively use silpats.
6. Bake the shrimp for 15 minutes, then flip them and broil for an additional 3-5 minutes until the coconut browns.
7. While the shrimp are cooking, make the sauce. Add 1/2 cup Sugar Free Apricot Preserves, 1 1/2 tbsp. Rice Wine Vinegar, 1 tbsp. lime juice, 1 medium Red Chili (diced) and 1/4 tsp. Red Pepper Flakes to a bowl.
8. Mix all of the ingredients together. You probably will have leftover sauce, but it’s actually -that- good that you won’t mind having leftovers.
9. Let the shrimp cool for a few minutes before dishing them out.
10. Serve! I give about 2-3 Tbsp. of dipping sauce per 6-8 shrimp.
This makes a total of 3 servings of Low-Carb Coconut Shrimp. Each serving comes out to be 363 calories, 20g fats, 7.6g net carbs, and 35.5g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 16 ounce shrimp | 386 | 2.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 91.2 |
| 2 large egg white | 34 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0 | 0.5 | 7.2 |
| 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut | 561 | 55.3 | 20.4 | 13.6 | 6.8 | 5.9 |
| 2 tablespoon coconut flour | 40 | 2.3 | 6.7 | 4.7 | 2 | 2 |
| 1/2 cup sugar-free apricot preserves | 59 | 0 | 29.4 | 17.6 | 11.8 | 0 |
| 1 1/2 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 tablespoon lime juice | 4 | 0 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 0.1 |
| 1 medium bird's eye chile pepper | 1 | 0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes | 1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Totals | 1090 | 60.1 | 58.8 | 36.1 | 22.7 | 106.4 |
| Per Serving (/3) | 363 | 20 | 19.6 | 12 | 7.6 | 35.5 |
Low-Carb Coconut Shrimp
Ingredients
Coconut Shrimp
- 16 ounce shrimp peeled and deveined
- 2 large egg white
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 2 tablespoon coconut flour
Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce
- ½ cup sugar-free apricot preserves
- 1 ½ tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 medium bird's eye chile pepper diced
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Yep, I’m using frozen, pre-cooked shrimp for this. If you’re doing the same, make sure you give them time to defrost and come to almost room temperature (this will take overnight in the fridge and then draining them). If you’re using raw and you’re not lazy like me, then peel your shrimp and make sure that they’re deveined.
- Separate the egg whites from the yolk and put the whites in a bowl. You can save the egg yolks for another recipe (or eat them for breakfast tomorrow).
- Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, using a hand mixer. You can use only 1 beater on the hand blender to make less mess.
- Preheat oven to 400F. Gather all remaining ingredients. In one bowl add unsweetened coconut flakes and in another bowl add coconut flour.
- Dip the shrimp in the coconut flour, then the egg whites, and then the coconut flakes. Lay the shrimp out on a PRE-GREASED baking sheet. You can alternatively use silpats.
- Bake the shrimp for 15 minutes, then flip them and broil for an additional 3-5 minutes until the coconut browns.
- While the shrimp are cooking, make the sauce. Add sugar-free apricot preserves, rice wine vinegar, lime juice, one medium red chili (diced), and red pepper flakes in a bowl.
- Mix all of the ingredients together. You will probably have leftover sauce, but it’s actually -that- good that you won’t mind having leftovers.
- Let the shrimp cool for a few minutes before dishing them out.
- Serve with the sauce!
Just made this and it was fantastic! Any recommendations on what to do with the leftover sauce? It’s to die for!
Woo! Save the sauce for the Thai Lime Chili Meatballs I’ll be posting soon 🙂
Ooooh I’m already dying of anticipation! ;p
Keep your eye out, I think it’ll be the day after tomorrow!
I’m gonna try these tonight, but I think I’m gonna break out the deep fryer instead of bakin’ ’em *devilish grin*
Rob, let me know how it goes! I’m curious how the egg whites will do in a deep fryer 🙂
I know my Dad makes his coconut shrimp deep frying with the fluffed egg whites, and they always come out delish! But I think I’ll have to go with raw shrimp so I can get them browned up nicely and not accidentally overcook them as I am prone to doing lol! Looking forward to the end of work and class for the day, I’m hungry just thinking about these!! 😀
Sounds great! I normally would use raw shrimp but these were laying around so I figured why not? Let me know how they go, I’m excited!
They….were…. off…. the…. HOOK! So damn satisfying, crunchy and mildly sweet with a good spicy kick from the sauce, so damn good!
Awesome Rob! Glad they turned out 🙂
I made these, deliciousness! I did not share with anyone. Breading is not something I normally do, but this was pretty easy, good instructions helped 😉 Then I pan fried them because (a) I wanted to get more color and (b) no deep fryer or enough oil to deep fry. They did absorb a couple tablespoons of the coconut oil (yep, coconut oil fried) but it worked great. Pan fry about 2 minutes per side for 26-30 count shrimp size. The apricot sauce was amazing with them.
Any idea of a good egg white substitute in this recipe that will function similarly? I’m one of those scary stories you hear about when someone eats too many eggs and develops an egg white allergy.
For a crispier outcome, I lightly toasted the coconut in a non-stick pan prior to use. I also sprayed the coconut-crusted shrimp lightly with coconut oil prior to baking (found the stuff in a spray can at one of my local dollar stores). Just doing those two little things made the shrimp almost taste like they have been deep-fried and the leftovers were still crunchy the next day.
Thank you for the tip! Sounds delicious 🙂
My daughters are allergic to egg and dairy, what would be a good substitute for the egg white?
I would try dusting with some coconut flour first, then dipping in coconut cream or coconut milk from the carton so it’s tacky. It won’t stick as well as egg though.
Could you use the flax seed with water? Allow it to thicken and use as the egg alternative?
With this, I don’t think a flax egg would substitute well. If you’re avoiding eggs, you could use a vegan egg replacement or something like that. Some heavy cream may also work in place of the egg (just because it’s thicker and will help the ingredients stick).
Thank you. Heavy cream did work! Yummy indeed
There are a lot of “red” chili peppers. Which one is referred to in this recipe?
You can use any chili you prefer, really. The one I used in this recipe is similar to a jalapeno in spiciness.
Hello! Does the baking time need to be adjusted if using raw shrimp? Thanks!
Yes, I think you’d have to cook them a bit longer. You could alternatively par-cook them by steaming.
I made this today using 1 lb of precooked, peeled, de-veined, tail-on shrimp. Used a pre-soak method from another recipe: lime juice, paprika and chili, refrigerate for one hour.
Because the shrimp is juicy from the lime I 1st dipped in coconut flour, then egg, then coconut flakes.It was perfect crisp but was not as sweet as I hoped so I made a dipping sauce. Next time I will use sugar in the coconut flour. Also I had egg white left, 1 large egg would have sufficed.
A sweet dipping sauce definitely goes well with it – that’s why I recommend a sweet sauce in the recipe, but you can definitely add a bit of sweetener to the batter if you’d like to. I hope that you enjoyed it either way!
So this makes 3 servings for the shrimp but could you please clarify how many pieces make a serving? Won’t mind if you break it down for newbies. Thank you.