Shrimp and Grits

Woo-hoo! Shrimp out the wazoo for us lately. I buy it on sale and I always have a bag or two in the freezer of peeled, deveined, cooked, frozen shrimp. Thaw it out in the sink under running water for a few minutes and you can do a million things with it, including this recipe. This was kind of a cheating recipe for me since it's not a new meal, but it's still worth adding. I got this from a Southern Living magazine a few years ago and it's absolutely incredible. This dish also comes together fairly quickly. It's very indulgent with the cheese, bacon and bacon fat, but it's so worth it.

Shrimp and Grits

Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes
Serves: 4

1.5 C quick cooking grits
¼ C shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1.5 T butter
4 T hot sauce, divided
1 pound unpeeled, medium-size fresh shrimp
¼ t salt
2 bacon slices
½ C chopped green onions
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 T chopped flat leaf parsley

Cook grits according to package directions. Remove from heat, and stir in cheese, butter and three tablespoons hot sauce until melted and blended. Cover and set aside.

Peel shrimp and devein (unnecessary if you're using frozen shrimp). Toss with salt and remaining 1 tablespoon hot sauce.

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes or until crisp; remove bacon, reserving drippings in skillet. Crumble bacon. Add shrimp and green onions to skillet, and sauce 3 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink. Stir in lemon juice.

Spoon grits onto a serving platter; top evenly with shrimp mixture and sprinkle with parsley and bacon. Serve with additional hot sauce, if desired.

Yumma. A few things I change - I cook about a quarter of the amount of grits called for. I use Quaker plain grits in the cardboard canister and I split the difference between the two serving and four serving amounts. Two isn't nearly enough and four will feed a small army. The three servings gives us plenty for one serving each and a little left over to eat out of the bottom of the pan if you're still yearning for more cheesy goodness. Also, I add more cheese, salt, hot sauce, pepper and garlic than the recipe calls for. I like all of those things, so I add more of them. Just my preference.


As far as cooking the bacon and reserving the fat, I can't really bring myself to do it. I cooked it that way the first time I made this dish and while it was delicious, I usually stay far away from using actual fat in my cooking. Instead, I cook the bacon in the microwave and either A) reserve a tiny bit of the drippings to put in the pan for the shrimp, or B) cook the shrimp in olive oil. You can do either. I think they taste the same. Oh, and I also cook more bacon because, well, bacon is heavenly.

Cheese, bacon and shrimp. The Holy Trinity.

And there you go! This really is something I only cook occasionally, especially now that the husband is back on the health food band wagon. It's a nice treat, and a tasty one at that.