This honey walnut shrimp is the perfect shrimp recipe to make for a small group. It’s crispy, creamy, sweet, and doesn’t take long to make. I know a lot of you don’t want to deep fry so in this post I will be showing an air fryer method as well.
If I’m being honest, this was the first time I have ever tried honey walnut shrimp. I’ve always known about it but didn’t know if it would be good. Fried shrimp is always great, but sweet mayo? I wasn’t so sure about that. Regardless, I decided to try it and the sweet mayo was one of the best things ever. I could see myself lathering that sauce all over my sandwiches.
The savory and sweet combination works perfectly here and it reminded me of chicken and waffles. So much so, that I actually had a dream that I put this shrimp on top of waffles. I think it would work perfectly but I unfortunately don’t have a waffle maker.
Key ingredients and steps for honey walnut shrimp
Carbonated water: The carbonation allows the batter to be more airy and light. If you don’t have carbonated water, you can use beer, or seltzer as a substitute.
Sweetened condensed milk: I use sweetened condensed milk as my primary sweetener. It goes really well with the creamy texture and flavor of mayo. This is the brand I always use.
Shrimp: I would highly recommend using shrimp at least U16 in size. What this means is that there are 16 shrimp per pound. I used U6-8 which are basically small lobster tails and that means there are 6-8 shrimp per pound.
Japanese mayo: This is optional, but I would recommend Japanese mayo because it is more rich in flavor. This is because they use egg yolks, vinegar, and msg to make it.
Honey Walnut Shrimp
Ingredients
Shrimp
- 1½ lbs shrimp (U6-8)
- ½ tbsp salt
Wet batter
- 1 cup flour
- 1 large egg
- 330 ml carbonated water or beer
Sauce
- ½ cup mayo
- 2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tbsp honey
- ½-1 tbsp lemon juice
Candied walnuts
- 1 cup walnuts
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Peel, wash, and butterfly your shrimp. I like to use a pairing knife and make a few thin cuts along the back of the shrimp until your can spread it like a butterfly.
- Season shrimp with salt.
- Preheat your oil to 350F.
- Mix all your wet batter ingredients in a bowl.
- Coat your shrimp into the wet batter and fry for 2 minutes until crispy.
- Add all your candied walnut ingredients into a bowl then heat over medium until all the water has evaporated. (5-10 minutes)
- Mix your sauce ingredients together in a bowl and toss the shrimp with the sauce and candied walnuts.
Air fry method
- All steps stay the same except you will not need the wet batter. Instead, mix the shrimp with 1 beaten egg then coat in corn starch.
- Air fry at 400F for 5-10 minutes depending on size.
If you enjoyed this, check out some more shrimp recipes here:
My son and I made this today and it was absolutely delicious.
So glad you guys enjoyed 🙂