CRISPY SHRIMP TACOS a la Bang Bang

Big, crispy-tender, fried shrimp, with a drizzle of creamy, sweet chili sauce, tucked into taco shells, with avocado-tomatillo dressed cabbage slaw. Hit me!

Tasty taco fun, every damn time we make Shrimp Tacos, at our place.  Oddly, we don't have one 'set' way that we must have.  Nosirreebob, we mix it up, and then some.

Sometimes we grill marinated shrimp, make more of a salad, than a slaw, using iceberg lettuce, and a real blasting-hot salsa fresca, tucked into homemade soft, corn tortillas.

But lately, often, I've happily defaulted to buying already crispy taco shells.  After all, Fresh is Best brand taco shells and tortilla chips are the next best thing, to homemade.  So what's a girl to do?  Especially a girl who is known to thoroughly embrace 'easy peasy'.

Awhile back, I found lots of versions of the Bonefish Grill's rather famous Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos, online. 

Yay!  I love good finds, and I cannot lie. Let the kitchen tootling-about begin.  Which, pretty much brings us here, now.

The slaw for the tacos is sassy and simple - just green cabbage, cut supah' thin, tossed with Kaloko Salsa, made by buzzing up fresh avocado, cilantro, jalapeno and lime juice, with a bit of good quality, store-bought tomatillo salsa.  Yummers. 

And, leftover slaw dressing is great served on the side, for dipping and swooping.

You don't need to deep fry the shrimp, as the batter and panko fry up ridiculously crispy in a large skillet, with 1/2 cup oil, or so.  Bonus.  Then, just stir together a bit of Greek yogurt, sweet chili sauce and Tabasco, for drizzing, and wham bam, thank-you, senorita.

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Adapted from Damn Delicious food blog, for The Last Wonton.
Thanks Chungah, as always, for your delicious inspiration!
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CRISPY SHRIMP TACOS a la Bang Bang ~ Makes 8-10 tacos

1/2 cup vegetable oil, for frying
1 cup buttermilk (or 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice in 1 cup measure, topped with milk)
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 large egg, beaten
1 tablespoon Tabasco, or other hot sauce
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 pound 16-20 count shrimp, peeled and deveined (2-3 shrimp, per taco)
1 cup panko
8-10 crunchy, corn taco shells

SLAW:
1 ripe, medium-ish avocado, peeled, seeded, cut into chunks
1 cup good, store-bought tomatillo salsa
1/3 cup fresh cilantro
1 jalapeno, roughly chopped
3-4 tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 cups thinly sliced green cabbage

SAUCE:
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt, or sour cream
1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
1 tablespoon Tabasco

To make the slaw, put avocado, tomatillo salsa, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice and sea salt in bowl of food processor, and buzz, buzz, buzz, until mostly smooth.  Pour about half of the dressing over the cabbage, in a large bowl, and toss, toss, toss.  Add more dressing, as needed.  Set aside.

To make the sauce, whisk together yogurt or sour cream, sweet chili sauce and Tabasco, in small bowl.  Set aside.

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet, over medium-high heat.  In a large bowl whisk together buttermilk, flour, cornstarch, egg and Tabasco; season with salt and pepper.  Working one at a time, dip shrimp into buttermilk mixture, then dredge in Panko, pressing to coat. 

Working in batches, add shrimp to the skillet, and cook until evenly golden and crispy, about 3-4 minutes.  Transfer to paper towel-lined plate.  Serve immediately with taco shells and slaw, and drizzled with sweet chili sauce.