Bobby Flay Shrimp and Grits is an easy Southern dinner made with stone-ground grits, sharp cheddar and bacon, ready in 40 minutes. The skillet serves four, and two full cups of cheese go into the grits. Everything else finishes in one pan of bacon fat.
Flay cooked this on FoodNation in an episode built around American regional food, and he insists on stone-ground grits. The coarse grind holds its shape through twenty-five minutes of simmering, where instant grits collapse into paste. They carry more corn flavor too, which matters under this much cheddar.
The shrimp go into the bacon fat and come out the moment they turn pink, not a second later. They keep cooking for three more minutes once the lemon and aromatics join them. Leave them in from the start and you get rubber by the time the sauce is done.
4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalA full cup of thinly sliced scallions goes in, which is far more than a garnish and reads as a vegetable. The butter and cheddar are stirred into the grits off the heat, so the cheese melts without turning grainy.
Ingredients
- For the Cheese Grits:
4 cups water
Salt and pepper
1 cup stone-ground grits
3 tablespoons butter
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- For the Shrimp:
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 slices bacon, chopped
4 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 cup thinly sliced scallions
1 large clove garlic, minced
Directions
- Cook the grits: Bring the water to a boil and season with salt and pepper. Add the grits and cook until the water is absorbed, about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Finish them off the heat: Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter and the shredded cheddar until smooth.
- Render the bacon: Rinse the shrimp and pat dry. Fry the chopped bacon in a large skillet until browned, then drain it well and reserve, leaving the fat in the pan.
- Cook the shrimp: Add the shrimp to the bacon fat and cook just until they turn pink. Add the lemon juice, the drained bacon, parsley, scallions and garlic, then saute for 3 minutes.
- Combine and serve: Spoon the grits into a serving bowl, add the shrimp mixture and mix well. Serve immediately.
Start the grits first and cook the bacon and shrimp while they simmer, which is how the 40 minute total works. No nutrition is published for this recipe, so the calorie figure is estimated from the ingredients at four servings.
Two ingredients here are easy to get wrong at the shop.
FAQs
Can I use quick or instant grits?
You can, and they finish in five minutes instead of twenty-five, but the texture goes soft and uniform. Stone-ground grits keep a slight bite that stands up to the shrimp on top. If quick grits are all you have, cut the water to three and a half cups.
A whole cup of scallions seems like a lot.
That is roughly a full bunch, sliced thin, and it behaves like an onion rather than a garnish. Scallions wilt into the pan sauce in three minutes and lose their raw bite entirely. Hold back a tablespoon raw for the top if you want the color.
My grits turned out lumpy.
Picture the moment the grits hit the water: if they went in as a dump, lumps formed instantly and never broke up. Pour them in a slow stream while whisking, and keep whisking for the first minute. Lumps that survive can be beaten out with a stick blender before the cheese goes in.
Can I make the grits ahead?
Cook them ahead and hold them warm over the lowest heat, loosening with a splash of water as they tighten. Refrigerated grits set solid, so reheat with milk and whisk hard to bring them back. For a plain version to keep on hand, these quick grits with butter and milk reheat better.
Do I drain the bacon fat before the shrimp go in?
Draining the bacon itself is the instruction, not the fat, which is what the shrimp cook in. Six slices render roughly three tablespoons, and that is the right amount for a pound of shrimp. Spoon some off if your bacon was unusually fatty, since excess grease pools under the grits.
What should I serve alongside?
Something green and slightly bitter cuts through two cups of cheddar better than another starch does. Collard greens are the traditional Low Country partner, and the smoke in them echoes the bacon. These slow simmered collard greens take longer than the main dish, so start them first.
