Sriracha Shrimp Remoulade Cocktail

Wow your guests and serve this easy, impressive and summery New Orleans-inspired Shrimp Remoulade Cocktail at your next get-together. The ingredients for the remoulade are probably in your pantry right now and it all comes together in about 30 minutes!

You’ll also love it with crab cakes, fried green tomatoes, fried pickles, roasted potato wedges and so much more!

Why this recipe is a keeper!

Sriracha Shrimp Remoulade Cocktail is a combination of two classic appetizers–shrimp cocktail and shrimp remoulade.

Shrimp cocktail, which is simply cooked shrimp served in a glass with a “cocktail” sauce was the height of elegance and the most popular appetizer served in restaurants from the early 1960’s into the 1980’s. It’s still a party classic today!

Shrimp remoulade is a classic New Orleans appetizer that appears to have been created in the early 20th century by a chef at Arnaud’s. It’s simply boiled shrimp tossed with remoulade and served over fresh lettuce greens. Now known as Shrimp Arnaud, it’s still on the menu there today.

Here, shrimp are tossed with the sriracha remoulade, nestled into a lettuce and celery leaf-lined glass with avocado, lemon wedges and a sprinkling of capers.

Best of all, Sriracha Shrimp Remoulade Cocktail comes together in about 30 minutes with ingredients you probably already have on hand. The remoulade can be made ahead and pairs beautifully with so many other things!

Origin of remoulade:

Remoulade is a cold sauce/condiment that has its origins in France, which is probably why it’s so popular in Creole cooking because that cuisine has roots with French settlers in the New Orleans area. It most closely resembles tartar sauce which is classically paired with fish and seafood.

Remoulade always has a mayonnaise base with something pickled such as cornichons or capers added. Other ingredients often include herbs, garlic, scallion, mustard, Worcestershire, horseradish and ketchup.

Remoulade Ingredients:

Ingredient Notes:

• Mayonnaise: We love Duke’s which is considered the mayonnaise of the South but you can use your favorite. A reduced-fat mayonnaise will work if you want to save some fat grams and calories. However, keep in mind reduced-fat products often have more additives than full-fat.
• Sriracha hot sauce: Preferred here but any hot sauce will work.
• Coarse-grain mustard: Also referred to as coarse-ground, stone ground or whole-grain, coarse-grain mustard has a chunky texture with plenty of whole mustard seeds and a rich, deep flavor.
• Capers: Capers are the green, unripened flower buds of the caper bush. They’re available near the pickled products area of your grocery store. No capers? No problem! You can use chopped pickles instead.
• Lemon juice: Fresh is always best!
• Celery leaves: Celery stalks are often used in remoulade. However, just like in my popular Cream of Celery Leaf and Scallion Soup, I’m always on the lookout for ways to use celery leaves. This recipe is a great way to use them and to keep kitchen waste down.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

• Gather, prep and measure all the ingredients.
• Simply mix all the ingredients for the remoulade together! Refrigerate until needed so the flavors have a chance to get to know each other.
• You can add salt and black pepper, but keep in mind many of the ingredients in the remoulade are already salty.

• Gather and prep the remaining ingredients. As you can see, it’s just shrimp, lettuce, avocado, lemon wedges and more celery leaves.

• Boil the shrimp in salted water and season it with black pepper.
• Cut lemon wedges.
• Use Bibb, butter lettuce or baby Romaine and celery leaves to line the glasses.
• Cut avocado wedges right before serving.
• Toss the shrimp with the remoulade.

• And assemble the cocktails! Give your guests seafood/cocktail forks if you have them. Otherwise a salad fork will do!

So fun, so delicious and the perfect cold appetizer for a hot summer day!

Chef tips and tricks:

• Wild-caught shrimp from U. S. waters is always the best shrimp to buy! (Check out the link for all the information on American wild-caught shrimp.) In short, the texture is far superior to imported farmed shrimp, it’s a sustainable seafood choice and it supports U. S. jobs.
• If you can find peeled and deveined wild-caught shrimp, you’re already off to the races. However, if you need to peel and devein shrimp, the quickest way I have found to do that is to:
  • Use kitchen shears to cut the shell. Without setting the shears down in between each individual shrimp (in other words–do ALL the cutting first), cut the top shell of all the shrimp up to the tail part, allowing the tip of the shear to slit an opening as you cut to enable removal of the vein.
  • Then, under gently running tap water, separate the shell where you cut with the shears then remove the vein and the legs.
  • You may wish to leave part of the tail on for presentation purposes if you intend to “hang” the shrimp on the rim of the glass.
  • You can also use a paring knife but I find kitchen shears to be less clumsy.
  • For more information on how to peel and devein shrimp check out this information from The Kitchn on How to Peel and Devein Shrimp.

Frequently asked questions:

More shrimp appetizers you’ll love!

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