The marriage of shrimp with grits in this classic Lowcountry dish goes back generations. Grits as we know them here originated in the South with the Native American Muscogee, who stone ground dent corn, which has a softer and starchier kernel than other corn varieties, and boiled it into a soft, creamy porridge. Over the years, spooning buttery shrimp over the grits became a popular breakfast made in Lowcountry home kitchens. Recipes for it started appearing in newspapers in the 1890s and then in Two Hundred Years of Charleston Cooking in 1930. But the dish didn’t become a nationwide restaurant phenomenon until 1985 when North Carolina chef Bill Neal put it on menus at his Crooks Corner restaurant, and Craig Claiborne wrote about it in the NYTimes.
Neal added bacon, garlic and green onions to the simple original recipe, and in the years that followed, chefs riffed even more, adding tomatoes, peppers, hot sauce and other ingredients. Our recipe adapts The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen recipe for the shrimp to include peppers and onions. (We think the extra veg helps balance the flavors in the dish.)
Also of note: Stone ground grits (also called old-fashioned grits) are ground with the germ intact, preserving nutrients and giving the cooked result more flavor than instant grits. So, do use stone-ground—either white, or yellow, in the recipe. While many modern shrimp and grits recipes include cheese, (and you can stir some in if you like) since the grits already have butter mixed in and the shrimp sauce is studded with bacon, the dish is plenty rich without it.
Shrimp & Grits
Ingredients
- FOR THE GRITS:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup stone-ground coarse grits
- ½ tsp salt
- Pinch of sugar
- 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
- Fresh-cracked pepper to taste
- FOR THE SHRIMP:
- 1 ½ lb headless large, raw, shell-on shrimp (You will use the shells to make stock)
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 cups water
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- FOR THE SHRIMP SAUCE:
- 4 slices thick-cut uncured bacon, diced
- 2 bell peppers, one red, one green, core and seeds discarded, peppers diced small
- 1 small onion, peeled and diced fine
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 Tbsp olive oil or butter
- 1 fresh lemon, cut in half
- 1 lb fresh tomatoes on-the-vine
- 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tbsp flour
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 scallions, chopped for garnish
Instructions
- MAKE GRITS: In a heavy- bottomed 2-quart pot, add milk, water, salt and sugar and heat to boiling over medium-high heat. As soon as the water/milk boils, rapidly whisk in the grits and butter and continue whisking until mixture begins to boil again. Reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer, stirring occasionally for 35 minutes. Remove cover, add pepper and stir until mixture is quite thick and creamy soft. Remove from heat and set aside, keeping warm.
- PREP SHRIMP & MAKE STOCK: Peel shells from shrimp and place in a stock pot with 2 cups of water, a bay leaf, salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Place pot over high heat and cover. When water boils, remove lid, reduce heat to medium low and simmer until liquid has reduced by half, (about 15 minutes.) Strain stock through mesh strainer, discarding shells. Set reduced stock aside.
- MAKE TOMATO JUICE: Place tomatoes in food processor or blender or—if using a stick/immersion blender, in a large bowl. Add vinegar and ½ tsp salt. Pulse or blend well. Press through a fine mesh strainer, capturing tomato liquid in cup and discarding seeds and skins. Set liquid aside.
- SAUTE BACON, VEG AND SHRIMP: In a sauté pan over medium heat, sauté bacon until fat has rendered and meat is crisp. Remove cooked bacon to a paper-towel lined plate. Leaving bacon fat in pan, add diced onion and peppers, minced garlic and smoked paprika and sauté until soft. Scoop vegetables into a bowl and set aside. Add 1 Tbsp butter or olive oil if needed. Add shrimp to sauté pan and cook until pink. Remove cooked shrimp from pan and add to veg in bowl; squeeze ½ lemon over shrimp. Set aside.
- MAKE SAUCE: With pan over medium heat, add shrimp stock. Heat until boiling. Scoop out a ladle of the stock to a small bowl; whisk 1 Tbsp flour into the bowl to make a paste. Set aside. Stir reserved tomato juice into shrimp stock in pan. Cook for three minutes. Whisk in the flour paste and tomato paste and cook, whisking until thickened. Remove from heat. Fold in shrimp, onions, peppers, and half of the bacon. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. To serve, ladle grits into serving bowls. Top with generous spoonfuls of the shrimp and vegetable sauce. Garnish with remaining bacon and the green onions. Serve hot, with the remaining ½ lemon cut into wedges, and a bottle of hot sauce.
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