These Margarita Shrimp Bites are a perfectly delicious appetizer. As everyone in my family tells me: “They are restaurant quality!”
The holidays are upon us. Friends and family will be gathering to celebrate the season, and some of that may be happening in your home. If so, you may be starting to think about what sorts of festive treats to serve up for the holidays this year. I’ve taken my favorite shrimp taco recipe and used it as inspiration to create a delicious red and green holiday appetizer using Puff Pastry. Let’s make Margarita Shrimp Bites!
Ingredients needed:
- shrimp
- lime
- tequila
- sugar
- sour cream
- chipotle chile in adobo sauce
- ground cumin
- salt
- bell peppers
- Puff Pastry
- egg
- fresh cilantro
How to make Margarita Shrimp Bites:
Marinate shrimp with lime juice, lime zest, sugar, and tequila. Mix up the southwestern sauce: sour cream mixed with chopped chipotle chile/sauce, cumin, lime juice and salt.
Defrost a Puff Pastry sheet and roll out into an even square. Cut into 16 equal squares.
Assemble the appetizers. Place one shrimp and one piece each of red and green bell pepper on top of each Puff Pastry square. Fasten corners together diagonally and seal with a fork and a bit of water. Brush with egg wash when ready to bake.
Bake them for 15 to 20 minutes, and they’ll come out golden brown and ready for eating.
But first, they need a drizzle of Southwestern Sauce. A single leaf of cilantro tops each bite.
Make Ahead Tip:
These appetizers can be prepared ahead. Place them all on a parchment-lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap before brushing with egg wash. Refrigerate several hours (or overnight) until ready to bake. When you’re ready to bake these up and serve them, brush each bite with a swish of egg wash and then bake.
I served up a whole bunch of these at a party we hosted. I baked two trays at a time and as soon as I took them out of the oven, I had people hovering over me with interest at what gourmet appetizer I was plating. 32 appetizers were gone in literally 32 seconds as I passed them around. Our guests loved them, noting that the sauce was perfect to top the Puff Pastry-wrapped shrimp.
These are good any time of year, but they’re especially festive for the holidays with the green and red bell pepper. Make them for your guests and watch them disappear. Enjoy!
Margarita Shrimp Bites
Ingredients
SHRIMP AND MARINADE:
- 32 large frozen shrimp (peeled and de-veined)
- One medium lime, zested
- Two medium limes, juiced
- 1 tablespoon tequila
- ½ tablespoon granulated white sugar
SAUCE:
- 1 cup sour cream
- ½ tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 large canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce (seeded and chopped)
- 1 teaspoon adobo sauce (from the can)
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
REMAINING INGREDIENTS:
- 1 medium red bell pepper, cut into thin 2-inch strips
- 1 medium green bell pepper, cut into thin 2-inch strips
- 2 sheets Puff Pastry, thawed
- 1 large egg (whisked with 1 tablespoon water)
- 32 fresh cilantro leaves (leaves picked off stems)
Instructions
- Place the shrimp and marinade ingredients in a large zip bag, and let defrost in the refrigerator overnight.
- Mix the sauce ingredients; transfer to a plastic, covered container and refrigerate until ready to use.
PREPARE APPETIZERS:
- On a lightly floured surface, unfold one sheet of the Puff Pastry and roll out to eliminate fold marks and to get a nice, even square. With a sharp knife, cut down the center both vertically and horizontally to create four equal squares. Then cut each square both vertically and horizontally to create four small squares. You should be able to create 16 small squares from each sheet of Puff Pastry.
- Drain the thawed shrimp and pull off the tails.
- Remove a small square to a cutting board work surface. Place one piece of red bell pepper and one piece of green bell pepper diagonally onto the square. Make sure that a little green is peeking out of one side and a little red is peeking out of the other side. Lay one shrimp on top of the peppers. Fold Puff Pastry corner to corner over the peppers and shrimp. Use a little water to stick the corners together and use a fork to seal the corners completely. Wrap the corner up and over the top of the appetizer (you won’t see the fork marks at all when you do this). Seal again with a tiny amount of water, if necessary. Place appetizer on parchment-lined (or greased) baking sheet. Repeat with remaining squares of Puff Pastry, shrimp and peppers. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to bake.
- When ready to serve, take off the plastic wrap and brush each appetizer with egg wash. Bake in a preheated 400 degree F. oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
- To serve, move the appetizers to a platter. Scoop the southwestern sauce into a zip baggie. Snip a small piece off of the corner and drizzle onto each Puff Pastry bite. Place a cilantro leaf onto the top of each appetizer; serve immediately.
Notes
- *Leave out the tequila if you prefer to cook without alcohol.
- *Try adding zest and juice from an orange as well, making this more of a citrus margarita shrimp.
- *This appetizer may be assembled ahead of time and placed onto cookie sheets- just wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours, and then bake as directed.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
can I make these and home to take to a party. Might not be eaten immediately though
You’d be serving them cold… I suppose if that’s okay with you!
Did you use frozen raw or cooked shrimp?
Defrosted frozen raw!
This sounds wonderful! I can’t wait to make it for our dinner party next week!
I made these last Friday evening for a 50th Birthday Party and everyone LOVED them. Very feastive and tastey. Be sure to follow instructions sealing corners with fork first because as the puff pastry cooks and shrimp expands they will unfold if not crimped and sealed. I could not find canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce in my supermarkets so I just roasted a hot red pepper (seeded no ribs cut in half) on a small stone bar pan in 450 degree oven, then rubbed blakened skin off with brown paper bag and finely minced for southwestern sauce and also added finely minced sun-dried tomotoe packed in oil(to tone the heat a bit and brighten red color)Served on Snowman Glass Tray just fabulous!