Honey Chipotle Shrimp Tacos with Corn Avocado Salsa
May 5, 2017 by Nicole Collins
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
And Happy Friday, fo sho. I had a couple of days off in the beginning of the week, but somehow working a shortened week always feels longer than working a regular one.
Are you guys doing anything to celebrate the holiday or the weekend? I've got a 5k on Saturday, followed by a wine and food truck festival. This will be my second winefest weekend in a row, but at least I will have earned this one by running a race first.
I'm more excited about the food truck festival though. There's something about bouncing from truck to truck, reading the ever changing menus, and trying a bite from as many trucks as I can that just totally makes my day. And if I don't know anything else, I know I'll be on the hunt for the best tacos I can find.
But until then, I'm making us some tacos to hold us over. I know we just had taco boats on Tuesday, but I seriously need tacos in my life 24/7. I can't imagine a world where anyone would think there's such a thing as too many tacos.
For today's taco, we're marinating some shrimp in a sweet and slightly spicy honey chipotle sauce. These shrimp are soooo good. They're not crazy spicy or crazy sweet. They carry the perfect balance which creates an incredible bite.
The next step is to top them with a corn avocado salsa. I went in a couple of different directions when trying to decide the right accompaniment for the shrimp. My thoughts varied from just diced avocado to a guacamole with corn. But, ultimately I decided I wanted something with a lot of textures in it and certainly a lot of flavor. The creaminess of the salsa with the pops of corn kernels compliments the tiny spice kick from the shrimp perfectly.
The last thing to do is to top the tacos with a little sprinkle of crumbled feta...partially because the salty feta adds a nice bite, but also because I had some in the fridge that I needed to use up. Yay for efficiency! These would be great with some queso fresco substituted in for the feta. Or, you could leave the cheeses off completely if that's how you feel. Not sure why you'd want to though. Because cheese...
So, that's all for today. I hope your weekend is full of tacos and great memories!
But for now...let's eat!
Honey Chipotle Shrimp Tacos with Corn Avocado Salsa
Serves: 4 Print
Ingredients:
For the Shrimp:
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined (thawed if frozen)
½ cup olive oil
1 tbsp chipotle chili powder
2 tbsp honey
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
juice of ½ a lime
For the Corn Avocado Salsa:
1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced
1 ear of corn, husk still on
2 roma (plum) tomatoes, seeded and diced
¼ cup red onion, finely diced
juice of ½ a lime
¼ tsp salt
For the Tacos:
8 6-inch flour tortillas
1-2 oz crumbled feta
Directions:
Make the shrimp: Whisk the olive oil, spices, and lime juice together in a small bowl. Place shrimp in a resealable freezer bag, and pour marinade on top. Seal the bag, and massage the outside of the bag to incorporate the shrimp and marinade together. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Remove the shrimp from the fridge. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the shrimp to the pan, discarding the leftover marinade. Cook shrimp for 3-4 minutes, flip over, and cook for an additional minute until shrimp curl and are completely cooked through. There was a lot of oil in the marinade, so drain any extra oil in the pan.
While the shrimp is marinating, roast the corn: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place corn in the husk on a sheet pan. Roast in the oven for 30 mins. Remove from oven, and set aside until cool enough to handle. Once the corn is cool, remove the husk, and cut the corn kernels off of the cob.
Make the salsa: Take the corn kernels, avocado, tomatoes, onions, lime juice, and salt, and mix everything together in a medium size bowl. Set aside.
To assemble, evenly divide shrimp between tortillas. Top with salsa and crumbled feta.
Recipe notes:
*Easily dice the avocado by taking one half, running a knife a few times lengthwise through the fruit (being careful not to cut through the skin), then repeat going in the opposite direction. Take a spoon and slide it between the fruit and the shell. The fruit will come out perfectly diced.
*To seed the tomatoes, slice the tomato in half, and use a spoon to scoop out the center. Drain the tomatoes cut side down on a paper towel before cutting.
*There's a lot of oil in the marinade, so we don't need to oil the pan before cooking. There will be a ton left in the pan too. Don't panic, just drain it.
