These 5-ingredient air fryer coconut shrimp will transport you to the beach

I admire my dad for a lot of reasons, but chief among them is how fully he commits to his concept of vacation. This is a man who is typically pretty buttoned up (he’s worked in finance for decades and one time referred to patterned socks as “flashy”), but the night before leaving for our annual beach trip, he’d start letting loose. Out with the tie and spreadsheets, in with the Tommy Bahama button downs and his multi-hour Jimmy Buffet playlist. 

Once arriving, he’s always cognizant of wanting to eat certain items our family doesn’t necessarily eat day-to-day at home: boozy slushies, specialty desserts and copious amounts of seafood. One of our shared favorites is coconut shrimp. 

Related: Travel south to the “Seafood Capital of Alabama” with these delectable, punchy pickled shrimp

For the uninitiated, it’s a simple dish: peeled and deveined shrimp coated with toasty breadcrumbs and shredded coconut, and then deep-fried. Often, it’s served as an appetizer with a sticky-sweet sauce, though I once had a coconut shrimp taco packed with avocado salsa and cabbage slaw and it was life-changing. 

However, the pandemic has obviously put a cramp in vacation planning for a few years now and I was recently feeling nostalgic: for travel, for routine and for, as my siblings and I put it, “Vacation Dad.” To feed those feelings, I began experimenting with this coconut shrimp recipe. 

It’s really simple: just five ingredients and 12 minutes of cook time. It’s amazing though how something so easy to put together is so transportative. One bite and I’m basically beachside. 

***

Recipe: Air fryer coconut shrimp