Creamy Shrimp and Grits: 7 Tips to Make the Southern Dish at Home

The secret to creamy shrimp and grits may be ingredients already in your kitchen. According to Jada Prince, just a few simple ingredients will go a long way in creating the dish you want.

“I am a big fan of simple but great. It don’t take a lot of ingredients to make good food. Quality ingredients and let the food shine,” says Prince. “For me, it starts with grits. They have to be flavorful and creamy and have this nice body and nice mouthfeel to them.”

Prince is known among clients for her creamy shrimp and grits, often leaving them speechless and asking for the recipe.

While they get a “no” every time, she was generous in sharing a few of her secrets that you can incorporate when you feel like whipping up your own version of creamy shrimp and grits at home.

A Dish That Goes Back Hundreds of Years

From restaurants to personal chefs, enjoying a flavorful bowl of creamy shrimp and grits is as easy as tapping into Yelp!, social media or good ole word of mouth.

While the dish has been around for hundreds of years, originating in South Carolina and the Gullah Geechee people, a chef named Bill Neal is credited with increasing its popularity after a visit from the New York Times, which then published his recipe.

However, we cannot leave out the dish’s history and those who originally created it, which inspired Neal to recreate his own.

History goes back to the Native American tribe, the Muskogee, and their preparation of Indian corn, which was similar to hominy. The Muskogee would grind the corn in a stone mill, giving it the texture it is known for today.

In addition, the Gullah Geechee community in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, with roots from West Africa, was known to create similar dishes, serving grits with shrimp and fish caught from the coast. This dish was often breakfast for Gullah Geechee fishermen.

Chef and culinary historian Joe Randall points out that the original shrimp and grits recipe from the Lowcountry is simple, with a gravy made from shrimp stock sans all the toppings of bacon, sausage, bell peppers, etc., served today.  He also shares that regionally the dish is made and served differently such as in Louisiana.

At Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen and Bar in Georgia, owner Gregory Smalls keeps to his roots, serving diners his version called Skrimp N’ Grits Wit’ Crab, which is made with crab gravy.

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Tips to Make Creamy Shrimp and Grits at Home

We all know that cooking isn’t fun if you can’t add your own creative twists to a recipe to make it your own.

For Chef Prince, this included trying various shrimp and grits dishes (and those with crab too), adding her personal preferences and creating a recipe that makes her clients say with excitement, “Umm, what’s this?” To which she simply smiles.

So what are Prince’s tips for creating creamy shrimp and grits?

1. Use Simple ingredients – Prince says to focus on the dish’s star ingredients: the grits and the shrimp. When you make these two shine, you have a winning recipe. She doesn’t have a preference for the types of grits to use, such as instant or stone-ground, just whatever you like.
2. Season your star ingredients – Flavor should start from the very beginning and Prince recommends seasoning the liquid you cook the grits in (water, stock, etc.) and then adding a little more to the shrimp besides salt and pepper. She likes to use garlic and smoked paprika.
3. Heavy Cream Makes a Difference – Flavorful grits also have body to them that helps to make the dish hearty and delicious. By using heavy cream vs. say water, that extra fat will help set the grits up for creamy success.
4. Roasting Your Shrimp vs. Pan Sauteing – It’s all about preference, but since Prince prepares large portions at a time for clients, she is a fan of roasting her seasoned shrimp for 5 minutes or so, which comes out perfect each time.
5. Use the Shrimp Juice for the Sauce – Although Prince’s version of creamy shrimp and grits does not use a sauce, she suggests adding the juice from the roasted or sauteed shrimp to a skillet with heavy creamy, butter, flour and parsley.
6. Add Vegetable Bouillon for a Boast – One of Prince’s flavor secrets and tips that is sure to add a boost to your grits is vegetable bouillon.
7. Cheese Makes Everything Better – Cheese has become part of so many creamy shrimp and grits recipes. The most coming is Cheddar, but something tells me that Prince goes off on a creative tangent, using perhaps Smoked Gouda or something else to add a hint of smokiness she says her clients love.