Mexican Prawn Cocktail

Mexican Prawn Cocktail is a summer, or on the beach classic in Mexico. Every seafood restaurant in the country has this dish. It’s also popular to see oyster cocktail, octopus or seafood cocktail, but the classic and most popular one is the prawn cocktail.  It’s eaten from a glass, either a high or low glass, with a spoon and with tortilla chips, tostadas or crackers. This recipe is so multi-layered in flavour and in texture; with heat, the tang of citrus, the crunch from our tortilla chips and plenty of aromatics. 

Variety is the spice of life

Recipes for Mexican Prawn Cocktail vary from person to person, but the idea is to have a cold broth, like a gazpacho, using some of the poaching liquid used to cook prawns (with onion, garlic, herbs, orange and lime peel), orange juice, ketchup, lime juice and hot sauce. 

It’s made by making a mix of this cold broth with pico de gallo (check out our recipe for that here), deliciously plump poached prawns and lots of avocado on top. It’s served with tortilla chips on the side and a few lime wedges. People often add more chill sauce or even chopped chilli. 

Ingredients 

This recipe makes about four starter portions.

• • 450g of raw small prawns 

• • 30g of brown onion, finely sliced 

• • 1 garlic clove, mashed

• • The juice and some of the zest of an orange 

• • The juice and some of the zest of a lime

• • 600ml of water 

• • 50g or two tablespoons of ketchup

• • Hot sauce to taste 

• • About ½ teaspoon of sea salt 

• • 2 sprigs of coriander

• • 3 black peppercorns, mashed

Garnishes

• • 600g of pico de gallo 
• • Extra virgin olive oil
• • Fresh coriander sprigs 
• • 1 fresh jalapeño chilli, finally sliced 
• • Lime wedges
• • A bag of your favourite Blanco Niño tortilla chips 

Method:

• 1. In a pot, add the water, sliced onion, mashed garlic, mashed black peppercorns, orange and lime peel and salt to taste and bring to a boil. Turn the heat dow and simmer for 5 minutes
• 2. Place the prawns in a bowl, add the coriander sprigs and strain the boiling water over them
• 3. Let the prawns poach for around 5 minutes or until they are fully cooked
• 4. While that happens, juice the orange and lime juice
• 5. Strain prawns from the water and cool them down in the fridge. Keep a cup or around 250ml of the cooking liquid and cool down. Discard the rest 
• 6. Mix the cup of cooking liquid with the orange and lime juice and season with ketchup, hot sauce and salt if needed

To serve:

In a glass, scoop some of the pico de gallo, then some of the prawns, add the cold broth and finish with some avocado and a dash of extra virgin olive oil

Serve with lime wedges, coriander and tortilla chips

If your supply of Blanco Niño tortilla chips is running low, why not swing by your local stockist (check out the handy map here) or feel free to visit our shop. 

Check out our other recipes here.