Old Charleston Style Shrimp and Grits

Submitted by InspirationsFC

"Let me start by saying that I love shrimp and grits, any style for that matter! But this Old Charleston style version is one of my favorites. Tender shrimp and andouille sausage with red, green, and yellow bell peppers are served over cheese-flavored grits in this traditional low-country favorite. What’s not to love?!"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 15mins
• Ingredients: 20
• Yields: 8 Bowls
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 1 cup coarsely ground grits
• 3 cups water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 2 lbs uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
• salt
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper (to taste)
• 1 lemon, juice of
• 1 lb andouille sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 5 slices bacon
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1⁄4 cup butter
• 1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

directions

1. Bring water, grits, and salt to a boil in a heavy saucepan with a lid. Stir in half-and-half and simmer until grits are thickened and tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside and keep warm.
2. Sprinkle shrimp with salt and cayenne pepper; drizzle with lemon juice. Set aside in a bowl.
3. Place andouille sausage slices in a large skillet over medium heat; fry sausage until browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove skillet from heat.
4. Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Retain bacon drippings in skillet. Transfer bacon slices to paper towels, let cool, and crumble.
5. Cook and stir green, red, and yellow bell peppers, onion, and garlic in the bacon drippings until the onion is translucent, about 8 minutes.
6. Stir shrimp and cooked vegetables into the andouille sausage and mix to combine.
7. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat; stir in flour to make a smooth paste. Turn heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is medium brown in color, 8 to 10 minutes. Watch carefully, mixture burns easily.
8. Pour the butter-flour mixture into the skillet with andouille sausage, shrimp, and vegetables. Place the skillet over medium heat and pour in chicken broth, bacon and Worcestershire sauce, cooking and stirring until the sauce thickens and the shrimp become opaque and bright pink, about 8 minutes.
9. Just before serving, mix sharp Cheddar cheese into grits until melted and grits are creamy and light yellow. Serve shrimp mixture over cheese grits.

Reviews

[Anonymous]

This is a delicious recipe...the ONLY change I made was that I used Gouda cheese instead of cheddar. PLEASE stop rewriting recipes and then saying they are wonderful. Let's face it. If you take the Andouille sausage and bacon out of this recipe it will be crap. Some recipes need to be left alone. I'm sick of reading these reviews saying how THEY took out 3/4 of the ingredients and it was WON-der-ful. No it isn't...the recipe is awesome...leave it alone.

 

[Luv2cook]

GREAT RECIPE!!! I followed the directions exactly as written, however I left out the sausage because I didn't have any. I can only imagine how great it would have been with the addition of sausage. My daughter said, "You can fix this anytime." Thanks for such a great recipe.

 

[Artandkitchen]

What for a lovely combination of ingredients!<br/>I prepared the grits as described and but I replace the andouille sausage and the bacon with Turkish salami, with I prepared as described for the bacon. I used about 12 slices in this way. After cooking down on the paper towel I crumbed them lightly. The most I added to the shrip mixture and a few for the topping.<br/>I confess I would have never combined all those ingredients myself and we were really very suprised from the results. Thanks a lot for posting your recipe here, I really appreciate this.<br/>I tagged your recipe and tried it for the game: Pick a chef 2014 (http://www.food.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=402517&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0)