These spicy treats are easy and low carb! They’re sure to wow your guests and your family!
Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp Stuffed Jalapenos
When I go out to eat or for drinks with friends, it’s always a challenge to figure out what to eat that doesn’t pack a big punch of carbs. I save the carbs for beer. Wings are (nearly) always a great choice. Stay away from the sugary sauces and stick with your traditional Buffalo wings, or perhaps lemon pepper. A burger without the bun is generally a good choice, as are most salads. Slaw instead of fries. Salad instead of bread or potatoes, etc. Unfortunately, that’s generally where the variety ends.
Rat Toes, or Rat’s Toes, are a breath of fresh air. They offer something different while being both delicious and generally low carb. There are a lot of variations out there. Some have crab in them along with chopped shrimp. Some have cheese in them. I’m not a fan of cheese with seafood but some exceptions are okay in my opinion. I’d stay away from sharper, more pungent cheeses and stick with milder, creamier cheeses like chevre, mild gruyere, cream cheese, etc. It’s my opinion that people who like blue cheese with their seafood should be put (humanely, of course) on a special island just for them.
Another variation is using scallops and habanero peppers. These are called Dragon Toes.
I’ve had these out in a neighborhood restaurant and bar. They are always good, but they’re so easy to make I usually just bang them out at home. They travel well, so they make a great option when the host asks you to bring a dish.
I take a simple approach with these and use just three ingredients…bacon, jalapeno, and shrimp! That’s all you need.
Rat’s Toes
These can be on the milder side or crazy spicy. It depends on the peppers you choose. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to tell which are hotter and which are not. That makes it fun, like a lottery where the winning ticket sets your mouth on fire!
Serve them with a side of ranch for dipping. They don’t call it cool ranch for no reason, the ranch will help balance out the heat.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 12 pieces
- Category: Appetizer
- Cuisine: Bar Food
Ingredients
12 each Jalapenos
1 tablespoon Olive oil
Salt and pepper
12 thin slices of bacon
12 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined.
Instructions
Preheat the oven or your air fryer to 450 degrees F. Toss the jalapenos in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for about ten minutes in the oven, less in the air fryer. You only want to soften them slightly to make them pliable enough to stuff without tearing them. They should still be close to raw.
Cut the top off of the peppers, remove the seeds and membranes. You can reduce the spiciness by rinsing them in cool water to remove as much of the seeds and membrane as possible.
Insert a shrimp into each pepper. Wrap in bacon. Bake for about 20 minutes or more, until the bacon is crispy. I love this in an air fryer! You’ll get better results in less time!
Notes
It’s best to use thinly sliced bacon for this recipe, the really cheap kind that you would likely never serve with your breakfast! If the bacon is too thick, it will take too long for it to get crispy. The thin bacon also allows you to wrap an entire slice around the pepper. This gives you a very nice crunchy exterior, but it also holds together very nicely. Thicker bacon is more likely to unravel in the oven and will cause the shrimp and pepper to overcook by the time the bacon gets crispy.
As mentioned, these go great with a ranch dipping sauce. If you’d like to try something a little different (or you don’t have any ranch dressing) you can make a quick and easy dipping sauce by combining equal parts sour cream, yogurt, and salsa. It serves the same purpose as ranch and can have a cooling effect.
