These seafood style fritters are super crispy and never fried, only oven baked and incredibly addictive and more-ish. One bite will lead to ten more. They make a great oil reduced healthy appetizer or the perfect tasty snack for game day or a even a chick flick night.
This post also contains affiliate links please read my disclosure here
I'm so excited to be sharing this seafood appetizer with you all. It's so addictive, eat one fritter and you will end up having several more.
They are oven baked, gluten free with no deep fat frying needed making them a healthier option.
First of all let me state that I will be using the words prawns and shrimp interchangeably for the sake of universal search terms.
In the UK shrimp are known as prawns. Although, they are NOT the same but share some similarities.
These fritters are incredibly additive and you know what they didn't even last very long. How they came about were purely on a whim.
I wanted to do a spin off version to my infamous Jamaican saltfish fritters. I know that saltfish can be intimidating to use for people who aren't Caribbean.
With shrimp/prawns being so widely available I thought I would do something a bit more universal and accessible to all. Using just under a pound which works out to be roughly 2 cups chopped or 330g of raw shrimp.
The shrimp is chopped into smaller pieces along with some bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, chives, parsley, black pepper, paprika, chilli flakes, gluten free flour, pink salt and water to make a thick-ish batter.
Healthier Oven Baked Fritters
A recipe such as this one would call for an amass of oil to be heated up and the batter to scooped and dropped into a skillet and fried.
Well you know Charla tries her very best not to fry anything let alone deep frying, so I managed to circumvent this cooking method by oven baking the fritters instead.
Granted it does take roughly 20 minutes to bake the fritters in the oven but you owe it to your health to try this method instead.
I would rather invest 20 minutes into baking then 5 minutes of deep fried fritters.
How to Achieve The Correct Batter Consistency
The key to achieving perfect prawn fritters this is ensuring that the batter is more on the dense side than it is loose. If the batter is runny then it will simply spread out very thinly on the baking tray and make a huge mess.
If you need to add any additional water/flour at any point then certainly do so.
How to make crispy prawn fritters
- Preheat the oven at 200c/400f/gas mark 6
- Line a large baking tray with parchment paper and set aside
- Chop the deveined shrimp into small pieces then place in a large bowl
- Add the onion and garlic
- Then add the red bell pepper and tomato
- Add the paprika and black pepper and chilli flakes
- Add the chives and chopped parsley
- Add the the GF flour, pink salt then slowly mix in the water a little at a time until you reach a smooth slightly thickish batter. If you add too much water or the consistency seems runny, add some more flour, a tablespoon at a time.
- Use a pastry brush to generously coat the parchment paper with olive oil or use cooking spray.
- Spoon a small amount of the batter onto the parchment paper and use the back of a spoon to flatten so it looks like a thin disc (use an egg mould if you find it easier to shape the fritters) and repeat this step with the remaining batter spacing on the fritters so they don't overcrowd.
- Once you have finished forming the fritters, use a pastry brush to pat some oil on the top of each fritter or spray with cooking oil.
- Oven bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown, turning over half way through.
- Serve accordingly.
Notes and tips
- Makes roughly 12 fritters
- For best results, serve the fritters immediately.
- Make sure you are using RAW shrimp NOT cooked or the texture will become too rubbery.
- These fritters can be re-heated the next day, I've done so with no problems or change in texture. I would suggest storing any leftovers in the refrigerator and re-heating in your oven (wrap them up) to retain texture.
- DO NOT freeze any cooked fritters.
- You can form the fritters on individual pieces of parchment paper, stack them and freeze UNCOOKED fritter batter.
- Dried or fresh herbs work for this recipe, but aim to use fresh if possible.
- Make sure the batter is on the thicker side (not too thick) but it definitely should not be runny.
- When adding the water add a small amount at a time until the desired texture is achieved
- Use excess flour or water if you need to.
- If you don't want the spiciness/heat omit the chilli flakes/powder
- In order to achieve uniform shaped fritters I recommend using an egg mould
More seafood recipes you may like
- Salt Fish Fried Rice
- Caribbean Style Curry Cod
- Cabbage and Saltfish
- Spicy Sweet Shrimp and Plantain
- Jamaican Curry Shrimp
- Coconut Prawn Soup
- Prawn and Mango Salad
**Don't forget to comment below and star rate if you have tried my recipes. Let's be friends on and engage on Facebook and Instagram I also like to pin on Pinterest, where you can find amazing recipes.**
Crispy Oven Baked Prawn Fritters (Gluten Free)
Equipment
- Egg mould
- Pastry brush
- Baking tray
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw shrimp devained and chopped small, 330g or less than 1lb
- 1 small onion chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 2 medium tomatoes chopped
- 2 cups gluten free flour I used Bob Red Mills
- 1 ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon chilli flakes optional or chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon chives fresh chopped or dried
- 1 tablespoon parsley fresh chopped or dried
- ¾ cup water add more or less if needed
- 2 teaspoon pink salt
- olive oil or coconut oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 200c/400f/gas mark 6
- Line a large baking tray with parchment paper and set aside
- Chop the deveined shrimp into small pieces then place in a large bowl
- Add the onion and garlic
- Then add the red bell pepper and tomato
- Add the paprika, black pepper and chilli flakes
- Add the chives and chopped parsley
- Add the GF flour, pink salt then slowly mix in the water a little at a time until you reach a smooth slightly thickish batter. If you add too much water or the consistency seems runny, add some more flour, a tablespoon at a time.
- Use a pastry brush to generously coat the parchment paper with olive oil or use cooking spray.
- Spoon a small amount of the batter onto the parchment paper and use the back of a spoon to flatten so it looks like a thin disc (use an egg mould if you find it easier to shape the fritters) and repeat this step with the remaining batter spacing out the fritters so they don't overcrowd.
- Once you have finished forming the fritters, use a pastry brush to pat some oil on the top of each fritter or spray with cooking oil.
- Oven bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown, turning over half way through.
- Serve accordingly.
Notes
- Makes roughly 12 fritters
- For best results, serve the fritters immediately.
- Make sure you are using RAW shrimp NOT cooked or the texture will become too rubbery.
- These fritters can be re-heated the next day, I've done so with no problems or change in texture. I would suggest storing any leftovers in the refrigerator and re-heating in your oven (wrap them up) to retain texture.
- DO NOT freeze any cooked fritters.
- You can form the fritters on individual pieces of parchment paper, stack them and freeze UNCOOKED fritter batter.
- Dried or fresh herbs work for this recipe, but aim to use fresh if possible.
- Make sure the batter is on the thicker side (not too thick) but it definitely should not be runny.
- When adding the water add a small amount at a time until the desired texture is achieved
- Use excess flour or water if you need to.
- If you don't want the spiciness/heat omit the chilli flakes/powder
- In order to achieve uniform shaped fritters I recommend using an egg mould
Lagatta de Montréal
I love these and am very happy to find a good recipe that doesn't involve deep-frying. I'm not averse to stir-frying with a bit of quality oil.
Is saltfish something like salt cod? We get that here in Québec.
Charla
Hi Lagatta. This recipe doesn't require saltfish it's a SHRIMP/PRAWN recipe. However, if you want to try my salfish fritter recipe then you can make your own using my DIY tutorial https://thatgirlcookshealthy.com/how-to-make-salt-fish/