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Grilled Shrimp Tacos

I love everything about this dish. Depending on how spicy you like your shrimp, you can grill them with no spice, a little spice or lots of spice. I like mine grilled with just a dusting of chili powder. Use your favorite kind of shell, corn or flour, crispy or not and pile the shrimp high with pico de gallo and you have one wonderful meal.

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Shrimp and lettuce work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 426 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6
Prep20 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the grill to medium-high heat, about 450°F (232°C).

  2. Grill the peeled and deveined shrimp in a single layer for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until opaque and flesh flakes, reaching 145°F (63°C) in the thickest part.

  3. Warm the tortillas on the grill for 20 to 30 seconds per side, or until pliable and lightly marked.

  4. If the lettuce is not already shredded, shred it finely and set it aside.

  5. Divide the grilled shrimp among the warm tortillas.

  6. Top each taco with shredded lettuce and pico de gallo, then serve right away.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Shrimp + lettucetop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together426 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Flour + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,205 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Shrimp + flourtop 22% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, flour):

  1. Okrabetter flavor fit
  2. Chivebetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).