Bang Bang Shrimp (Bonefish Grill Copycat, 20 Minutes)

Bang bang shrimp is the appetizer that made Bonefish Grill famous: small shrimp in a light, craggy crust, tossed in a creamy sauce that’s sweet first and spicy a second later. At home it takes about 20 minutes. The shrimp fry for only 2 minutes, and the sauce is three ingredients stirred together in a bowl. The two things that matter are a coating that stays crisp under the sauce and tossing at the very last second. Here’s how to get both right.

What is Bonefish Grill bang bang shrimp?

It’s battered, fried shrimp tossed in a creamy, spicy sauce, served as a shareable appetizer. Bonefish Grill, the seafood chain that opened in Florida in 2000, made it its signature dish. Regulars often just order “a Bang.” Bonefish has never published the recipe, so every home version, including this one, is a copycat built from tasting and looking closely at the plate.

The name has a story. According to Food Network, the dish first went on the menu as “Creamy Spicy Shrimp” and didn’t sell. Founder Tim Curci renamed it Bang Bang Shrimp, and it became the chain’s best-selling appetizer. Same shrimp, better name.

What is in bang bang shrimp sauce?

Mayonnaise, Thai sweet chili sauce and a little sriracha. The mayo makes it creamy, the sweet chili sauce brings sugar, garlic and those little red pepper flakes you can see on the restaurant shrimp, and the sriracha adds heat. No cooking needed. You just stir it in a bowl.

The ratio is what makes it taste like the restaurant’s. Two parts mayo to one part sweet chili sauce gives you a sauce that’s pale orange, sweet up front and only mildly hot. Start with 1 teaspoon of sriracha and taste before adding more. You can always add heat, but you can’t take it out.

• Mayo: use a full-fat one. Light mayo is thinner and slides off the shrimp. Kewpie makes a richer, tangier sauce.
• Sweet chili sauce: Mae Ploy is the most common brand. Don’t swap in hot sauce or ketchup. The sweet chili sauce is thick, and that thickness is what helps the sauce cling.
• Optional: a squeeze of lime, or ½ teaspoon of honey if your sweet chili sauce is on the sour side.

Make the sauce first and keep it in the fridge. Cold sauce on hot shrimp sets slightly as it hits the crust, instead of melting into it.

Ingredients for copycat bang bang shrimp

Why small shrimp? The restaurant uses bite-size shrimp, so every piece gets a lot of crust and sauce. Large 21/25 shrimp work too, but the crust-to-shrimp ratio drops and they need about 30 seconds more in the oil. Frozen shrimp are fine. Thaw them in a sealed bag in cold water for 15 to 20 minutes, the same way we do for our garlic butter shrimp scampi.

How do you make bang bang shrimp step by step?

Make the sauce, coat the shrimp, fry them fast in small batches, and toss at the last moment. From the time the oil is hot, the whole batch takes about 8 minutes to fry. Have everything ready before the first shrimp goes in, because there’s no time to stop once you start.

1. Make the sauce. Stir the mayo, sweet chili sauce, sriracha and lime juice in a large bowl. Taste and adjust the heat. Set aside about a third in a small dish for dipping, and refrigerate both.
2. Soak the shrimp. Pat the shrimp very dry, then stir them into the buttermilk. Let them sit while the oil heats, about 10 minutes.
3. Heat the oil. Pour 1½ inches of oil into a heavy pot or deep skillet, filling it no more than halfway. Heat over medium-high to 350°F on a thermometer.
4. Mix the dredge. Whisk the cornstarch, flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a shallow bowl.
5. Coat the shrimp. Lift a handful of shrimp out of the buttermilk, let the extra drip off, and toss them in the dredge. Press lightly so the coating sticks, then shake off the loose starch in a sieve. Coat only what you’ll fry next, so the coating doesn’t turn gummy while it waits.
6. Fry in batches. Add about a quarter of the shrimp to the oil. Fry for 1½ to 2 minutes, stirring once, until the coating is pale gold and the shrimp are opaque all the way through. Lift them onto a wire rack. Let the oil come back to 350°F before the next batch.
7. Toss and serve. When the last batch is out, put all the shrimp in the bowl with the sauce and fold gently for 10 seconds, just until coated. Pile onto the shredded lettuce, scatter the green onions on top, and serve immediately with the extra sauce on the side.

How do you know the shrimp are done?

The FDA says to cook shrimp until the flesh is pearly and opaque, and most seafood to 145°F. With small shrimp in 350°F oil, that happens in under 2 minutes. Cut one open from the first batch. If it’s opaque white with no gray center, you’ve found your time for the rest.

Watch bang bang shrimp made step by step

If you’ve never fried shrimp before, it helps to see the timing first. This video uses the same approach as our recipe: a buttermilk soak, a cornstarch coating, small shrimp, and a sauce of mayo, sweet chili sauce and sriracha. He uses more sriracha than we do, so his version is hotter.

Watch the full walkthrough on YouTube (DoesntPayFullPrice, about 5 minutes).

How do you keep bang bang shrimp crispy?

Use starch, drain on a rack, and sauce at the very end. Cornstarch fries up crisper and lighter than wheat flour, and it stays crisp longer under a creamy sauce. Draining on a wire rack instead of paper towels keeps steam from softening the bottom of each shrimp.

Timing matters more than anything else. Tossed shrimp stay properly crisp for about 5 minutes, then the sauce starts to soak in. That’s fine at a restaurant, where it goes straight from the kitchen to the table. At home, it means the shrimp should be tossed with the guests already sitting down. If you’re serving a crowd, toss in two rounds rather than all at once.

Fixing the usual problems

• Coating falls off: the shrimp were wet when they hit the dredge, or you skipped shaking off the loose starch. Pat them dry before the buttermilk, and let the extra buttermilk drip off.
• Greasy shrimp: the oil was too cool, usually because too many shrimp went in at once. Fry smaller batches and wait for the thermometer to read 350°F again.
• Rubbery shrimp: they fried too long. Small shrimp need 2 minutes, not 4.
• Sauce too runny: you used light mayo or added too much lime. Stir in another tablespoon of mayo.

Can you make bang bang shrimp in the air fryer?

Yes. It’s a little less crunchy than deep-fried, but still very good. Coat the shrimp exactly the same way, then spray them all over with oil, including any dry patches of starch. Dry cornstarch stays chalky white in the air fryer, and the spray is what turns it golden.

1. Preheat the air fryer to 400°F for 3 minutes.
2. Arrange in one layer in a lightly oiled basket, not touching. Work in two batches for 1 lb of shrimp.
3. Spray generously with oil, cook 4 minutes, flip, spray again and cook 3 to 4 minutes more, until golden and opaque inside.
4. Toss and serve the same way as fried.

For the oven, bake the sprayed shrimp on a wire rack set over a sheet pan at 425°F for 8 to 10 minutes, flipping once. It’s the least crispy option, so toss it with less sauce and serve the rest on the side. If you use your air fryer a lot, our air fryer popcorn chicken uses the same spray-the-starch trick.

How many calories are in Bonefish Grill bang bang shrimp?

One order of Bonefish Grill Bang Bang Shrimp has 740 calories, 60 g of fat and 1,950 mg of sodium, according to the chain’s June 2026 nutrition guide. That’s one appetizer, often shared, before any main course.

Restaurant figures: Bonefish Grill nutrition guide, June 2026. Our numbers are estimated from standard ingredient values, assuming all the sauce is eaten and a typical amount of frying oil is absorbed.

Sodium is the number that stands out. The FDA sets the Daily Value for sodium at 2,300 mg. A single restaurant order covers about 85% of that, which is easy to miss when it arrives as a starter.

Making it at home doesn’t make it a light dish. It’s still fried, and the sauce is mostly mayo. What you do control is the portion and the salt. Serving the extra sauce on the side instead of tossing all of it cuts a good share of the fat.

What do you serve with bang bang shrimp?

As a starter, serve it the restaurant way: piled over shredded lettuce with green onions. The cold, crunchy lettuce under the hot shrimp is part of the dish, not a garnish. Give everyone a fork or chopsticks and put the extra sauce in the middle of the table.

To make it dinner, here are the options we come back to most:

• Bang bang shrimp tacos: warm flour tortillas, shredded cabbage, the shrimp, extra sauce and a squeeze of lime. Bonefish has its own taco version on the menu. For more taco ideas, see our street tacos recipe.
• Rice bowls: steamed jasmine rice, sliced cucumber, shredded carrot and the shrimp on top. Or pair it with our 20-minute shrimp fried rice for a full takeout-style night.
• Lettuce wraps: butter lettuce cups, a little rice, the shrimp and green onions. Same idea as our PF Chang’s lettuce wraps copycat.
• Sliders: soft slider buns, shredded lettuce and three or four shrimp each.

Storing and reheating

Bang bang shrimp is best the minute it’s tossed. If you expect leftovers, keep unsauced shrimp and sauce separate. Refrigerate both within 2 hours and use within 3 to 4 days, per the USDA’s leftovers guidance. Re-crisp the plain shrimp in the air fryer at 375°F for 3 to 4 minutes, then toss with the cold sauce. Sauced leftovers won’t crisp up again, so eat those cold over rice or in a wrap.

Questions people ask about bang bang shrimp

Is bang bang shrimp spicy?

Mildly. The restaurant’s sauce is more sweet than hot, and most people who don’t like spicy food are fine with it. With 1 teaspoon of sriracha, this version sits at about the same level. Use 2 teaspoons or more if you want a real kick.

Is bang bang sauce the same as yum yum sauce?

No. Both are mayo-based, but yum yum sauce, the hibachi kind, gets its flavor from tomato paste, paprika and butter. Bang bang sauce gets its flavor from Thai sweet chili sauce and sriracha, so it’s sweeter, spicier and has visible chili flakes.

Can you make bang bang sauce ahead?

Yes. It keeps in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 5 days, as long as your mayo is well within its date. Give it a stir before using, and drizzle the leftovers on chicken tacos, burgers or rice bowls.

Can I use cooked shrimp?

Not for this recipe. Cooked shrimp go rubbery long before the coating turns crisp. Start with raw shrimp, fresh or frozen.

Can I make it gluten-free?

Yes. Replace the flour with more cornstarch or with rice flour, and check that your sweet chili sauce and sriracha are labeled gluten-free. The all-starch coating is even a little crisper.

What other dishes use bang bang sauce?

Chicken is the most popular one. Our bang bang chicken uses a panko crust and a slightly sweeter sauce with honey. The sauce also works with crispy fish, cauliflower and Japanese-style karaage.

Bang Bang Shrimp is a dish served at Bonefish Grill. This is an independent home recipe inspired by it. Meat Recipes Box is not affiliated with Bonefish Grill.