Ragin' Cajun Popcorn

By inpatskitchen • August 10, 2011 • 4 Comments

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Author Notes: No....not popped corn, but crawdaddies, mudbugs, crayfish, crawfish, breaded in a spicy flour and corn meal mix and eaten out of hand like popcorn or with toothpicks. If you can't get crawfish tail meat, feel free to use small gulf shrimp or rock shrimp. - inpatskitchen

Serves 4 to 6 as an appetizer

1 pound cooked crawfish tail meat, thawed if frozen, rinsed and drained
2 cups buttermilk
1 tablespoon hot sauce (I used Tabasco)
3/4 cups AP flour
1/2 cup yellow corn meal
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Enough peanut or vegetable oil to fill a large frying pan about an inch

Stir the buttermilk and hot sauce together and add the crawfish meat. Let marinate in the mixture for about 20 minutes.
In the meantime, make the breading by whisking the flour, corn meal, cayenne, salt and pepper together and then place in a small paper or plastic bag.
After the 20 minutes, drain the crawfish meat well.
Heat the oil in the frying pan until almost smoking. Add about a third of the crawfish to the flour filled bag and coat well. Fry the crawfish in the oil for no more than 2 minutes or until golden.( Remember the meat is already cooked ). Remove with a spider or large slotted spoon and drain on paper toweling. Repeat with the rest of the crawfish.