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Shrimp Salad  Recipe - America's Test Kitchen

This recipe can also be prepared with large shrimp (26/30); the cooking time will be 1 to 2 minutes less. The shrimp can be cooked up to 24 hours in advance, but hold off on dressing the salad until ready to serve. The recipe can be easily doubled; cook the shrimp in a 7-quart Dutch oven and increase the cooking time to 12 to 14 minutes. Serve the salad on a bed of greens or on a buttered and grilled bun.

Shrimp Salad

Serves 4

Most shrimp salads drown in a sea of mayonnaise, in part to hide the rubbery, flavorless boiled shrimp.

We wanted perfectly cooked shrimp without the extra work of grilling, roasting, or sautéing. And we needed to coat them with the perfect deli-style dressing—something creamy that wouldn't mask the shrimp flavor or drown out the other ingredients.

Using a technique practiced in the 1970s by French chef Michel Guérard, we started cooking our shrimp in a cold court-bouillon (leaving out the white wine, which tasters found overwhelming), then heating the shrimp and liquid to just a near simmer. Because we started them in cold liquid and minimized their cooking time, the shrimp better absorbed the poaching flavors and stayed firm and tender. We kept the traditional mayonnaise in our salad dressing, but limited the amount to 1/4 cup per 1 pound of shrimp. For a traditional salad, we added unifying aromatic and herbal notes with diced celery, minced shallots, chopped herbs, and fresh lemon juice. For the variations, we added the bolder flavors of chipotle chile, orange, and roasted red pepper.

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