Southern Shrimp and Grits

Award-winning Southern Shrimp & Grits recipe with blackened shrimp and bacon over creamy, cheesy grits.

There are many different ways to prepare this dish. I've had it with a tomato sauce and with red-eye gravy. I’ve had it with the shrimp incorporated into the grits. I've had it with andouille sausage. With cheese and without. There’s really no wrong way to cook this.

I’m sort of a purist with mine. I just like a rich, creamy bowl of grits with sautéed shrimp and all the pan drippings ladled on top.

You can absolutely substitute fish fillets (such as trout, catfish or flounder) for the shrimp and have an equally Southern dish of Fish & Grits.

Speaking of Fish & Grits… we occasionally have frozen fish sticks for supper on those nights when every kid has practice and we’re all crazy rushed trying to fly through our evening routine of homework, supper, bath, etc.

I’m not sure how it happened but I've started serving grits with them. The kids will chop up their fish sticks and stir them up in their grits and of course, douse the whole thing with hot sauce.

We so country.

PS... this recipe has won so many awards, I've lost count over the years but the one I'm most proud of is when it was on the cover of Country Woman magazine!

Shrimp & Grits

Yield: 4-6 Servings

Author: Mandy Rivers | South Your Mouth

prep time: 10 Mcook time: 1 hourtotal time: 1 H & 10 M

Award-winning Southern Shrimp & Grits recipe with blackened shrimp and bacon over creamy, cheesy grits.

ingredients:

Creamy Cheese Grits:

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups milk
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 3/4 cup old fashioned grits
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Shrimp & Bacon Topping:

• 1 lb. uncooked medium shrimp, peeled
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce
• 2 teaspoons Cajun or blackening seasoning
• 8 thick-sliced strips of bacon
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 green onions, chopped

instructions:

How to cook Shrimp & Grits

Creamy Cheese Grits:

1. Combine chicken broth, milk, butter, salt and pepper in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.
2. Whisk in grits, reduce heat to low, cover tightly and simmer for 1 hour, whisking every 10-15 minutes.
3. Add cheese and stir until thoroughly incorporated. Set aside and keep warm until ready to serve.

Shrimp & Bacon Topping:

1. Toss shrimp with hot sauce and cajun or blackening seasoning and set aside.
2. Sauté bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until browned and crisp. Add garlic and shrimp then sauté until shrimp turn pink (about 3-5 minutes).
3. To serve, ladle grits into a bowl then top with shrimp mixture (including pan drippings). Garnish with chopped green onions.

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Kiss My Grits

I love grits.  Big surprise, right?  And I’ve figured out why the rest of the world doesn’t love grits like we do in the South.  There is a grand conspiracy by some underground Southern militant operation to keep grits in the South.

Oh yeah, you heard me.

Why? Because they’re conspiracy theorists which means they’re paranoid which means they’re afraid of a freaking grits shortage.

Example #1:  Manufacturers are putting bad information out there about how to prepare them.

You can’t cook grits in five minutes.  You can’t cook them in ten minutes.  You might be able to get away with cooking Quick Grits for twenty minutes, but you won’t be winning any awards with the results.

I don’t care what your package says.  You need to cook grits for an hour.  Period.

Example #2:  Major restaurant chains are serving crappy grits.

The militants have infiltrated major restaurant chains and are having their people purposefully cook them wrong so that visitors will take one taste, set their fork down and never try them again.

Southerners, when was the last time you ate an awesome bowl of grits at a chain restaurant?  Never, right?  My biggest complaints are a) the grits have no taste and b) they’re not cooked long enough.  It’s like eating mealy hot water.

Now, all that being said, there are a few different ways to cook grits depending on what you’re doing with them.  We usually get pretty basic with the breakfast variety grits and then get jazzier if the grits are being served as part of an entrée.

I’m going to give you four varieties.

Basic Grits

3 cups water

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup grits*

Bring the water, butter and salt to a boil.  Whisk in grits, return to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for one hour.  You will need to whisk the grits about every 10 minutes or so to keep them from clumping together and sticking to the bottom of your pan.  Add more salt to taste.

Creamy Grits

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups milk

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup grits*

Bring the water, milk, butter and salt to a boil.  Whisk in grits, return to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for one hour.  You will need to whisk the grits about every 10 minutes or so to keep them from clumping together and sticking to the bottom of your pan.  Add more salt to taste.

Savory Grits

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 1/2 cups milk

4 tablespoons butter

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup grits*

Bring the chicken stock, milk, butter and salt to a boil.  Whisk in grits, return to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for one hour.  You will need to whisk the grits about every 10 minutes or so to keep them from clumping together and sticking to the bottom of your pan.  Add more salt to taste.

Cheese Grits

1 1/2 cups chicken stock or water

1 1/2 cups milk

4 tablespoons butter
3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup grits*

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Bring the chicken stock (or water), milk, butter and salt to a boil.  Whisk in grits, return to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 50 minutes.  Add shredded cheddar cheese and whisk until melted; continue cooking for 10 minutes.  You will need to whisk the grits about every 10 minutes or so to keep them from clumping together and sticking to the bottom of your pan. Add more salt to taste.

*Depending on which type of grits you have (quick-cook, stone ground, yellow, etc.), the liquid to grits ratio will vary.  Measure the liquid and grits per the manufacturer’s instructions.  

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Maple Dijon Balsamic Oven Roasted Pork

I’m such a dork.  I woke up one day with this amazeballs idea for a barbeque sauce and marinade and went to work on it.  I thought that a combination of Dijon mustard, maple syrup and balsamic vinegar would be stellar on pork and went to town trying to formulate a recipe.

I’ll get to the dork part soon… bear with me.

Dijon for the bite (and because I think mustard and pork just go together), maple for the sweetness and because you need an acid, I thought ‘why not balsamic?’

So, I made the sauce, marinated the pork, slow cooked it all day, basted that puppy (piggy?), served it for dinner and thought I was a rock star.  Then I realized something.

There’s a reason I thought those flavors went together and there’s a reason I thought it tasted so amazing.  I’m from South Carolina.  As in, the mustard based barbeque sauce capital of the world.  Without realizing what I’d done, all I did was dress up your basic mustard based sauce (mustard, sugar and vinegar) with fancier ingredients. 

Dur.

But it was good.  And I will be making it again.  If you’re looking for a way to feed a crowd and want to be able to tell your friends that you’re serving them a little bit of South Carolina, try this one on for size.

And because I'm a dork, I forgot to take pictures of the sauce - sorry!

Maple Dijon Balsamic Oven Roasted Pork

Marinade & Sauce:

1/2 cup finely diced onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup Dijon mustard

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Pulled Pork:

1 pork shoulder

Salt and pepper

For the sauce:

Sauté onion, garlic and butter for 4-5 minutes over medium heat or until onions become translucent.  Remove from heat.

Add onion and garlic mixture and remaining sauce ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.  Refrigerate until ready to use (makes about 2 ½ cups).

For the pork:

Using a filet knife, separate the shoulder meat from the skin without removing it*.  Using your hands, rub the pork shoulder roast with 1 cup of the sauce (taking care to get the sauce under the skin if applicable).  Cover, refrigerate and marinate overnight.

Place the roast, skin-side down, onto a large roasting pan.  Season liberally with salt and pepper.  Discard marinade.

Bake**, uncovered, at 450 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the meat is browned and seared.  Reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees and remove the pan from the oven.

Cover then pan tightly (either with a tight-fitting lid or aluminum foil).  Return to oven and cook at 250 degrees for 8-9 hours.  Remove pan from oven and uncover roast.  Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees.

Baste the roast with ½ cup remaining sauce and return to oven uncovered.  Cook for 15 minutes.  Remove pan from oven, cover loosely and rest for 30 minutes.

When ready to serve, remove skin and excess fat from roast.  Using two forks, shred pork and place onto a deep serving platter.  Drizzle pulled pork with remaining pan juices and serve with remaining sauce on the side.

*If your shoulder has the skin intact like mine did – most have a layer of skin on the bottom – think about it like your little roast is wearing a tee-shirt and you want to just separate the shirt away from the roast so that the marinade can make contact with it.  I don’t like to remove the skin because it acts as a protective barrier on the bottom of the roasting pan and imparts a tremendous amount of flavor.

**This really wouldn't work on the grill or smoker because of the amount of sugar in the marinade.  If you'd like to try it using either of these cooking methods, just use the sauce to baste with and skip the marinating step.

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Chocolate Delight

The original layered dessert recipe with chocolate pudding, cream cheese and cool whip on top of a pecan shortbread crust. Also called Better Than Sex Cake, Robert Redford Pie and Chocolate Lush!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. JUMP TO THE RECIPE
2. WHAT IS CHOCOLATE DELIGHT?
3. 5 NOTES ON MAKING IT
4. OTHER VARIATIONS TO TRY

My perfect day is getting to spend all day in the kitchen trying out a new recipe, perfecting an old one or just tinkering around. I tell you this because it makes what I’m about to say a little bizarre.

My all-time favorite dessert is one of those whip-it-up jobs that uses semi-prepared shortcut items like Cool Whip and instant pudding.

It never occurred to me to post this recipe because it’s so popular in my family I assumed that everybody and their dog already had it.

I was making my grocery list one day and didn't have the recipe with me (I can never remember if it's 2 small boxes or one large box of pudding) so I searched online expecting to find 40’leven recipes for it... and... I couldn't find it.

Photos updated March 2024

At least not the way we make it.

There are other versions of this out there but they vary greatly and I had a hard time finding The One. The recipe for the version my family has made for decades. The one with the pecan crust.

The singular most important layer that brings everything together and makes this recipe truly fantastic is that pecan shortbread crust. And most of the recipes I saw online didn't even have it [she says as she grasps her pearls and whispers bless it ].

So, I knew I had to make it to share with you so that you can experience this the way God intended. Plus if my house ever catches on fire, I'd like to have the recipe documented somewhere other than in a paper recipe book.

WHAT IS CHOCOLATE DELIGHT?

Chocolate Delight is a refrigerated dessert with four layers: a signature baked pecan shortbread crust, a cheesecake-y cream cheese layer and a rich chocolate pudding layer that's topped with whipped topping and pecans.

It is assembled in a 13x9 dish and, because it is refrigerated and served chilled, often referred to as an icebox cake.

Chocolate Delight goes by many names including: Better Than Sex Cake, Chocolate Lush, Better Than Sin Cake, Chocolate Layered Dessert, 4-Layer Dessert, Robert Redford Pie and many others, I'm sure.

5 NOTES ON MAKING CHOCOLATE DELIGHT

1. Use the 4-serving size boxes of instant pudding. Ounces vary depending on brand and variety.
2. You can absolutely lighten this up by using sugar-free pudding, neufchatel (light cream cheese), artificial sweetener, reduced calorie or fat free cool whip and/or skim milk.
3. Don't skip the salt. If using unsalted butter in the crust, add two pinches of salt instead of one.
4. You can easily cut this recipe in half. Use an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish to prepare.
5. Place the wrapped block of cream cheese in a glass of warm water while preparing to make the recipe to ensure it's not cooler than room temperature. This ensures the bottom layer is perfectly smooth.

OTHER VARIATIONS TO TRY

You can use any flavor pudding, but I must tell you, chocolate is the best. Close runners up are these three combinations:

PISTACHIO - Use pistachio pudding and sprinkle chopped pistachios on top. I've made it with pistachios in the shortbread crust too but actually prefer pecans. 

COCONUT - Make with coconut pudding then sprinkle toasted sweetened flaked coconut on top. Consider subbing 1/3 of the pecans in the crust with 1/3 cup packed coconut. 

BUTTERSCOTCH - Use butterscotch pudding and leave everything else the same. Some folks sprinkle butterscotch chips on top but I find they are too hard when refrigerated (also my thoughts on using chocolate chips on this recipe)

PUMPKIN SPICE - Make with pumpkin spice pudding (seasonal) then sprinkle pumpkin spice on top with the pecans.

LEMON - Use lemon pudding plus 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract or 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice mixed in with the cream cheese layer.

MORE LAYERED DESSERT RECIPES I LOVE!

If you enjoy layered icebox desserts like this, check out a few of these recipes too!

RED, WHITE & BLUE CHEESECAKE SALAD - This berry cheesecake recipe is the perfect patriotic dessert with strawberries, blueberries and cream cheese filling. 

CHOCOLATE NUTTER BUTTER ICEBOX CAKE - A chocolate layered dessert with peanut butter cookies, whipped cream and peanut butter drizzle like a chocolate peanut butter lasagna! 

ITALIAN BAKELESS CAKE - A layered dessert sweetened condensed milk, with pineapple, vanilla wafers, cool whip, coconut and cherries.

PAULA DEEN'S BANANA PUDDING - The iconic recipe made with cream cheese and butter shortbread cookies that's "not yo' mama's banana pudding"

Recipe for Chocolate Delight

Chocolate Delight

Yield: 15 Servings

Author: Mandy Rivers | South Your Mouth

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 45 Min

The original layered dessert recipe with chocolate pudding, cream cheese and cool whip on top of a pecan shortbread crust. Also called Better Than Sex Cake, Robert Redford Pie and Chocolate Lush!

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans, divided
• Pinch of salt
• 8-oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 8-oz tubs Cool Whip, thawed
• 2 small boxes instant chocolate pudding
• 3 cups milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Mix flour, butter, 1 cup of pecans and salt with an electric mixer until just combined then press evenly into the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish. Bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until just starting to brown. Cool completely.
3. Mix cream cheese and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Fold in half of the Cool Whip then mix until combined. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly onto crust.
4. Mix pudding mixes and milk with an electric mixer on medium speed for two minutes. Spread pudding mixture evenly onto cream cheese layer.
5. Spread remaining Cool Whip onto chocolate layer then sprinkle with remaining chopped pecans. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.
6. Refrigerate to store up to 4-5 days.

Notes

• Use the 4-serving size boxes of instant pudding. Ounces vary depending on brand and variety.
• You can absolutely lighten this up by using sugar-free pudding, neufchatel (light cream cheese), artificial sweetener, reduced calorie or fat free cool whip and/or skim milk.
• Don't skip the salt. If using unsalted butter in the crust, add two pinches of salt instead of one.
• You can easily cut this recipe in half. Use an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish to prepare.
• Place the wrapped block of cream cheese in a glass of warm water while preparing to make the recipe to ensure it's not cooler than room temperature. This ensures the bottom layer is perfectly smooth.

https://www.southyourmouth.com/2012/02/chocolate-delight.html

Images and text © South Your Mouth LLC 2012

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dessert, potluck

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