Coctel De Camaron (Mexican Shrimp Cocktail

Last Updated on May 13, 2022 by Sabrina Currie

If you've ever eaten coctel de camaron in Mexico, you know how good this is! Full of a savory tomato, chili sauce and tender small shrimp, it's the best party dip around. Just make sure to make a batch of Homemade Margaritas and the party is on!!!

Why I love Coctel De Camaron

Quick and easy coctel de camaron is delicious scooped up with saltines, tortillas or on top of crisp tostadas (tostadas de camaron). I even put it in cucumber cups sometimes for a light variation. For some excellent side dishes to round out the meal, check out What To Serve With Ceviche.

This past weekend I lucked into an impromptu girls night. Because it was last minute and everyone had been ridiculously busy with various things all week, we didn't want to stress about dinner or do anything really time consuming, we all just needed to RELAX.  So the plan became a night of casual appetizers. 

We each brought something and prepared it there over drinks.  My contribution was Coctel De Camarones (aka Mexican Shrimp Cocktail) along with some guacamole and Mexican Tuna Ceviche.

Want more seafood recipe favorites? I love Easiest Seafood Alfredo, the raw Salmon Crudo, Salmon Carpaccio and the Hawaiian-Japanese inspired Easy Furikake Salmon too.

Recipe Ingredients

It took me awhile to perfect this shrimp cocktail as so many recipes use ketchup. I find the ketchup recipes taste too sweet and...well...too ketchupy. Needless to say, you won't find ketchup in my recipe, though in a pinch, you can substitute it for the chili sauce.

• Clamato - A much more flavorful version of regular tomato juice or V8, this is my choice. If you can't get it, you can sub the tomato or v8 juice and add extra seasoning at the end as needed.
• Heinz Chili Sauce - More complex than ketchup, this gives a good thick richness to the tomato based salsa.
• Hot Sauce - A vinegar based hot pepper sauce makes this pleasantly picante. I use Valentina but you can use Cholula or Tabasco too.
• Shrimp - Fresh, cooked and peeled small shrimp are perfect. If you use large shrimp, you can chop them into bite size pieces.
• Cilantro - This punchy bright herb is in this traditional coctel de camaron for a reason. Fragrant, floral with a lime scent, fresh cilantro is the perfect finish for the dip.
• Lime Juice - Using fresh citrus juice keeps the flavors bright and bold.

Step By Step Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, combine red and green onion, tomato, jalapeno, cucumber and lime juice. Stir gently until combined.

2. Add chili sauce and Clamato and stir until combined.

3. Add shrimp and cilantro.

4. Stir to combine and season to taste with hot sauce, salt and pepper.

5. Let chill in fridge 30 min (or up to 8 hours) then spoon into a serving dish, into mini cucumber cups or onto tostadas to serve. 

Make Ahead And Storage Tips

This shrimp cocktail can be made early in the day and kept in the fridge until your company arrives. This can be left out on table or buffet for up to 2 hours before refrigerating any leftover.

Store leftover coctel de camaron in a airtight, covered container for up to 3 days.

Do not freeze this recipe, it will change the consistency and is not recommended.

What shrimp should I use?

Any freshly cooked and shelled shrimp will work well. Here is BC, we have West Coast pink shrimp and side striped shrimp that are sold as hand peeled or machine peeled. If you are far south of here, you may have bay shrimp or gulf shrimp. Those are similar and perfect for this recipe. If you use large shrimp, you may cut them into small bite size pieces for this.

About Ocean Wise Shrimp

In BC, shrimp have a longer season than many other types of seafood.  BC shrimp are on the Ocean Wise recommended list of seafood for being sustainably and ethically harvested here in BC.  These peeled shrimp are available almost year round in the fresh fish section of the supermarket and at fish mongers.

I hope you and your family love coctel de camaron as much as we do. Serve it with lots of tortilla chips, tostadas, or saltine crackers. If you want some healthier dippers, you can use cucumber cups or endive spears which are firm, fresh and crispy.

Related Recipes

I hope this finds you having a fun night of appetizers or Mexican favorites,

If you have any questions or comments, you can find me on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. I try to answer any recipe related questions quickly as I know you might be in the middle of making it.

Also check out my FREE PRINTABLE meal planner to make menu planning and grocery shopping a breeze and my shopping guide. And if you like this recipe, I would love it if you give it a star rating in the recipe card.

Cheers and happy cooking, Friends! Sabrina

📖 Recipe

Coctel De Camaron (Mexican Shrimp Cocktail)

Tangy shrimp cocktail is fresh and crunchy, sweet, savoury and picante.  Serve with traditional saltine crackers, tortilla chips, or in cucumber cups. Or to make it a plated dish, top tostadas for tostadas de camaron!  

This will serve 6-8 people depending on the amount of other food served.  

5 from 23 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Appetizer, Dip

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: coctel de camarone, Mexican Appetizer, Mexican shrimp, Shrimp Cocktail, tostada de camaron

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes minutes

Servings: 3.5 c

Calories: 106kcal

Author: Sabrina Currie

Ingredients

• ▢ ¼ c Red Onion, Finely Chopped
• ▢ ¼ c Tomato, Finely Chopped
• ▢ 1 Jalapeno, Finely Chopped Feel free to use less depending on spice level preference
• ▢ ¼ c Cucumber, Finely Chopped
• ▢ ¼ c Green Onions, Finely Sliced
• ▢ ½ Lime, Juiced
• ▢ ⅓ c Chili Sauce I used Heinz brand
• ▢ 1 c Clamato Juice I used Motts
• ▢ ½ c Cilantro, Roughly Chopped
• ▢ 1 c Shrimp (Approx 325 grams) Cooked and peeled. I used Pink shrimp
• ▢ Salt And Pepper To Taste
• ▢ Hot Sauce To Taste I used Valentina but tobasco works well too.

Instructions

• In a medium bowl, combine red and green onion, tomato, jalapeno, cucumber and lime juice. Stir gently until combined.
• Add chili sauce and Clamato and stir until combined.
• Add shrimp and cilantro, then stir and season to taste with hot sauce, salt and pepper.
• Let chill in fridge 30 min (or up to 8 hours) then spoon into serving dish or mini cucumber cups to serve.  

Notes

Coctel de camaron has a lot of liquid, necessary for proper flavor so don't drain the "soup", just serve it in bowls or coupes unless you are serving it on tostadas, in which case you can limit the amount of vegetable juice spooned over.

If serving in cucumber cups, use slightly more salt and spice as the strength of flavour will be diluted by the cucumber. 

Nutrition

Serving: 125mls | Calories: 106kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 109mg | Sodium: 439mg | Potassium: 535mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 856IU | Vitamin C: 27mg | Calcium: 68mg | Iron: 1mg

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