As much as we love to pretend to be #cultured by eating food from every corner of the world, we're Southern boys at heart, and sometimes, that means we want something deep fried and completely unhealthy. Whether it's fried pork chops, fried catfish, fried okra, or as is the case with these sliders, fried shrimp, all we really want to do is shove it into our mouths as fast as possible and go "mmmmMMMmmmMm". You are so welcome we didn't include a gif of that act in this post. We considered it. Not today.

Anyway, we grew up eating fried shrimp po' boys, which is basically a New Orleans style hoagie (but much better than a hoagie, though potentially less fun to say. Hoagie. Lol.) Po' boys are served on crunchy chewy French bread, but we thought it would be fun to use biscuits, because biscuits are like really really good. Mostly this allows us to eat way more and be like "but they are SO small what's a calorie." So that's that. Oh, and instead of the mayonnaise that comes on a traditional shrimp po'boy, we made a garlic aioli because we are *fancy*.

We used the King Arthur Flour recipe for self-rising biscuits, which produces these nice little flaky plain biscuits that are the perfect base to stuff meat, seafood, or veggies in to. AND we're giving away a $25 King Arthur Flour gift card, which you can use on their online shop! To enter, just submit a comment below or on Instagram, answering the age old question: If you were a biscuit, what would you want to be stuffed with? We'll pick our favorite idea and send you the gift card and a cute note. Read full contest details at end of post. Happy biscuiting!

Fried Shrimp Biscuit Sliders

Makes 8 - 12 sliders

King Arthur's Easy Self-Rising Biscuits

2 cups King Arthur unbleached self-rising flour
1/4 cup cold butter, cut into pats
2/3 to 3/4 cup cold buttermilk
1/4 cup melted butter, optional

Preheat the oven to 425* F.
Place flour in a bowl and work in the butter with a pastry cutter or fork until there are just crumbs of butter the size of peas.
Add 2/3 cup of buttermilk and mix well until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Add a Tablespoon or two more buttermilk if the mixture is extremely crumbly.
Transfer dough to a heavily floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll it into a 5" x 8" rectangle about 3/4" thick. Use a biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits. Form the scraps into a ball, roll out, and use the cutter again.
Place the biscuits on a baking sheet and brush the melted butter evenly across the tops. Bake for 10 - 14 minutes, until golden and just slightly browned. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool.

Garlic Cilantro Aioli

3/4 c mayo
5 cloves garlic
2 t salt
1.5 T lemon juice
3 T chopped cilantro
Fresh cracked black pepper to taste

In a food processor, or mortel and pestel, pulse (or mash) garlic cloves into a paste.
Add mayo, salt, and lemon juice and pulse or stir until combined. Mix in chopped cilantro and black pepper.

Fried Shrimp Sliders

8 - 12 biscuits (recipe above)
1/2 lb shelled jumbo raw shrimp
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 cup cornmeal
1 T Cajun seasoning (such as Slap Ya Mama)
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups coconut oil or canola oil, for frying
1/2 cup garlic cilantro aioli (recipe above)
8 - 12 slices tomato
8 - 12 slices red onion
8 - 12 pieces of butter lettuce
cilantro, for garnish

In a small pot, bring the oil to high heat, about 380*F on a thermometer.
Combine the cornmeal, panko crumbs, and Cajun seasoning in a medium bowl, and pour the buttermilk into a small bowl.
You're going to bread all the shrimp before you begin frying them, so set aside a plate for placing the shrimp once you have breaded them.
Coat eat shrimp in the bread crumb mix, then dip it fully in the buttermilk, letting the excess milk drip off before coating it again the bread crumb mix.
Once all shrimp are breaded, lightly dip two or three at a time into the oil, flipping after 30 seconds. Once they have cooked for about one minute and are golden brown, use tongs or a fork to transfer them to a plate lined with paper towels, to soak up any excess oil.
Once all shrimp are fried, assemble the sliders by slicing the biscuits in half horizontally, and place a dollop of the aioli, followed by tomato, onion, lettuce, cilantro, and one friend shrimp.

Holy smokes thanks so much to King Arthur Flour for sponsoring this giveaway as part of the Campaign for #betterbiscuits! All opinions are our own. Entries for the giveaway will be accepted until August 23rd at midnight EST (continental U.S. only, sorry!). Don't forget to give us a contact e-mail address, social media handle, or website with your entry so we can get in touch with you!

update: this giveaway has ended!

Fried Shrimp Biscuit Sliders + A Giveaway!