Street-Style Shrimp Tacos with Corn, Bacon and Lime Crema
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These street-style shrimp tacos with corn, bacon, and lime crema make a fast, fun, family-pleasing feast.
The inspiration for these crazy-good shrimp tacos comes from a fabulous cookbook called Taqueria: New-Style Fun and Friendly Mexican Cooking by Australian chef Paul Wilson (Hardie Grant Books, 2017). Wilson writes, “This is one of the most popular summer dishes in my kitchens. It’s fast, simple to prepare, and the three main ingredients work very well together in a warm tortilla.” My family literally devours these.
What You’ll Need To Make Shrimp Tacos with Corn and Bacon
I use large shrimp for this recipe, which you may find labeled 31 to 35 shrimp per pound. When cooked, they are a perfect size to pile into a tortilla.
For the best results, use good quality thick-cut bacon; Wright or Smithfield are both good brands that are easy to find.
How To Make Shrimp Tacos with Corn and Bacon
To begin, cut the kernels off of the corn cobs. The best way to do this is to this (without having the kernels fly all over the kitchen) is to invert a small bowl inside a larger bowl. Hold the cob upright on top of the inverted small bowl, with the flatter end of the cob down, and use a sharp knife to slice downward as close to the cob as possible.
Next, place the bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
Fry, stirring frequently, until crispy and golden, 7 to 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, leaving the bacon fat in the skillet.
Add the corn to the fat in the skillet.
Season with 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook until crisp, about 2 minutes.
Spoon the corn into a bowl and set aside. Add the shrimp, scallions, garlic, cumin, chili powder, and 1/8 teaspoon salt to the skillet.
Cook, stirring frequently, until the shrimp are opaque and cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the corn, bacon, cilantro, and lime juice to the shrimp.
Stir to combine, then remove from the heat and cover to keep warm while you heat the tortillas and make the lime crema.
How To Make the Lime Crema
Simply stir together the sour cream, fresh lime juice and salt.
How To Serve Shrimp Tacos with Corn, Bacon and Lime Crema
Warm the tortillas according to the package instructions. Place the tortillas on serving plates and top with the shrimp mixture and generous spoonfuls of the lime crema. Serve immediately with the rest of the crema on the side.
More Taco Recipes
Street-Style Shrimp Tacos with Corn, Bacon and Lime Crema
These street-style shrimp tacos with corn, bacon, and lime crema make a fast, fun, family-pleasing feast.
Ingredients
For the Lime Crema
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, from 1 lime
- Pinch salt
For the Shrimp Tacos with Corn and Bacon
- 4 slices (6 oz) thick-cut bacon, diced
- 4 corn cobs, uncooked kernels removed
- 1 bunch scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 lbs large (31/35) shrimp, peeled, de-veined, and tail removed, thawed if frozen
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
- Salt
- ¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, from 1 lime
- 12 small corn tortillas
Instructions
For the Lime Crema
- In a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, fresh lime juice and salt.
For the Shrimp Tacos with Corn and Bacon
- In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, fry the bacon, stirring frequently, until crispy and golden, 7 to 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, leaving the bacon fat in the skillet.
- Add the corn to the fat in the skillet and season with ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook the corn, stirring frequently, until crisp, about 2 minutes. Spoon the corn into a bowl and set aside.
- Add the shrimp, scallions, garlic, cumin, chili powder, and ⅛ teaspoon salt to the skillet. Cook, stirring frequently, until the shrimp are opaque and cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add the corn, bacon, cilantro, and 1 tablespoon lime juice to the shrimp. Stir to combine, then taste and adjust the seasoning with more lime juice or salt, if necessary. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm while you heat the tortillas.
- Warm the tortillas in the microwave or in a skillet according to the package instructions. Place the tortillas on serving plates and top with the shrimp mixture and generous spoonfuls of the lime crema. Serve the rest of the crema on the side.
- Make-Ahead Instructions: The lime crema can be made up to four days ahead of time and stored in a covered container in the refrigerator. The shrimp mixture can be made one day ahead of time and refrigerated; just keep the cooked bacon and cilantro separate until you reheat the dish. Reheat the shrimp mixture in a skillet over medium heat until just heated through.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 1 taco
- Calories: 245
- Fat: 11 g
- Saturated fat: 5 g
- Carbohydrates: 21 g
- Sugar: 4 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 16 g
- Sodium: 636 mg
- Cholesterol: 115 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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My kids love shrimp and tacos so I had to try this recipe! The whole family enjoyed the combination of ingredients; I will definitely be making it again!
Absolutely perfect!! Other than use frozen corn versus the fresh I followed the recipe to a T and wow! I’ll need to double the recipe next time. My pairing with this was the Avgolemono Chicken Soup with Rice and it was perfect- the lemon in the soup with the lime in the taco….We had an international table tonight and the entire family loved both.
It’s a keeper! Husband and kids love it. The fresh corn is delicious. So good, can’t wait to make it again.
These were excellent as are all of your recipes! Every one of your recipes are a homerun! Thank you for all the time and effort you put into helping all of us home cooks! You make it easy to feed a family delicious, restaurant quality food! I can’t wait for your next cookbook! It will be next to my Julia Child and Ina Garten cookbooks, along with your first cookbook of course!!
💗
Is it possible to replace the bacon with turkey bacon?
Sure 🙂
These were so tasty! Highly recommend! Great flavor and texture combination!
This, along with every single one of your recipes, was absolutely delicious! Hands down one of our all-time fave shrimp taco dishes. The flavours were amazing together and it was not a hassle to make. Your recipes are always so well presented and approachable and I will be a forever fan 🙂
Terrific meal–followed the exact recipe and directions, including the tip for cutting the corn off the cob. I’m always astounded at how these tips really make a difference! My whole family loved the tacos, and the presentation was really vibrant and pretty.
Loved this. I think DH was somewhat skeptical when I said we were having shrimp tacos for dinner. He loved them too. Next time I would increase some of the seasoning because we like a little heat. We eat shrimp at least once a week so its nice to be able to add this into the rotation, Just need to make sure I have really good corn tortillas on hand.
I mean, how could you go wrong with SHRIMP, BACON, and fresh CORN off the cob???
YOU CAN’T!!
These tacos are the BOMBDIGGITY!!!
My new favorite street taco 4 sure, thanks Jenn!!
Delicious, a family fav!
Gosh, this just couldn’t have been better. I did add a tablespoon of mayo to the crema as a nod to elote often served with street tacos. Lime in the crema was great. Everything came together so well, just great! Thanks.
We’re not shrimp fans so I subbed chicken. These were outstanding. I’d never doctored up sour cream like that before, definitely doing that again! Everything I’ve ever made from this blog has been awesome. Thanks, Jen!
Thank you for an amazing recipe! Definitely a make again!
Love! Made them for the first time tonight and followed the recipe precisely. Easy, quick and oh so yummy! BF ate FIVE of them so this will def go into the rotation. Making your fajitas this weekend for family!
Hi Jenn,
We absolutely loved these tacos. My adult children requested a bit more heat. I was wondering about adding some cayenne pepper. What are your thoughts and if correct, quantity please.
I bet your a Mexican Rice would be fabulous as a side too!
Thank you!
Glad everyone enjoyed these! Depending upon how much heat you’re looking for, I’d start with 1/8 tsp. of cayenne pepper. You can always up it from there but I’d start conservatively.
I made these without the bacon and added a bit of smoked paprika. They were really delicious. Oh yes! Will definitely make them again. Next time I’ll try with the bacon, though I’m nervous that the bacon may send them over the top and I’ll make a huge pig of myself.
YES the bacon WILL!! 🙂
Easy and delicious! We had some green sauce leftover from making your Peruvian roasted chicken a few days ago so used that instead of the lime crema. It worked great and gave the tacos a little spice. If making with the mild crema, I think I would add some some chopped jalapeños to the taco mix and/or crema to provide some spice.
This shrimp taco mixture is awesome! We make the shrimp mix as is and then throw it on a salad with the sour cream mix and half an avocado. I make a vinaigrette with olive oil, pineapple balsamic, honey Serrano balsamic, and apple cider vinegars. It tastes amazing on this salad! Thank you for sharing a delish dish! I’ve made it twice now and will be making it again I’m sure!
One of the best shrimp taco recipes I’ve ever made. Love your recipes!
These were so good! Definitely will make these again. They are so easy to and quick to make. Usually I prefer flour tortillas but for this I went with the corn and I think it was the right choice. It gives it that earthy corn taste that went great with the other ingredients. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Wonderful flavor profile! This dish is super simple – great for a quick weeknight meal. My family of five loves it! I’ve made the dish three times now – no changes to the original recipe – it’s foolproof. Thank you!
These tacos were amazing. I served them to out of town family & after the first bite I was hearing OMG these are so delicious. Will make these again & again. Thanks Jenn!
Great! I did a bowl instead if tacos, mixed it with jasmine rice.
Hi Jenn. I was wondering what your thoughts are on my using turkey bacon instead of the real thing here. I know it won’t render the same amount of fat to cook the corn in, so I was thinking I could add 1T. of olive or vegetable oil when I add the corn? Thank you!
Hi Mary, It should work with the additional oil. Please lmk how it turns out!
I’m using frozen corn. How would 4 cobs translate to cups? Thanks.
Hi Penny, that would be the equivalent of about 3 cups of corn. Enjoy!
This was the perfect dinner for Cinco de Mayo! So delicious, will make again soon!
These are amazing! I’m making them for about the sixth time now. My family loves them!!
Thank you for sharing this recipe 🙂 It was very, very good! Made it today for the first time to enjoy with guests and didn’t lack raves 🙂
I’m not sure what “small” tortilla means. Is that street taco size or one size up? Also is the tortilla crisped so it is used as a tostada (flat like the picture) or is it flexible and folded?
Hi Susan, you’ll want one size up from the street taco size, (so 6 inches). And while I don’t crisp the taco to serve them tostada – style, you certainly can if you’d prefer. Hope you enjoy!
My husband made these last night and they were so good. Add a little hot sauce, and bam! So flavourful.
Tacos were very good. My family enjoyed them. Very easy to make. Next time I will add some seasonings to the cream sauce to kick up the flavor a notch.
I made these yesterday and they were fantastic! Lots of Great feedback from all guests!
Thanks for all your good recipes.
Marjanne
Would chicken work instead of shrimp?
Sure! I’d love to hear how it turns out with chicken!
Had family over and made it with chicken to keep everyone happy. It turned out scrumptious!! Why am I surprised it’s a Jenn Segal recipe 😂
Made these for dinner last night. Really good and fresh tasting. I like that I can prep all ingreds, cook ahead, hold and then combine at last minute to reheat. Definitely a keeper!
I made this for dinner last night and like all of Jenn’s recipes, it was scrumptious and summery and fresh. Too bad I didn’t make more but I will definitely make them again!!
Delicious!!! I was going to share with others but ended up eating it all myself!! hahahah. Amazing flavors and definitely a go to recipe for parties and small gatherings!!! Keep it simple, keep it flavorful and keep it interesting. As in life! Thank you, Jenn!
I have got to be one of your biggest fans ever, and this recipe blew us away! One of your best ever! Thank you for making me look so good. 😊
💕
Can this recipe be made without bacon ?
Hi Sophia, the bacon definitely adds a lot of flavor and smokiness, but you can make these without it. You will need a few tablespoons of butter to cook the corn and shrimp (since you won’t have the bacon fat) and you’ll definitely need to add a bit more salt to taste. A pinch of smoked paprika would be good, too. Please LMK how they turn out!
Incredible! We stopped in Hatch New Mexico on our way from Tucson to Plano. Since it was not chile season, we purchased frozen medium hot green chiles and made salsa verde upon arrival because the packages had begun to thaw. My sister had just seen your shrimp street tacos recipe, so we decided to sub my sauce for the lime crema. We added a little sour cream to the green sauce, some lime juice to the filling just before serving, and also thin slices of avocado—because this recipe was screaming for avocado! Definitely 5*
Delicious dinner! I used nonfat plain Greek yogurt in place of sour cream (personal preference) and added a little lime zest because we love lime! Everything else was according to directions. My husband wants me to make them again. He also loved the lime crema and wants to use it for a marinade for chicken on the grill.
These were really good! Thank you for the recipe! I had one question-I always struggle with corn tortillas breaking/cracking once filled. Do you have a brand you recommend?
Hi Amy, I use Mission brand, so nothing special. I know that corn tortillas can be challenging to work with when what you put in them makes them a bit soggy, but these ingredients have less moisture, so you should less of a problem here. Hope that helps!
I made this last night, and – like every recipe I have cooked from your website – it was fantastic! It will be repeated many times. I could also imagine that the shrimp and corn mixture would be delicious served over yellow rice and beans or pasta.
Yummmmm. Made these for dinner tonight and added some lime zest to the creama with extra fresh cilantro on top and fresh tortilla land corn tortillas. Perfect fresh summer taco. Without a doubt will be making again and again! The shrimp and corn mixture is delicious alone or would make a yummy salad topper too with some Trader Joe’s cilantro dressing!
I am allergic to shrimp. Can fish be substituted for the shrimp in this recipe?
Hi Stephanie, I haven’t tried these with fish, but I think it could work. You may also want to give these Baja Fish Tacos a whirl. 🙂
My family asked if we can have it once a week. Sure thing- so easy to make.
I made these last weekend and they were fantastic! Lots of Great feedback from all guests!
Hi Jen
I love all your recipes. I want to make this for a party this weekend. Can I make it somewhat ahead and just cook the shrimp right before serving?
Thanks
Sure Amy, that would work. You can also do the whole thing ahead — see the bottom of the recipe for guidance. Hope you enjoy!
This was excellent. My husband said to add it as a keeper. That is high praise.
Delicious change. The sweetness of the corn worked well with the shrimp. Cilantro & lime cream elevated flavors.
Made this recipe for dinner tonight and WOW so delicious – amazing flavour! The whole family loved them and we will make again for sure. I highly recommend avocado be added as well. Thanks for another great recipe!
Jenn, Made these for some friends we had over last night. I served it with your tomato, pesto and burrata salad that was on the cover of your cookbook. Rave reviews from adult and kiddie guests alike. (even though I missed a step or two after drinking a glass of wine) 🙂
Ha! Glad everyone enjoyed, Laura! 😊
These tacos were spectacular and so easy. Didn’t have sour cream and didn’t miss it, but will use it next time.
Thanks Jenn for another “keeper.” Your recipes are the best.
Susan
I saw this recipe in today’s newsletter and I immediately knew what I was making for dinner – SO tasty! The flavors are perfect and we added avocado slices for the cherry on top. The husband loved them. This recipe is definitely going in our rotation. 🙂
Sounds tasty! I’m going to try this recipe this weekend! it’s a big group and I’d be grateful for any suggestions for other dishes to serve with these tacos that would complement the meal?
Hi Jan, If you’re looking for an additional main dish, the Carne Asada would be a great choice. In terms of sides or starters, the tacos would be delicious with my Mexican Rice, Black Bean and Corn Salad, Guacamole, and margaritas to help wash everything down. 🙂
I saw this recipe today and made them for supper. My local grocery did not have fresh corn so I used 3 cups of frozen And they were amazing. Wonderful flavours and easy enough to make for a weekday dinner. My boys loved them.
The only thing I changed was I added extra lime juice to the sour cream I also had to add a bit of butter and extra lime juice to the shrimp cause the pan was dry once the corn came out and I couldnt get the spices to coat evenly with out some added oil.
This dish is being added to our regular rotation. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Could you make this without the cumin or is there a substitution that you recommend?
Hi Kaylie, I like the depth of flavor that the cumin adds here, but if you’re not a fan, you could use more ancho chili powder or a teaspoon of regular chili powder in its place. Hope you enjoy! 🙂
I made this this evening and was out of cumin, so I searched online and found a suggestion to substitute with half the amount of coriander. It tasted really good, but next time (and there will be a next time!), I’ll make sure to have cumin on hand.
My husband said they were the best shrimp tacos he’s ever had. Since it’s now in our taco Tuesday rotation, I’m thankful it is so easy to make! Your recipes are delicious Jenn!
So delicious did add avocados slices, just because I love them. Sent recipe to sister in CA and they loved also. Only thing I would change is to use a flour tortilla versus corn. I used corn but switched to flour with leftovers. Jen, thanks so much for all your delicious recipes. This one is guest worthy.
This sounds amazing! Can it be made with frozen shrimp? any recommended tweaks for using frozen shrimp?
Definitely, Francesca – I use frozen (defrosted) shrimp for this, so no modifications necessary. Hope you enjoy! 🙂
Hi – This recipe sounds so good! Fresh corn is not in season where I live so would it be OK to substitute frozen corn? If so, about how many cups of corn would I need? Thanks!
Hi Sandra, I do like this best with fresh corn, but in a pinch, frozen corn will work. You’ll need approximately 3 cups. Enjoy!
Can you suggesst a substitution for a person who doesn’t like sour cream? Thanks.
Hi Barbara, plain Greek yogurt or Creme fraiche would work. Also, you could just skip the crema and squeeze some fresh lime juice over the tacos. (They’d also be delicious topped with some guac.) Hope that helps and that you enjoy!
Omg!! This was so delicious! I used frozen corn and added avocado slices to the top. I also added a bit of olive oil to the pan to help the spices coat the shrimp. I have honestly never eaten a better shrimp taco!
Oooh, avocado! That sounds good too! Thanks for the suggestion!