These Chinese Battered Prawns are easy to make and taste very much like the ones from Chinese takeout. I like to serve them with a side of homemade sweet and sour sauce for dipping.

Can't get enough of Chinese-American food? Try my Crispy Coconut Chicken next!

overhead shot of battered prawns on plate with side of sweet and sour sauce

🥡 About This Recipe

These Chinese Battered Prawns are deep-fried until crispy and then served with an amazing sweet and sour sauce. If you have never made them before, I hope I can share the secrets with you.

Making the prawns is not difficult, but there is definitely some science involved in getting their signature puffy shape, which I will get into further below.

🌟 Important Steps To Remember

Keep the oil temperature high. 350℉ is perfect. We want to achieve a nice golden brown crust. The problem with prawns is that they cook really fast, so we need to remove them from the oil quickly. In doing so, sometimes the crust does not have enough time to develop a nice color. The key is to cook at a high temperature so the crust cooks quickly.
Do not overmix the batter. If you want a crispy and light texture, you need to be careful not to overmix. Overmixing will overwork the gluten and cause the batter to be dense. It is better to have some lumps rather than completely smooth.

🍤 The Prawn Batter

The prawn batter is made with flour, cornstarch, and baking powder. The baking powder is what gives them their signature "puffed" look, and you will need at least two teaspoons for it to work.

Unlike tempura batter, this batter is much thicker as we want the batter to hold its shape during frying.

For the liquid component, I am using plain cold water. You can also use fizzy/carbonated water to make them puff even more, but personally, I never have fizzy water on hand, so I just add extra baking powder.

🧂 Ingredients

Prawns (or shrimp): I am using 1 pound today, deveined and skins removed. You can choose to keep the tails on, which makes dipping them in the batter easier and makes the final presentation a bit nicer.
Dry ingredients: All-purpose flour, cornstarch, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Some recipes also use self-rising flour, but if you have baking powder, it does the same thing.
Cold water: Use the coldest water possible to slow down the gluten formation in the batter. Keep it in your fridge until you need it.

🔪 Instructions

STEP 1: Whisk flour, cornstarch, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl.

STEP 2: Mix in cold water until just combined. It is okay if there are some lumps. The batter should be thick but pourable. You should be able to dip a prawn in and have batter cling to it, with excess dripping off.

prawn being pulled out from batter with excess falling off

STEP 3: Heat about 1 inch of oil to 350℉. Holding the prawns from their tails, one by one, dip the prawns into the batter and drop them into the hot oil. Fry for 3-4 minutes until golden brown on both sides.

Be careful not to overcrowd the oil, as it will cause the temperature to go down. This will result in the crust taking longer to cook which leads to overcooking the prawns.

Transfer batter-fried prawns to a wire rack or paper towel-lined plate to absorb excess oil. Serve immediately with sauce (recipe below).

🍋 Sweet And Sour Sauce

This sauce is one of my proudest recipes. I truly think it rivals some of the best Chinese restaurants. The problem with most sauces is that they taste too much like ketchup or have one ingredient that overpowers the rest, but my sauce is extremely well-balanced. Give it a try!

sweet and sour sauce being whisked in saucepan

STEP 1: Combine ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, lemon juice, water, and cornstarch in a small pot and bring to a boil. Transfer to a small bowl.

The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for two weeks.

side view of battered prawns on plate with side of sweet and sour sauce

📋 Recipe

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5 from 2 votes