This conch fritter recipe, which comes with a tasty dipping sauce, is from the Bahamas. A lovely and delectable seafood, conch is extremely difficult to find outside of the Bahamas. These fritters are delicious as a hors d’oeuvre to go with your preferred tropical beverage or as an appetizer or finger meal.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 30 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
Ingredients
- 1 quart oil for frying
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup milk
- 1 egg
- ground cayenne pepper to taste
- seasoned salt to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup chopped conch meat
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- ½ onion, chopped
- ½ green bell pepper, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat oil in a deep fryer or large saucepan to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Make the fritters: Mix flour, milk, and egg in a large bowl until smooth. Season with cayenne pepper, seasoned salt, salt, and pepper. Mix in conch meat, celery, onion, bell pepper, and garlic.
- Drop the batter by rounded tablespoons into hot oil in batches; fry until golden brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels.
- Make the dipping sauce: Mix ketchup, lime juice, mayonnaise, hot sauce, salt, and pepper together in a small bowl. Serve dipping sauce on the side with fritters.
- Conch can be replaced with any seafood. We followed the same recipe but replaced conch with chopped calamari. It turned out awesome! We cannot wait to try it with shrimp or crab meat.
- We have determined the nutritional value of oil for frying based on a retention value of 10% after cooking. The exact amount may vary depending on cook time and temperature, ingredient density, and the specific type of oil used.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 220 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 15 g |
| Cholesterol | 44 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 10 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 209 mg |
| Sugars | 2 g |
| Fat | 14 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Some guidance on batter ‘soupyness’ would be good. Added more salt, and flour (to stiffen the batter). Used food processor for conch and it was good size and not really chewy at all. Sauce was good…added more mayo. Good receipt and overall guidance.
Great recipe added red spicy pepper
Just made these for Xmas Eve! They were very good and easy!
Used shrimp and scallops—delicious!
Excellent!! This is almost the recipe I’ve been making for years! I’ve been living in the Bahamas for 25 years and we’re all about conch. I put the conch in a food processor or you can put it through a meat grinder. I also double the amount called for and add 1 teaspoon baking powder and 2 tablespoons ketchup or tomato paste to the mixture. I only put 1 stalk of celery in it. For my dipping sauce I use horseradish sauce instead of mayo for some tang.
I’m from Miami and this is the only recipe I use whenever I make conch fritters….Hands down the very best and greatest tasting.
I used corn and scallions. I used an ice cream scooper for shape, and made sure the consistency of dough was good enough to stick. I used hungry jack buttermilk pancake mix and after completing the recipe, they were gone fast.
We had some frozen conch–diced and bought a little fryer. We were all so impressed at how close these were to the Bahamas version. We were in heaven! We used twice the conch required so it was a lot of conch and just enough batter!
I love this recipe. I also use this base to make sardine fritters which are also fantastic and a new favorite in my house
I didn’t have celery so I just put 1/3 green pepper and 1/3 onion chopped fine with 2 conchs. I just added enough milk (I used canned) to moisten it. Also added 1 tsp of baking powder. Never made them before. We took them over to the neighbors that are true islanders (We are in Cayman Brac) and they said they are the best on the island. They asked me to make more for their upcoming party.
I made it with Phillips canned crab claw meat and it was superb! Can’t get conch meat in my area without robbing Fort Knox ! I did have to add a little more flour to make it easier to mold into shape. I used OldBay as always when making crab. A winner recipe!!
The only thing that I might change is the dipping sauce as it seems to have too much lime juice for my liking.
I was able to get conch on a visit to Key West. Froze it and brought it to Ohio with me. This recipe is wonderful and takes me back to the Bahamas every time I make it. Thanks for sharing.
Restaurant quality! Loved them so much I made the twice in the same week!
Made these for dinner tonight and they were very good… but we’ve had a lot of good fritters in the Caribbean and we’re a little spoiled. I did leave the celery out because that just didn’t sound right (couldn’t think of any I’ve ever had that had celery in therm). Like others have suggested, I used about 1/2 cornmeal and 1/2 all purpose flour. I think next time I will try self-rising flour — that’s what I use in my hush puppies and it yields a nice, fluffy hush puppy… these fritters were flat, not round and fluffy. We didn’t care for the sauce at all, but preferred to just use cocktail sauce. Overall, it’s a very good recipe that curbed our craving for our favorite caribbean treat… but I will try tweaking it a little more next time.
Yes, I tried the recipe and it turned out great!
These are excellent. I substituted 1/4cup of flour with corn meal. Also, I used self rising flour instead of all purpose.
Everyone complemented me on these! And everyone was grabbing for more! This was a recipe that needed little to no “tweeking.” My only advice is to really pound out the conch so it is nice and tender. I also threw the veggies in the food processor and gave it a few spins and then the conch just to add nice smooth textures. People complimented me on how they didnt have any rough nuggets of conch like some restaurants the have visited.
I sailed all over the Caribbean and had conch fritters in a lot of different Islands. This a really fine recipe.I give it a five star rating. I did however add red bell pepper to it and about a 1/4 cup of seasoned bread crumbs and it was still Delicious. Added it to my Favorites. Thanks Cynthia. JPohlmann
Better than mile marker 105 in Key Largo. The only thing is that I only use red onion and mix red and green pepper. Really adds umph! To make a thicker batter so it doesn’t drip all over the place is I use 1 cup flour and 1 medium egg. Very thick and easy to use my cookie scoopers. I mix all dry ingredients together and add veggies and filler (crab, ground chicken, chopped shrimp, conch) into dry mix before adding liquids. Much easier to get uniform mix when doing this. All in all, this recipe is fantastic on its own. Enjoy!!!!!
This recipe was awesome! I substituted the celery with cilantro and it came out fantastic. I also used my meat grinder to grind the conch along with the green pepper, onions and garlic. It gave it a more even texture. Thank you so much for sharing this. It will surely remain one of my family’s favorites.