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Shrimp Perloo (Low Country Shrimp and Rice)

May 18, 2014 by The Runaway Spoon 8 Comments

Shrimp Perloo

I love delving into traditional recipes from the South, learning new things or rediscovering classics.   Perloo (pronounced purlow, and sometimes spelled that way, or pilau, or any number of variations) is a dish I first heard of when my brother returned from a trip to South Carolina and suggested that I figure out how to make it.  He described is as kind of a jambalaya or dirty rice, but somehow different.  So over the years, I have read recipes and fiddled around with the idea, but never really understood it.  Until I traveled to South Carolina and had a version of perloo in Charleston.  Perloo, you see, comes in all shapes and sizes.  Chicken, duck, shrimp, oyster sausage or a combination. The one I ordered had several main ingredients, in a flavorful bed of rice.  I settled on shrimp perloo, because I love the combination of big, juicy shrimp and rich, seasoned rice, plus the shrimp give it a low country feel.

I’ve streamlined more traditional recipes to produce the rich flavor that could be a great party dish or a weeknight meal. If you can get your hands on some Carolina Gold rice, use that for an authentic version, but long grain white works for me.  I find good seafood stock made with shrimp at the grocery, but use a flavorful vegetable stock if you can’t.  Of course, it you have fresh, head on shrimp, you can go full traditional and make your own stock with the heads and shells.

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Filed Under: Chicken, Meat Poultry Seafood, Southern Specialties Tagged With: rice, shrimp, Southern specialites

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Comments

  1. Nancie McDermott says

    May 19, 2014 at 2:35 pm

    This looks gorgeous and I cannot wait to try it. Never heard of this dish up here in North Carolina until the last few years. I like that it has many names and many variations.

  2. Mary Frances says

    May 21, 2014 at 2:58 pm

    This dish looks so delicious, what a great combination of flavors! A great example of old fashioned home cooking.

  3. Julia says

    October 15, 2014 at 9:08 am

    Looks like a very good recipe! I will be trying this recipe this weekend for football Saturday! But I would like to add that this is a jambalaya! Us Southerners are very possessive about our recipes. And no matter what the Carolina’s decide to call it I assure you it’s Jambalaya! And yes it comes in many variations! That comes from the diversity of culture in Louisiana! French/Creole gotta love it!

  4. Maxie says

    November 5, 2015 at 12:00 pm

    This recipe is not a jambalaya. It is a lowcountry shrimp/rice perlo. In the Carolina’s we make chicken perlo, sausage perlo, etc. So call it what you will in Louisiana, but it the Carolina’s, we have our own names. Either way you want to call it, it’s delish!!

  5. Luanne Chubb says

    February 7, 2016 at 6:25 pm

    The flavors are delicious! Great tip about soaking the rice! We made it for the Super Bowl and can’t stop eating it. If you prep the vegetables in advance, it will make a quick after work meal. Thanks for the great recipe.

  6. Michele Culbreath says

    September 12, 2016 at 12:13 pm

    Just for those who may be confused. This dish may look like and be similar to a jambalaya, but it is not, i repeat, NOT a cajun or creole dish. The South Carolina Lowcountry has a rich rice history and culture all it’s own and we have our own dishes that have been made and passed down for hundreds of years. I love cajun/ creole food, but this is what I grew up on in the lowcountry of SC and we call it perlo/pilau/ pronounced per-low.

  7. Frances Wheeler says

    January 26, 2018 at 6:43 pm

    I was raised in Savannah and my Mama made a simple shrimp and rice dish by this name that was wonderful. She seasoned it with bacon drippings and some secret ingredient that was her special touch. I now make it with Better Than Bouillion lobster flavor, don’t have access to fresh shrimp for stock here. Still use the bacon drippings and the small sweep shrimp.

  8. MARVA says

    May 1, 2018 at 11:22 am

    MY GRANDFATHER MADE THIS & IT WAS FANTASTIC. HE WAS BORN, RAISED IN SUMPTER,SC. I WISH HE WERE HERE TO MAKE IT NOW. THANKS POP!

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I'm P.C. I think I am like most people. Somewhere in the middle between food snob and food schlub. Just being in the kitchen makes me happy. I live, mostly in my kitchen, in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

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