15 Minute Garlic Shrimp in Lemon Butter Sauce
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Garlic shrimp in less than 15 minutes! These little guys are cooked with a light lemon butter sauce that’s just enough to drizzle on steamed veggies or a bit of rice! So easy and so delicious!
Hot Garlic Shrimp tiiiiiiiime!
As in hot and fresh but also as in a little kick in the rear with some much needed and loved, SPICE.
This is for my friends and fellow last minute dinner comrades who like me, sometimes end up scrambling on weeknights looking for a quick meal to get on the table with just a wittle bit of work but lots of flavor and a spicy, from-scratch, quick cooking, and semi-healthy-ish meal.
There are way too menu reasons to list why a simple recipe like garlic shrimp is a go to on weeknights, but still, i’ll say a few:
- GARLIC
- BUTTER
- LEMONY ZING
- Sweet shrimp, spicy shrimp, garlic shrimp, buttery shrimp
- freshy fresh parsley and soaked in lemon butter sauce, shrimp
Now all of that goodness served over a pile of steaming hot white or brown rice, or maybe you’re more of a pasta kinda guy/gal OR maybe you’re the kind of person we all strive hope to be and you prefer a a big healthful bowl of zoodles or protein-packed quinoa.
You might as well grab a pound of shrimp on your way home today.
You are so making this.
Is there even such a thing as a real, authentic recipe for garlic butter shrimp?
I mean all I know is that i’m in love with anything lemony, buttery, and garlicky – check, check, and check!
And really this recipe is more like a quick 10-ish minute recipe because all you really need to do is chop some garlic, parsley, juice a lemon and that’s all folks. And even if you decide to be extra ambitious, you can boil a big vat of water, drop in a fistful of pasta and in LESS THAN 30 MINUTES you have got an ultra garlicky noodle type situation at the tip of your fork just begging for a little twirl action.
A couple of quick notes — whatever you do, please, oh please, use real lemon juice for this recipe. None of that juice in a squeeze bottle business. And I think i’m stating the obvious here when I say to use fresh garlic. After all, garlic is one of the main components. Also, after developing this garlic shrimp recipe and testing/retesting several times, I kept thinking to myself that something is definitely missing, so after a little research, I found a quick tip on all recipes suggesting the addition of a little caper brine. TBH I didn’t think that would make the amount of difference that it did. Seriously. WHAT. Why is the stuff that capers come packed in perfect for this recipe? Whatever the reason, it works.
Give it a go. This is as simple as it gets.
And simple on a weeknight is winning.
15 Minute Garlic Shrimp in Lemon Butter Sauce
Garlic shrimp in less than 15 minutes! These little guys are cooked with a light lemon butter sauce that's just enough to drizzle on steamed veggies or a bit of rice! So easy and so delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 6-8 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon caper brine
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 3 tablespoon butter, cut into cubes
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the olive oil and red pepper flakes and allow the spice to infuse into the oil for 30 seconds.
- Add the shrimp to the pan and spread it out so it cooks evenly. Cook for about 1 minute flipping as needed. Add the garlic, lemon juice, and caper brine to the skillet and let cook for 1 minute.
- Add 1/2 of the parsley along with the cubes of butter and swirl the pan so butter starts to melt slowly, about 2-3 minutes. As the butter melts it should start forming a thick type of sauce. Add the remaining parsley and stir to combine. The shrimp should be opaque and cooked through. If the sauce starts to thicken too much, you can remove the shrimp to a serving dish and add a teaspoon of water to help thin it out to a pourable consistency. Keep in mind that this recipe creates just enough sauce to coat the shrimp but it is flavorful enough to serve with rice or pasta tossed in olive oil.
Notes
- It's best to use fresh garlic for this recipe. I'm a big fan of minced garlic in a jar for most, but fresh does definitely taste better in this recipe!
- Caper brine is the liquid stuff capers come packed in. The caper brine addition was a little tip I picked up from All Recipes.
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7 Comments on “15 Minute Garlic Shrimp in Lemon Butter Sauce”
Super easy & totally yum. Doubled the recipe in order to pour the sauce over our pasta. I also didn’t add as much garlic (personal preference). Sauce didn’t thicken within shrimp cook time so I removed them in order to avoid over cooking them. I also added a tbsp of capers with the brine. Hubby topped his with some parmesan, which was surprisingly delicious. I’m always looking for quick & easy and this totally hit the spot.
Any substitutes for the caper brine?
I’d suggest substituting with rice vinegar if you have it!
What is the serving size?
Thank you for sharing this delectable dish. This is highly pleasant to the taste! Great tips as well.
Super Quick & Delicious!! I used pickle juice instead of caper juice…..Yum-0!
So yummy and easy! I removed the shrimp after about 3+ minutes total because I can’t stand over cooked shrimp. I continued to cook the sauce and added a little more butter and “splash” of white wine, cooked until thickened. Word of caution- be sure to taste before adding salt at the end. I added S&P as usual, but forgot about the salty caper brine that was already present.