Raise your hand if you always go for the crunchy shrimp appetizer at parties. For those of you like me with your hands in the air, these garlic butter shrimp will rise to the top of your easy shrimp recipes list.
Our tangy twist is inspired by freakin’ delicious Hawaiian-style garlic butter shrimp, and we’re using flour to get that super crispy outer crunch. This easy garlic butter shrimp recipe makes a great appetizer for all you seafood lovers, or even as part of a main course with bread, pasta or white rice.
Why You’ll Love Garlic Butter Shrimp
Hawaiian-style garlic butter shrimp is famous because of its crunch and the best flavor, with lots of fresh garlic and citrus. You can find it at food trucks all over the island! Because we want to do this recipe justice, we use all-purpose flour to get that crunch. The crunch has another purpose here: it creates lots of craggy texture for the garlic butter to cling to the shrimp.
We don’t use white wine here, which is generally in buttery shrimp recipes like this one. If you feel like you’re missing it, you can certainly add it in, or even use beer or chicken broth to deglaze the skillet.
For a roundup of my favorite seafood recipes, make sure to also check out Best Lobster Tail Recipes and Grilled Shrimp Recipes.
Garlic Butter Shrimp Ingredients
This easy recipe has an simple ingredients list to go with it!
- Shrimp, peeled and deveined
- Garlic, minced, and lots of it
- My Smoked Garlic Jalapeño Lager Rub, which kicks up that delicious garlic flavor
- Unsalted butter and a little olive oil
- Fresh lemon juice
- Chopped green onions for our garnish
Fresh or Frozen Shrimp?
Here’s a little secret: the “fresh” shrimp you see at your local supermarket were most likely already frozen, then defrosted at the fish counter. When fisherman catch shrimp, they freeze them on the boats within a very short time of being out of the water. That move keeps that shrimp flavor from when they were caught. So, unless you’re sure the so-called fresh shrimp you’re seeing for our garlicky shrimp are right off the boat, you’re better off buying frozen shrimp.
How to Make Garlic Butter Shrimp
Bring your fire to medium-high heat (around 350 degrees Fahrenheit) for direct cooking. Next, add a large skillet — preferably cast iron — to the fire for about a minute before you start cooking.
Pat your 1.5 pounds of shrimp completely dry, then generously season the raw shrimp with 1/4 cup Smoked Garlic Jalapeño Lager Rub (or your favorite seafood rub) and 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour.
Next, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter to melt in the skillet. Then, add the 1/4 cup minced garlic and let it brown for 90 seconds. Once the garlic has browned, add your shrimp in batches to the skillet. Make sure to not overcrowd the pan and cook those shrimp for about 90 seconds on the first side.
Flip the shrimp over, stir and continue to cook the shrimp for another 1-2 minutes until fully done. It should only take about 2-3 minutes to cook the shrimp. When the sauteed shrimp are done, pull the whole skillet off the fire to cool.
Garnish the skillet with chopped green onions, juice from 1 medium lemon and crusty bread. Serve and enjoy!
What to Serve with Garlic Butter Shrimp
These lemony garlic butter shrimp are a great appetizer, but you can easily turn them into a complete meal. For an easy and delicious dinner, serve with the crusty bread I recommend and a simple green salad. You could also serve the garlic butter shrimp white rice, cauliflower rice, your favorite pasta shape or zucchini noodles.
Leftovers and Reheating
Because you don’t want to lose that crunch, these succulent shrimp are best eaten on the day they’re made. Still, if you do end up with leftovers, store the shrimp in an airtight container in the fridge. Once you’re ready to eat, heat them in a 350-degree oven or your air fryer for 5-10 minutes. Just enough to warm them up!
For More Shrimp
FAQs
The selection for your favorite shrimp recipes can be overwhelming! You’ll see mini, medium, large, jumbo and colossal at the grocery store. All these sizes also have a number on them, which details how many shrimp you get per pound.
Smaller shrimp tend to be best for pastas or salads. For dishes like this, where the shrimp is the star, you want to go big for the size of your shrimp. For that reason, a larger shrimp like jumbo shrimp are the best, which gets you 21-25 shrimp per pound.
To clean the shrimp for this lemon garlic butter shrimp recipe, you’ll need to remove the shell and use a paring knife to make a small slit along the back of the shrimp. Then, use the tip of the knife to get under the vein and gently pull it out.
I can think of fewer people out there who have cooked more shrimp than Emeril Lagasse. He’s got a great step-by-step video to show you how to do it!
Because white wine is classic here, you can’t go wrong with using that liquid. If you choose beer, I think a light lager would be perfect, since the flavor would pair nicely with the Smoked Jalapeño Lager Rub!
Garlic Butter Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs Shrimp peeled & deveined
- 1/4 cup Minced Garlic
- 2 tbsp All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 cup Smoked Garlic Jalapeno Lager Rub
- 6 tbsp Butter unsalted
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 medium Lemon juiced
- Chopped Green Onions garnish
Instructions
- Preheat a medium high heat fire (around 350F) for direct cooking. Add a cast iron skillet to the fire about 1 minute before cooking.
- Pat your shrimp completely dry, then generously season with Smoked Garlic Jalapeno Lager Rub (or your favorite seafood rub) and your flour.
- First, add your olive oil and butter to melt in the skillet. Next, add the minced garlic and let it brown for 90 seconds.
- Add your shrimp in batches to the skillet (make sure to not overcrowd the pan) and cook for about 90 seconds on the first side. Flip the shrimp over.
- Continue to cook the shrimp for another 1-2 minutes until fully done. When the shrimp are done, pull the whole skillet off the fire to cool.
- Garnish the skillet with chopped green onions, lemon juice and crusted bread. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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