Garlic butter shrimp recipes for a 15 minute seafood dinner

Nov 4

3 min read

Plump shrimp in a lemon garlic butter pan sauce with parsley and red pepper flakes, served with crusty bread

15 minutes, one pan, built for crusty bread

This is the version with no vegetables and no apologies — just shrimp, a lot of garlic, a lot of butter, lemon and enough sauce in the bottom of the pan to justify half a loaf of bread. Fifteen minutes, and the only real skill involved is pulling the shrimp off the heat early.

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Why this one works

Slicing the garlic rather than mincing it means it goes golden and sweet instead of burning into bitterness.
Mounting cold butter into the pan off the heat at the end gives you a glossy emulsified sauce rather than an oil slick.
A splash of wine and the lemon at the very end keep all that butter from tasting flat.

At a glance

Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4 servings
Protein: 36g per serving
Calories: 452 per serving

Ingredients

Shrimp

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1.5 lb (680g) large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

Garlic butter sauce

6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
3/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/3 cup dry white wine, or chicken broth
Juice and zest of 1 large lemon
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

To serve

1 crusty baguette, thickly sliced
Flaky salt

Instructions

Dry and season the shrimp. Pat the shrimp thoroughly dry and season with salt and pepper. Wet shrimp will release water into the pan and you will end up poaching them.
Sear fast. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high until it shimmers. Add the shrimp in a single layer and cook 90 seconds, flip, and cook 45 seconds more. Pull them onto a plate the moment they turn opaque — they will finish cooking in the sauce later.
Gently cook the garlic. Lower the heat to medium. Add 2 tbsp of the butter and the sliced garlic with the red pepper flakes. Stir constantly for 90 seconds until the garlic is pale gold and fragrant. The second it starts to brown at the edges, move on.
Deglaze. Pour in the wine and scrape the pan. Let it bubble and reduce by half, about 2 minutes, which cooks off the raw alcohol and concentrates everything.
Mount the butter. Take the pan off the heat entirely. Add the remaining cold butter a few cubes at a time, swirling the pan constantly, until each addition melts into a creamy, glossy sauce. Do not let it boil at this stage or it will break.
Return and finish. Add the shrimp and any juices from the plate back to the pan. Add the lemon juice, zest and parsley and toss for 30 seconds to warm through. Taste for salt.
Serve with bread. Tip everything into a shallow dish, finish with flaky salt, and put the bread on the table for mopping.

Notes and swaps

Over orzo, angel hair or rice this stretches to 6 servings and loses nothing.
Frozen shrimp: thaw under cold running water for 5 minutes and dry very well.
No wine: chicken broth plus an extra teaspoon of lemon juice gets you most of the way there.