This 20 minute honey garlic shrimp is a reader favorite recipe. It’s extra quick, very simple, and delivers big flavor. Served with brown rice and vegetables or over a salad, this healthy dish is sure to join your regular dinner rotation.
Are you looking for a super quick, yet flavorful dinner this week? We have it right here for you. This saucy shrimp owes a lot of its flavor to a bold marinade of honey, soy sauce, and garlic, which is music to everyone’s taste buds. For a little extra flavor, we add some minced fresh ginger, but that’s entirely optional.
Video Tutorial
Tell Me About This Honey Garlic Shrimp
- Flavor: The marinade is loaded with flavor, but our favorite part of this dish is the beautiful caramelized bits of honey and garlic stuck to the pan and edges of the shrimp. Scrape it all up to serve because you don’t want to miss those flavorful bites.
- Ease: Regardless of your skill level, this is a very easy dinner recipe. Prepare the marinade, use half for marinating the shrimp, then use the rest as the sauce for cooking the shrimp. It’s convenient that the marinade is also the sauce—we do this for our maple sesame salmon and honey garlic soy glazed salmon recipes too.
- Time: The shrimp takes 5 minutes to cook on the stove, while the marinating takes another 15. You’ll have this unbelievably tasty and simple meal on your table in about 20 minutes.
Choosing the Right Ingredients for Honey Garlic Shrimp
- Shrimp. You can use fresh or frozen raw shrimp. Thaw the shrimp completely before starting. Be sure to peel and devein the shrimp first. You can leave the tails on or remove if desired. If using already cooked shrimp, see recipe note below.
- Honey + garlic + soy. This marinade/sauce is packed with so much glorious flavor and is inspired by some wonderful flavors often used in Asian cuisine. (We also LOVE this honey soy glazed salmon from Omnivore’s Kitchen.)
- Green onions. This optional garnish adds freshness and a nice color contrast.
Overview: How to Make 20 Minute Honey Garlic Shrimp
The full printable recipe is below, but let’s walk through it so you understand each step before you get started.
- Make your marinade.
- Marinate the shrimp. Combine marinade and shrimp and marinate for at least 15 minutes or up to 8-12 hours. We usually only marinate it for about 15 minutes and during this time, you could prepare your side dishes such as steamed vegetables and instant brown rice.
- Cook the shrimp. Cook shrimp in a little olive oil, then flip and pour in the remaining sauce until cooked through.
- Garnish. Top with green onions and serve.
More Favorite Dinner Recipes
- Pesto Shrimp
- Baked Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken
- Sausage Stuffed Peppers
- Walnut Crusted Chicken
- Crab Cakes
- Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Creamy Garlic Chicken
- Zucchini Fritters or Corn Fritters
- Apple Cider Chicken
- Baked Lemon Garlic Salmon
20 Minute Honey Garlic Shrimp
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: serves 4
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This 20 minute honey garlic shrimp is a reader favorite recipe. It’s extra quick, very simple, and delivers big flavor. Served with brown rice and vegetables or over a salad, this healthy dish is sure to join your regular dinner rotation.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (we usually use reduced sodium)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (or 1 teaspoon jarred minced garlic)
- optional: 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
- 1 lb medium uncooked shrimp, peeled & deveined
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- optional for garnish: chopped green onion
Instructions
- Whisk the honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger (if using) together in a medium bowl. You will use half for the marinade in step 2 and half for cooking the shrimp in step 3.
- Place shrimp in a large sealable container or zipped-top bag. Pour 1/2 of the marinade/sauce mixture on top, give it all a shake or stir, then allow shrimp to marinate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or for up to 8-12 hours. Cover and refrigerate the rest of the marinade for step 3. (Time-saving tip: while the shrimp is marinating, we usually steam broccoli and microwave some quick brown rice.)
- Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place shrimp in the skillet. (Discard used marinade.) Cook shrimp on one side until pink, about 45 seconds, then flip shrimp over. Pour in remaining marinade/sauce and cook it all until shrimp is cooked through, about 1-2 more minutes.
- Serve shrimp with cooked marinade sauce and a garnish of green onion. The sauce is excellent on brown rice and steamed vegetables on the side.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Skillet
- Thicken the sauce? Some readers add 1 teaspoon of cornstarch to the second half of the sauce that will be used for cooking in step 3. This thickens the sauce so it isn’t as watery. To do this, use a fork to mix 1 teaspoon of cornstarch with 1 teaspoon warm water. Once cornstarch has dissolved, stir this into the sauce before using it in step 3.
- Garlic: If using fresh garlic that you mince yourself, use 2 cloves. If using refrigerated jarred minced garlic, use 1 teaspoon (or more, to taste).
- Shrimp: You can remove the tail or leave it on. We recommend using fresh shrimp, but you can use frozen. Thaw before marinating and cooking. If using frozen cooked shrimp, thaw, marinate, and cook as directed. You’ll really just be heating the shrimp up in the sauce.
- Consuming leftover marinade is a debated topic. While you could boil it to rid any contamination, the flavor could possibly change. Do what you’d like. In this recipe we only use half of the sauce for the marinade so we have more for cooking. (We discard the used marinade in step 3.)
Reader Comments and Reviews
absolutely delicious!!! perfect as is…I did it with shrimp and I also plan to do it with chicken. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe.
I made this recipe yesterday. Was so delicious definitely making it again. The whole family loved it.
Whoa! Supes easy and scary good. Proceed with caution! 🙂
I don’t have fresh ginger. Can I use dry,. If so how much should I use.
Hi Becky, Ground ginger will work just fine. Try about 1/4 teaspoon whisked in with the marinade.
My first time cooking prawns and this recipe was so easy and delicious! I will definitely be making again
This was very good! Just made it for dinner. My husband loved loved loved it, I’m inexperienced with making seafood of any kind. But this was amazing. Will definitely make it again. ❤️
Made this tonight & LOVED IT! I Added a tsp of mild salsa Verde for kick vs red pepper/hot sauce. Yummy! Didn’t have green onion and that would have been yummy too. Added a taste of fresh parmesan. Took me a while to peel and Devin the shrimp but the rest is quick. My tip, soak your shrimp in cold milk (I had oat milk) as you peel all the shrimp. It helps shrimp be less “shrimpy” depending on where they came from.
Tried it tonight and it was a big hit with the family. So delicious!! Definitely will be making this one of my go-to meals. Thanks!!!
I made this tonight, and it was delicious! My husband and I and our 20 month old loved it. We had it with broccoli, sautéed bell peppers and mushrooms, and couscous. Our toddler asked for “more!” at least twice
Just made this for the first time and it’s delicious!!! Will definitely be making it again
This is a great recipe. My son loved it!
Could I make this with cut chicken, in addition to shrimp? My family likes shrimp, except my son. Thanks.
Yes, this works well with chicken also!
Just made this. My family and I love it. Will definitely make again and again.
You’ve gotta add some citrus to this Marinade. Orange or lemon. I prefer orange with salmon and lemon with the shrimp
Just made this. LOVED it. Will definitely make again and again, and…
Hi there, LOVE the sound of this recipe and so excited to try it!
Could I add peppers, onions and sweetcorn instead of broccoli? Also will prawns work instead of shrimp?
I’m really excited to try this but want to be safe with the variations!
I can’t see why not! Let me know how you like this dish.
This was really good! Made it for my family and they all loved it. Def made the shrimp taste so much better. Recommend highly 😀
Love this recipe on the stove but do you think it would work if grilling on skewers?
Yes!! I’ve used this for kebabs on the bbq and they’re great. Make sure you cook it all the way through though.
Making this for the 2nd time. Absolutely a winner in our house. So delish! Added the red pepper flakes for a little extra something something too. Nice flavors. Trying the cast iron skillet tonight to see if I can get it a little extra charred like the picture.
Just made this for dinner and it was DELICIOUS!!!
Served with brown rice and a side salad..
Definitely making this again.
Thanks for the recipe!!
Fabulous. I used Ginger paste instead of fresh. Served with Jasmine rice. Will make again.
delicious recipe, sweet and healthy, everything that comes from bees is highly nutritious, thank you for sharing this type of recipe.
Just made this. It was great!
This was fabulous considering the ease of its making. I served it with mango rice and yummers! I could see using this marinade for a chicken as well. Definitely a 5-star.
Made this for the first time today…delicious! As others mentioned, I also added red pepper flakes for a little kick. This is going to be a regular here. Thank You!
Made it today….Recipe to a T…Served wit fried rice..
A keeper.
I added red pepper flakes to the marinade & when cooking shrimp, I added cut up pineapple to the pan. I served it over quinoa. This was so easy and delicious. I will definitely make again.
Very easy to make and delicious. The honey caramelizes with the soy sauce (i used Braggs). i added a couple teaspoons of red pepper flakes into the marinade because my husband likes spicy. Fresh ginger adds a little heat too. Green onion and cilantro for garnish. Will definitely make this again!
I want to make this dish with just 1/2 a pound a shrimp since it’s just my husband and I. I also have xsmall shrimp on hand… will that work for this recipe?
Yes, just cut the recipe in half for 1/2 pound of shrimp. Enjoy!
This was such an easy and tasty dish! Once cooked, I removed the shrimp and added a teaspoon of watered down corn starch to thicken the sauce slightly! The outcome was amazing! I will definitely be making this again! Also, this sauce will be so versatile!!! Think I might toss some flour-battered fried chicken in it next!