Shrimp Stir-fry with an easy honey garlic soy-sauce, plump seared shrimp and vegetables in less than 20 minutes.
Easy Asian recipes are one of the main focuses of the blog including General Tso’s Chicken, Chicken Lo Mein and Easy Mongolian Beef. We’ve got an entire Chinese restaurant menu worth of recipes for you to choose from on the site!
Shrimp Stir-Fry
Easy base recipe here! This shrimp stir-fry is an easy pantry recipe for you to keep in your back pocket anytime you’d like to make a healthy, easy stir fry. Why do I call it a base recipe? Because I could just as easily swap out any protein or vegetable with this easy stir-fry sauce and make this with anything I’ve got in the fridge.
You can make this exact dish with sliced chicken breast or thighs, pork loin, sliced beef, scallops or any firm fish you love.
Stir-Fries are an easy weeknight dinner you can make in just 20 minutes. In fact if you were to meal prep this dish over the weekend it could be made in less than 10 minutes the night you’re enjoying it.
Can you make this Shrimp Stir-Fry ahead of time? You can certainly make parts of it ahead of time. Seafood is not tolerant of cooking and reheating so I recommend preparing all the individual parts of the recipe ahead but cooking it just before you eat it.
First mix the sauce ingredients together and set aside and second prep the shrimp and vegetables. I tend to buy peeled and deveined shrimp but if you don’t the most time consuming part of the dish will be preparing the shrimp.
In case you need to peel and devein the shrimp, here’s an easy guide:
HOW TO PEEL AND DEVEIN SHRIMP:
- To peel raw shrimp, tear away at the shell above the first segment of the shell (the tail segment).
- Take a paring knife and make a shallow cut along the spine of the shrimp (the back of it).
- Using the paring knife or a fork, gently remove the black strip of intestines.
- To remove tails just squeeze the shrimp out from the bottom of the tail segment.
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Once the sauce, shrimp and veggies are prepared you just have to cook and combine them in the pan before serving. Since stir-fries cook so quickly it’s a good idea to have your rice ready beforehand.
So why choose shrimp in this recipe? Well as we head further into the holiday season and everyone’s schedules are getting busier we are reaching for easier and quicker recipes. That’s where shrimp is a GREAT option. If you’re buying peeled and deveined shrimp it will cook in less than 5 minutes.
More ideas for easy weeknight meals can be found all over the site, we love anything that has lots of flavor with not a lot of work.
30 MINUTE WEEKNIGHT MEALS:
- Shrimp: Shrimp recipes can be ready in as little at 10 minutes, quick Asian recipes are a natural fit for shrimp. Shrimp scampi is another easy option.
- Slow Cooker Recipes: Slow cooker recipes usually take just 15 minutes of prep time and can be made ahead the night before or the morning of the day you want to enjoy them.
- Ground Beef Recipes: Sloppy Joes are a huge part of this site because of how easy they are, we love cooking with ground beef (and chicken and turkey too!).
- Serve with steamed vegetables and a quick starch.
WHAT TO SERVE WITH SHRIMP Stir-Fry:
- Add steamed rice or fried rice.
- Round out the meal with more dishes like you’re at a restaurant eating family style with Chinese Lemon Chicken or Panda Express Orange Chicken (Copycat)
- Serve it with Spicy Chinese Sichuan Green Beans, your favorite steamed vegetables or even cauliflower rice.
Stir-Fry Vegetable Substitutions:
We used broccoli and carrots in the dish but you can feel free to use any vegetables you’ve got in the kitchen. Stir-fries are an easy way to use up what you’ve already got. I especially love vegetables that are canned like the baby corn, chestnuts and bamboo shoots because it makes the dish even more convenient to make in a pinch.
- Onion – chop the onion into 1″ cubes
- Mushrooms – sliced
- Zucchini – cut into half circles about 1/2″ thick
- Bell Peppers – all colors work, chop into 1″ cubes
- Baby Corn – add whole or slice in half lengthwise
- Water Chestnuts – sliced, drain before adding
- Bamboo Shoots – drain before adding
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 pound shrimp peeled and deveined
- 2 teaspoons ginger minced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup broccoli
- 2 carrots thinly sliced
Instructions
- Add the water, ketchup, soy sauce, cornstarch, honey, crushed red pepper and sesame oil together in a small bowl and whisk.
- Add the canola oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat and add in the shrimp, ginger and garlic, cooking on each side for 1-2 minutes.
- Add in the broccoli and carrots and the sauce, stir and cover for 3 minutes until the broccoli and carrots are tender and the sauce is thickened.
Nutrition
This was NOT a good recipe. I would not make it again. The sauce wasn’t flavorful, it tasted watery. If you are going to make it, boil it down a TON. Honestly, I would not make this at all, there are better recipes out there.
good and easy . i served it over cauliflower rice . made it healthy by cutting carbs
Good easy recipe. I just added some black pepper and more pepper flakes to spice it up a bit. I also added some ramen noodles. This is a good recipe for anyone to customize to their liking. Thanks for the recipe Sabrina.
So easy and fast cooking , great choice , I am a shrimp freak! Happy that I didn’t have to buy nothing at the store. Thank you.
This recipe was not too bad but I would rather not have a tomato base in the sauce. It really threw me off. I would’ve added more broccoli than a cup also.
I’m working on another recipe for a tomato-less stir fry too! Try the Hunan Chicken recipe on this site with shrimp instead for an easy non-tomato based one you may enjoy.
Wow, this was really good! I added more soy sauce and some sriracha and just used the veggies I had on hand. It was so flavorful and yummy! My guests loved it as well.
I’m glad to know it was a hit with everyone, Mary. Thanks for the 5 star rating.
This recipe was really tempting! However, I found it a little ‘blah’. Also, I only used half the sauce, which was plenty. As I never cook shrimps longer than about 1.5 minutes, I added them last and cooked them with the veggies for the last 1.5 minutes. Perfect.
When I make this again, I will reduce the water to 3/4 cup, add Sriracha sauce, and a splash of fish sauce.
I served the dish over Rice Stick Vermicelli, which takes no cooking and only 5-6 minutes to soak in hot water.
Very bland! Added lots chili sauce & soy to give it some taste.
Really easy tasty and healthy.
why is the sodium content so high in the shrimp stir fry recipe?
I would recommend a low sodium soy sauce to help reduce the sodium content. Enjoy!
Some how I have never used broccoli and carrots together in a stir fry with shrimp. Thin slice or jillian “older” carrots that need to be used up?
Sure 🙂
Can I use flour as a substitute for the corn starch?
Sure
So friggin good!!
Can I substitute the broccoli with zucchini? I mean I know I can lol but will it taste okay?
Yes, absolutely, just be sure to slice it thin enough (about 1/4″) so that it cooks quickly enough. Any thicker and it’ll still be raw in the middle by the time the stir fry is done.
The recipe was everything it said it would be: quick and delicious.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Barbara.
Can I use frozen cooked shrimp in this recipe? It’s all I can get right now? Thanks.
Yes, just thaw them under cold running water in a colander in the sink before using.
I have made it and added mushrooms instead of carrots! Now my dilemma is what Dino eat it with either rice or rice spguetti
Sounds like a good problem to have, haha!
I made this recipe last night and though the flavor was good I would not recommend it. I am unsure why you cook the shrimp first and the vegetables second. The vegetables were under cooked and the shrimp over cooked.
You could cook it the other way if you’d like. 🙂
Hey Sabrina, What should i use to substitute ketchup? It’s a no go for my family and there are several recipes you have that call for it.
You can always substitue with tomato sauce mixed with a bit of sugar and vinegar.
Is the ketchup an important part of this recipe? We want to omit it (and the tomato sauce/vinegar substitution) but if it is necessary, we will try it.
I know your meal is long gone now. I would say you could go ahead with the swap. The ketchup is in there for ease.
m s
This looks incredibly delicious!
Thanks, Erin!
I love quick and easy recipes like this! My shrimp loving boys would go crazy for this recipe!
Enjoy!
Great recipe! I love shrimp for weeknights too! Even if I forget to thaw some, it’s still takes less time than take out.
Definitely!
I love stir-fry so I am always happy when I find a delicious recipe with shrimp in it!
It’s the best!
Easy is my middle name! Okay, that sounds terrible. What I mean is that I love easy recipes like this!
Haha, no judgement here!!