Easy Shrimp Stir-Fry

4 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes

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 ChickenChicken 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-FryShrimp 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:

  1. To peel raw shrimp, tear away at the shell above the first segment of the shell (the tail segment).
  2. Take a paring knife and make a shallow cut along the spine of the shrimp (the back of it).
  3. Using the paring knife or a fork, gently remove the black strip of intestines.
  4. To remove tails just squeeze the shrimp out from the bottom of the tail segment.

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:

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

Easy Shrimp Stir Fry

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Shrimp Stir-fry

Shrimp Stir-fry with an easy honey garlic soy-sauce, plump seared shrimp and vegetables in less than 20 minutes.
Yield 4 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Chinese
Author Sabrina Snyder

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

Calories: 236kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 285mg | Sodium: 1533mg | Potassium: 237mg | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 255IU | Vitamin C: 26.2mg | Calcium: 179mg | Iron: 2.9mg
Keyword: Asian Food, Chinese food, Easy Shrimp Stir Fry, shrimp, stir-fry

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

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Comments

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

    1. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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?

    1. 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.

  8. I have made it and added mushrooms instead of carrots! Now my dilemma is what Dino eat it with either rice or rice spguetti

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

      1. 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.

        1. 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

  11. Great recipe! I love shrimp for weeknights too! Even if I forget to thaw some, it’s still takes less time than take out.