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
- Sausage Stuffed Peppers
- Walnut Crusted Chicken
- Crab Cakes
- Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Baked Lemon Herb Salmon
- Creamy Garlic Chicken
- Zucchini Fritters or Corn Fritters
- Apple Cider Chicken
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.)
This recipe came to my inbox today and sounded so delicious I wanted to try it for dinner. I used frozen, raw shrimp. I did add 2 cubes of Trader Joe’s crushed ginger that I had on hand in the freezer. I highly recommend it! I can’t imagine the marinade without ginger in the flavor profile. The only thing I did different was I used half olive oil and half toasted sesame oil. This dish was very tasty and so easy to prepare! I will definitely make it again. My husband also loved it and was left wanting more. Next time I will double the recipe. Thank you for such a quick and easy dinner solution!
I made this honey garlic shrimp and paired it with brown rice and squash. My family really enjoyed it!
Delicious! Will definitely make again! We loved it!
We loved it, and my husband couldn’t believe it was so few ingredients!! Thank you!
This was AMAZING. The best thing I’ve made all year. And SO easy.
Love this dish. Super easy and tastes great! My husband gave it a huge thumbs up. Added a bit of sambal oelek and small amount of sesame oil to extra sauce added at end as we like a bit more spice. Also sprinkled on some Roasted sesame seeds over dish. A real keeper. So fast when use Uncle Ben’s Brown Rice bag and steamed broccoli.
I used frozen shrimp and removed the tails before cooking but this recipe was easy and full of flavor. I can’t wait to try some of your other recipes. Thank you.
Just wondering if this could be baked? Time and temperature? My guess it would be a fairly hot temp, and short cooking time. Any thoughts?
Hi Alice, I haven’t tried baking this shrimp before but a hot oven for a short amount of time would be best. For best results, though, I recommend sticking with a skillet and cooking on the stove.
Wow, I never thought I would like shrimp! But this recipe is to die for! Thank you Sally!
AMAZING FLAVOR but just a bit salty because of that soy sauce.
Very easy and so yummy. Many thanks!
This recipe is easy fun and delicious! My family loves seafood, so I thought I might add a different flavor to the shrimp when I found this recipe. Everyone enjoyed it!
Made it tonight for dinner. Best shrimp dish I have ever enjoyed. Delicious. Will certainly make it again.
Delicious! The marinade is so yummy that we drizzled it over the rice as well! Added it to my favorite recipes!
This is one of the easiest and tastiest Shrimp dishes you will find. Thanks Sally.
We live by the beach in South Carolina and are getting fresh shrimp once a week so this is a nice change of pace, but will probably become one of the mainstays for the season now. I didn’t use ginger, but I did add extra garlic. The flavor is awesome. I let it marinate for about 4 hours.
This will be my favorite go to quick and easy meal!! Made it last night and it was SO finger-licking good!
Thanks!
Allana
I made this tonight, and after reading the comments, I found the recipe for Thai pineapple fried rice (from Cookie +Kate ). Oh my goodness! It was such a delicious combinational, plus my house smells wonderful. It was a perfect dinner to forget about quarantine for the evening. Thanks so much for sharing.
Delicious. I made his for dinner tonight. Definitely recommend. I boiled the shrimp peels and added the broth to the mixture and some cornstarch to make a delicious sauce.
omg!!! this recipe was absolutely scrumptious! I used frozen shrimp which I thawed and peeled and no ginger (only because I did not have fresh ginger). My teenage kids loved this…better than chinese carryout.
Thank You
Combined this recipe with a Thai pineapple fried rice recipe (from Cookie +Kate recipe blog) and it made an amazing dinner. The shrimp and marinade/sauce were SO good! I will definitely be using this marinade often!
Thx! One more question. I want to use the 2lbs of shrimp I have. Ok to just double the recipe or no?
This was easy and delicious! I used cooked shrimp.
im 15 and i made this shrimp on top of some spaghetti noodles that were sautéed in butter and it was amazing . my mom enjoyed it
Absolutely delicious! My family loves Trader Joe’s vegetable fried rice, so I decided to top it with your honey garlic shrimp. Needless to say, it was a hit. Next time I will double the recipe so they can enjoy leftovers!
Could I substitute coconut aminos instead of the soy sauce? It’s lower sodium and lower calories, but has a slight sweetness to it. I know this recipes has honey in the marinade, so would coconut aminos make this dish overly sweet?
I made this and it was a HIT. I loved it, we all loved it. My heart issue diabetic husband is a challenge to cook for and i was worried about the honey, but i have a sugar free honey i used instead as well as lite soy sauce. I will use this recipe over and over again. Wow!! I turned the broccoli over in the sauce as well and what a success. This was a great meal and yes quick, easy an impressive to the taste buds. So tasty. i can’t wait to have company and cook it for them. Thanks for making me look brilliant and my dish, gourmet. Our secret!
This makes a remarkably quick, easy and delicious dinner. I halved the recipe for my husband and I, added a tablespoon of rice vinegar at the advice of my son, and added frozen stir fry veggies and a bit of leftover spaghetti noodles to it. Then a dash of sesame seeds when I plated it. Truly scrumptious!
So easy and so delicious, thanks for a wonderful and fast recipe !
I made this tonight, and added diced fresh mushrooms in the marinade! I also added a dash of pepper when I sautéed it. I served it over white rice and it was to die for!
So tasty and easy. Thank you!
My husband and I are always looking for different shrimp recipes because we tend to make the same ones over and over. I found this, made it and we loved it. I added veggies in before I added shrimp and made some Basmati rice and it was awesome. My hubby says “it’s a do over”. Your recipes are always bullet proof and Iove that…thanks
Delicious and easy! The sauce was a little runny but the flavor was great.