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 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.
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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
- 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.)
Keywords: honey garlic shrimp
So incredibly fast and delicious. Added a teaspoon of corn starch to really thicken the sauce and it’s now a dinner staple.
★★★★★
Large family. So I trippled the recipe. I made this for dinner not 20 mins ago. It was good. But way to sweet for us.
Next time I’ll do 1/2 the honey or less.
Other than that it was good.
I’d recommend unless you like super sweet Chinese food. To 1/2 or less the honey.
★★★
Delicious!!! Thank you very much.
★★★★★
This shrimp ate delicious , But do You think I can prepare the shrimp in the grill?
Hi Lilia, many readers have reported success making these shrimp on the grill. Let us know if you give it a try!
A secret to making sure shrimp never comes out rubbery, no matter how you cook it, is to soak in 1 TBLSP salt 1 qt water for every pound (of any lean seafood) for 30 minutes in frig, drain & dry between paper towels before cooking 0 they come out sweet, flavourful and extremely juicy!!
Other than that, I followed you recipe but added 1/8 lemon squeezed to counteract the over-riding swetttnes of the honey – that seems to accentuate the flavours. Thanks for the post!
★★★★★
Made this for dinner tonight and it’s a keeper. I did add a cornstarch slurry to the remaining half before adding it to the shrimp. Thank you for sharing.
★★★★★
We had this last night for dinner. I chopped up an onion and a pepper I had and we added fresh ginger too. Served it over Lo Mein noodles. My kid loved it – ate all the veggies too. This one is a keeper!
★★★★★
Making the shrimp tonight. Wondering what the salt and sugar content is in their recipe. Thanks.
We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
This was amazing, everyone enjoyed it! Super simple to throw together. I used pre-chopped garlic and a few dashes of ground ginger. Right before removing it from the stove, I added a few dashes of red pepper flake. Sauce was thick and rich and super flavorful Great recipes, definitely adding it to the weekly rotation!
★★★★★
Easy and delicious recipe. I love Asian dinners! I added chopped broccoli florets, home grown snow peas from my garden, and chopped water chestnuts for crunch. To the listed marinade ingredients, I added hoisin sauce, Asian sweet chili sauce, tad of rice vinegar, and sesame oil. Served over regular white rice. Thanks for the excellent, quick recipe!
★★★★★
Tasty, but a bit too sweet. I think next time I might use less honey and maybe add some Sriracha for some spiciness to balance out the sweetness. I appreciate the quick recipe for shrimp though. I had it on the table with roasted vegetables and riced cauliflower within 30 minutes.
★★★★
Could the fresh ginger be substituted with ground/powdered ginger?
Hi Sabrina, Ground ginger will work just fine. Try about 1/4 teaspoon whisked in with the marinade.
Thanks for the recipe. Husband loves shrimp but is picky. He loved it! Now it’s in my recipe rotation. Just before serving I added a tablespoon of creamy peanut butter. That made it very creamy and added some richness. No need for cornstarch.
★★★★★
It was really delicious! Tastes like Asian-inspired cuisine
★★★★★
I only have hot honey in the house, so wish me luck! Might be a little spicy, but I’ll let you know
I made this recipe last night and I can’t believe how good it is. It reminds me of the dumpling sauce my parents make at their place. I had it with Jasmine rice and asparagus! Not going to lie, every bite made me do the food dance.
★★★★★
Question – the recipe indicates 1 tablespoon of jarred minced garlic. Should it say teaspoon? The jar I have states 1/2 teaspoon = 1 clove
Hi Jan, we like it really garlicky! Feel free to use less if you’d like. Enjoy!
Delicious! I added a couple of pinches of crushed red pepper and served it with brown, red, white, wild rice medley and garlic sautéed kale. I’m so excited that there are leftovers
★★★★★
This was quick, easy and full of flavor. Served with brown rice and edamame. Will be making this again. Family loved it.
★★★★★
Yummy, It’s a Favorite since it’s simple and goes well with rice and veggies!
★★★★★
Made this for dinner today and it was delicious. I could never find a good shrimp recipe and now I’ve found one! I only marinated for half an hour and that was enough for the shrimp to soak up the flavor from the marinade. I paired it with stir fried cauliflower rice and broccoli. I took the advice of others and included a dash of lemon juice and some chili flakes. I also had to add corn starch to the sauce, because I used frozen shrimp, so it had retained a lot of water. The marinade/sauce was a lot for only 1 lb of shrimp. Next time, I’ll only make half of the amount in the recipe. Thanks for the great recipe!
★★★★★
I don’t see anywhere in the recipe how many shrimp this is for. I only have about 5.2 oz thawed.
It states 1 pound of shrimp.
Made this recipe several times. It’s fast easy and great tasting. I love all your recipes it’s easy to follow and always turns out great. The carrot cake is a big hit with the family it’s a birthday tradition now.
★★★★★
This made a really awesome dinner! It was easy to make but still reallly good! Thank you for this recipe! I’m 11 years old and I love to cook and bake. I love your website and your dogs are so cute! (I love German shepherds with floppy ears)
★★★★★
So delicious! Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
I made this for dinner last night.
I used frozen(peeled and defined Argentinian shrimp) Defrosted it and marinated it for 15 minutes.
I used the garlic, hot peppers and fresh grated ginger. I fried the shrimp in Olive oil, then set it aside while I made the sauce with the other 1/2 of the marinade. I thickened the sauce with corn starch. When the sauce was thickened to my satisfaction I returned the shrimp to the sauce and garnished with the green onions.
It was a winner. I served it with steamed Jasmin rice and stir fry oriental vegetables.
My husband loved it he had seconds.
Thank you for your assistance in making a great and easy meal.
Very good but much too sweet, will use less honey next time. 🙂
Enjoyed! Simple even for this amateur cook !
★★★★★
This will be dinner tonight but what type of honey did you use? I have 4 kinds right now and all have a distinctive taste and 2 would not be suitable for mild tasting shrimp. Was yours just a common type like the bear?
Hi Margi! Yes, just common honey tastes great in this recipe. Enjoy!
GREAT!!! I love it so much!! my kids CAN’T stop eating this meal! I love your recipies!
★★★★★
This was delicious. I was told by my husband and son and daughter-in-law that it was really good more than 5 times by each. I cook a lot of different foods as does my daughter in law. We all eat a lot of shrimp and it made me excited to get so many compliments. Thanks
★★★★★