Coconut Milk Shrimp
Coconut Milk Shrimp is a recipe with saucy shrimp simmered in creamy coconut milk sauce with fresh garlic, ginger, pepper flakes, and lime juice. It’s perfect over cooked rice and ready in only 30 minutes!
Just like our popular Coconut Milk Chicken with Cilantro Lime, this recipe will leave you craving more.
Coconut Milk Shrimp
Super easy, made all in one pan, and packs tons of flavor! This coconut milk shrimp is so delicious and quick to make, you could literally have this on your dinner table in no time at all.
The shrimp are quickly marinated in honey, garlic, ginger, and red chili flakes and then simmered in creamy coconut milk that’s flavored with delicious aromatics such as shallots, scallions, and fresh lime juice.
This one-pan meal is creamy and rich with the best spicy-sweet coconut flavor.
What Goes with Coconut Shrimp?
Coconut milk shrimp serves amazing over Pineapple Rice or Cilantro Lime Coconut Rice. You can make it a complete meal with these side dishes:
- Creamy light Cucumber Salad
- Try switching up the rice for Cauliflower Mash
- These Roasted Garlic Green Beans
- Something to dip into the sauce, such as Cheese Bread or naan bread
Ingredients for Coconut Milk Shrimp
Here’s what you’ll need to make coconut milk shrimp recipe:
- Shrimp: large, raw, deshelled, and deveined. If using frozen shrimp, thaw out completely and drain really well. Also, pat dry with a few sheets of paper towel to remove excess moisture.
- Olive oil: or avocado oil for the marinade.
- Honey: to balance out the spiciness. Do not omit.
- Aromatics: garlic, fresh ginger, shallot, and scallions.
- Spices: red chili flakes and kosher salt.
- Butter: for cooking the shrimp and aromatics. Just a little needed to add tons of flavor.
- Coconut milk: unsweetened canned milk is what you want. For best results, use full-fat coconut milk. See this post for more tips on buying coconut milk.
- Fish sauce: Another must ingredient. Fish sauce adds an earthy, savory flavor to the sauce. And the sauce does not taste fishy at all.
- Lime zest and juice: use fresh lime juice for best results.
- Cilantro: not a fan of cilantro? Try fresh basil instead.
How to Make Coconut Milk Shrimp Recipe
Cooking shrimp in coconut milk is really easy. All you need is time for the coconut milk to reduce. It thickens naturally so you don’t need any additional thickening agents. Make sure to use full-fat coconut milk and not coconut cream.
- Step 1: Marinate the shrimp – toss the shrimp with olive oil, honey, garlic, ginger, chili flakes, and salt. Set aside to marinate for 15 minutes at room temperature.
- Step 2: Cook the shrimp – melt butter over medium-high heat in a large non-stick skillet. Add shrimp with a pair of tongs to the hot skillet. Leave the liquid from shrimp inside the bowl.
Cook the shrimp for 1-2 minutes per side or until pink on the outside (shrimp will be raw on the inside). Remove immediately to a clean bowl.
Tip: When cooking shrimp, make sure the pan is hot before adding the shrimp. You should hear a sizzle the second the shrimp touches the pan. Also, layer the shrimp in a single layer. You don’t want any shrimp overlapping. Cook in batches if need to.
- Step 3: Make the sauce – reduce the heat to medium and melt remaining butter in the skillet. Add shallots, white parts of scallions, and chili flakes. Cook for a few minutes until soft and fragrant.
Stir in coconut milk and fish sauce. Season with salt to taste. Simmer until reduced and thickened, about 3-5 minutes.
- Step 4: Stir in shrimp – stir in lime zest, juice, and shrimp. Simmer for few minutes until the shrimp is cooked through. Add green parts of scallions and cilantro.
Storing Leftovers
Leftover coconut lime shrimp will last in the refrigerator for up to 3 days in an airtight container. Reheat over medium-low heat on the stove-top, stirring frequently.
I do not recommend reheating in the microwave as it can reheat the shrimp unevenly, resulting in rubbery shrimp.
Video: How to Make Coconut Milk Shrimp
More Shrimp Recipes
- Creamy Corn Pasta with Shrimp
- Cilantro Basil Shrimp with Mango Salsa
- Spicy Coconut Shrimp Lettuce Wraps
- Shrimp Salad with Mango and Avocado
Coconut Milk Shrimp Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 30 min
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Simmer
- Cuisine: Thai
Description
Saucy shrimp simmered in creamy coconut milk sauce with fresh garlic, ginger, pepper flakes, and lime juice. It’s perfect over cooked rice and ready in only 30 minutes!
Ingredients
Shrimp
- 1 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp, pat dried with a paper towel
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil or avocado oil
- 2 Tbsp. honey
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger
- 1/4 tsp. red chili flakes
- 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
- 2 Tbsp. butter for cooking shrimp
Sauce
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- 1 medium shallot, finely chopped
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced, white and green parts separated
- 1/4 tsp. red chili flakes
- 1 (14 oz.) can unsweetened coconut milk (not lite)
- 1 Tbsp. fish sauce
- Zest 1 lime
- 1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice, about 1/2 lime
- Fresh chopped cilantro
- Kosher salt, to taste
Instructions
Shrimp
- In a bowl, toss the shrimp with olive oil, honey, garlic, ginger, red chili flakes, and salt. Set aside to marinate for 15 minutes at room temperature.
- Melt butter over medium-high heat in a large non-stick skillet. When the butter is hot, add the shrimp with a pair of tongs. Leave the liquid from the shrimp inside the bowl and discard. Cook the shrimp for 1-2 minutes per side or until pink on the outside. Remove immediately to a clean bowl. Shrimp will be raw on the inside. If you have leftover liquid in the pan from the shrimp, drain it before adding butter in the next step.
Sauce
- Reduce the heat to medium and add butter to the skillet. Add shallots, white parts of scallions, and chili flakes. Cook for a few minutes until soft and fragrant. Stir in coconut milk and fish sauce. Season with salt to taste. Simmer until thickened, about 3-5 minutes.
- Stir in lime zest, juice, and shrimp. Simmer for few minutes until the shrimp is cooked through. Do not overcook the shrimp. Add green parts of scallions and cilantro.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 439
- Sugar: 9.4 g
- Sodium: 890.7 mg
- Fat: 33.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 13.6 g
- Protein: 25.2 g
- Cholesterol: 213 mg
Keywords: coconut shrimp, quick shrimp, shrimp in sauce
Didn’t have fish sauce, boiled shrimp shells in small amount of water and used a T of the water. At the end I didn’t feel like preparing a vegetable too and threw in several handfuls of spinach to make it a more complete meal.
★★★★★
Really good, just needed a bit more salt and pepper. Easy to prep and cook. Definitely a keeper!
★★★★
Made this twice and had rave reviews! FYI there is a lot of chopping/mincing in this dish, but the result is a company worthy dish with rich flavors and subtle depth…don’t skip the fish sauce!
I made this recipe using only a half pound of shrimp but the full amount of the cooking and marinating liquid. At the final step, before adding the shrimp, I took out enough of the cooking liquid to cook the rice I was going to serve it with. Result was very good, but I think next time I’ll try adding some honey to the cooking liquid as well.
★★★★
This was an amazing dish!!! I doubled it for a family party, and I even had people calling me, asking for the recipe! Some of my family members still beg me to make it I definitely highly recommend!
★★★★★
I think I’ve made this recipe 5 times since I found it about a month ago. It’s absolutely delicious. I’ve put it over coconut Jasmine rice, Thai sticky rice, and Japanese sweet rice. I even tried it with shrimp-flavored Hong Kong noodles. All amazing.
★★★★★
What is the difference between the canned coconut milk and coconut milk in the refrigerator section with dairy milk, like Silk brand?
★★★★★
Hi Evelina: Canned coconut is going to be more creamier and best for cooking. While the refrigerated coconut milk is usually more diluted and is better suited for drinking as a non-dairy milk. Hope that helps!
this was absolutely excellent. thank you! even my 8 and 9 year olds cleaned their plates and asked for my. will definitely make again. thanks!!!!
★★★★★
Amazing recipe, I can’t wait to eat it all! 🙂
Loved it, thank you!
★★★★★
Delicious recipe. I had to improvise a little since I did not have cilantro or zest and also put raw chopped baby spinach on top of the rice before adding the shrimp and sauce.
★★★★★
This recipe is very tasty. I added a jalapeno and extra ginger. No sugar. Basmati rice and broccoli on the side. Quick and easy weeknight meal.
Thank you,
Camilla
★★★★★
Tastes better than Thai restaurants! I added carrots, asparagus, zucchini when I added the shallots. Didn’t add too many pepper flakes and omitted cilantro completely bc I didn’t have it on hand. Really great taste. I served w lettuce and tomato and we didn’t really need dressing because this sauce was so flavorful, it served as our dressing!
★★★★★
Thank you so much for such great feedback! So glad you enjoyed this recipe.
This is such a good recipe!! Didn’t add cilantro or basil at the end and it was perfect for me. I will be making this often.
★★★★★