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.
Creamy Coconut 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.
Video: How to Make Coconut Milk Shrimp
What you’ll need for this Coconut Shrimp Recipe
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 Shrimp with Coconut Milk
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.
What to eat with creamy Coconut Milk 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
How to Store this recipe for Coconut Shrimp
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.
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
More Favorites from Little Broken
Creamy Shrimp with Coconut Milk
- 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
Absolutely perfect and the best!!! I wouldn’t change anything. Definitely a new family favourite! ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you 🙏
I made this tonight and it was delicious!!! The flavors are insane. I tasted the sauce before adding the shrimp back in to make sure my salt levels were good and could have just eaten the sauce as a soup then and there. I sautéed a skillet of plain broccoli and red pepper slices and added those in with the shrimp for a stir fry vibe. Served it all over rice but it would honestly be so tasty without any rice at all. Perfection!
Delicious recipe thank you, my whole family loved it!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Found this recipe and really wanted to make it tonight but I was missing a few items so had to improvise with whatever I had…still turned out thank goodness.
Didn’t have shallots so diced a small onion, didn’t have fresh lime to just used lime juice and added 2 kaffir lime leaves, love my cracked pepper so added that too’. Also had no fish sauce on hand so used oyster sauce instead. And used 600ml of coconut milk bcos I used 1kg of king banana prawns and added capsicum (to the ‘fry scallions & chilli flakes’ stage), then thickened the sauce with a table spoon of corn flour.
Served it on a bed of steaming Jasmine Rice, Garnished with the green scallions, and fried shallots – YUM!