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Master this quick and versatile Shrimp Stir Fry recipe packed with colorful vegetables and coated in a savory-sweet sauce. Ready in under 30 minutes, it’s the perfect healthy weeknight dinner solution!
Table of Contents
My 2 Best Tips For Making This Shrimp Stir Fry Recipe
Prep Everything Before Cooking: Stir frying happens quickly, so having all your ingredients prepped and ready is essential. This cooking technique is called “mise en place” (everything in its place). Chop all vegetables, mix your sauce, and have everything within arm’s reach before heating your pan.
Use High Heat and Don’t Overcrowd: For authentic stir fry results, use a large wok or skillet over medium-high to high heat. This creates the signature seared exterior on vegetables while keeping them crisp-tender. If your pan is too crowded, the ingredients will steam instead of stir-fry, so cook in batches if necessary.
🩷 Melissa
Why I Love This Recipe!
- This recipe is flexible and can be made with lots of different proteins, vegetables, and seasonings for the sauce.
- It’s super easy to make, especially if you use frozen veggies or cut them up during a meal prep session.
- Lots of veggies can be squeezed into this dish!
- It only takes about 30 minutes total and that includes chopping up fresh vegetables.
For some other family favorites with shrimp, try Shrimp Noodle Stir Fry , Linguine Rosa with Shrimp , and Simple Shrimp Fajitas!
Recipe Ingredients
- Shrimp: Peeled and deveined shrimp is what you are looking for. You can peel and devein yourself, but it just takes a lot of time. Fresh or frozen shrimp both work great, just thaw full before cooking.
- Garlic and Butter: Cooking the shrimp in butter and garlic makes it full of flavor.
- Vegetables: Mushrooms, broccoli florets, carrots, and bell pepper are what I’ve called for in this recipe because it’s a great mix of textures and colors, but feel free to use what you like or have on hand.
- Cooked Rice: I serve the stir fry over rice but feel free to serve it over something else (cauliflower rice for example) if you’d prefer.
- For the Sauce: Chicken broth, soy sauce, honey or brown sugar, vinegar, and cornstarch are combined to make a simple and delicious stir fry sauce. It’s thick and a little sticky with just the right amount of sweet, salty, and vinegar.
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Shrimp Stir Fry
Step 1: I like to start by cooking my shrimp in a little butter and garlic, it makes them so full of flavor. Prep the vegetables that you are using (cut them into even bite-sized pieces so that they cook evenly and are easy to eat).
Step 2: Remove the cooked shrimp from the pan and add a little more oil to cook up the vegetables. While the vegetables are cooking add all of the ingredients for the sauce to a small bowl and mix to combine.
Step 3: When the vegetables are tender and cooked to your liking, add the shrimp back to the pan and then pour the sauce into the pan. Cook the sauce until it thickens, about 3 minutes.
Step 4: Serve the sauce shrimp and vegetable stir fry over hot rice!
Shrimp Stir Fry Recipe
Equipment
- small bowl I love these because they have lids and double as serving bowls.
- large skillet It's a bit of a splurge, but it'll last you a lifetime!
Ingredients
- 1 pound medium raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed, divided
- 1 tablespoon butter or oil
- 1 teaspoon canola, olive, or coconut oil
- 4 ounces sliced mushrooms
- 2 cups broccoli florets
- 4 carrots peeled and sliced thinly on the diagonal
- 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- hot cooked brown or white rice for serving
Sauce:
- 2/3 cup chicken broth or water
- 1/3 cup good quality soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey or brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar or white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
Instructions
- In a large skillet or wok, heat butter and half of the garlic over medium heat until the butter melts.
- Add the shrimp and cook until no longer translucent, stirring occasionally, for 3-5 minutes.
- Remove shrimp from the pan and set aside. In the same pan add the olive oil and turn the heat up to medium-high. Add all of your veggies.
- Put the lid on the pot so that the veggies can cook in their steam, stirring occasionally.
- While the vegetables cook, in a small bowl add the broth, soy sauce, honey, and vinegar. Gradually whisk in the corn starch so that it doesn’t get clumpy. Add the other half of the garlic to the sauce.
- After the veggies have cooked for about 5 minutes, add the sauce and allow it to simmer with the lid on until the veggies are just crisp-tender and the sauce thickens, stirring often. Don't overcook the vegetables.
- When the veggies are ready, throw in the shrimp and heat through.
- Serve over hot cooked rice.
Video
Notes
- Don’t love shrimp? You can use just about any protein that you like. Just season it well and cook it through before removing from the pan and then proceed with the recipe as directed.
- If you need this recipe to be gluten-free, just make sure you use a gluten-free soy sauce.
- Feel free to use any combination of veggies that you have on hand or are in season.
- You can also use frozen vegetables for this dish or stir fry frozen vegetable mixes. Just heat through before adding your sauce and shrimp.
- Cooking the shrimp in the garlic first is great, if you have a little fresh ginger on hand (a tablespoon or 2) cooking it in garlic and ginger is so good too.
- You could garnish this dish with sesame seeds if you’d like.
- Make brown rice or white rice easily in the Instant Pot
- Mango sticky rice is amazing with shrimp stir fry!
- And so is Cilantro Lime rice.
Nutrition
Recipe FAQs
When properly cooked, the shrimp will change from grey to pink in color, and the flesh is slightly opaque. Shrimp cook quickly (2-3 minutes depending on size). Be careful not to overcook them, as they can become rubbery. They should be removed from the heat as soon as they’re done.
Yes, frozen shrimp works perfectly for this recipe. Just make sure to thaw them completely and pat dry before cooking to ensure they sear properly rather than steam. This will give you that delicious caramelization that adds flavor to your dish.
While stir fry is best enjoyed fresh, you can prep all the ingredients in advance. Clean and cut vegetables, mix the sauce, and have everything ready to go. The actual cooking process takes less than 15 minutes, so having everything prepped makes this a super quick meal to assemble.
More Delicious Seafood Recipes to Try
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Tuna Patties Recipe
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Simple Shrimp Fajitas
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Baja Fish Tacos
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Butterfly Shrimp
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
This was a very easy recipe to follow. I had vegetables that needed to be used so I did do it a bit differently. I did feel it was a bit too sweet so next time (and there will be a next time) I’ll cut the honey in half. I also added some chicken broth to the vegetables while they were steaming because they started to stick. Maybe more oil would have worked but the broth was a healthier choice. It was a bit time consuming to chop the veggies and peel the shrimp (I used frozen colossal shrimp) but really after that it’s quick and easy. Oh, and I did add ginger and a bit of “heat” (freeze dried serrano peppers). Definitely a save recipe!!!