Honey Garlic Shrimp Skillet

Try out the much-loved sauce with over 2 million shares. This sweet and savory honey garlic shrimp skillet is super easy with only FIVE ingredients and cooks in less than 15 minutes! 

Today we’re making some honey garlic shrimp skillet which is a reader favorite and one of the more popular recipes on the blog. It’s so easy to make but delivers big on flavor despite its simplicity. All you need are shrimp, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and honey to make this quick and easy recipe. These five ingredients reward you with a sweet and savory flavor combo and delicious caramelized bits of honey and garlic.

It’s a great, fast fix for a quick weeknight meal paired with a side of veggies and some rice, or on a bed of pasta/noodles. And if you’re not a fan of shrimp but just love the honey garlic sauce, try making some honey garlic chicken or the much-improved honey garlic butter chicken instead. Or if you prefer seafood, try this honey garlic salmon or the 7-minute air fryer honey garlic salmon. There are many, many ways to enjoy this sauce! So let’s start cooking.

How To Make Honey Garlic Shrimp Skillet (1 Min Video)

HONEY GARLIC SHRIMP SKILLET RECIPE TIPS

• Shrimp – I used jumbo, peeled and deveined shrimp with tails on because they just tend to look better in pictures. However, you can use whatever kind of uncooked shrimp you like: peeled and deveined with tails off or unpeeled shrimp.

• Sauce – Combine the ingredients for the sauce then divide it in half. One part is for the marinade and the other is for the finishing drizzle. This recipe does not yield much sauce so if you want it super saucy, add an extra tablespoon of honey and soy sauce. Or you could double it and thicken it with some cornstarch slurry later.

• Soy sauce – I used reduced-sodium soy sauce for this recipe and my go-to brand is La Choy. If you want to make honey garlic shrimp without soy sauce, you could try using tamari instead.
• Garlic – You can use fresh garlic or garlic powder, whichever you have on hand, and whatever is easier for you. If substituting to garlic powder, try using 1/2 teaspoon to start.
• Ginger – Ginger gives the sauce a warm, peppery taste but if you don’t like ginger, you can leave it out. Most households don’t keep ginger as a pantry staple so an easier way to do this is to buy ginger paste in a tube. It keeps well in the fridge and is easy to use. I used Gourmet Garden’s ginger paste for this recipe.

• Searing – Shrimp tends to cook quickly so you’ll want to get your pan nice and hot before starting so they have a gorgeous sear. One to two minutes per side and your shrimp is cooked! You know the shrimp is cooked when the color changes from translucent to opaque (see-through gray to solid pink). You’ll know the shrimp is overcooked when it starts to shrink in size into a tight C-shape and is rubbery.

• Sticky bits –  The honey will caramelize a little and browned bits will get stuck to the bottom of the pan. There will be more stuck-on bits in a cast iron pan vs a non-stick pan but you should still see some on a non-stick. Use tongs and gently rub the shrimp into the stuck-on bits to get them nice and blackened. Here’s where you get the smoky aftertaste.
• Thickening the sauce – You can thicken the leftover drizzled sauce with a cornstarch slurry or if you prefer even more sauce, double the sauce, then use the cornstarch slurry.

What to Serve with Honey Garlic Shrimp

Serve your honey garlic shrimp with some white rice or coconut rice and some greens on the side like broccoli, green beans, or some asparagus. You can also serve it over some mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower. It also goes great with noodles like these buttery Hibachi noodles.

And that’s about it. Let me know how you liked it, what substitutions you made, or what you paired it with in the comments below.

MORE SHRIMP RECIPES TO TRY

• Cilantro Lime Honey Garlic Shrimp
• Lemon Garlic Butter Baked Shrimp
• Easy Shrimp Scampi
• Browned Butter Shrimp
• Creamy Garlic Tuscan Shrimp

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