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.
Recipe Notes:
If you use frozen shrimp, make sure to thaw it out beforehand and pat it dry so the sauce isn’t diluted. You could technically use a bag of cooked shrimp with this recipe, just cut the cooking time to where you’re basically just reheating up the cooked shrimp in the pan and tossing it in with the sauce.
- 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.
Recipe Notes:
If you’re using a 10″ skillet, try searing in batches of two so you don’t overcrowd the pan. If the shrimp are too close together, the heat buildup between them will steam them instead of searing them.
- 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.
Customize It!
- Add more flavor – Add some heat with a few dashes of red pepper flakes. You can cut the sweetness of the sauce with some apple cider vinegar or a drizzle of lime juice. For a smoky flavor, do a finishing drizzle with sesame oil or sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
- Garnish – Garnish with some freshly chopped parsley or green onions.
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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Honey Garlic Shrimp Skillet
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
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!
Ingredients
- 1 lb. jumbo or large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
SAUCE
- 2 medium garlic cloves, minced / 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced (optional)
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
Instructions
- Combine the sauce ingredients and divide the sauce in half.
- Marinate the shrimp with one-half of the sauce for 15-30 minutes. Discard marinade.
- Over medium-high heat in a skillet, pan-sear the shrimp in some oil. Sear them on both sides until cooked, about 1-2 minutes per side.
- Dish and serve hot, drizzled with the remaining sauce and fresh parsley or green onions as an optional garnish.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Rubbing the shrimp onto the stuck on bits (fond) blackens the shrimp and gives it a charred look and smoky taste.
- This recipe sears better in a cast iron pan and may not perform as well with caramelized bits in non-stick pans.
- Add more flavor – Add some heat with a few dashes of red pepper flakes. You can cut the sweetness of the sauce with some apple cider vinegar or a drizzle of lime juice. For a smoky flavor, do a finishing drizzle with sesame oil or sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
- Garnish – Garnish with some freshly chopped parsley or green onions.
- Scroll up to RECIPE TIPS for more useful tips, suggestions and ingredient substitutions.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
Comments & Reviews
Can you tell me if I can use precooked shrimp/ Really want to try it.
If you use pre-cooked shrimp, I suggest skipping the marinating. Cook down the sauce before hand so it’s nice and thick and do a super quick simmer of the shrimp in it after (so you don’t overcook it). Simmer for less than 5 minutes. If you notice the shrimp starting to shrink, stop the simmering as it’s approaching being overcooked!
Try maple syrup instead of honey my ladies, it’s immaculate !!!
“Immaculate”. Love it!
My son and I made this tonight, fantastic. We made it on our George Foreman. My husband doesn’t know what he’s missing by not liking seafood.
First time hearing it made on the George Foreman. Was the clean up okay with the sticky sauce?
I made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious!! I rarely comment on or rate recipes but this was PERFECT as is. Definitely going in my regular rotation. I served it with rice to soak up that yummy sauce and asparagus which I sautéed quick in the cast iron when the shrimp was done. I sprinkled mine with some Korean chili flakes for a little head and OMG, I couldn’t stop eating it. The hubs, our 5 year old and I all had two servings! Thank you for sharing!!!
Wow, perfect sides! I’m like you and I love soaking up rice with sauce. And asparagus is one of my favorite veggies. Curious though how Korean chili flakes are different from regular chili flakes? Glad you guys liked it, Lai!
I just made this tonight and it was very good. I didn’t have a cast iron skillet and you were right I didn’t get that carmelized yummy stuff but it was still very flavorful. I also didn’t have jumbo shrimp but I will be making it again and use those. It was easy and healthy. Thanks. I also appreciate the fact that you didn’t need ingredients that you will never use again…:)
Good to know, Karen. It’s such a pity it doesn’t caramelize as well in non-sticks. For me, that’s one of the best parts! Also, I’m glad to hear how easy it was for you both in effort and pantry wise! Always happy to hear my mission of trying to make everyday food with everyday ingredients is working 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this delicious recipe!! We loved it. Yes, I added more garlic, but other than that, this recipe is a keeper.
You’re very welcome Diane! No harm in adding more garlic if you love it 🙂
Help!! I made the shrimp tonight and while it was good, I think I did something wrong, and I’m not sure what. I defrosted the shrimp, cleaned it, patted it dry, and covered it with 1/2 of the marinade. I was surprised that it didn’t seem very sticky; it was almost runny. I marinaded it for the allotted time and the shrimp wasn’t really coated, although I had stirred it once or twice. l added a little oil to the pan and cooked as directed and sadly there were no caramelized bits in the pan to brown the shrimp. I poured the remaining marinade over the plated shrimp and it was good. Can you perhaps tell me where I goofed? Had the marinade been thicker, I think this would have gone from good to terrific. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can give me!
The soy sauce dilutes the consistency of the honey to make it slightly thinner. If you want a thicker sauce for the drizzle, you can bring the remaining sauce to a boil and thicken it with some cornstarch slurry. Although if you go that route, I recommend doubling the initial sauce and using 1/3 for the marinade and 2/3 for the sauce reduction so there’s more drizzle to go around once reduced. Did you use a non-stick pan to sear the shrimp? It does not sear/caramelize as well on non-stick but works wonderfully with a cast iron. You also need to sear the shrimp over high heat. The first batch might not caramelize as well but the second will once all the leftover marinade on the shrimp adds on in the pan.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the quick response! At the risk of sounding uninformed (which I am lol!) what is a cornstarch slurry? I assume that’s more than just adding a little cornstarch to the marinade? Yes – I did use a non-stick pan; next time perhaps I won’t add any oil to the pan first. I was wondering about putting some of the marinade in the pan and cooking the shrimp in that so that it I could get the sticky bits at the end; I will try that next time. I will follow your advice and double the marinade.
It’s interesting that a recipe will work perfectly for some but others (like me) have a more difficult time even with the same ingredients. One of life’s mysteries I guess…. 🙂 Thanks again for the help; I do appreciate it.
That’s perfectly fine! We all have to learn something new at some point! A cornstarch slurry is a mixture of cornstarch and cold water (use cold water as hot water makes it clump. Always mix the cornstarch slurry first and don’t add cornstarch directly to the sauce) and this slurry once mixed with a sauce that has reached a boiling point will serve to thicken it super fast. Once you add it in, the sauce will look white while it incorporates. When the sauce returns to its normal color, that’s when you know it’s reached the thickest consistency it can with the slurry. For the recipe, I recommend maybe 1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 2 teaspoons cold water. Add more if you want it thicker.
And it’s all about execution, even with the same ingredients. I made this dish two ways before posting. Once the way in the recipe and before that while adding in the remaining sauce with the shrimp while it cooked. Unless you’re careful, at high heat the honey from the sauce will quickly burn into a bitter, sticky mess which does not taste great at all. That’s why I decided to go with the method in the recipe. But then again, I used a cast iron pan. This method might work for non-stick.
This recipe was truly delish! Outstanding flavors with so few ingredients. I love heat so I added the red pepper flakes and it was the perfect ratio of hot, sweet and savory. And talk about quick! Went from pan to plate in just 3 minutes! Seared crispy shrimp, garnished with fresh scallions served over 5 minute rice with steamed broccoli. So healthy, so effortless and what a treat! Can’t wait to make it again and again!
Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipe!
I can tell you love it, Laurie 🙂 So much love in your descriptions. I love it! Glad you found a staple in this one!
Has anyone tried worschesture sauce instead of soy sauce. Ive done it with other recipies but not ones including honey?
I personally have not, Cat! Just been waiting to see if any others chimed in 🙂
Just made this with a side of garlic asparagus … Delicious and easy weeknight meal! I highly recommend adding the red pepper flakes. Gives it a nice kick. I will definitely be making this again.. Probably with some sort of rice side dish.
Some have tried brown rice or coconut lime rice. I don’t have a recipe for coconut lime rice on the blog, but I do have a slightly sweetened, ginger infused coconut rice recipe with toasted coconut flakes.
I added a bit of oyster sauce and siracha 🙂 yum!
Oyster sauce is the best! I use liberal amounts of it with my veggies. So good!
This was SUCH a great recipe! So easy to make with ingredients I always keep in the kitchen (minus the fresh shrimp obviously). I will definitely be keeping this in the regular rotation!
One question though. I noticed that the marinade/sauce was kind of runny, which is fine for the marinade part, but when I tossed the remaining half with the shrimp at the end, I noticed most of it stayed in the pan. I didn’t want to add extra honey for fear of changing up the flavor too much. Any advice?
If you want a thicker sauce, you can always heat up the remaining half of the sauce and bring it to a simmer. Add in some cornstarch slurry, to thicken it. Only a little is needed. You could also double the amount of the remaining sauce so you have more of it once thickened. Hope this helps!
Thank you!!
So my husband found this and asked me to make it. It was so simple and so flavorful! I did your suggestion with the lime and red pepper flakes, thank you for that! Paired it with wild rice and a green salad. You did good on this one! My husband LOVED it!
Great to hear, Meranda! People seem to love it with lime juice. Adds a touch of tartness to the sweet and savory flavors already there. Thank you for letting me know!
Sesame oil works great with this recipe. My hubby and I both love it!
Sesame oil as a finisher will definitely give this a great flavor. Good addition!
Hi! I found your site through pinterest, and I just bought all of the ingredients for this dish! I’ve never actually made a shrimp dish before so this may be a dumb question….but I bought a pound of frozen peeled/deveined shrimp. Do I have to defrost the shrimp before marinating it and following your recipe?
Thanks!
Yes, defrost the shrimp and drain it completely before marinating. A tip on how to quickly defrost is to soak them all in a bowl of cold water then drain it completely. The water melts away the ice faster. Just make sure to completely drain the shrimp of all water so the marinade isn’t diluted! Good luck!