15-Minute Garlic Shrimp in Lemon Butter Sauce
Garlic Shrimp in Lemon Butter Sauce – in less than 15 minutes! These little guys are cooked with a light lemon butter sauce that’s just enough to drizzle on steamed veggies or serve the shrimp on crusty bread! So easy and so delicious!
Look at that lemony goodness! 🍋
Idea for a spring/summer situation when you want something quick and tasty!
Seafood and summer go hand in hand, don’t they?
But also, I’ll sometimes bust out fresh lemon juice, a few capers, and shrimp and make this in the winter on a gloomy day when I’m craving sunshine and warm weather and all of a sudden, I’m transported to Positano with these flavors.
But I digress…
This is for my fellow last minute dinner comrades who like me, sometimes end up scrambling on weeknights looking for a quick meal to get on the table with just a wittle bit of work but lots of flavor and a hint of spice, from-scratch, quick-cooking, and semi-healthy-ish meal.
There are way too many reasons to list why a simple recipe with simple ingredients is a go to on weeknights, but still, I’ll share a few:
- GARLIC
- BUTTER
- LEMONY ZING
- Shrimp scampi-ish situation but elevated with capers
Now all of that goodness served over a pile of steaming hot white or brown rice, or maybe you’re more of a pasta kinda guy/gal and want a little fork twirling action with a little linguine or angel hair pasta. Maybe you’re the kind of person who prefers a big healthful bowl of zucchini noodles, cauliflower rice, or protein-packed quinoa.
You might as well grab a pound of shrimp on your way home today.
You are so making this!
Ingredients for Shrimp in Lemon Butter Sauce
- Olive Oil: Use a good extra virgin olive oil here as the ingredient list is quite small!
- Deveined Shrimp: You’ll want deveined shrimp of this recipe. I like to peel most of the peel off, keeping the tail in tact for a prettier presentation. Feel free to ditch the tail – my husband always wishes I would! I prefer to use fresh shrimp – we get some great straight from the Gulf of Mexico. But you could also use frozen shrimp – thawing is essential though. Pat the shrimp dry and get out as much water as possible! Otherwise, the addition water will dilute the sauce.
- Red Pepper Flakes: Adds just the right amount of kick to the lemon garlic butter sauce.
- Fresh Garlic Cloves: Adds that garlicky goodness you expect from a garlic butter shrimp recipe.
- Fresh Lemon Juice: I use just the juice in this recipe, but if you’d like to amp up the lemon flavor, I highly suggest zesting the lemon before you juice it. Save the lemon zest and sprinkle it on the shrimp right before serving for an extra lemon scent!
- Caper Brine: Adds a punch of sodium and much needed acid to the dish alongside the lemon juice.
- Fresh Parsley:fresh herbs are my favorite way to add a bit of color and fresh flavor to any dish.
- Butter: helps create the garlic lemon butter pan sauce. Adding the butter in towards the end helps thicken the sauce in the skillet.
- Kosher Salt and Black Pepper: Pretty standard ingredients for most recipes!
Tips for success! Bought a jar of capers and looking for other ways to use them? Try my salmon piccata, weeknight ravioli piccata, rustic chicken piccata meatballs, and Seattle-style smoked salmon chowder.
Making Lemon Garlic Shrimp Recipe
- Start with a kick! Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and re pepper flakes and allow the flakes to infuse into the oil for a few seconds.
- Cook the shrimp. Add the shrimp in a single layer and cook them just until they start to turn opaque. Stir and give them a quick flip. Then add the garlic, lemon juice, and caper brine.
- Finish and serve. Add half of the parsley to the pan and the cubed butter. Swirl the pan holding the handle so that the butter starts to slowly melt into the pan. Top the shrimp with the remaining parsley. I love serving this recipe with homemade no knead bread to soak up some of that pan sauce!
FAQs about this recipe
You can cook shrimp in either butter or oil. Butter contains milk solids that brown in heat causing the shrimp to gain a bit more color. For this recipe I sear the shrimp in olive oil and then add butter at the end to create a spoonable lemony garlic sauce.
I love garlic sauteed broccoli with this recipe and maybe some rosemary roasted potatoes. You could also do extra crispy roasted potatoes, Cacio e Pepe Brussels sprouts, Sauteed herb mushrooms, crunchy asparagus orzo salad, crunchy asparagus orzo salad, asiago mashed potatoes, and corn and zucchini saute.
Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
If you like this recipe, try:
- Garlicky Orzo Shrimp Scampi with Asparagus
- Creamy Lemon Garlic Pasta (Pasta al Limone)
- Soul-Warming Lemon Garlic Braised Chicken
- One Skillet Chicken in Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce
- Easy Lemon Rosemary Chicken
Original recipe published July 2016, updated April 2024.
15 Minute Garlic Shrimp in Lemon Butter Sauce
Garlic Shrimp in Lemon Butter Sauce – in less than 15 minutes! These little guys are cooked with a light lemon butter sauce that’s just enough to drizzle on steamed veggies or serve the shrimp on crusty bread! So easy and so delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 6-8 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon caper brine
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 3 tablespoon butter, cut into cubes
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- INFUSE: Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the olive oil and red pepper flakes and allow the spice to infuse into the oil for 30 seconds.
- SHRIMP: Add the shrimp to the pan and spread it out so it cooks evenly. Cook for about 1 minute flipping as needed. Add the garlic, lemon juice, and caper brine to the skillet and let cook for 1 minute.
- SPRINKLE: Add 1/2 of the parsley along with the cubes of butter and swirl the pan so butter starts to melt slowly, about 2-3 minutes. As the butter melts it should start forming a thick type of sauce.
- FINISH: Add the remaining parsley and stir to combine. If the sauce starts to thicken too much, you can remove the shrimp to a serving dish and add a teaspoon of water to help thin it out to a pourable consistency. Keep in mind that this recipe creates just enough sauce to coat the shrimp but it is flavorful enough to serve with rice or pasta tossed in olive oil.
Notes
- It's best to use fresh garlic for this recipe. I'm a big fan of minced garlic in a jar for most, but fresh does definitely taste better in this recipe!
- Caper brine is the liquid stuff capers come packed in. The caper brine addition was a little tip I picked up from All Recipes.
So yummy and easy! I removed the shrimp after about 3+ minutes total because I can’t stand over cooked shrimp. I continued to cook the sauce and added a little more butter and “splash” of white wine, cooked until thickened. Word of caution- be sure to taste before adding salt at the end. I added S&P as usual, but forgot about the salty caper brine that was already present.
Super Quick & Delicious!! I used pickle juice instead of caper juice…..Yum-0!
Thank you for sharing this delectable dish. This is highly pleasant to the taste! Great tips as well.
What is the serving size?
Any substitutes for the caper brine?
I’d suggest substituting with rice vinegar if you have it!
Super easy & totally yum. Doubled the recipe in order to pour the sauce over our pasta. I also didn’t add as much garlic (personal preference). Sauce didn’t thicken within shrimp cook time so I removed them in order to avoid over cooking them. I also added a tbsp of capers with the brine. Hubby topped his with some parmesan, which was surprisingly delicious. I’m always looking for quick & easy and this totally hit the spot.
Best garlic lemon shrimp I’ve ever made! The caper juice added the perfect zing. I didn’t need any extra salt but I did add some black pepper. I made linguine with it, and swirled the pasta in the shrimp cooking pan to coat it. The pasta did need a bit of salt.
Yum – love that you served this with linguine, Jody! Appreciate you circling back to leave a comment 🙂
Finally the perfect scampi recipe! My husband complimented me over and over!
Thank you for sharing such a delightful and delicious dish!
My go to for over 20 years! I add fresh green scallion, no parsley, will definitely add caper brines next time. Usually with rice. Sometimes add sautéed fresh mushrooms, or frozen peas with capellini.
can i use frozen shrimp the already cooked ones for this recipe?
I have made this recipe with frozen cooked, peeled and deveined shrimp. Thaw the shrimp totaĺly then pat dry. Add the shrimp AFTER the sauce is made. Stir until coated and heated through. Fresh shrimp is always better, but tbis works and is really good.