Garlic Shrimp Recipe

Hello this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with garlic shrimp!

That's right! There's about 15.000 garlic shrimp recipes in the world,

so there's no such thing as the garlic shrimp recipe.

But this is my garlic shrimp recipe.

And I think it's extremely delicious and I'd love to show you. So here is what we do:

So this is one of those recipes you're gonna want to get all your ingredients ready ahead of time.

The foodies call that "mise en place",

us regular folks, we call it "prep" which is shorter and much less French.

So we're gonna need a pound of shrimp peeled and deveined.

Some fresh Italian parsley freshly chopped, lots of garlic.

If you use less than six cloves for a pound of shrimp, don't call it garlic shrimp.

I also have some red pepper flakes and some lemon juice.

And then the most top secret ingredient ever for garlic shrimp: the brine from a jar of capers.

Oh by the way, quick tip, if you spill some on the table

just move the ramekin on top of it just like it never happened.

Anyway I'm gonna put about a tablespoon of caper brine in the lemon juice

and it's gonna give it that little secret something.

that will have your foodie friends talking behind your back.

Which is really the ultimate goal.

And last but never least, we need some cold butter cut in four pieces.

Okay, after the prep is done, we're gonna put our best heaviest skillet on the highest heat you have.

Crank that sucker up full blast!

Into the pan, we're gonna add some olive oil.

And we need to get this stuff hot, really hot.

So highest heat, we want to make sure the bottom's coated.

And we're gonna stand there with shrimp in one hand, tongs in the other.

And we're gonna wait till we see the first wisps of smoke.

And i know what you're thinking, "I heard it's not healthy to let olive oil smoke".

You're absolutely right, alright. But for this recipe you need to and it's okay.

Don't let it start burning but as soon as you see that first wisp of smoke,

add the shrimp in, even them out, and then don't do anything.

Just let them sizzle for a minute untouched.

While they're sizzling I want you to sprinkle them with salt.

Alright, we don't need any pepper because we have the red chili flakes.

And after about a minute I want you to toss them and basically do a little bit of a...

I don't know, kind of like a stir-fry type of action, for another minute.

And at that point, the shrimp are not gonna be cooked all the way through,

alright, but they're gonna be about halfway

so you're gonna have a little bit of color on the outside

but the inside is still gonna be sort of translucent.

And when they look like that I'm gonna go ahead and add my garlic and my chili flakes.

And we're gonna stir that in and cook the garlic.

Now, this is only gonna take about a minute.

We're gonna really keep it moving. We're not gonna let the garlic brown at all.

And since this is only going for like a minute, that shouldn't be a problem.

So just keep kind of tossing it, stirring it, tossing it, stirring it.

And after one minute, it's gonna look something like that.

We're gonna go ahead and quickly dump in the lemon juice caper brine mixture.

One of the four chunks of butter.

And half our parsley.

Okay, we're gonna save the other half to put on top fresh.

Alright, we're gonna stir all that together,

I'm gonna switch to a big spoon here.

And as soon as I see that first piece of butter is melted,

I'm turning the heat down to low.

We're gonna toss in the rest of the butter.

And when that's melted you are ready to eat some unbelievably delicious garlic shrimp.

Alright, you're gonna taste and adjust for seasoning. I didn't even need to tell you that.

But I had like six seconds to kill.

Alright, and this is fantastic on any kind of starch, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc

but I like it on toast.

So I had some Meyer lemon bread. How good does that sound?

Some Meyer lemon bread that I toasted. I topped it with my garlic shrimp

and then it's time for that amazing sauce.

Now, mine got a little thick as I was portioning my shrimp out.

So no worries, put a little splash of water

until that sauce texture is just to your liking.

Alright, if you need to, blast it with a couple seconds of heat, go ahead!

You're gonna spoon over the sauce.

Oh yeah! unreal!

I hate when chefs say "I wish you could smell this" but you know what, that's right!

I wish you could smell this.

You're definitely gonna want to top with some fresh parsley.

That's why we saved so much, so be generous with that.

And there you go, garlic shrimp,

so incredibly simple, just sweet shrimp, that big punch of garlic right in your face,

the acid from the lemon, the herbaceous parsley, just a classic classic combination.

And one I think you're gonna have a very hard time not making after watching this video.

Perfect for a quick weeknight dinner or, that's right, a fancy occasion.

It's just one of those dishes that works any time, any place. People love it.

As long as you have your stuff prepped ahead of time, super easy recipe.

Anyway, I hope you give that a try! Head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more information as usual.

And as always enjoy!