This delicious honey garlic shrimp takes less than 10 minutes to make! Succulent shrimp in a sweet and savoury sauce just hits the spot so well. Get the secrets to this restaurant quality dish, which could be easily made at home!

Chinese food fan? Take a look at other takeout favourites like Honey Sesame Chicken or Crispy Honey Soy Pork Belly!

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As much as I love our Friday night tradition of ordering in, I love re-creating our takeout favourites at home even more. No matter how you look at it, cooking at home is cheaper and better for us. And it doesn’t have to be time consuming.

Let’s take shrimp dishes or prawns, as they are known in the UK. They are absolutely brilliant for an easy weeknight dinner as they take barely any time to throw together.

Shrimp takes mere minutes to cook! There is no such thing as cooking shrimp slowly, otherwise it will turn dry and rubbery.

Garlic shrimp in a sticky honey glaze is one of my personal favourites and coconut shrimp is a close second. It’s time I share the recipe for this incredibly easy dish.

top down view of honey garlic shrimp on a plate.

Quick honey garlic shrimp

Calling this ’10 minute honey garlic shrimp’ is not an exaggeration or clickbait. It’s a speedy recipe. In fact, it takes less than 10 minutes to make it!

That is a feature with shrimp, which cooks incredibly quickly and adds a welcome layer of convenience to dinner prep. I find it helpful to keep a bag of frozen shrimp around for when a quick meal is needed.

Because shrimp cook quickly, it is easy to overdo it and cause the shrimp to go a bit rubbery. If your pan is over medium heat, it should only take 1-2 minutes on each side for perfectly juicy shrimp.

Ingredients

Whenever it comes to Asian recipes, the ingredient list alone could be intimidating. Many things might look unfamiliar if we are not from that part of the world.

The good news is everything becomes achievable with a little research. And once you dip your toes in the world of the Chinese cooking, there is no going back! So much flavour, and the recipes are often not very complicated.

They are also a lot better for you than one might imagine. We visited China more than 2 decades ago in our early 20s, and were absolutely blown away by the freshness of the authentic Chinese food.

The ingredients for this particular shrimp recipe are easy to source. Shrimp is obviously the star ingredient here, so it needs to be of high quality. The better the shrimp, the tastier your end result will be!

The rest are garlic, ginger, honey, soy sauce and cornstarch. Ingredients most of us keep on hand. If you are not a frequent ginger user, I recommend buying a jar of ginger paste, which keeps in a fridge for several months.

And although they aren’t essential, I love adding a sprinkling of green onions and red pepper flakes to build even more flavour into the dish. A little freshness and heat are perfect with the sweet honey garlic sauce.

Recipe tips and notes

As with a lot of Chinese stir fry recipes, the actual cooking happens very quickly. Which means all ingredients have to be prepared, peeled, cut and minced beforehand.
The first thing you want to do is to pat your shrimp dry with a paper towel. Then coat your shrimp in a mixture of soy sauce and cornstarch. This mixture does two things. It acts as a marinade to infuse flavour as well as forms a protective coating around the shrimp during cooking. This method is called “velveting” in Chinese cooking, and is used when frying delicate meat like chicken and shrimp. That is why chicken in that stir fry at your local Chinese restaurant is so tender!
The shrimp you see in photos are pink but they are raw shrimp. I am using Argentine red shrimp/prawns, which are quite large and very delicious.
Use fresh garlic and ginger for the best flavour.
Make sure not to overcook the shrimp, which will result in rubbery texture.

top down view of shrimp on top of rice in a bowl with chopsticks, sliced green onions and a napkin.

Serving suggestions

This ridiculously fast and easy shrimp recipe could be served as a main dish over plain white rice as the sticky honey garlic glaze will serve as a delicious sauce. Because it is so quick and easy to make, it can be a perfect weeknight meal.

This saucy shrimp dish could also be served as an appetiser/starter to your main meal. It is also elegant enough to feature at a cocktail party.

You can also add quickly steamed vegetables like broccoli, snow peas or cauliflower and make this honey garlic shrimp into a healthy stir fry. Your family will love it!

Storage and leftovers

You can keep cooked shrimp for 3-4 days in a refrigerator ini an airtight container.

Leftover shrimp can be frozen for up to three months. To keep them in the best shape, freeze them first on a baking sheet so they are kept separate, then add them to a zipped-top bag or large sealable container to keep for longer.

Reheat leftovers either in a microwave or by returning them to a frying pan over medium heat. If using a pan, add a splash of water to loosen them up.

More favourite Asian shrimp recipes