Spicy Lemon Garlic Shrimp

Spicy lemon garlic shrimp is a very refreshing appetizer, snack, side or main dish, but slightly different from chili garlic shrimp, steamed garlic shrimp with vermicelli noodles. It’s great for summer because it tastes a little spicy, sweet, sour and savory which can increase your appetite.

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine American, Asian

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings

Calories 32kcal

Author Tracy O.

Ingredients

2 pounds Shrimp (Raw XL sized shrimp with shells on & easy to peel)
1 Lemon (Only use 4 teaspoons of lemon juice and slices lemon for decoration)
2 cups Ice (For the ice bath)
8 cups Water ( 4 cups for boiling the shrimp and 4 cups for the ice bath)

Sauce Mixture:

1 teaspoon Paprika
1 teaspoon Chili pepper (Red crushed chili pepper)
¼ teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon Sugar
10 cloves Garlic
½ bunch Cilantro (Around 1 oz)
2 tablespoons Vegetable oil
2.5 tablespoons Soy sauce
4 teaspoons Lemon juice
½ cup Water

Instructions

Peel, wash and mince 10 cloves of garlic.
Wash and cut ½ bunch (Around 1 oz) of cilantro into pieces.
Then, wash and cut a lemon into half and squeeze lemon juice into the container. (Just need 4 teaspoons of lemon juice in this recipe.)
After that, cut the other half of the lemon into slices for decoration. (Will add them at the end.)
The following step, peel off 2 pounds of raw XL sized shrimp shell. (I prefer to leave the tails on because it is easier to pick up and eat.) You can use already cooked and peeled shrimp if you want to skip some steps and faster.
After peeling raw shrimp shells, put them on the plate.
Pour 4 cups of water into the pot, turn on medium fire and let it boil.
When the water is boiling, add the peeled raw shrimp from step 6 and let it cook until it changes orange red. (I usually wait until the water boils again and turn off the fire.)
Next, drain the cooked shrimp.
Put 2 cups of ice and 4 cups of water into a bowl.
Add the cooked and boiled shrimp from step 9 into the ice bath for a couple minutes. Then, drain it again.
Meanwhile, put 1 teaspoon of paprika, 1 teaspoon of crushed red chili pepper, ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar and mix it well. (You can add more chili pepper if you want it spicy. This recipe is mildly hot.)
Put the minced garlic from step 1 and the chopped cilantro from step 2 into the bowl.
Pour 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil into a pan and turn on medium small fire. Let it heat up the oil around 375-400F. Or, you can dip a wooden chopstick to test it. When the oil is hot enough, you will see bubbles around it.
Immediately, pour the hot oil over the garlic cilantro spices in the bowl. The oil needs to be hot enough, so when you pour the hot oil into the bowl of garlic cilantro and spices. The fragrance and aroma from the garlic and cilantro will bring out. (Be careful when pouring the hot oil.)
Next, pour 2.5 tablespoons of soy sauce, 4 teaspoons of lemon juice from step 3 and ½ cup of water into the bowl.
Mix the sauce well.
Put the cooked and boiled shrimp from step 11 into the sauce mixture.
Lastly, mix the shrimp and sauce. Add the sliced lemon from step 4 for decoration.

Video

Notes

Cooking tips for spicy lemon shrimp:

Use bigger shrimp, (I like to use XL sized or jumbo raw shrimp. Also, I like to peel the shell and leave the tails on because it is easy to pick the tail and eat the shrimp.)
You can use raw shrimp or cooked shrimp. Of course using cooked shrimp, you don’t need to boil the shrimp and it is easier and faster.
When you use the raw shrimp, boil them until the shrimp change color to orange red. Then, put them into an ice bath for a couple minutes. (Remember don’t over boil or cook the shrimp too long.) In this way, the shrimp will have a bouncy texture.
Heat up the vegetable oil to 375-400F. The oil needs to be hot enough, so when you pour the hot oil into the bowl of garlic cilantro and spices. The fragrance and aroma from the garlic and cilantro will bring out. (Be careful when pouring the hot oil.)
Then, add soy sauce, lemon juice and water. Mix the sauce well.

Nutrition