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Sticky Honey Garlic Butter Shrimp are coated in the most amazing sticky honey garlic butter soy sauce. This is a quick 20 minute meal that you will make again and again!
You can’t go wrong with shrimp recipes that are quick and easy to make! Creamy Garlic Shrimp Alfredo Pasta, Lemon Garlic Shrimp Scampi Recipe or Cajun Garlic Shrimp and Grits are a few of our favorite family meals.
Sticky Honey Garlic Butter Shrimp
Since the New Year has started I made a goal to make dinner at home more. The holidays were crazy and it is so nice to settle down a bit. I love cooking at home and eating together at night is just so much better. We started our week off with this amazing Honey Garlic Butter Shrimp. I am not even the biggest fan of shrimp… the hubby is… and this is one of the best meals that I have ever had!! Add some fried rice or white rice and this is a complete meal your family will love!
Honey, garlic, soy sauce, and butter. Seriously my favorite flavors in one. I use them in so many recipes because it is just so dang good!! It is easy to make and the flavor is incredible. It coats the shrimp perfectly and creates such a flavorful and sticky sauce! But my favorite part is that this meal was ready in under 30 minutes. You can have amazing meals for your family at night that require little effort but are restaurant quality. You are going to love the sticky sauce on this shrimp and this will be a meal that you want to make again and again!
Honey Garlic Butter Shrimp Ingredients:
- Honey: Makes everything sticky but it makes it a little sweeter too!
- Soy Sauce: One of my favorite sauces to add to shrimp. It has a sweet and salty flavor that cooks well in shrimp.
- Garlic: You can never have enough garlic. This hint of garlic will balance out the flavors.
- Lemon: A squeeze of lemon is just what is needed to have a fresh, zest flavor.
- Shrimp: Large is best and ready to cook.
- Butter: Will be melted as you are cooking the shrimp in the skillet.
- Green Onions: Used for color and garnishing the shrimp.
How do you make Honey Garlic Butter Shrimp?
- Marinate the shrimp: In a small bowl whisk honey, soy sauce, garlic and lemon. Add half of the sauce to the shrimp and let marinate for 30 minutes.
- Melt the butter: In a medium sized skillet add the butter. Add the shrimp and discard marinade. Season with salt and pepper.
- Cook shrimp: Turn the heat to medium high. Cook until the shrimp turns pink about 2 minutes each side.
- Add the sauce with the shrimp: Add the reserved marinade and pour over shrimp. Cook until the sauce starts to thicken and coats the shrimp. Garnish with green onions.
What is the best shrimp to use?
There most common types of shrimp found in markets are pink or white shrimp, both are great to use in this recipe. Make sure to select a jumbo-sized shrimp, look for 16 to 20 count (or pieces) per pound. This will ensure that the shrimp does not overcook quickly when sauteed.
Jumbo size also gives a nice two-bite piece for a heartier entree. Feel free to remove the tails to make it easier to eat. Frozen shrimp can also be used, run them under cool water until the ice melts, or defrost them the night before and drain well.
How long do you cook the shrimp?
When the shrimp are no longer pink in color and is taking on more of an opaque white color, is when I would consider them done. You do want to keep an eye on how white they do get and assure they do not overcook.
Keeping an eye on size reduction in the shrimp as well is a great way to watch how “done” your shrimp are getting. I like to leave the tails on the shrimp when cooking them. It does add extra flavor; however, if you prefer to peel the whole shrimp or purchase them that way, that is fine too.
Can you overcook shrimp?
The exterior of the shrimp should be pink with red tails and the flesh is slightly opaque and a little “white” in color. If it is too bright white in color, then the shrimp may be overcooked.
Looking for more Shrimp recipes?! Here are some!
- Shrimp and Asparagus Skillet
- Copycat Bang Bang Shrimp
- Sweet and Sour Shrimp
- Easy Shrimp Tacos
- Fiery Shrimp Diablo
Sticky Honey Garlic Butter Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Honey
- 1/4 cup Soy Sauce
- 3 cloves Garlic minced
- 1 small Lemon Juice from lemon
- 1 pound Large Shrimp peeled and deveined
- 2 Tablespoons Butter
- Green Onions for garnish
Instructions
- In a small bowl whisk honey, soy sauce, garlic and lemon. Add half of the sauce to the shrimp and let marinate for 30 minutes.
- In a medium sized skillet add the butter. Add the shrimp and save marinade. Season with salt and pepper.
- Turn the heat to medium high. Cook until the shrimp turns pink about 2 minutes each side.
- Add the reserved marinade and pour over shrimp. Cook until the sauce starts to thicken and coats the shrimp. Garnish with green onions.
Video
Nutrition
Serves: 4
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.
I love, love love this easy recipe ! I have also used it for a marinade for boneless chicken breast overnight and then grilled the chicken and it was delicious! I love that it is easy and tasty and it is definitely a crown pleaser.
I love your recipes
I’ve gotten several easy, restaurant quality, family friendly recipes from your website. Thank you for taking the time to share these. They are inexpensive, easy & quick to make & even the kids like them. Two thumbs up!!
So easy to follow even for a beginner chef like myself. We absolutely loved it!
This is the same recipe the Detroit Zoo uses at their restaurant! Delicious and easy! Love it!!!
How much lemon juice if I use it from a container
Hi Cindy!
Thanks for the great question. I would use 2 to 3 tablespoons of lemon juice to make it roughly the same amount! Let me know how it turns out. Thanks so following along with me!
Hey well I solved the sauce puzzle. You just need to cook it down with out the shrimp. I also add 3/4 s cup of honey. If you do this you’ll get that wonderful color that the picture has. Great recipe I will make it again thanks
Definitely need to cook down the sauce without the shrimp. Shrimp will be cooked after those 2-minutes each side. Any more and the shrimp toughens up.
Hi,
How did you cook down the sauce without the shrimp? Did you add all of the leftover marinade to the butter in skillet? Cook until it thickens, and then add the shrimp.? I know if you overcook shrimp, they will be tough.
Thank you for your help.
Yea you are correct, cooking the shrimp until the sauce thickens is crazy. Also you need more honey for sticky !!!
Agree. It had a delicious flavor but sauce was soupy.
I currently don’t have jumbo shrimp but two bags of small shrimp. Should I use both bags with the same amount of ingredients??
Yes, you can do that. That will work great.
I am allergic to lemon, well citrus fruits of all kind, do you have to use the lemon? If I don’t will it be as good as yours?
You can leave out the lemon.
Do you think this recipe would go good with alfredo
Oh yes! That sounds great!Enjoy your meal.
These super delicious Shrimp are easy to prep ahead and so quick to cook. You can’t go wrong with shrimp recipes that are quick and easy to make.
looks good
can’t wait to try.
Gonna make this tonight! What would you recommend for sides?
I love a good rice for the side. I have a fried rice you can try or even a white rice will work great.
I so love this recipe. I cook it with chicken and rice and a green veggie as a side. It’s a wonderful dish
Great recipe! Wonderful flavors!
I did cook the reserved sauce in a small sauce pan until it thickened. This took quite some time to reduce the sauce and get it to a gooey consistency. Had I done this in the skillet with the shrimp, it would have really overcooked the shrimp. I added the pre-cooked sauce and the shrimp at the same time. Doing it this method had the sauce and shrimp come out perfectly!!
Delicious!
What if your family doesn’t eat shrimp? Can you substitute the for chicken?
Yes, that will work too!
I tried this recipe a couple of times already. So easy and so yummy! Thanks for sharing! 😊
What brand of soy sauce did you use? Thank you.
I purchase my soy sauce from Costco but any soy sauce brand will be great!
I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but it looks delicious! What kind of honey do most people use? I have cooked with honey before and haven’t had much luck. TIA
I have frozen cooked shrimp that I’d like to use. Should I defrost it and follow the recipe, just adding the shrimp for the last few minutes?
This was so easy and so yummy. Thank you for sharing
Shrimps have always been my personal favorite so i thought to make shrimps in a different manner this time. and I came across this article I really liked the new variation and my family also like it I will surely recommend it to my friends.
Yum! Paired this shrimp recipe with broccoli fried rice. It was delish. The whole family loved it.
Very good recipe. Delicious, easy prep, easy to cook, and clean up when paired with some rice and microwave veggies. I used 1/4c honey because I did not have that much honey. It was still delicious!
What do you suggest I eat this with on the side? Pasta? Rice? Open to suggestions!!
Yes, any of those options are great! Here are some of my side dish ideas: https://therecipecritic.com/side-dish-recipes/
The recipe was very easy to follow. It used common household ingredients. A suggestion for improving the recipe would be to include some options on what to do with the shrimp. Overall, I will be making this recipe again!
It’s AWESOME!!! I cooked it with chicken. If I could post the picture of mine, I would. It looks just like the photo they have with shrimp.
i made this recipe and the shrimp was overcooked and the sauce was still not thick. i used cooked shrimp (only shrimp at walmart with 15-20 per pound and only kind of shrimp (cooked) that was de-veined OR peeled). i used a frying pan because i don’t own a skillet. the shrimp was tastey but was overcooked and was wet (not sticky). please give me advice. thanks.
I agree. I cooked the sauce in a separate pan and then added it to the shrimp. All it seemed to do was boil in the pan and never thickened up. The shrimp were tough and tasteless. I used uncooked deveined shrimp.
If you like spicy, you can add slices of fresh jalapeno, or yellow pepper. The recipe itself is good I have to say. Thank you & I’ll try some more of your recipes.
I loved the recipe and the shrimp was very delicious. I will definitely try this again and my family really loved it as well. Though my shrimp was a little over cooked because the last step wasn’t very specific on how long to let it sit. Knowing this, next time I know to take it off earlier and there will be a next time!
Excellent. Made per recipe
This is great, but had to tweak it a bit. I put 3/4 cup honey a tablespoon of cornstarch and a dash of hot sauce for the sauce to thicken. Served it over thin Chinese noodles. It was excellent!!
Super delicious! My family gobbled it up. I added walnuts after adding the marinade and served it over angel hair pasta.
AMAZING!!! My family and I where looking for something different from the garlic and butter recipe! You have hit the jackpot! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Was good…but a little to sweet
Made this tonight. Read the reviews first so I didn’t make mistakes like overcooking the shrimp. Delicious. Lots of flavor even though it’s such a simple dish with few ingredients. I served it over white rice. Will make this again but might add something to give it a little kick.
I cooked this today for my family,we loved it.So easy and I don’t cook a lot anymore because I’m retired .Thank you for sharing 👍
I did a slight variation on this using a little less honey. I marinated shrimp for an hour in refrigerator after putting your ingredients in, then I got iron skillet and washed with soy sauce and honey combo. Let that sit while shrimp maraintes. I stirred mariane to ensure all shrimp good and covered, occasionally. Then cooked as your recipe instructed. Turned out fantastic! Thanks for your tips