If you can cook rice, then you can make this stunning Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Rice. It’s seriously easy, and impressive enough for serving to company (or date night!). This is definitely one of those recipes where I can’t stop asking myself, “how do so few ingredients make so much flavor?” as I shovel forkful after forkful into my mouth. :)
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What Kind of Shrimp to Use
You definitely want to purchase raw shrimp for this recipe rather than pre-cooked, and you can usually get the best price when buying frozen shrimp. You can buy them peeled or unpeeled, tail on or off, it doesn’t matter. Most frozen shrimp already comes deveined, which makes peeling super fast and easy. Here is a great tutorial on how to peel and devein shrimp from Simply Recipes, if needed.
I used a medium size shrimp for this recipe, which I feel is a good size for this type of dish, where you’ll want it to fit on your fork. The shrimp I used were 41-60 size, which means that at that size you’ll get about 41-60 shrimp per pound. Smaller numbers mean larger shrimp (it takes fewer shrimp to equal a pound), and higher numbers mean smaller shrimp (it takes more shrimp to equal a pound).
Tail On or Tail Off?
It’s completely up to you whether you want to remove your shrimp tails or keep them on. Removing them makes the dish easier to eat, but leaving them on makes it prettier. Keeping the tail on can inject more shrimp flavor into the rice as they steam together, but this might be more subtle than most people will notice.
Can I Make This in a Rice Cooker or Instant Pot?
Yes, this should work very well in a rice cooker or Instant Pot! For the rice cooker, just add everything (except the shrimp) to the cooker and cook as you would regular rice. After the rice has cooked, add the shrimp on top, close the lid, and keep it on the “keep warm” setting and allow the shrimp to steam for 5-10 minutes, or until the shrimp is opaque and cooked through. For an Instant Pot, you’ll want to do a quick release after your rice has cooked, add the shrimp, close the lid, and then keep it on the “keep warm” setting, allowing the shrimp to steam for 5-10 minutes or until opaque and cooked through.
For both machines, avoid leaving the lid open for more than a couple minutes when adding the shrimp. You want as much steam trapped in the unit as possible to continue cooking the shrimp.
What to Serve with Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Rice
I like to make sure every meal has a variety of colors and at least a little veggie action, so here are some recipes that I think would make a great side to this dish and create a well rounded meal:
One Pot Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Rice
Servings 4 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 12 oz. shrimp (41-60 size) ($4.99)
- 1 fresh lemon ($0.60)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 2 Tbsp butter ($0.24)
- 1.5 cups long grain white rice ($0.93)
- 2 cups chicken broth ($0.26)
- 1/2 cup water ($0.00)
- 1 tsp Tony Chachere's seasoning* ($0.10)
- 2 Tbsp chopped parsley ($0.09)
Instructions
- If your shrimp is frozen or unpeeled, make sure you thaw and peel the shrimp before beginning. Juice half of the lemon (you'll need about 2 Tbsp juice) and slice the rest of the lemon for garnish.
- Mince the garlic. Add the garlic to a deep skillet along with the butter and sauté the garlic over medium heat for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the rice and continue to sauté for 1-2 minutes more. You should hear the rice begin to snap and crackle a little as it sautés in the hot butter.
- Carefully add the chicken broth, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, water, Tony Chachere's (or seasoning salt), and chopped parsley. Stir to combine.
- Place a lid on the skillet and turn the heat up to medium-high. Allow the broth to come up to a full boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it continue to simmer for 10 minutes.
- After simmering for 10 minutes, most of the broth should be absorbed by the rice. Lift the lid briefly in order to scatter the shrimp over the surface of the rice. Replace the lid and allow the skillet to continue to cook over low for an additional 5 minutes.
- Remove the skillet from the heat and allow it to rest, lid in place, for an additional five minutes. After resting, lift the lid. The shrimp should be opaque and pink.
- Use a fork to carefully fluff the rice and partially stir the cooked shrimp into the rice. Add the leftover lemon slices and sprinkle with extra chopped parsley, if desired. Serve hot.
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Equipment
- Deep Stainless Steel Skillet
Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Rice – Step by Step Photos
Thaw and peel 12oz. shrimp. You can leave the tails on or remove them if you prefer. Juice half of a lemon (you’ll need 2 Tbsp juice) and slice the remaining lemon for garnish.
Mince four cloves of garlic and add them to a deep skillet along with 2 Tbsp butter. Sauté the garlic in the butter over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Add 1.5 cups long grain white rice and continue to sauté for 1-2 minutes more. You should hear the rice kind of making a snap-crackle sound as it cooks in the butter.
Add 2 cups chicken broth, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, ½ cup water, 1 tsp Tony Chachere’s seasoning (or your favorite seasoning salt), and 2 Tbsp chopped parsley to the skillet. Stir to combine.
Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to medium-high, and allow the broth to come to a full boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and let the rice simmer on low for 10 minutes. After ten minutes most of the broth should be absorbed.
Lift the lid just briefly enough to scatter the shrimp over the surface of the rice. Replace the lid and continue to simmer over low for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, remove the skillet from the heat and let it rest, lid in place, for 5 more minutes.
After resting, the shrimp should be pink, opaque, and cooked through.
Use a fork to gently fluff the rice and partially stir the shrimp into the rice. Add the remaining lemon slices and an extra pinch of chopped parsley.
Serve hot and enjoy!
This might be a silly question, and I can’t tell by the pictures, but does the rice go into the skillet raw/uncooked or is it already cooked? How does the rice cook here?
Hi there! The rice goes in uncooked and it cooks by simmering in the chicken broth, water, and lemon combo. :)
Honestly. So good! Mind blowingly easy with the rice cooker too. I used extra garlic and red pepper flakes to add a kick.
It’s a nice base for something more interesting. Next time I’ll add fresh finely-diced red pepper and some scallions and perhaps just a splash of sesame oil. Jasmine rice requires a little extra cooking time.
This was great. I made a quick stock with the shrimp shells, peppercorns, red pepper flakes & bay leaf and used that for the rice. I also added some lemon zest with my juice and used more juice than called for, and increased the garlic. Really delicious and rice was perfect, not soggy at all! We used 2lbs of jumbo shrimp because that’s what I had in the freezer. Did take an extra 5 mins in the heat to cook those big shrimp through. Very tender!
I love this!! ❤️
Delicious and easy recipe! I add cut green beans along with the shrimp to make a complete meal. Sometimes I add a bit more salt or seasoning, but everyone can salt to taste. A lovely, filling dinner.
Absolutely delish! I did this in the rice cooker and it came out amazing! Definitely will be doing this again. First I added all the liquid ingredients to the rice cooker. Then I cooked the garlic and rice on the stove with butter and vegetable oil. Then I finally had everything in the rice cooker. When done, I added the shrimp. I noticed the shrimp wasn’t cooking so I mixed the shrimp into the rice. It cooked the shrimp throughly. I did have to add more salt seasoning. Thank you for this easy dinner recipe ❤️
Can you freeze leftovers
They should freeze just fine! :)
Could you use orzo instead of rice?
You can! You probably won’t need that 1/2 cup of water, so I would just do the 2 cups of broth for 1.5 cups of orzo.
Love this recipe, but felt rice was a bit underseasoned. I added some minced shallots and a pinch of red pepper flakes with the garlic. After rice toasted for a minute, I added a glug of white wine to deglaze. I feel these additions added sweetness and depth to the rice.