Happy Friday! Many of you seem to have tried and loved this shrimp with spicy garlic sauce recipe that I first posted in September 2010. As a nod to this recipe becoming one of Appetite for China’s most popular ones on Pinterest, here is an updated photo and recipe. This easy recipe takes about 5 minutes of cooking time, perfect if you’re out and about all weekend. I hope you enjoy it!
When I was living in China, ordering a dish of something coated in spicy garlic sauce was usually a gamble. Take pork or eggplant for example, two Sichuan dishes usually cooked with this sauce. The dish could be either perfectly manageable, or, if the chef was overly generous with his chili oil, throat-burningly spicy. Having your throat burnt isn’t necessarily bad, per se (after all, you did go out for Sichuan). But when your meal also includes mapo tofu, dan dan noodles, and boiled beef in chili sauce, it would be nice to have a little reprieve.
In the U.S., shrimp with garlic sauce in Chinese restaurants is rarely very spicy, even if the entree is marked with a big red star or chili pepper on the menu. I wanted to strike a balance with this recipe. Instead of using a lot of chili oil, like in Sichuan cooking, or a tiny squeeze of hot sauce like many restaurants here seem to do, I used a good amount of Huy Fong (Red Rooster brand) chili garlic sauce instead. (You can use any brand of chili garlic sauce or regular chili sauce.)
Of course, because this dish is all about the garlicky taste, nothing beats freshly sautéed garlic. There is nothing wrong with adding garlic on top of garlic. You’ll want to start with sautéing a few cloves cloves, crushed or chopped. Then add the shrimp and the sauce, and the entree will be done in, seriously, 5 minutes.
Check out my new book The Chinese Takeout Cookbook for many more Chinese restaurant favorites!
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Shrimp with Spicy Garlic Sauce
Serves 4
- 1 1/2 pounds uncooked large shrimp
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons chili sauce
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
- 1 pinch freshly-ground black pepper
- 1 scallion, thinly sliced
- Peel the shrimp, leaving the tail segments intact. Devein the shrimp if you choose.
- In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, chili sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and sugar and set aside.
- In a wok or large pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Stir-fry the garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and cook until both sides are pink, about 2 minutes on each side. Add the sauce mixture and stir so the shrimp is fully coated. Season with black pepper.
- Remove from the heat and garnish with chopped scallions. Serve with rice or vegetables.
Wish I could have this right now! I sometimes stirfry shrimp with chilli sauce and some leeks and Chinese bean sauce. This looks like a great variation.
My wife usually cooks this with an egg white batter. It’s superb. I’ll have to ask her what kind of chilli sauce she uses.
Looks so yummy!! oh, i miss super spicy food!
How long does this keep in the refrigerator?
This looks delicious!!! spicy but not too spicy
My OH will love this recipe, thanks.
This looks so incredible! Can’t wait to make it.
With seafood, I would suggest no more than 2 days.
What is the best NYC restaurant to enjoy this dish just the way it is pictured?
Yum! I love garlic, might just double the amount and see how it turns out!
When do you add the shaoxing, at the end?
And they were all soooo good! Currently I am stuffed because, in order to use a pound of ground chicken and a box of tofu before they went bad, I made Mapo Tofu and Dan Dan Mian from your blog… a few days ago I made this shrimp recipe. I thought this Mapo Tofu recipe was tastier than the dish I had at Flushing’s Spicy and Tasty. I am a pretty Americanized first generation Chinese person who has enjoyed traveling in China for the cheap and delicious food. Thanks for posting these great recipes and helping me feel like a real Chinese person! :)
When do you add the rice wine and black pepper? It does not go into the sauce so does it go into the dish at the end with the green onions?
It is either fried with the shrimp and garlic OR added after cooking is complete.
Anyone???
Hi Jim. The rice wine is added to the sauce and the black pepper is added at the end. I apologize for the confusion! The recipe has been corrected.
Thanks so much for your fast response. I did not expect it so quickly. The 16 people last night loved your dish. Thanks for taking the time to post it. I did add about a Tbsp of natural sesame seeds.
Jim
swapped out oyster sauce for the sesame sauce + added a tbs of honey… loved it!!
I made this last night for the hubs & I. AMAZING!!
It was just right. Not too heavy, but filling
Thank you for the recipe!!
Chrissy @ ForMamas
Chrissy – I’m so glad you tried it! You’re right, it is a nice light but filling dish, especially for warm weather.
I made this tonight and served over rice–AMAZING :)
I also had fresh pineapple so I mixed diced pineapple with honey, salt, lime juice, chilli sesame oil and a jalepeno and served it with the Shrimp :) YUM!
ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! Saving this recipe :) Thank you!
Hi Ive tried many of your recipies here in London and love your blog – I’m a little confused by this in the pre-amble to the recipie you talk about using Huy Fong chilli garlic sauce but the ingredients say chilli oil – is the Huy Fong instead of the chilli oil?! Be really grateful for your clarification! Thanks Stuart
Stuart – Thanks for your comment. Yes, it should actually be chili sauce (I corrected it above) though you can certainly substitute half the amount in chili oil for a smokier flavor. Apologies for the confusion!
This would be so yummy on top of cheesy grits for a twist on Shrimp and Grits.
Olive oil, really? Seems rather incongruous. Does that even exist in China?! I should use peanut oil (or a flavourless oil like canola, if peanut oil isn’t to hand). Otherwise, the recipe sounds great! I’ll be trying it soon.
John B – Thanks for stopping by! There is actually olive oil produced domestically in China, though not on a large scale, so most of the olive oil is imported and there’s a growing demand, mostly for health reasons. For this recipe you can use peanut, canola, or other vegetable oils too. Hope that helps!
I made this with chicken. This is the best spicy garlic recipe I have ever used.
Sounds like a perfect quick week night meal! I absolutely love garlic so you don’t need to tell me twice to be generous with it!
Diana,
How is this different from Chen Kenmin (father of Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi, pioneered Chinese Japanese food in Japan)’s iconic ebi chili (prawns in chili sauce)? I don’t have my Iron Chef Chinese cookbook with me in China, so I can’t look it up for reference.
Love your recipe and pic, by the way. Bet it tastes great over rice or pasta!
Thanks!
Betty
Cher – Thanks! Yes, this would definitely go well with chicken too.
Vicky – Thank you! I did increase the amount of garlic slightly from the previous recipe and love the result. Glad you enjoyed it!
Betty – I’m actually not very familiar with the Iron Chef’s ebi chili recipe. But I googled it just now and it seems that for the ebi chili, the prawns are coated in a batter and deep-fried. The sauce seems much heavier too, with ketchup, chicken stock, sake, and Chinese chili bean paste. Really, there are a number of ways to prepare spicy shrimp in Chinese cooking. I just favor this one for its simplicity. :)
I don’t want to sound silly, but do the Chinese really use olive oil or is there a particular reason why olive oil is used here?
Martind – Please see my response to John B above, who also asked about the olive oil. Thanks for stopping by!
I used to eat this years ago but never knew what it was (I’m Mexican and my partner at the time was Asian) so when I tried this I was surprised that I recognized it instantly! I’m so thankful for this recipe and it tasted fantastic! These days I don’t eat meat so I made it with tofu and it tasted just as good.
I was looking for a great garlic sauce recipe this one looks like it will be perfect but I just want a go to recipe to put on noodles or broccoli…how would you suggest I make this sauce alone? To cook or not and how about storing it?? Thanks so much!!
When you say chili sauce do you mean something like Sriracha? Or a sweet chili sauce? Thanks!
Rebecca – You can use any chili sauce, including Sriracha. A sweet chili sauce would just make the dish a bit sweeter, but you can still use it in place of regular chili sauce. Hope that helps!
Thank you for posting this recipe! And thanks to the people who said it was yummy! I was going to make shrimp with spaghetti noodles and a jar of sauce, had the water boiled already too. But I was out of noodles so I pulled out my rice cooker and did a search for a recipe and found yours. It was delicious!
I cook for 9, 4 of them teenagers. I am always looking for something new to prepare. Luckily, they all love Chinese food, spicy food, and are always up for trying new recipes. We sit down to dinner together 6 nights a week, so my repertoire is always expanding. I have gone over many chinese-inspired menus, but they always have some exotic ingredient not in my spice cabinet, so I reject it. Yours is perfectly suited to an average American kitchen, I think. What would be your favorite vegetable or noodle accompaniment?
Helene – For a spicy shrimp stir-fry, I love going simple with the sides. This Shandong-style asparagus dish is very easy and quick. For noodles, you can do this lo mein dish and leave out the shrimp since you’re already making this recipe. Or you can do a vegetable fried rice, which soaks up the sauce quite nicely. Let me know if you have any other questions, and I hope you enjoy the stir-fry!
I am so making this tonight for dinner but one problem they didnt sell rice wine at the store! I have rice wine vinegar but I am pretty sure it isnt the same thing! Is this going to taste bad if i dont use it at all?
Alie – You can substitute dry sherry for the rice wine or just leave it out completely. You’re correct – rice vinegar is different from rice wine and has too sharp of a flavor to be a good substitute. Hope that helps!
This looks absolutely delicious! Love the sauce and all of the garlic. YUM!
I’m kinda new to the cooking world…. If I wanted to add veggies to this when would I add them to cook. Thanks :)
Lily – Do you mean green vegetables like bok choy, broccoli, spinach, etc? Since this is a very fast-cooking dish, I would suggest you cook the vegetables first separately, either by stir-frying or steaming. Then mix the cooked vegetables with the shrimp and the sauce towards the end, at the end of Step 3. Hope that helps and let me know if you have other questions!