Garlic Butter Shrimp Skillet

Ingredients

• 1¼ lb / 570 g Large shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails off
• 3 Tbsp Unsalted butter
• 4 Garlic cloves, minced
• 1, zest and juice Lemon
• ½ tsp Kosher salt
• ¼ tsp Black pepper
• A pinch, optional Red pepper flakes
• 2 Tbsp Fresh parsley, chopped
• About 4 cups Cooked rice, for serving

Method

1. Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels. If they are still frozen, thaw them in the fridge and pat them dry before they hit the pan. Wet shrimp will steam, and the butter will splatter.
2. Melt the butter in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook 30–45 seconds, until it smells sweet. Do not let it brown. If it starts to color, take the pan off the heat for a moment.
3. Add the shrimp in one layer. If they crowd the pan, cook them in two batches and return the first batch at the end. Season with the salt, black pepper, and the pinch of red pepper flakes if you want a little heat. Leave the flakes out for a milder skillet.
4. Cook about 1–2 minutes per side, until the shrimp are pink and opaque and curl into a loose C. A tight O means they went too long. Take the pan off the heat.
5. Stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and parsley. Taste. Add a pinch more salt only if the skillet tastes flat.
6. Spoon the shrimp and the skillet juices over the rice. Crusty bread is another way to eat those juices in place of the rice. Ordinary crusty bread contains wheat, so keep the rice when the plate should stay without wheat.

Nutrition

Kitchen estimate only, not lab-verified. Shrimp in a small amount of butter, served over rice. The rice portion and the butter move the numbers.

Guest diet / allergy swaps

Short kitchen notes for guests. A fuller gluten-free or dairy-free ingredient list, when we have one, is in the panels below.

• Dairy-free

  Cook the shrimp in 3 Tbsp olive oil instead of butter. Warm the oil, then add the garlic the same way. The skillet will taste lighter and less rich. The shrimp stay in the pan, so this is not a shellfish-free dish.

  • United States: Olive oil stands in for the butter. The shrimp stay in the pan.
  • United Kingdom: Use olive oil in place of the butter. This does not change the shellfish.

• Gluten-free style

  Serve over plain rice and skip the bread. Shrimp, butter, garlic, lemon, parsley, and plain rice do not call for wheat. Read a flavored rice mix before you use one. Ordinary crusty bread contains wheat.

  • United States: Plain rice and the skillet have no wheat. Skip the bread. Read a boxed rice mix before you use one.
  • United Kingdom: Serve with plain rice and leave the bread off the plate.

• No alcohol

  This skillet has no wine. Do not deglaze the pan with wine.

• No shellfish

  This recipe is the shrimp. Pick another dinner.

• Not spicy

  Leave out the red pepper flakes. The skillet stays garlic, butter, and lemon.

• No lemon

  Skip the zest and juice. Finish with the parsley. If the pan looks dry, stir in 1 tsp water off the heat.