Shrimp Scampi
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You won’t believe how easy this comes together in just 15 minutes – perfect for those busy weeknights!
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reasons to make shrimp scampi
- Quick cook time. With a short ingredient list and a few easy steps, you’ll have this fancy meal on your dinner table in less than 30 minutes start to finish, perfect for busy weeknights and weekend company.
- Restaurant-quality. This is truly restaurant-quality, if not even better, with bigger, better-quality shrimp.
- Versatile. Shrimp scampi can be served over pasta or rice, or served alongside crusty bread and a light salad.
types of shrimp
Wild caught shrimp vs. farmed shrimp
Farmed shrimp are raised in controlled environments, whereas wild caught shrimp have been caught in their natural habitats by fishermen. Wild caught shrimp is generally preferred over farmed shrimp primarily due to taste.
Frozen vs. fresh shrimp
Unless you reside in a coastal area, the “fresh shrimp” on display at your local grocery store have already been previously frozen at sea. Frozen shrimp offers ultimate freshness (flash-frozen as soon as they are caught) and flexibility, using only what you need for dinner. Bottom line, frozen shrimp will taste better and cook better.
Ingredients
Linguine
Linguine is always our go-to since it holds onto all that lovely saucy goodness but you can also substitute spaghetti or fettuccine.
Butter
For richness and creaminess, of course.
Shrimp
Peeled, deveined and thawed overnight (or a quick 5-10 min thaw under cold running water).
Garlic and red pepper flakes
For maximum flavor. You can increase the amount of red pepper flakes for extra heat and spiciness.
White wine
A dry white wine is great here (pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc).
Lemon juice/zest
A little bit of acid goes a long way to help balance out the flavors and richness of the butter. Freshly squeezed is always the way to go (over the bottled stuff).
Parmesan
Add your finishing touches with a healthy dusting of freshly grated Parm.
tips and tricks for success
- Know your shrimp size. Shrimp size is calculated on number of shrimp per pound. The smaller the number, the larger your shrimp. There are about 40-50 medium shrimp per pound.
- Buy frozen shrimp. For superior quality and freshness, using frozen shrimp is ideal (but avoid the bags with freezer burn), opting for a quick thaw under cold running water.
- Choose a wine you will drink. A dry white wine (pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc) is great here – it does not have to be anything fancy or overpriced. Just something you don’t mind sipping on since you will have an open bottle.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
what to serve with shrimp scampi
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Shrimp Scampi: Frequently Asked Questions
You can thaw frozen shrimp overnight, transferring it from the freezer to the fridge the day before. For a quick thaw, you can run them under cold water until completely thawed, about 5-10 minutes. Pat them dry as thoroughly as possible to remove any excess moisture (so they can brown nicely and evenly).
Chicken stock can be used for white wine as a non-alcoholic substitute.
The lemon juice helps balance out the flavors and richness of the butter.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 1 day.
Shrimp Scampi
Ingredients
- 8 ounces linguine
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more, to taste
- ¼ cup white wine*
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
Equipment
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- Melt butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add shrimp, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until pink, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in wine and lemon juice. Cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes; remove from heat.
- Stir in pasta, lemon zest and parsley; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately, topped with Parmesan.
Video
Notes
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Made this tonight & yum!!! It was a hit!! Thank you!!
Made it yesterday, quick n yummy. Love how fast n easy it was! Thank you, kisses to Butters!
What an adorable puppy! Trying your recipe tonite. It looks delish!
Okay, clearly I am obsessed with your recipes because I JUST commented on the garlic parm one pot pasta. I made this last night, again on a whim, because my husband decided he was hungry at 9pm lol. Anytime I have to grate lemon I feel like a real chef lol but it was quick and so simple and delicious!! He nearly ate the entire pot before I had to remind him that his wife would like to at least taste it.
I tried this and used a Riesling as my white wine and it had a weird taste. Do you use a particular white wine for cooking? Also, I may have added 1/2 a cup by mistake. Gosh, I can’t believe I messed up this recipe. Any help would be appreciated : )
If the wine taste is too much for your taste beds, I recommend substituting chicken stock.
Hmm, I’m not sure how everyone is raving about this… I thought it was WAY too lemony. And by judging the recipe before I even started cooking I only used 1/2 of a grated lemon and it was still unbearable. Just wasted a very nice dinner 🙁 I think the sauce could’ve been more buttery too. I am not a fan of this one, but I do like most other recipes on this blog.
Marie, thank you for trying this recipe. We all have different taste preferences so it is best to use a standard-size lemon, to taste, to suit your preferences. If you think it’s too much, you can simply reduce the amount. That’s the beauty of home cooking!
Your little Butters looks just like our little “Jolly Molly”. Such delightful little dogs. Looking forward to trying your Scampi recipe this evening!
Thanks, Cathy
My brother has 2 puppies just like your Butters very cute and yes recipe was simple and quite good we had it tonight thank you but next time I’m getting deveined shrimp that’s not gross lol
This looks so amazing! I love Shrimp! I made a shrimp scampi and put it over Herb crusted tilapia. http://www.atasteoftheforbiddenfruit.com/from-the-lips-to-the-hipsrecipes.html#tilapia . Please let me know what you think!
I just made this last night. It was wonderful! I am so excited that I found this website!!!
Delicious! Made it for dinner tonight to go with some Chardonnay I’d opened earlier in the week. I added the wine and lemon juice a little late which may have contributed to the over lemony flavor. It was still really yummy; the lemon just dominated a little more than I’d like. I’ll be making it again for sure. The chicken and asparagus version someone mentioned sounded great. Thanks for sharing!
Butter is sooooo cute. Where did you find him? We want to him a Corgi. We want a little girl.
i made this tonight; delish!!!!!!
I made the shrimp scampi this evening. Damn delicious indeed.
a little too much lemon for me, really overpowered the dish but I’m definitely going to use this recipe again just with a little less! (: and butters is just the cutest thing btw! Can’t wait to get a corgi of my own!
This recipe wasn’t beautiful, it was DEVINE!!
My partner said “so easy to cook, so easy to eat!” We wished we had cooked more (I know probably greedy :p) but we definitely would of had seconds, mmmm so making this again – thank you, thank you <3
I love your recipes! Made this tonight for the first time as I needed a Lenten recipe and hungry for shrimp – – and it was easy and delicious!
Butters is sooooo adorable! I made this tonight for Valentine’s Day dinner and my husband loved it! I think I might have added a bit too much pepper flakes though because I had to keep taking drinks of my wine haha next time I think I will use less flakes for sure, but it was very good! Thank you for the recipe!
It’s a good recipe but just a little bit to lemony for my taste. So if I were to give this a rating out of five it would be 4/5 stars. =]
coukd you use frozen shrimp and should I just defrost it before I cook it? I’m anxious to try this 🙂
Yes, if frozen shrimp must be used, it is best to defrost prior to using.