Garlic Butter Shrimp and Grits
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Speedy comfort food at its best! Perfectly garlicky, buttery shrimp served with the creamiest grits!
This is my new favorite speedy meal. And I know it looks super fancy and impressive and maybe even somewhat intimidating, but it is truly the quickest weeknight meal you can whip up during those busy weeknights.
First you’ll need some quick cooking grits, except we’re going to doctor it up a bit using chicken stock and milk, adding a little more flavor and creaminess here. Then you’ll need some shrimp, a good amount of butter, garlic, lemon, paprika, thyme and some white wine. This cooks super super fast so be sure to keep a close eye on it.
From there, you can top off your creamy grits with the most garlicky, buttery, lemony shrimp with all the saucy bits. So quick and so so good, letting those grits sop up all that leftover sauce.
WHAT TO SERVE WITH SHRIMP AND GRITS
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Garlic Butter Shrimp and Grits: Frequently Asked Questions
Unsalted butter allows you to add as much salt (or as little) salt in your dish. It allows for more control and consistency.
You can replace unsalted butter with salted butter in a pinch, reducing the amount of salt indicated in the recipe, and adding to taste.
Additional chicken stock can be used for white wine as a non-alcoholic substitute.
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).
The lemon juice helps balance out the flavors and richness of the butter.
Garlic Butter Shrimp and Grits
Ingredients
- 1 cup quick cooking grits
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups whole milk
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 1 shallot, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ¼ cup dry white wine*
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 ½ pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves, divided
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
- Cook grits according to package instructions using chicken stock and milk in place of water; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in 1 tablespoon butter until melted, about 1 minute; set aside and keep warm.
- Melt remaining 7 tablespoons butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add shallot, and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in garlic, thyme and paprika until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in white wine and Worcestershire.
- Add shrimp; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until pink and cooked through, about 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in 2 tablespoons parsley and lemon juice.
- Serve immediately with grits, garnished with remaining 1 tablespoon parsley; if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Super simple shrimp and grits recipe that delivers on big flavors!
Great recipe! I usually make a different one with bacon, but I liked this one better. I made a few little changes–added no salt creole seasoning, used chicken broth instead of wine. For grits, used coconut milk because we are lactose intolerant. Excellent!!!!
Forgot to mention I used vegan cheddar cheese in grits.
I made this for Sunday supper. My husband and mother in law loved this.
Excellent dinner! Recipe was surprisingly easy yet looked and tasted restaurant quality. Will definitely make regularly now!
Awesome. This was a great dish. Substituted with almond milk and it was fantastic!
So easy to make! Looks beautiful on a plate and damn delicious!
An awesome taste / flavor palette that far exceeds effort to make! A definite keeper!
Wow, such great flavor! This was very quick to make and everyone loved it, even my 2 year old! I will definitely make this again!
So good!
I love pretty much all the Damn Delicious recipes ( there’s a reason it’s called Damn Delicious! )
Made this last night; super easy and yummy
I followed the recipe exactly, except I used a sweet onion instead of a shallot, and it came out great!
Stir in hot pepper sauce. Step 5. Serve grits in a large serving bowl topped with shrimp mixture.
I loved the flavor of the grits and sauce – my only concern was my sauce looked perfect one minute, then it broke as I was putting away some ingredients. 🙁 it still tasted good to me, but my family didn’t want to eat it because of the way the sauce looked.
Is the solution to this just to serve immediately or did I do something wrong in the process of cooking it?? Would also love to hear any hacks you may have to fix this.. in case it were to happen again. Thanks!
This was the absolute best.
Tell your family to not be so persnickety!! It even happens to chefs. Not the end of the world. Usually doesn’t not affect the taste
Very, very good. Tasty! First time I have eaten shrimp and grits. Will be on my menu often.
I have eaten Shrimp and Grits in numerous restaurants in southern restaurants on the east coast where they cook with shrimp fresh off the shrimp boats. Because of this, the shrimp is very fresh and the restaurants use various styles of toppings in their recipe. I live near Chicago and have been wanting to make shrimp and grits for a long time. Our availability of seafood is very good but it is normally frozen. So when I found a vendor selling some fresh (not previously frozen) shrimp, I just had to buy some and decided it was time that I finally try making shrimp and grits. I looked online for recipes and decided your recipe was the one I wanted to use. I am so glad I did as it turned out SO good! I am a family of one so I have plenty of leftovers which is fine by me! The amount of grits was way too much for one person so next time (yes there will be many next times… I love this recipe!) I will cut that amount in half. Because we are in the middle of a pandemic, I made a few changes so I could use items I had available in my house. I used skim milk rather than whole milk, a small yellow onion instead of the shallot, Hungarian Paprika, and Real Lemon lemon juice rather than freshly squeezed lemon. Fresh thyme and flat leaf parsley picked fresh from my herb garden made it extra special.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe as I know it will become one of my favorites. This is the first time I’ve used a recipe from your website but it won’t be the last. Your Swedish Meatball Pasta and chicken bowl recipes look wonderful and thank you for posting instant pot recipes too!
This recipe was so delicious and the first time we have had shrimp and grits! Amazing flavor!
A lot of recipes claim to be quick, but this is the real deal. If you buy your shrimp already peeled, you can make this in less than 30 minutes. It’s really delicious, too! I made 2 small changes – I used heavy cream instead of milk (hey, in Quarantine World, calories don’t exist). Also, I have a prolific rosemary bush, so I used rosemary instead of thyme. It is a great recipe.
I’m making this TODAY – it’s my birthday dinner from me to me!!!
Oh. My. God. This was AMAZING! I’ve never had grits before, but I could just tell these were better than your average grits. Creamy and absolutely delicious. The shrimp was to die for. Garlicky, buttery, perfection. Will make this again and again.
It was restaurant quality. Sooooo good
This was so good! The best shrimp and grits recipe I’ve tried so far!
YUM!!! I didn’t have any grits. So I used rolled oats instead. Added some minced onions as well for texture. I buttered (uses vegan butter) the onions and oats first, for taste. Then added in the chicken stock and opted for vegan cream cheese instead of the milk. I followed exactly as it said to do for the shrimp and it turned out AMAZING!!! I’m so satisfied.
Over the years I’ve made shrimp and grits using several recipes. This is the absolute best! We loved it.