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Sharing an easy…let’s make this weeknight feel special…dinner, Saucy Garlic Butter Shrimp with Coconut Milk and Rice Noodles. Spicy, garlicky, and gingery shrimp, pan seared and tossed with a touch of butter and coconut milk. This dish is creamy, saucy, a touch salty, and just a little spicy. It’s served over rice noodles and comes together in no time at all (about 30 minutes). Perfect for busy weeknights when you’re looking for something a little more special, but still quick, healthy-ish, and DELICIOUS.
Recipes like this saucy shrimp are my favorite. This shrimp has a mix of flavors, fusion food as some might say. It’s quick, it’s saucy, relatively healthy (there’s some sneaky greens in all that sauce), and just an all around delicious meal.
Traditionally garlic shrimp is more of an Italian dish, and is served simply with butter and lemons. But I wanted to put a twist on the classic and switch things up a bit.
So I threw in some Thai flavors by adding creamy coconut milk, a squeeze of fresh lime, and rice noodles. Yes, it’s different, and I will probably get criticized for this not being “authentic” over on Instagram (if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all, right?). But hey, my purpose here is to provide you guys with easy and delicious recipes, this shrimp is both, so all is good.
The shrimp is first tossed with a little olive oil, garlic, ginger, and spicy jalapeño. These are the main flavors, so if you don’t love garlic, this recipe might not be for you. And if you want to tame the spice level, just use one jalapeño.
Let the shrimp sit a few minutes and cook the rice noodles. I really love using vermicelli rice noodles, but any noodle works, so use your favorite.
Next, cook up some bacon. It adds a really deep flavor and a hint of saltiness that is delicious. Go with me on this. Now, pan sear the shrimp. The key is to remove the shrimp from the garlic marinade. If you cook the shrimp in the marinade, the shrimp with steam, and the garlic will burn. So first remove the shrimp, cook, add the butter, and then add all of that garlicky marinade. As the butter melts, the garlic caramelizes around the shrimp creating truly the most mouth-watering smell (and delicious sauce).
This is that moment you know the recipe is going to be good…so good.
At this point, I like to remove half of the shrimp and save it for topping. Honestly, you don’t have to do this step. You can instead leave the shrimp in the skillet and combine it with the coconut milk. I just like to remove some of the shrimp so that it stays crisp…and if being truly honest, for photo purposes.
Once the coconut milk has been added, the shrimp looses it’s crispness a bit. It’s also a little more visually appealing to have a few shrimp sitting atop the rice noodles. And we all know that I’m all about a visually good-looking dish…
You guys always ask if I do anything special to the food for photos, and the answer really is no. But I like to add garnishes or pull out tricks like this one…
If you have something extra saucy, or you’re making a soup and want to keep the dish both colorful and full of texture. To create a beautiful looking dish, remove a little bit of one of the main elements of the recipe. In today’s case the shrimp. But think along the lines of keeping out some of the chickpeas in a curry, or the noodles in a soup, things like that. Then reserve them for topping the dish just before serving. Again, this is not necessary for flavor purposes. But if you want to create that “Instagram worthy” food photo, this is one of my go-to tricks to really make food pop off the page, as seen in the cacio e pepe, lemon garlic chicken soup, and herb salad.
Okay, styling talk over. Moving along now.
Once I’ve removed half the shrimp from the skillet, I add the coconut milk. I know the coconut milk might seem like an odd ingredient to add, but as I mentioned, I wanted to put my own twist on a classic, and the coconut milk creates a creamy, flavorful sauce.
It’s beyond good. Especially with the rice noodles. It’s kind of like Italian meets Thai. A weird, but delicious mash-up that’s just a touch cozy, a touch on the healthy side, and all things good. And quick, which is always a very nice bonus!
If you make this saucy garlic shrimp, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to also tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Watch the How To Video:
Saucy Garlic Butter Shrimp with Coconut Milk and Rice Noodles
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 970 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces rice noodles
- 3 strips thick cut slices bacon, chopped
- 1 1/2 pounds raw jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1/4 cup extra olive oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 4-6 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
- 1 inch fresh ginger, grated
- 2 jalapeños, seeded and chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro OR basil, roughly chopped (use you personal favorite)
- 3 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 can (14 ounce) coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 cups baby spinach or kale, roughly chopped
- juice and zest from 1/2 a lime
- sliced jalapeño pepper and green onions, for serving
Instructions
- 1. In a medium size bowl, toss together the shrimp, olive oil, honey, garlic, ginger, and jalapeños. Toss well to combine. 2. Cook rice noodles according to packaged directions.3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp and the fat has rendered, about 5 minutes. Remove the bacon from the pot and drain on a paper towel lined plate.4. Working with the same skillet, use a slotted spoon to scoop the shrimp out of the marinade, reserving the marinade, and into the hot skillet, season with salt and pepper. Cook the shrimp until pink, about 2-3 minutes per side. Add the reserved marinade, the butter and a large pinch of pepper. Continue to cook the shrimp in the butter until the garlic begins to caramelize and turn light golden brown, about another 1 to 2 minutes. Remove half the shrimp and reserve for topping. 5. To the skillet, add the coconut milk, 1/3-1/2 cup water, spinach, and the fish sauce. Stir to combine, bring the mixture to a boil, cook 3-5 minutes, until warmed through. Remove from the heat and stir in the lime juice and zest, and the cilantro, or basil.6. To serve, divide the noodles among bowls. Spoon the sauce and reserved shrimp and bacon over the noodles. Top with peppers and green onions. Enjoy!
I tried this last night. It was pretty good. I love the coconut milk with the noodles and the fish sauce gives this a yummy flavor. Some tweaks I’d make on the recipe are using less noodles, maybe 4 ozs as the noodles soaked up all the sauce (or double the coconut milk/fish sauce/jalepaneo/lemon). I’d let my shrimp marinate for more than an hour to help infuse the flavor. It definitely was better the next day after sitting overnight. I’d definitely make this again.
Thanks so much Audrey!! I love to hear that this recipe turned out nicely for you, thanks for making it! xT
This was delicious. The shrimp took on so much flavor from the marinade. This recipe is a keeper . I don’t like bacon so I left it out I think that helped to make the shrimp taste shine through
Hey Jackie,
Happy Friday!! Thanks so much for trying this recipe, I love to hear that it turned out well for you! xx
Hi Tieghan! I’m curious if you think this dish would be successful if I substituted the rice noodles for ramen noodles and turned it into a ramen dish. What do you think? I know you have some other great ramen recipes, I was just curious if this dish’s flavor was more of a crowd pleaser!
Hey Judy,
Sure, ramen noodles would be great to use here! Let me know how this dish turns out, I hope you love it! xT
Wow! I made this tonight because I had coconut milk I didn’t know what to do with and this was amazing. Thai flavours really shone through plus the smokey bacon flavor was killer. I used jasmine rice as I didn’t have rice noodles and I added a little yellow curry in my shrimp marinade, plus some snap peas for garnish. Would for sure make again as this was quick and easy.
Thank you so much for trying out this recipe! Hope you enjoyed! xT
My bestie and I live far apart and love to cook together via google meets! We love making HBH recipes together! Look how beautiful this one turned out!!
Hi Lara,
Happy Monday!!🇺🇸😎 I appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your feedback, so glad to hear it was a winner! xT
A hit soup but needs something extra. I wouldn’t bother marinating the shrimp in the future, it carries no flavour into the meat, and trying to pick the shrimp out of the marinate to cook and sear is tedious due to the garlic and jalapeño. I found the smell of the soup was mouth watering but the taste didn’t follow through. I added more lime this time and decided next time I make this dish it needs some small red chillies thrown in for heat, more lime and maybe even a dash of lemongrass. Definitely going to be adding this soup to the recipe box!
Hey Amanda,
Happy Monday!!💐 Thank you so much for making this recipe and your comment, so glad to hear it was a winner! Thanks for sharing your feedback! xx
This one was so good! First time cooking rice noodles. Just as easy as pasta. I doubled the marinade since I didn’t really have any reserve after putting the shrimp in the pan. I don’t have much cooking experience, so could have done something wrong. But it was oh so tasty!
Hey Jennifer,
Wonderful!!😊 I appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your review, so glad to hear it was delish! xT
This recipe is on frequent rotation in our house! Major crowd-pleaser and easy to substitute proteins/veggies with whatever I have in the fridg. I’d give it 6 stars if I could.
Hey Kelly,
Wonderful!!🎄 I love to hear that this recipe was a winner, thanks so much for making it and sharing your review! xx
Easy to put together and so tasty! Big pay off for minimal effor. Perfect as is and it’s easy to see where I can riff off of this with other proteins and add veg for variety – now in regular rotation!
Hi Nicolette,
I truly appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your feedback, so glad to hear it turned out well for you! xx
Have made this three times, once with my daughter to try it. Once for a dinner party, everyone LOVED it. Then again for our family reunion, BIG HIT!
Hi Ronson,
Fantastic! I truly appreciate you making this recipe so often and sharing your feedback, I am so glad it has been tasty for you! xT
I always follow the recipe’s instructions to get a feel for what they are supposed to taste like. I then adjust and season to my taste, ie, more salt or garlic, etc.
I will try this recipe soon, seems to be a good one.
Thanks Haydee! I hope you love the dish! xx
This was pretty good, but a tiny bland. It’s better if you let the noodles sit and soak up some of the juice.
Hey Jessica,
Thanks so much for trying this recipe and sharing your feedback, sorry to hear you found the dish bland. Let me know if there is any way that I can help! xx