Coconut Curry Stir Fried Shrimp is such a good Thai-inspired dinner recipe.
If you’re looking for something new to make for dinner that isn’t your usual, ho-hum chicken dish, try this Coconut Curry Stir Fried Shrimp recipe. It’s easy to make, and it will not take you any longer than 30 minutes to prepare.
Don’t be wary of the curry and the spice. Add as much red curry paste (that’s what gives it the spice) as you’d like. I only add 1 teaspoon since we tend to like eating things a little more mild in my house. There is no actual coconut in the recipe- only coconut milk. The flavor combo is so good!
How to make Coconut Curry Stir Fried Shrimp:
First you’ll mix together the sauce for the stir fry. The sauce is made of coconut milk, fish sauce, red curry paste, brown sugar and cornstarch. Then you can set the sauce aside while you begin to prepare the stir fry.
Shrimp is tossed with a little bit of soy sauce and then fried in a skillet with some oil. The shrimp is removed from the pan, and then you’ll stir fry bell pepper, snow peas, bean sprouts, garlic and ginger. The shrimp is added back into the pan along with the sauce. Then you’ll give it a couple of minutes on heat to thicken the sauce and your Coconut Curry Stir Fried Shrimp will be ready to serve.
About the ingredients:
You’ll need to buy three things for this recipe that you likely don’t already have in your pantry. Look for coconut milk, fish sauce and red curry paste in your market’s Asian section. There are no substitutes for these ingredients since they are what make up the flavor of this stir fry. Then you can look for more recipes to make with the fish sauce. My Satay Chicken with Spicy Peanut Sauce is a great recipe to make using the red curry paste too.
How to serve Coconut Curry Stir Fried Shrimp:
You can certainly eat this on its own and not served “over” anything. I recommend steaming white rice, or if you want to get more fancy you can make my Coconut Ginger Rice (which I love!) If you’re trying to eat lighter or lower carb, try serving this stir fried shrimp over Cauliflower Rice instead.
Don’t forget to pick up some chopsticks. You should be able to buy wooden chopsticks at your regular market in the Asian section. I like to use re-usable chopsticks (Amazon affiliate link). They are dishwasher safe, and you can use them over and over again just like you use your regular utensils.
If you are following the Weight Watchers program, points are included at the top of this post.
This is a nice, light dinner with a ton of flavor. Enjoy!
The Best Shrimp Recipes:
- Creamy Gruyere and Shrimp Pasta
- Pad Thai Shrimp
- Shrimp Po Boy
- Rotini with Shrimp
- Shrimp Alfredo
- Honey Walnut Shrimp
- Party Shrimp
- Roasted Shrimp with Rosemary and Thyme
Coconut Curry Stir Fried Shrimp
Ingredients
SAUCE:
- 1 cup coconut milk (light is okay)
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 to 2 teaspoons red curry paste (depending on your spice preference)
- 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
STIR FRY:
- 1 pound extra large shrimp (21/25), peeled and de-veined
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil, divided
- 1 medium red bell pepper (cored, seeded and sliced)
- 8 ounces snow peas, strings removed
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 3 medium garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
Instructions
PREPARE THE SAUCE:
- Place the sauce ingredients in a bowl; mix and set aside.
PREPARE THE STIR FRY:
- In a medium bowl, toss the shrimp with the soy sauce. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally and breaking up clumps, until curled and lightly browned, about 1½ minutes. Transfer the shrimp to its own bowl.
- Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the pan and return to high heat until shimmering. Add the bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp tender, about 2 minutes. Stir in the snow peas and bean sprouts and cook for 1 minute.
- Clear the center of the pan and add the remaining 1 teaspoon of oil, garlic and ginger. Cook, mashing the garlic mixture into the pan with the back of your spatula, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the cooked shrimp. Whisk the sauce to mix, add it to the pan, and bring to a simmer. Cook until the sauce begins to thicken, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Adjust the curry to your preference of spiciness. We don't like too much spice, so I just use 1 teaspoon curry paste and that gives it just a little kick.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Alot of prep, and disappointing bland flavor:(. It was beautifilul bcz so colorful, however. Just very disappointed with taste after all that prep:.
That’s a bummer, sorry. Maybe more curry paste would have given you a better outcome?
I used to live in a city with many excellent Thai restaurants, and any variation of Thai curry was almost always what I ordered. Where I live now, there are no Thai restaurants nearby. I had tried making Thai curry at home once a few years ago but added too much curry paste, rendering it unpalatably spicy. This recipe was perfect! I made this two nights ago, and it was wonderful. I had a leftover half a tomato and a carrot in the fridge that I also chopped up and added in to use them up. I also had a leftover cooked chicken thigh, and since I was a bit short on shrimp, I chopped up the chicken and added it in too, to make this a chicken shrimp curry. I was afraid that all these additions might mess up the curry, but it turned out fine! The flavours come from the coconut milk, curry paste, and fish sauce, so after that I think the combination of ingredients gets pretty forgiving. 🙂 This turned out to be so simple and delicious. I will be making it regularly, I hope!
So happy it was a success!