This delicious shrimp curry features coconut milk, fish sauce, and lots of lime juice for brightness. This is a curry shrimp recipe that's done in just 30 minutes, aka the perfect weeknight seafood dinner! Pair this with plain white rice or naan for dipping and sopping up all the creamy curry sauce.
Ohhhh curry, how I love you. It's no secret that we are highly obsessed with all kinds of curry, and a yellow curry with coconut milk appears a few times per month on our dinner rotation.
I often see curry recipes with a bunch of chopping, starting with garlic, ginger, jalapeno, and green onion. I LOVE starting curries with that flavor combination, but wanted to do a quick version using dried and jarred flavors to save time and effort.
This shrimp curry recipe is super easy thanks to coconut milk and yellow curry, and the result is a 15-20 minute curry that tastes like tons of effort without any actual effort. Shrimp cooks in 3 minutes or less, and with some storebought naan this can truly be dinner in under half an hour.
Ingredients + Ingredient Notes
You need! Curry powder, chili garlic paste, coconut milk, heavy cream, fish sauce, tomato paste, and shrimp. Lime wedges and cilantro for garnish, maybe some salt if you don't want to use too much fish sauce.
- Fish sauce is an ingredient that will do so well to give your Asian dishes more Asian-ness, official culinary term. It's not scary at all, but is definitely a funky ingredient that adds a ton of flavor to food. Think salty + tangy + soy sauce cousin, and if you're sensitive to fishy smells just honestly don't smell it closely and enjoy the taste. If you need another magic fish sauce recipe, this fish sauce vinaigrette for Brussels sprouts is seriously amazing.
- Use any curry powder you like for this recipe! I love a yellow curry powder and find the result to be very island-adjacent, but other curry blends are also delicious with this method.
- To lighten this curry recipe up a bit, you can skip the heavy cream. But also, maybe don't.
- I use sambal oelek for the spice factor here, but any other chili garlic paste you like, including sriracha, works great.
How to Make Easy Shrimp Curry
Gathering the ingredients is all of the prep, seriously. I love that this is a no-chopping curry recipe!
To start, heat a skillet over medium heat with the olive oil, tomato paste, curry powder, and chili garlic paste. Stir this together until it's fragrant, just for about two minutes. Then, pour the coconut milk and fish sauce into the skillet and stir to dissolve the flavorings into the coconut milk.
At this point, all that is left is to simmer the curry sauce for 5 -10 minutes until it's reduced by half, stirring as you go. Then, add the shrimp and cook them for 90 seconds.
Note for Make-Ahead: For an even quicker dinner, you can make the curry base in advance and stop right before adding the shrimp. To finish, turn the curry to medium and add the shrimp and heavy cream, stirring just until cooked.
Taste the curry and add more salt or fish sauce if it needs it until the curry is very flavorful. Turn the heat off the skillet and stir in the cream. This will give the shrimp 2-3 minutes to cook, which will be plenty.
Toppings and Serving
I intentionally left these pictures super simple because I want to stress the point that ANYTHING can be done with this shrimp. it can be eaten alone, over rice or noodles, or even spooned over crostini as an appetizer. For a low carb option, you could shred some cabbage super thinly and serve it raw with the curry spooned on top.
I adore this. It is so simple and quick, versatile and delicious. Feel free to use cubed tofu or shredded leftover chicken if you don't have any shrimp on hand. The base curry sauce recipe is wonderful with tons of different ingredients.
Lime wedges and cilantro aren't mandatory but they definitely should be.
Here's your new favorite less-than-30-minute meal. Enjoy!
Recipe
Easy Shrimp in Curry Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons yellow curry powder
- 1 tablespoon chili garlic paste
- 1 can coconut milk
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 1 pound shrimp peeled, deveined, tails off
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- lime wedges and cilantro leaves for serving
Instructions
- Preheat a skillet to medium heat with the olive oil, tomato paste, curry powder, and chili garlic paste. Stir to combine for 2 minutes.
- When the spice mixture is fragrant, add the coconut milk and fish sauce and stir to combine. Let the curry simmer and bubble for 5-10 minutes until it has thickened and reduced by half.
- Add the shrimp in a single layer and let cook for 90 seconds. Add the cream to the skillet and stir just to combine, then turn the heat off. This should give the shrimp 2-3 minutes of cooking time, which is all they need.
- Taste the curry and add more salt or fish sauce to your preference.
- Serve as desired with lime wedges and cilantro.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Over rice or noodles
- With bread or naan for dunking
- Over shredded cabbage for a low-carb option
- On small plates for an appetizer
- On toasted baguette as crostini
Holly says
Tried this last night and enjoyed! Had to make a few changes for what was on hand - used Thai yellow curry paste, Oelek Sambal, dried Cilantro which I added to the sauce, and minced garlic. Added some zucchini slices and thin red pepper strips to the sauce while it was simmering. Served over Jasmine rice. Will definitely make again. Thanks!
funnyloveblog says
Holly, I'm so glad you liked it and LOVE that it worked with the ingredients that you already have! I love curries for exactly that reason. Thank you so much for sharing!