I'm recently obsessed with shrimp and started making verities of the menu for the past couple of months like crazy including this Hawaiian spicy garlic shrimp. The paprika, the butter, and the bold flavor of garlic with crispy shrimp is a 15 minutes solution for a great appetizer or a great side dish.
You may make in a large quantity as you need not worry about the leftovers. And you can make multiple dishes with this spicy Hawaiian garlic shrimp as the main ingredient like tacos.
You see here a quick video and step by step pictures of Hawaiian Shrimp with garlic butter sauce.

Shrimp gets blends with the recipe, so it's a great seafood ingredient to try out on various methods(similar to these garlic pepper shrimp, spicy sriracha shrimp). It is also one of the seafood which I often make an order in the restaurants as it cannot go wrong with any dishes, makes it a fail-proof menu item.
Tasting Hawaiian shrimp truck recipe from our favorite restaurant showed us a whole new idea about the shrimp what we usually make in our kitchen. While having each bite, the chef in my mind was wondering about this dish and its ingredients.
This food amused me as it does not make with lots of ingredients but tasted extremely delicious with all the universal and straightforward ingredients. And I wanted to recreate the Hawaiian shrimp truck recipe in my kitchen which is equally good with my own customizations.
This Hawaiian Shrimp scampi is a healthy one-pan side dish made with simple ingredients that you might be having in your pantry already. Do you believe that? Within 15 minutes you can make it if all the items are handy, that's party friendly too(Did you try this Shrimp with toothpick).
The good part is that it does not need any fancy ingredients and you may prepare hassle-free every time you think of making. So, whenever you are feeling lazy or want to make an exotic dinner at the last minute, please go ahead and make this and I'm sure you will not regret.
This is a hugely crowd-pleasing recipe which you can make at the last minute, as it has very less preparation time and still this will be the most apparent dish at a party.
Looking for more Spicy seafood recipes? You may look into,
The restaurant served this Hawaiian spicy garlic shrimp with the shells on. At first sight, I was reluctant to have a bite because I assumed that it would irritate my throat.
But to my surprise, the shrimp's shell did not make any difference and was crispy as well. This made me attempt in my kitchen without thinking further(these never disappoints me pasta with cilantro lime sauce and this Chettinad shrimp).
While I was searching for this dish's ingredients and found this recipe. I modified it to suit my family, like cooking the shrimp with shells. Also, I'm not that confident to cook shrimp along with the shells. Furthermore, I do not know whether my son would like it so or not.
So, I made Hawaiian spicy garlic shrimp without the shell but added more all-purpose flour to coat the shrimp to make it crispy. And this worked out well and the end result was a grand success.
If you ask, I can speak for days about the spicy Hawaiian shrimp. These are some of the thoughts which flash my mind while sharing this content with you.
Possible variations
Want to deviate from the main dish and want to include other ingredients in your Hawaiian spicy garlic shrimp recipe. Please feel free to add,
- Lemon juice. To adds zing to the bowl, try adding lemon juice at the final stages of cooking. The lemon garlic butter combination is always a huge hit and never fails in any recipe.
- Shell on Jumbo Shrimp. I used small shell-less because it is convenient for the small bite-sized appetizer. And, the tiny shrimp can get coated with spices well, and the flavors will evenly be distributed. But if you are a seafood lover, you may use the jumbo shrimp with the shells on which is also the traditional way of making this dish.
- White wine. For an added flavor with enhanced acidity and slight sweetness to the shrimp.
- Ginger. It may sound alien here it gives earthy flavor, but it also performs well.
- Pineapple. Add pineapple wedges to make it more tropical. And this Hawaiian spicy pineapple shrimp version is for a sweet and sour kick to this seafood.
- Cayenne pepper. Wants to add more heat? then add a teaspoon of cayenne pepper or red chili powder.
- Grill or bake. Instead of cooking on the skillet, you may grill the shrimp or bake the shrimps.
What to serve with Hawaiian spicy garlic Shrimp?
- This dish is best to serve as a side dish or as an appetizer. Serving with rice would be ideal for a complete meal.
- If you want to make this healthier and skinnier and then I suggest you swap butter over the low-fat cooking oil. And substitute all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour.
- You may freeze the leftovers in an airtight container to store up to 3 months. Or refrigerate in a sealed container for storing up to 2-3 days.
- How about enjoying this Hawaiian spicy garlic shrimp with this delicious Hawaiian Margarita?
The key ingredients
Shrimp. It is better to get cleaned, and deveined shrimp store-bought froze shrimp as it would cut the prepping time down by 70%, which I would always do. Though getting fresh from the market makes it more flavorful cleaning and deveining need a lot of work which is not possible mostly.
All-purpose flour. It acts as the binding agent and coat the shrimp well and makes it super tasty with all the garlic, butter, and pepper in each bite. And you may substitute all-purpose flour with the other healthy flour options like whole wheat flour.
Garlic. This is the flavor booster of this recipe, and this stands alone and does work well with shrimp. Never skip using garlic, as this gives a whole new flavor to the dish and elevates and shrimp to the next level.
So, never skip this ingredient, without garlic this Hawaiian hot and spicy shrimp cannot taste better. But if fresh garlic is not handy and you may substitute with the garlic powder, which I have not tried but would be a good option.
Grape seed oil and butter. I substituted half of the butter with the grapeseed oil. But you may replace grapeseed oil with any cooking oil.
Parsley. This herb brings all the freshness to the shrimp. And you may substitute with dried parsley or even at the fresh herbs like cilantro.
How to make a Hawaiian spicy garlic shrimp
Clean. Wash and rinse in the running water couple of times.
Chop. Peel the skin and chop the garlic finely. Chop parsley and keep aside, we need it at the time of garnishing.
Combine. Add salt, paprika, pepper, all-purpose flour to shrimp. Combine well until each shrimp coats well with the margination. Keep aside for 5-10 minutes.
Toss. In the medium flame heat butter and grape seed oil. Add garlic and toss for 2 minutes or until it discolors.
Cook. Now arrange the shrimp over the pan and cook for about 3 minutes in simmer flame or until it prepared and became golden brown all side. Do not crowd the pan, if making a larger quantity, cook them in batches.
Garnish. Sprinkle a liberal amount of chopped parsley and serve hot.
How to store and reheat?
Refrigerate. Store the leftover in the air tight container in the refrigerate for about 3 days.
Freeze. Store in the air sealed container or the zip lock bags, it's good to use up to 2 months. To thaw, transfer them to the refrigerator a day prior.
Reheat. Sprinkle water and cook covered till it turns warm. There is a special post dedicated for reheating shrimp, refer to gain more ideas.
Printable recipe card
Hawaiian spicy garlic shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 cup shrimp cleaned and deveined
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon whole black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper /paprika
- 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 2 tablespoon grapeseed oil
- 2 tablespoon garlic
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add shrimp, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, all-purpose flour.
- Combine them well until shrimp gets evenly coated. And keep aside.
- In medium flame, add butter, grapeseed oil, and minced garlic.
- Sauté until garlic changes its color slightly.
- Add shrimp mixture.
- Cook for 3 minutes on each side and until it turns to crispy and golden brown.
- Transfer to serving bowl and serve hot.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Liz Dale
Have tasted Hawaiian shrimp on our last vaccation, still then searching for the recipe. And I did not know that this dish making is that real easy.