Cook an incredible dinner with minimal ingredients with our Easy Coconut Shrimp Curry recipe. Imagine tender shrimp simmering in a fragrant coconut curry sauce before being poured over a steamy bowl of rice. Hungry yet? Good! Because this shrimp curry is ready in no time and is bound to leave you full and content.
Forget jarred sauces… this sauce will have you licking your plates clean! Make this shrimp curry even more spectacular and serve it with our super soft buttery garlic Naan bread to mop up the sauce!
SHRIMP CURRY OR SHRIMP MASALA
Our shrimp curry recipe is inspired by our Tikka Masala. We came up with a shrimp version to combine our love of good seafood and aromatic curry to bring you the best shrimp curry recipe you’ve ever tried.
This may not be an authentic Indian curry, but it does give you a satisfying hit of those classic Indian flavours and spices, similar to our much-loved butter chicken recipe, and will more than likely tick all of your curry loving boxes:
- No marinating.
- Fragrant coconut milk adds even MORE flavour.
- Ready in less than 30 minutes. YES!
HOW LONG DOES SHRIMP TAKE TO COOK?
For this shrimp curry recipe, try to find jumbo-sized shrimp for meatier results — tails on or off are both fine to use. You only need to cook them for 1 minute each side to get crisp edges and fry off the spices. Then, they will only need about 1-2 minutes to finish cooking in the sauce.
WHAT IS THE SECRET TO A GOOD CURRY?
Ingredients! The right combination of spices and aromatics are essential to a good curry sauce. Garlic, ginger and onion start the flavours off in the right direction, while garam masala, ground cumin, tumeric and ground coriander give you the irresistible curry flavours we all know and love.
Having said that, they can be replaced with a mild curry powder that may be hiding out at the back of your kitchen pantry, but the flavours may not be the same. I love being able to control the flavours of spices to get them absolutely perfect for the shrimp curry sauce.
The best shrimp curry sauce uses a combination of crushed tomatoes (or Passata) and coconut milk or cream. You can substitute with heavy cream, thickened cream or evaporated milk if you don’t have coconut!
HOW DO YOU MAKE CURRY SAUCE FROM SCRATCH?
Fry your spice coated shrimp first to leave some of those spices in the pan as a base for your shrimp curry sauce.
Scrape up any browned bits left over from the shrimp on the bottom of the pan with a butter/oil combination. Browned bits = flavour!
Sauté your onion, garlic and ginger, then add in your spices to cook them off until fragrant.
Add crushed tomatoes (or Passata), coconut milk or cream and seasonings.
Simmer until slightly thickened for about 4 minutes, then stir in shrimp and cook to warm through.
Take off the heat immediately and garnish your shrimp curry with fresh chopped cilantro!
CAN YOU PUT COOKED PRAWNS IN A CURRY?
Absolutely! You can skip the whole process of frying raw shrimp first and just add cooked shrimp right at the end. Take the sauce off the heat first before adding them in to not risk over-cooking them. Let them sit in the sauce for a couple of minutes to warm through.
WHAT TO SERVE WITH SHRIMP CURRY
Serve shrimp curry with fresh, hot plain rice or garlic butter rice and homemade naan bread.
HOW TO THICKEN CURRY SAUCE
You don’t need to thicken the curry sauce in this recipe as the combination of coconut milk/cream with tomato puree thickens it for you. For a thicker curry, however, you can either add in a couple tablespoons of tomato paste or a cornstarch slurry.
Simply dissolve two teaspoons of cornstarch into one tablespoon of cold water. Stir the slurry into the sauce and let it simmer until the sauce thickens. It won’t take very long at all.
MORE CREAMY SHRIMP RECIPES
Shrimp in a Piccata Cream Sauce
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Tuscan Shrimp
Shrimp Alfredo with Bacon
Creamy Pesto Shrimp Alfredo
Easy Coconut Shrimp Curry
Ingredients
SHRIMP:
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon turmeric or curry powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder
- 1 ½ tablespoons oil divided
- 1 pound jumbo shrimp peeled, tails on or off
SAUCE:
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons minced ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoons garam masala
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder or curry powder
- 14 ounces can crushed tomatoes or Passata for a smoother sauce
- ½-1 teaspoon red chilli powder adjust to your taste preference
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons brown sugar
- 13.5 ounces coconut milk or coconut cream, can
- 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro chopped to garnish
Instructions
SHRIMP:
- For shrimp, combine spices in a bowl. Toss shrimp with the spices and 1 tablespoon of oil. Set aside.
- Heat ½ tablespoon of cooking oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sear shrimp for only 1 minute on each side, then transfer shrimp to a plate. Set aside.
SAUCE:
- Heat remaining oil and butter in a large pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Fry onion until soft (about 3 minutes), scraping up any browned bits left over from the shrimp on the bottom of the pan.
- Add garlic and ginger; sauté until fragrant, about for 1 minute. Add in garam masala, cumin, ground coriander and turmeric (or curry powder). Cook stirring occasionally until fragrant, about 20 seconds.
- Add crushed tomatoes (or Passata), chili powder, salt, sugar and coconut milk/cream. Let simmer until slightly thickened, about 4 minutes.
- Stir in shrimp and let cook until the shrimp is fully cooked and warmed through, about 1 more minute.
- Take off the heat immediately. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with fresh garlic butter rice and homemade naan bread.
Rebecca Taylor says
This recipe is amazingly delicious! Perfect dreamy flavor and so easy to make!
Erika says
Amazing!! So yum. But it definitely took longer than 22 mins.
Grace says
I’ve made this twice and it’s very good. The second time I bought cooked shrimp. So I skipped the first step of sautéing it and just added it to the curry for an extra 5 minutes of cooking time. Also subbed half the coconut milk with water and it still came out creamy and delicious!
CDS says
Karina….this is absolutely to-die-for delicious! And SO easy! I’m a pretty good cook, but am now just starting to explore curries. I have made this as is several times, but the last time I made it I threw some VERY finely chopped Kaffir lime leaves into the shrimp coating and sauce (with the garlic, onions and ginger). Just love that very unique Kaffir taste and smell! I also cut the cooked jumbo shrimp into thirds before adding it back into the sauce (for easier eating). Lastly, I throw in a big handful of fresh spinach at the end when adding back in the shrimp. It easily cooks down in a minute or two. This recipe really is perfect as is…just a couple personal tweaks to try.
Thank you again for the awesome recipe!
AR says
This is perfect — full of lovely Indian flavors, without just the right amount of heat. Tasted like something I would get from my favorite curry place! Enjoyed it with naan on day one and with basmati rice on day two (I preferred the rice because I didn’t give my sauce time to really thicken up). My mother never added sugar to her curries, so I thought it might be strange, but it didn’t make the dish taste sweet at all.
Nana says
I am trying this tomorrow for our “family” Sunday dinner. Have one grand daughter who does not eat anything dairy so the coconut milk will be perfect.
It looks simple.
Tatiana says
This deserves an applaud.. the most simple prawn curry recipe and yet so incredibly delicious.. from the marinade to the curry! Awesome!!
Nicole Shelton says
This will my first time making this,I also went along and made the rice ,Its not quite done yet,It smells soooooo good right ,Im super starving, I can’t wait !!!I wish could post pic!!
Ashley Michelle says
This recipe gets 100 stars! It turned out soooooo sooooo good all my kids had seconds! I loved it. Definitely making again. Let me just say that I prefer coconut milk over coconut cream. The milk gives it a nicer color. Thank you so much for this recipe
Ria says
I tried it too and I agree
It’s worth a 100 stars thank you
Joanne says
So easy and SOOOOO good. A new staple for this household. Thank you!
Kaitlyn says
Made it with shrimp the first time and chicken the second, either way it’s a delicious recipe!! Thank you so much for sharing. It’s truly a delight to the tastebuds and is literally a dish I would pay an absurd amount of money just for a bite of!
Serge says
Wow! Just wow! The whole family licked their plates clean! This is easily the best curry (or maybe any kind of) recipe I’ve ever made. Just bursting with exotic flavors. I was stuffed and still stole morsels all night and dipping naan into this crazy sauce. Just amazing!
Lori B says
Wow !! This was a great shrimp curry dish. My family simply looovvved it! Will substitute chicken next time for a change,but will certainly be making this flavorful shrimp dish again and again.
Nora says
It’s perfect and super tasty, squeezed some lime after serving . Followed exactly but used a little less shrimps (we like more sauce less shrimp)