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.
Dr, C, Bruce Boschek says
I liked the looks of this recipe because it called for products, all of which we have regularly in our pantry (except cilantro, which is not as common in German supermarkets as it might be in other countries). I had a dozen beautiful large prawns and followed the instructions as per the recipe. Served with buttery Basmati rice and a fresh green salad this was superb. I can heartily recommend this recipe and send my thanks to Karina for sharing it. Best wishes,
Bruce
Kelly Lavoie says
Yum, thank you for this! I added a diced bell pepper in the garlic and ginger step. There’s plenty of sauce, so one can always add extras.
We enjoyed this so much, my husband even took the leftovers to work today, even though he might offend someone with the curry or shrimp smells. Hehe! (He *never* takes anything with fish or seafood in for lunch.)
Zena Simpson says
Best curry I’ve ever done! I did half & half coconut & almond milk because I didn’t have enough coconut milk but it was still so delicious! Thankyou
Bev says
The best “from scratch” curry sauce I haveever made – this would be spectacular with chichen, with paneer and probably also tofu. Fabulous!!
Mary Kate says
Loved this recipe! Added broccoli and a few teaspoons of chili oil and served over rice noodles. Delicious!
Diane Lott says
Loved this, delicious flavors and so easy to put together.
Geraldine Orman says
Delicious thank you. Intend to try with chicken next. Going to enjoy thisi one for a long time.
Rabia says
It was my first time making a curry with coconut, but this one was delicious. I had less than a pound of shrimp, so I just halved the recipe.
Karen Basta says
Very tasty and easy. Would be happy to pay for this in a restaurant. You can adjust the heat to your prefetence.
Karen says
Really good. Taste was exactly as expected. Nothing better than tasty and easy.