A quick, tasty recipe for baked shrimp with butter, garlic, and Parmesan. They are the ultimate healthy fast food – they’re ready in just ten minutes!
Super tasty baked shrimp with butter, garlic, hot pepper, and Parmesan. It’s a beautiful combination of flavors that works really well.
This simple recipe dresses the shrimp in a tasty mixture of butter and seasonings. Baked to perfection, and ready in just ten minutes, shrimp are a super healthy fast food. Seriously, making this recipe at home is faster than going through a fast food place drive through.
What if my shrimp are still frozen?
I love shrimp and make them for my family once a week. I always have frozen shrimp on hand, but I’m not very good at remembering to defrost them.
Luckily, defrosting shrimp for this baked shrimp recipe is easy! Fill a large bowl with cool water. Add the shrimp. Replace the water once or twice, gently separating frozen shrimp that have stuck to each other. The shrimp should be fully defrosted in about 10 minutes. Drain them using a colander, then dry on paper towels.
If you just defrosted your shrimp and they are very cold, the melted butter will harden as soon as you mix it into the shrimp. That’s OK – it will melt back in the oven. But when this happens, I do quickly spray the top of the shrimp with olive oil before baking, just to make sure they don’t dry out.
Another option is to use olive oil instead of butter when using just-defrosted shrimp. I tried this recipe with olive oil and it’s excellent.
How long do you bake the shrimp?
I bake large shrimp for about 8 minutes in a 400°F oven. This is one of the best things about this recipe (and about shrimp in general). They are ready super fast!
Are baked shrimp healthy?
Baked shrimp are very healthy. Actually, almost any shrimp recipe is healthy, unless they are breaded and deep fried (these low carb “breaded shrimp” are the tasty exception). This is especially true if you use sustainable, wild caught, local US shrimp.
What about leftovers?
You can keep leftover baked shrimp in the fridge, in a shallow airtight container, for up to 3 days. But I try to use them up the next day. I reheat them very gently, covered, in the microwave on 50% power. Sometimes I use them cold in a salad or serve them cold with some cocktail sauce.
Baked Shrimp
INGREDIENTS
- 1 1/2 lb. large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt (not fine salt)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Arrange the shrimp in a single layer on a large baking sheet.
- Pour the melted butter on top of the shrimp and toss to coat.
- Sprinkle the shrimp with the kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, crushed red pepper and Parmesan.
- Bake until the shrimp are pink and opaque, about 8 minutes. If you want the Parmesan to brown, finish by broiling the baked shrimp for about 1 minute.
- Transfer the baked shrimp to a serving platter and spoon the pan juices on top. Serve immediately.
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Vered DeLeeuw, LL.M., has been following a healthy real-food diet and blogging about it since 2011. She has taken 
