Garlic Butter Prawns (Pan-Fried)

Name: Garlic Butter Prawns
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 450 g Prawns ((deveined and peeled)); 2 tbsp Butter; 5 Garlic Cloves ((Or Two tbsp Garlic Paste)); 1 tbsp Lemon Juice; 1 tbsp Olive Oil; ½ tsp Black Pepper; ¼ Salt ((Or To Taste)); Handful Parsley (Finely Chopped); ½ Dried Chilli Flakes; 3 tbsp Chinese Shaoxing Cooking Wine ((Optional))

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How To Make Garlic Butter Prawns

This 15-minute garlic butter prawns recipe is quick, easy and BIG of flavour. There’s lemon, black pepper and more tasty ingredients for the best garlic prawns you’ll ever taste.

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I’m not kidding when I say this garlic butter prawns recipe tastes exceptionally good! It’s saucy, flavoursome and full of garlic flavour. If you’re looking for a tasty 15-minute meal, then this pan-fried recipe is perfect for you.

Tender pieces of prawns are coated in a mouth-watering savoury sauce that’s rich, slightly chilli and just utterly delightful. Serve with rice or some garlic butter bread for the best combo ever.

This has to be one of my favourite prawn dishes and it’s a big hit with many – the taste is just too good.

Chinese Style Prawns

This dish is so popular because it’s ready in no time, especially when using deshelled and deveined prawns.

The 3 main ingredients are prawns, butter and garlic. The other ingredients add extra flavour, whilst the added Chinese cooking wine takes this dish to a whole new level.

Watch How To Make It

Why You’ll Like This Recipe

The buttery garlic sauce that covers the prawns is flavoured with lemon and other tasty seasonings!
The prawns are tender and juicy.
This recipe uses basic ingredients for a delicious flavour combo.
Prawns with garlic = the best recipe.
Only 5 minutes cooking time!
Easily customisable; add in your favourite spices and herbs.
Make garlic butter prawns as a starter or main meal.

Love Prawns?

It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t like prawns, they are quick and easy to make yet the taste is so delicious.

Some of my favourite prawn recipes are sweet and sour prawns, sesame prawn toast and this super easy king prawn fried rice recipe that takes just 15 minutes!

My yaki udon noodles with shrimp and this king prawn balti curry are great tasting recipes you can also try.

Garlic Butter Prawns Recipe Ingredients

Below are the few ingredients needed for this recipe:

Prawns: I like to use jumbo prawns or tiger prawns but any type of prawn or shrimp is fine to use. You can leave the shell on the prawns (personally I like to remove it). If you’re using frozen prawns, make sure it’s defrosted (and deveined) before starting this recipe.
Butter: Use either salted or unsalted butter. Bear in mind that you might want to omit adding salt if you’re using salted butter.
Garlic: A lot of garlic is added to the butter sauce. For this prawns dish, you can use fresh garlic cloves crushed by a garlic press or you can finely dice the garlic into small pieces. I prefer buying garlic paste.
Lemon: Use fresh lemon juice to add a citrusy note to this dish, you can also add grated lemon zest for extra flavour.
Seasonings & Herbs: Black pepper, salt, parsley and chilli flakes are used to season and add flavour to this recipe.
Oil: I like to use olive oil. However, other oils like vegetable oil or sunflower oil are fine to use.

Pan-Fried Garlic Butter Prawns

When pan-frying prawns, I like to use a large frying pan that’s big enough for the amount of prawns I’m cooking. This helps to prevent overcrowding and some prawns cooking more than others.

This really is an easy way to cook prawns and add extra flavour to them. That’s why this pan-fried method is so popular amongst many, it’s quick to make and tastes so good too.

How To Prep & Devein Prawns

When cooking prawns, you want to make sure they are washed and deveined before you start cooking it. Below are 4 steps on how to devein and prepare your prawn:

Rinse the prawns under the tap using cold water, then dry the prawns with a paper towel.
Remove the head and legs from the prawns and peel the skin off.
With a sharp knife, cut a straight line through the head of the prawn to the tail.
Use the tip of the knife or a toothpick to remove the vein, you can also do this by hand. Be gentle at this stage otherwise the vein can break when being pulled out.

How To Make Garlic Butter Prawns

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to make garlic butter prawns. Full recipe instructions are on the recipe card:

Step One:

Heat a non-stick pan on a medium heat and add butter and oil to the pan.

Step Two:

Once the butter has melted, add the prawns and stir fry for 1 minute.

Add minced garlic and continue to stir fry the prawns for a further 2 minutes or until the prawns have turned pink and cooked through.

Step Three:

Shaoxing and lemon juice added to the prawns and melted butter

Add lemon juice, Shaoxing cooking wine, dried chilli flakes, black pepper and salt to the pan and mix together until evenly combined.

Step Four:

Parsley sprinkled on top of buttery prawns

Finish by sprinkling chopped parsley then serve and enjoy.

What To Serve With Garlic Butter Prawns?

This dish is quite versatile and serves well with a lot of dishes, you can make this recipe as a main or starter.

My Top Tips

Use raw prawns for this recipe, raw prawns are grey in colour and cooked prawns have a pink tone to it. Raw prawns are less likely to turn out tough and chewy than using cooked prawns as you’ll technically be cooking it twice.

On average, medium sized prawns take 3 to 4 minutes to cook whilst jumbo and large prawns can take up to 8 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the prawns otherwise they’ll turn tough. Cooked prawns should be opaque with tones of pink and will curl up like a ‘C’ shape

Cook the prawns on a medium heat and avoid using high temperatures. Using a high temperature can result in the garlic butter sauce drying out before the prawns are cooked.

If you want to thicken the garlic butter sauce, remove the cooked prawns for the pan. Leave the sauce to simmer until you have reached your desired consistency. Then, add the prawns back into the pan and mix it into the sauce.

Recipe Variations

Cook Prawns With The Shell & Head On: Though this may lead to messy hands whilst eating it, keeping the shell on helps to contain the juice from the buttery sauce.

Garlic Alternatives: If you don’t want to use fresh garlic, you can use mined garlic flakes or garlic powder instead. They are both great alternatives to use.

How To Store & Reheat

To store, place the prawns in an airtight container and keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. When you’re ready to eat it, reheat over the stove or in the microwave.

Can you eat the veins inside prawns?

You can eat the veins inside prawns however, being that it’s the intestinal tract of the prawn, you may not want to.

How do you cook prawns so they are not chewy?

To avoid chewy prawns you need to avoid overcooking them. They cook very quickly, usually around 3 minutes. Remove the prawns from the heat once the flesh is pink with no translucent sections.