If you’re a fan of fancy yet simple seafood dinners, you’re going to want to put this shrimp scampi pasta on your meal plan! Buttery, garlicky shrimp tossed with linguine is not to be missed.
Why I Love This Shrimp Scampi Recipe
- My family devours it. This recipe is cooked in a buttery garlic sauce, and served over delicious linguine noodles. My kids love it, my husband loves it, I love it…it’s just an all-around winner of a pasta dinner!
- Fast. This meal is done in under 30 minutes. What’s not to love about that?
- Flexible. Serve it as a casual comfort food dinner, or an elegant meal for guests. Whatever you’ve got going on, everyone will be asking for seconds.
- Totally nails it. So many times have I had a Scampi recipe that is too oily, or too bland…after a lot of testing, I nailed the perfect recipe!
What is Shrimp Scampi?
The name Shrimp Scampi is actually a little misleading. The original Italian dish was made with scampi, which is a type of Mediterranean lobster, and was/is usually served with pasta. Shrimp Scampi is the Americanized version, which uses only shrimp and no lobster – but to keep it confusing, we kept scampi in the name. 😉
Note: The garlic butter sauce, made with chicken broth instead of white wine, is perfect for dipping – so go ahead and slice up some bread!
Ingredient Notes
Other than the obvious, shrimp and pasta, what do you need to put this meal together? Not too much more… just a couple of seasonings and ingredients for the sauce:
- Pasta: Linguine is traditionally used, but you could also use angel hair or spaghetti in a pinch.
- Butter: Salted or unsalted. Although, if you use salted, slightly reduce the amount of kosher salt used later.
- Olive Oil: Extra Virgin Olive Oil is my go-to for this recipe.
- Onion: I used a yellow onion, finely chopped.
- Garlic: Minced, for the delicious garlicky flavor!
- Shrimp: You’ll need 24 medium cooked shrimp, deveined, cleaned, and with the shells removed.
- Seasoning: I like to use kosher salt, fresh pepper, crushed red pepper, and fresh lemon juice.
- Chicken Broth: Feel free to use either regular or low sodium chicken broth. You can also use white wine, but stick to dry white wines, not sweet ones – something like pinot grigio.
- Garnish: A little bit of fresh parsley, chopped.
How to Choose Shrimp
I generally buy medium-sized frozen shrimp to make this recipe, already peeled and deveined – this cuts down on the prep work. If you’re going to buy fresh shrimp, be sure to avoid picking shrimp that smells like ammonia, or shrimp that has black spots on the head and body – needless to say, these are bad signs.
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
- Store in the fridge: You can refrigerate shrimp scampi for up to 2 days in an airtight container.
- To reheat: Add some of the sauce (and maybe some extra butter and olive oil) to a pan on medium heat. Once it is hot, add the shrimp in and cook until they reach the desired temperature. You can also just microwave it if you want to.
More Seafood Recipes
Shrimp Scampi Pasta
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6
- Category: Seafood
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
If you like easy seafood dinners or classic Italian cuisine, you will love this homemade Shrimp Scampi! Who can resist garlicky shrimp, tossed in a butter sauce with linguine?
Ingredients
- 1 pound linguine pasta
- 1/2 cup butter, divided
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 24 medium raw shrimp, deveined, cleaned, shell removed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Cook the linguine according to package directions.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat 5 tablespoons of butter and olive oil into a large skillet on medium heat.
- Add in the onion and cook for 5 minutes, or until softened. Then stir in the garlic and cook for an additional minute.
- Add the shrimp into the pan, season with salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper and cook for 4 – 6 minutes or until pink and cooked through.
- Stir in the lemon juice and chicken broth, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low.
- Add the cooked pasta into the skillet along with the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter. Use tongs or a spoon to coat the pasta in the shrimp mixture.
- Garnish with fresh parsley, add more salt and pepper if desired and serve immediately.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 565
- Sugar: 2.9 g
- Sodium: 427.5 mg
- Fat: 21.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 59.2 g
- Protein: 33.3 g
- Cholesterol: 223.6 mg
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Wow, Shelly! I’ve enjoyed many of your recipes and I own your book. This Scampi recipe is taking it’s place in my Best Recipes File. It was fabulous. I’ve had Scampi in many restaurants, none as good as this one! Just delicious and so quick and easy to make. I halved the recipe for Hubby and me and we ate every bite and could have licked the plates clean! I’m already making it again tomorrow! I used Argentinian shrimp, the ones that taste closest to lobster. The only thing I did different was replace the chicken broth with white wine. Five stars all day long!
So glad you liked this! It’s one of our family favorite dinners!
Doesn’t really explain the process. Lots of holes. It’s very confusing, the rest of the garlic butter? The onion? No quantities mentioned, for the most part. Not good.
Did you read the full recipe at the bottom of the post? The article just gives a brief overview of the steps, but the recipe card at the bottom is easy to follow, printable, and has all of the quantities you missed.