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This vibrant cilantro lime shrimp is ready in just 10 minutes! Juicy shrimp coated in zesty lime and fresh cilantro makes a quick, flavorful protein perfect for tacos, rice bowls, or a simple weeknight dinner.
Ever since we became food bloggers and cookbook authors, Alex and I have been on a mission to create recipes that are both incredibly delicious and ridiculously easy. This cilantro lime shrimp ticks both boxes—it’s bursting with flavor and takes just 10 to 15 minutes! The combination of fresh cilantro, zesty lime, and juicy seafood makes the recipe seem special without a lot of extra work.
What we love most about this recipe is its versatility! You can serve it over rice for an easy dinner, throw it into tacos, or add it to a salad for a protein boost topped with our cilantro dressing. As busy parents, we’ve found this recipe to be our secret weapon on hectic weeknights when time is short!
Ingredients in cilantro lime shrimp
This cilantro lime shrimp is packed with zingy flavor: and it takes less than 10 minutes to put together! Alex and I served it recently with green rice and our favorite simple guacamole and it was an incredibly satisfying healthy dinner recipes! All you need is a handful of ingredients:
- Large shrimp Fresh or frozen, peeled or unpeeled, tail on or removed; deveined is preferable!
- Lime juice and zest Use both juice and zest to get the best zingy flavor
- Cilantro
- Butter or olive oil Both have great flavor; butter is slightly more savory, oil works for dairy-free
- Garlic
- Cumin and cayenne
All you have to do is heat the oil, toss in the shrimp, lime juice and zest, and saute for 1 to 2 minutes per side until opaque. Easy peasy! Head to the full recipe to make it!
Serve with a sauce
This cilantro lime shrimp comes out with a zesty, fresh flavor. If you want to step it up even more and add an even bigger cilantro flavor: might we suggest serving with cilantro sauce? Here are a few sauces that would be just perfect for dipping or drizzling on top:
- This cilantro dressing tastes incredible! It takes just 5 minutes and you’ll want to use it on everything: salads, tacos, fries, and more.
- This cilantro lime dressing is fast to whip up and its zesty flavor is perfect: also this one is dairy free!
- Tr shrimp taco sauce: it’s basically a cilantro ranch dressing: it amps the cilantro flavor to the next level!
- You can also try lime crema or avocado crema!
Ways to serve this cilantro lime shrimp
This recipe is so versatile: it’s hard to know where to begin! Our favorite is simply to add rice and a salad. But there are so many creative ways to serve it, based on whether it’s a quick weeknight meal or a dinner party! Here are all our favorite ways to serve cilantro lime shrimp!
- In shrimp tacos
- With rice and tomato avocado salad
- With black beans and rice
- On a Mexican chopped salad (or atop the salad to turn it into a main dish!)
- Along with homemade tortilla chips and simple guacamole
- With black bean and corn salad
- In shrimp lettuce wraps
- With elote (Mexican street corn)
- With a margarita, jalapeno margarita or skinny margarita (or a chelada or michelada)
- With homemade refried beans
Easiest way to juice and zest a lime
This recipe uses lime juice and lime zest to get big flavor! What are the best tools for the jobs? Here’s what we’ve found are the best tools for juicing and zesting citrus:
- Use a juicer. Alex and I use a juicer to quickly juice limes. We use a press juicer—it works great!
- For zesting, use a microplane or grater. A microplane makes quick work of zesting! If you don’t have one, use the fine holes on a box grater. For more info, here’s How to Zest a Lime.
How to thaw frozen shrimp
You can definitely use frozen shrimp for this recipe: it’s not necessarily better than fresh! In fact, if shrimp is frozen right when it’s caught and stays frozen, it’s fresher than fresh fish that has been transported for days. How to thaw frozen shrimp? There are a few different options:
- Day before: If you think ahead, simply place the frozen shrimp in the refrigerator overnight.
- Day of: Place the shrimp in a large bowl of very cold water for 15 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes to break up clumps that freeze together. The shrimp should defrost in about 15 to 20 minutes.
Dietary notes
This cilantro lime shrimp recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free (with olive oil) and pescatarian.
Cilantro Lime Shrimp
This vibrant cilantro lime shrimp is ready in just 10 minutes! Juicy shrimp coated in zesty lime and fresh cilantro makes a quick, flavorful protein perfect for tacos, rice bowls, or a simple weeknight dinner.
- Prep Time: 6 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients
- 1 pound large shrimp, deveined (peeled or unpeeled, thawed if frozen)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- 1 pinch cayenne
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, plus zest from 1 lime
- ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Instructions
- Pat the shrimp dry. In a medium bowl, mix the shrimp with the garlic, cumin, cayenne, and salt.
- In a large skillet, heat the butter or olive oil on medium high heat. Cook the shrimp for 1 to 2 minutes per side until opaque and cooked through, turning them with tongs. Remove from the heat.
- Spritz with lime juice and stir in the lime zest and chopped cilantro. Serve immediately. Leftovers last refrigerated up to 2 days, but taste best fresh.
Shrimp recipes you also might enjoy
There are so many delicious and shrimp recipes, it’s hard to keep track! Here are our favorites:
- These sauteed shrimp or honey garlic shrimp recipes are quick and simple
- This shrimp pizza is like shrimp scampi on a pizza crust!
- Our garlic butter shrimp has huge flavor in under 10 minutes!
- We love this shrimp and broccoli: it’s an old favorite.
- This shrimp pasta is a creamy delicious dinner recipe
So simple and so quick! This recipe is the food version of “easy breezy beautiful cover girl” haha. We had it in wraps with some of the leftover corn and black beans from the sweet potato nachos. Super satisfying and filling!
Great dish and easy to make. Love it!
Love your recipes but I print them and the black text boxes are unreadable and use a lot of ink
Hi! I made an update to the colors. Let me know if it’s working better.
How much zest? From one lime?
Yes, the zest from 1 lime! I added a clarification to the recipe — thank you!
I didn’t see in the instructions when you add the cilantro. Can you please clarify? Thank you
Updated! Thank you!