Taking a stab at making the famous Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp from Giovanni's shrimp truck! We tried this local dish when we visited Hawaii years ago and was craving it. It's like a local Hawaiian version of shrimp scampi. The shrimp is full of buttery, garlicky, and spicy flavors. The best part is eating the shrimp with garlic rice!
Ingredients
Servings: 2
1 lb shell-on & deveined Shrimp (we went for the 16-20 count/lb shrimp)
1 Tbsp sweet Paprika
1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper (this is mild - add more if you want more spicy)
1 teaspoon Sea salt
2 medium size head of Garlic (add more if you like), coarsely minced
3 Tbsp Butter
4 Tbsp Avocado oil (separate 1 Tbsp for marinade)
1/2 a lemon
Flour - optional
Instructions
Marinade shrimp with 1 Tbsp avocado oil, paprika, cayenne, sea salt, and 1 Tbsp garlic for 6 hours in the fridge. Reserve the marinade with garlic for later.
In a large skillet, melt 3 Tbsp of butter on low heat. Add 1 Tbsp avocado oil. Throw in garlic & stir frequently. Cook for 3 minutes. Don't burn it (it turns brown) or else it will taste bitter! Set aside the garlic butter.
Add the remaining 2 Tbsp avocado oil to the skillet on medium high heat. Place shrimp into the skillet without over lapping. Cook for 2 minutes. Flip over and cook for 1 minute then pour in reserved marinade along with garlic butter. Cook for another minute on low heat. Squeeze lemon juice into the sauce and mix well. Transfer to a plate, serve with garlic butter with white rice! Enjoy.
Notes
We made a slightly healthier version. The trick is to use less butter and add oil to it. Otherwise, you can make this dish with a lot of butter with no oil (some people add 1/2 a stick to 1 stick of butter).
For a crispier shrimp, dredge it in flour first before pan frying. We skipped the flour and it tasted great too.
You can also season the flour to marinade the shrimp instead. We decided to combine the seasoning to the oil for a wet marinade so the shrimp can soak up the flavors. You can also dredge it in flour after wet marinade before pan frying. If you try either way, let us know what you think!
If you make this recipe, we'd love to see it! Tag us at @NY.Foodie on your stories & posts.