This Hot Honey Shrimp recipe will knock your socks off with its flavor! The combination of sweet and spicy hot honey is amazing with shrimp. This recipe is ready in 10 minutes, and is perfect for serving over rice with veggies, on tacos, or as an appetizer.
Spicy honey shrimp can be made gluten-free with one easy ingredient swap: using gluten-free soy sauce.
You're going to LOVE this recipe if you love:
- A combination of flavors in your mouth - this shrimp is sweet, just-a-little spicy, and so delicious!
- Easy no-fuss 10-minute dinners (YESS!)
- Versatile recipes that can be served many different ways. We LOVE this honey shrimp over rice with veggies, over tortillas with a little guacamole (that sweet & savory combo is amazeballs!), or as an appetizer for parties or before dinner
Related recipe: Hot Honey Chicken
Hot honey - the new condiment you NEED to try!
Hot honey is honey that has been infused with peppers and has a really great spicy honey flavor.
It's the hottest new thing in condiments and ingredients (no pun intended), and we are OBSESSED WITH IT!! We have hot honey in all shapes and sized: These squeeze bottles, and these adorable mini jars (which might have made it into a few holiday gift bags we gave our friends because they are just too cute!)
The honey is pretty spicy on its own, but it tastes mildly spicy when combined with other ingredients.
We are loving hot honey on:
- Chicken
- Fried shrimp & waffles (see my Instagram post!)
- On toast with peanut butter
- Over ice cream (YES!!)
- Over cottage cheese
- As a flavor booster in these peach preserves and BBQ sauce meatballs
So it was a no-brainer for me to make a quick hot honey stir fry with this stuff.
Related recipe: Easy Shrimp and Avocado Tostadas
Homemade hot honey
I recommend getting hot honey here on Amazon so you can quickly and easily drizzle it over everything.
But if you don't want to order it, you can simply add a pinch of cayenne pepper to regular honey to give it some spice. I can't tell you exactly how much pepper to add because it really depends on your spice tolerance. Start with just a small pinch, since you can always add more to the honey or to the final dish if you want it spicier, but you can't undo it.
But back to this shrimp recipe!! Ready to give it a try?!
Related recipe: Slow Cooker Honey Chicken
Related recipe: Sheet Pan Shrimp Fajitas
Ingredients:
- 1 lb uncooked shrimp (peeled and deveined, tails on or off - your choice)
- Salt and pepper to season the shrimp
- 3 tablespoons hot honey (that's about 1.5 of these mini jars)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (if you're gluten-free, use gluten-free soy sauce, or if you're avoiding soy, substitute coconut aminos)
- 1 tablespoon lime juice (that's about ½ lime)
- 1 clove garlic, minced (or about ¼ teaspoon garlic powder)
- 1 tablespoon oil or butter of your choice (I love salted garlic herb butter or this toasted sesame oil for cooking shrimp and adding extra flavor, but regular salted butter or olive oil are great too!)
Ideas for serving:
- Chopped scallions
- Toasted sesame seeds
- Cooked rice (start cooking the rice before starting the shrimp, because this shrimp recipe is so quick!!). I love my Instant Pot for quickly making rice. It makes fool-proof rice every time. (1:1 rice:water ratio, 4 minutes high pressure, NPR for 5 minutes, then release pressure and stir to fluff and remove the inner pot immediately so it doesn't clump up)
- Stir-fried veggies, such as broccoli, zucchini, carrots, snow peas (see below for instructions for adding veggies tot this dish)
- Mini street tacos and guacamole (try making your own flour tortillas!)
- Extra hot honey for drizzling
Related recipe: Honey Ginger Garlic Wings
Instructions:
Make sure you read the all the instructions and prepare all your ingredients, because this recipe cooks FAST!!
Step 1: Pat the shrimp dry with a paper towel. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Step 2: In a small bowl, combine the hot honey, soy sauce, lime juice, and garlic to make a sauce. Mix well.
Step 3: Preheat a large skillet over high heat. Add the oil or butter and allow to heat through / melt. Add the shrimp and allow to cook on one side undisturbed.
Step 4: Add the hot honey sauce and immediately flip the shrimp. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the shrimp for 1 minute, or until fully cooked.
Step 5: Remove the shrimp from the skillet. Continue to simmer the honey sauce for another minute, until it thickens. Lower the heat if it stars to burn!!
Serve by pouring the thickened honey sauce over the shrimp.
Want to add some hot honey stir-fried veggies to this dish?
Sliced zucchini, yellow squash, grated/julienned carrot, and/or snow peas can be added to the skillet in step 5 after you remove the shrimp. Just stir fry the veggies in the sauce for a few minutes. Lower the heat to make sure the sauce does not burn, or add a splash of water.
If you want to add some broccoli florets, I recommend blanching or steaming the broccoli first (or cook them in the microwave for 2-3 minutes) because broccoli takes a little longer to cook. Then add the broccoli florets to the sauce in step 5 and cook for a few minutes.
Craving more sticky-sweet saucy recipes? Try this Air Fryer Orange Chicken!
Other shrimp recipes you will love:
Other sweet and savory recipes to try:
If you enjoyed this recipe, let me know with a comment and a star rating below. And don't forget to share it on Facebook and save it on Pinterest for later!
Hot Honey Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 lb uncooked shrimp - peeled and deveined (tails on or off - your choice!)
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil - or garlic herb butter or sesame oil
- 3 tablespoon hot honey
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce - see notes for gluten-free option
- 1 clove garlic - minced (or ¼ teaspoon garlic powder)
- 1 tablespoon lime juice - (from ½ lime)
- Chopped scallions for garnish, rice & veggies for serving, or tortillas and guacamole
Instructions
- Season the shrimp lightly with salt and pepper.
- In a small bowl, combine the hot honey, soy sauce, minced garlic, and lime juice to make a sauce. Mix well.
- Preheat a large skillet over high heat. Add the olive oil (or butter or sesame oil) to the skillet. Add the shrimp and allow to sear on one side for 1 minute.
- Add the hot honey sauce and flip the shrimp one by one. Cook the shrimp for another minute, or until fully cooked.
- Remove the shrimp from the skillet. If you want, you can continue to simmer the sauce for a minute until it thickens.
- Pour the sauce over the shrimp to serve, garnishing with chopped scallions or cilantro, and drizzling with extra hot honey on top.
Notes
- If you want to stir-fry some veggies with the hot honey sauce, add them in after removing the shrimp from the pan in step 5. Lower the heat so the sauce doesn't burn. I like to add sliced zucchini or yellow squash, grated carrots and snow peas, or lightly steamed broccoli. They all cook in just a few minutes in the sauce!
- For a gluten-free shrimp, use gluten-free soy sauce or coconut aminos.
Nutrition
The nutritional information displayed is an estimate and not to be used as dietary or nutritional advice. Consult a nutritionist or dietician for nutritional info based on the exact ingredients you use.
Stephanie
Thursday 11th of January 2024
tasty and simple, loved this over rice and steamed broccoli drizzled with hot honey sauce.
B. Heltzel
Tuesday 25th of April 2023
Total smash hit this recipe was. Paired it with Coconut Rice. Finished bowls so clean they looked as if they just came from the dishwasher. The Hot Honey sauce would work well with chicken too!
Kate
Wednesday 26th of April 2023
Thanks so much for taking a minute to leave a comment! And yes, I have a Hot Honey Chicken recipe on this site too, look it up, you'll love it!
Mac
Thursday 24th of February 2022
Can I make this recipe using raw honey and adding cayenne pepper or a hot chili sauce instead. Looking forward to your response.
Kate
Friday 25th of February 2022
Yes! If your raw honey is the thick kind and it doesn't pour, you might need to melt it or combine it with soy sauce to get it to be more saucy