We love curry around here. And we love shrimp. I have a recipe for Shrimp Stir-Fry with Coconut Curry Sauce that is divine and marries the two flavors but is more of a, well, stir-fry, as the name implies, versus this new curry recipe that channels a stew-like flavor and style.
Extremely simple to prepare, and quick, too, the combination of sultry, deep spices with the creamy coconut milk and tender shrimp is beyond what words can describe. This, to me, is pure comfort food. We ate it over basmati rice and although we sopped up the saucy curry with delicate pieces of naan, you could easily serve this in a bowl, just like the Coconut Curry Soup. Methinks I should really seek help for my love of all things coconut and curry.
And finally, if you are averse to shrimp, I actually believe chicken would make a great substitution here OR leave it out completely for a vegetarian dish. Make this! Love this! Don’t be scared of the flavors if you haven’t cooked Indian food a lot – I just know you’ll adore the subtle, delicious flavors! And please invite me over when you serve it up.
One Year Ago: Pineapple Salsa Chicken {Slow Cooker}
Two Years Ago: Tortellini Spinach Salad with Balsamic-Tomato Vinaigrette
Three Years Ago: Quick and Delicious Clam Chowder
Coconut Shrimp Curry
Printable Version with Picture
Printable Version
*Serves 6
INGREDIENTS:
For the shrimp marinade:
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)
1-2 pounds large or extra-large shrimp, peeled and deveined
For the sauce:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 medium red or yellow onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger, from about a 1-inch peeled piece of ginger
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can coconut milk, light or regular
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Hot cooked rice for serving, if desired
DIRECTIONS:
For the simple shrimp marinade, toss the shrimp with the salt, pepper, cayenne and lemon juice in a resealable large bag or in a bowl. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium-sized pot, heat the canola oil over medium heat until rippling and hot. Add the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the pepper, ginger, salt, garlic, coriander, turmeric and curry powder. Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture is very fragrant and the onion is soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add the undrained tomatoes to the pot and cook, stirring and scraping up the browned bits from the bottom, for about 1 minute. Increase the heat to medium-high and simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring often. Add the coconut milk, stirring to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil and add the shrimp and any accumulated juices from the marinade. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook until the shrimp are curled, lightly pink and cooked through, about 2-4 minutes. Stir in the cilantro. Serve over hot, cooked rice, if desired.
Recipe Source: adapted from American Masala by Suvir Saran – a great find I checked out at my local library
{ 57 comments… read them below or add one }
Yum…I love a good curry, too. I like the marinade beforehand, too.
This looks fantastic!
That looks delicious. I’m gonna have to give it a go very soon!!!
We add shrimp to the coconut curry soup, so I’m sure we’d like this one!
This curry looks scrumptious, and I love that you think chicken would be a good sub for the shrimp! I can’t wait to try this!
I haven’t made many things with curry but I really enjoy shrimp so I bet this is delicious, like everything else you make!
Mel. . . I don’t know you, but I sure do love you!! This looks AMAZING, hooray for curry! Thank you for all of your hard work in sharing your recipes with us, you have no idea how much it helps!
Glad you think chicken will work in this too. I love shrimp and curry, but my husband’s not such a fan of shrimp. Thanks for sharing this – I can’t wait to try it!
This looks delicious, I bet it would be great with tofu as well!
I REALLY like it when you mention foods that are good to serve with your recipe you spotlight. The Coconut Shrimp Curry looks wonderful, but by mentioning naan to serve with it makes it even more exciting! I try most your recipes, and many times I wonder what would be good to serve with it.
…and that’s what’s for dinner. (just answering the question I’ve been mulling over) Thanks Mel!
I love all of your curry recipes and was just thinking I needed a new one! My family loves anything shrimp or curry, so this is perfection!
Can’t wait to give it a try!
I am so excited to try this, I had chicken curry on a trip once and loved it, I tried making some a while back and it didn’t tun out. I’ll be making it with chicken, I haven’t been able to convert my husband to shrimp. Thanks for all your wonderful recipes, we have loved every one we have tried!
My hubby is allergic to shellfish. . .so I’m glad you commented that this would be a good chicken dish too.
Yum. Can’t wait to try it!!!
I like shrimp (it is the only thing that swims that I will eat), but the rest of my family would turn their cute little noses up at the shrimp and I honestly don’t even know how or what kind of shrimp to buy! I stick to your 4 main meat groups: pig, chicken, turkey and cow
That being said I REALLY wanted to try this (shrimp version!) and was going to ask for help in cooking/buying the shrimp, but instead I’m going to chicken out and make the chicken 
Curry on!!!
Holy crow- HEAVEN. We made tonight and major hit! My 8 year old called it the ‘best dinner ever’, my husband has already requested it again next week and stolen the left-overs for lunch tomorrow and even more heroic- my 4 year old ate rice for the first time ever without . . . returning it (to put it nicely). . b/c the sauce on it was-s0-darn-fabulous. Mel- you rule. Really. Off to meal plan so more from your site!
Oh, my…my oh, my, oh my…if it weren’t nearly 10:00pm I think I might have to go to the grocery store IMMEDIATELY so that I could make this tonight. In face I may have to go tomorrow, because I can’t wait too terribly long to try this! By the way, I am still literally dreaming of the chocolate cake recipe that you shared and that I made for my husband’s birthday last month (actually, I’ve been trying to come up with a legitimate excuse to make it AGAIN.) I’m hooked on the cake and your site – thank you!!
Just bought the ingredients. Can’t wait to make it. So how many oz is a can of Coconut milk? I just bought the 1/2 gallon (all I could find).
Well…we had it for dinner…and may have it for breakfast because it was so incredibly good. WOW! So so so tasty. Thanks, Mel. This recipe was awesome!
Alisha – the can of coconut milk I use is probably right around 14 ounces – similar size to a can of diced tomatoes, maybe a tad smaller.
this looks fantastic! I’m going to give this a try tonight. I have a question for you though, is this spicy at all? Do you have any suggestions as to add a little kick to this recipe? Thanks so much for sharing!
I love how much sauce is in this dish, perfect to sop up with some rice!
I made this tonight with chickens instead of shrimp and I also made your naan recipe, we loved it, and the naan dipped in the curry sauce was soooooo. . . good! Our house doesnt care for alot of (aka hardly any) spice so this was great, a little but not to much. Thanks for yet another amazing recipe!
This was out-of-this-world delicious. I don’t know who wants to thank you more, my husband or me! He says it’s the best dish I’ve made to date. We cannot wait to eat it all up tomorrow. I’m sure the leftovers will be dynamite. Mel, you rock!
This was tonight’s dinner. It was all I could do not to lick the plate. We are still fighting over the leftovers. Yum!! Thanks so much for sharing your recipes and talent.
This was delicious! The only thing I would do different is use more shrimp. The recipe calls for 1-2 pounds. I only used 1 pound, but will use 2 pounds next time. I liked the spicy flavor of it–my husband thought it was delicious. I even used lite coconut milk, which made it healthier and didn’t seem to compromise the taste.
I second Brea’s question about the spice! This recipe sounds reminiscent of Panang Curry, one of my favorite dishes, but last time I made it for my family they all protested that it was too hot!
I wonder what kinds of vegetables would go well with this… maybe broccoli and cauliflower?
I ended up following this recipe exactly except added a little bit extra curry powder which made it a tad more spicy which my family loves. I made this for my mom and I last night, along with Mel’s sweet & sour chicken (which is seriously also to die for. better than take out sweet & sour chicken). The only thing I will do different with the curry next time is add less fresh cilantro, but that’s just because I’m not a huge cilantro fan. Thanks again Mel for this amazing recipe. I will definitely be following your blog and adding these two dishes to my routine!
Brea (and Lisa) – sorry I didn’t get back to you yesterday! I didn’t think this meal was spicy at all when I made it but I was using a mild curry powder. That really is the main factor in the recipe that will add spice so a mild curry will give flavor but low spice, whereas a hot curry powder (like Hot Madras Curry) will give it some kick. If you are deliberately trying to add spice/kick, a pinch or more of cayenne would be fabulous, or some crushed red pepper. Glad you ended up loving it, Brea!
Lisa – cauliflower would be divine with this – that’s one of my favorite components of Indian food…cauliflower in a lot of the recipes!
This looks absolutely divine! I can’t wait to try it. Thanks for sharing.
Reporting back: I made this tonight with chicken, a real chopped tomato (had none canned), summer squash, and substituted some ground mustard for the coriander. It was fantastic!
The flavors were more “toasty” than panang curry and didn’t feel too spicy at all. This was really versatile, and I can easily see myself just dropping vegetables in it from my fridge I need to use up!
I tried this curry because it looked so good! It was good. Just be careful not to add too much lemon. I added lemon from a whole lemon, which looked like more than two tablespoons (it was a juicy lemon!) and it was a little overpowering. Other than that, which was my fault for not measuring, it was great. Really fresh tasting.
Made this tonight and it was super yummy! Hit the spot! I have a coconut and curry addiction to. This was by far the best homemade curry I have made. Thanks!
I adore curry, but my husband does not. Maybe I could convert him with this recipe!
So Mel, we must be BFF’s since you are talked about in our home each night. It goes something like this, “Mom, what’s for dinner from Mel’s site?” And it seems like we like so many of the same things, such as this recipe. How yummy! Even though it was just me following a recipe , when I took the first bite, I was so proud of myself for the deliciousness I had created. So have that sweet baby, pack her up, and head out to CT. We’ll run up to King Arthur Flour and have ourselves a grand ole’ time. (They have the most yummy deli and baked goods!)
Help me! I want to make this recipe so much, but I haven’t so much as obtained cocktail shrimp at the butcher counter before. I’m a little intimidated by seafood in general…so which shrimp do you buy? The grey ones with scary looking legs, or the pink ones? I assume the grey ones are uncooked, but that whole “peeling and deveining thing seems like it might be above my area of expertise. Any advice? Thanks!
Shauna – you can do it! Let’s see, because I live in the middle of landlocked USA, nowhere near fresh seafood, I always buy the frozen shrimp (I buy them at Sam’s Club, usually, but they are widely available in most grocery stores). Pink shrimp are already cooked and you don’t want those or else they’ll be rubbery and gross by the end of this recipe. I grab the bags of gray UNCOOKED, DEVEINED shrimp. Once they have thawed (overnight in the fridge), I quickly peel them and take the tails off (the peels come right off with a little grab) and then use them accordingly in the recipe. Don’t buy shrimp that still have the vein in them – I’ve done that before and it is a messy and nasty process getting it out. All bags of shrimp should be labeled whether the shrimp are deveined or not (most are) and the peeling is a cinch, I promise. Good luck!
Thanks for sharing your tastey talents.
Made this tonight after seeing it – It was so delicious! I have never made curry before and love coconut and shrimp, so this was the perfect combination for me. It was just the right amount of curry, not too overbearing! My boyfriend said he loved it
I will definitely be using this again!
I can’t find coriander! Any suggestions? Thanks! Sherri
Sherri – I’m surprised you can’t find coriander, that’s a bummer! Do you have Walmart? I know they carry it (at least in my neck of the woods), as well as my other main grocery stores. If you can’t find it, I’d probably increase the curry by a teaspoon. It will change the flavor slightly by not having it but will still be delicious.
Made this last night for dinner and it was a HUGE hit!! So delicious!!
Mel I know you’re drowning in a plethora of comments. But I can’t not share how incredible it was. Oh ma word. You made me look like a gourmet chef! Thank you, thank you.
Oh my goodness! This was SO good!! Definitely a forever keeper!! I used 2 lbs of shrimp and I’m SO glad. Yum. Mine was quite a bit salty and I think it’s because I used 1 T. of COARSE kosher salt in the sauce. I never can remember the ratio of coarse compared to table salt. Please advise?? Should I have used 1/2 T? Or just 1 T. of table salt?
Joyce – glad you loved this! Coarse kosher salt versus table salt can be a bit confusing – they have the exact same properties (as far as sodium content) but the difference is that the coarse salt fills up the measuring spoon differently because of the large grains so I generally start with half as much kosher coarse salt if subbing it for table salt and work up from there, by taste. Hope that helps!
I made this last night and I hate to put anything negative because I love all your recipes but this was WAY TOO salty. I should have gone with my gut when putting in a T. of salt. It seemed like too much and it was. I will probably make this again but not add nearly enough salt. We ate it, but I was super disappointed that this great dish was ruined by too much salt. Maybe you can put an alternative measurement for table salt versus kosher salt?
Natalie – what kind of salt did you use? Table salt?
Table salt and kosher salt (coarse or fine) has the same amount of sodium content, however, because the grains differ in size, when you measure, you usually get more salt per teaspoon or tablespoon using a finer salt (like table salt) than you do using a coarse salt. I always use coarse kosher salt, so if you are going to use table salt in its place, start with half the amount and increase by taste.
I found a chart on Morton’s website that gives some basic conversions. You can use it as a guideline but let taste be the real deciding factor. Sorry it was so salty!
http://www.mortonsalt.com/salt_guide/index.html#conversion_chart
And actually, I looked back at my comment response to Joyce and realized I had misspoke in my comment because I made it sound like I use half the amount of coarse salt when converting a recipe from table salt – it’s actually the other way around. I start with half the amount of the finer salt and work up. But either way, whenever I use a different kind of salt than stated in a recipe, I always start smaller than the recipe indicates just to be careful I don’t oversalt.
DELICIOUS! I made it tonight and I’ve never had better curry! I love that I can just jump in and make your recipes and they work! I had purchased the pink frozen shrimp that is precooked. I didn’t know about using the gray raw shrimp instead. But it was really good; I didn’t have any problem with my shrimp. I used Mae Ploy coconut milk. I find it at my local Asian grocery store. It is a bigger can (19 oz) and thicker milk than the brands that my regular grocery store stocks. I always use Mae Ploy now. Last comment, I didn’t have any turmeric, but I made it anyway, and it was fabulous!
This was so gooooooooood! I just love your recipes. Thanks for doing your blog.
Mel…you have out done yourself!! I made this last night using chicken. I absolutely love curry, but my husband isn’t a fan, let’s just say that after eating this, he was fighting me for the leftovers! I think next time I will be making a double batch!!
Thanks for all the great recipes.
This looks so good! I wanted to let you know that I featured this in my “What I Bookmarked This Week” post today. Stop by and see!
I did make this with table salt and 1 T. was way too much. I will say that although it was salty the first go around, my husband requested it again with less salt. We made it last week again and it turned out great!
I know you already have a million comments but wanted to say thanks for a great recipe! I love coconut and curry together but usually my husband doesn’t. Tonight he thought this one was fabulous. There were enough other spices so the coconut was not overpowering. I added some sweet bell peppers when cooking the onions and added some red pepper flakes to make it more spicy. Thanks for always being my go to site for great food!
Awesome recipe but wayyy to hot for my delicate mouth. How can I tone down the spiciness yet keep the flavor? TIA!
Sandra – what kind of curry powder did you use? The other flavors/spices are mild in the recipe – they don’t add heat so it seems to me that perhaps the curry powder you are using is on the spicy side of things (like a Hot Madras curry powder). That’s probably the main way to change up the spiciness, either add less curry or use a mild curry powder with less kick. Hope it works out better if you make it again!
Just wanted to update and say that I made this tonight and added cauliflower after the onions had browned but before the liquids, sautéed them a bit, then followed everything else. It was fantastic! It added a bit more substance to go with the shrimp and a veggie punch to boot. I also felt like mine was missing a bit of something, so I dashed some cumin in there as well. So delicious! Thank you for all of the work you do to basically plan my weekly dinners for me!
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