This delicious cilantro lime shrimp recipe is ready in less than 20 minutes and has easily become one of my family’s favorite shrimp recipes!
This cilantro lime shrimp is one of my favorite shrimp recipes. I love classic shrimp scampi with lemon, garlic, and butter, but lately, I’ve fallen for this shrimp with a butter sauce made with fresh cilantro and lime.
This recipe is quick and simple, so you can absolutely make it tonight. It takes less than 20 minutes and requires only a handful of ingredients.
Key Ingredients
- Shrimp: Use fresh, high-quality jumbo or large shrimp. You can keep the tails on or remove them, whichever you prefer.
- Butter: I use butter in two ways in this cilantro lime shrimp recipe. First, I cook the shrimp in it, and then, as it finishes cooking, I swirl in more for a creamy sauce. I do the same when making these seared scallops.
- Garlic: I use 6 garlic cloves for this recipe and love it!Lime: I use the juice and zest of 1 lime for this recipe.
- Cilantro: I use a lot of cilantro! I know not everyone loves it, and if that’s you, don’t worry. You can swap the cilantro for any tender fresh herb like parsley or basil.
- Coriander: It’s optional, but it adds a delicious citrusy flavor to the shrimp. Coriander seeds are the seeds of cilantro.
- Green Onion: It’s also optional, but I love the extra green and flavor it adds.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Cilantro Lime Shrimp
Tip 1: Use lots of garlic. When we crave garlicky shrimp, we go all in. That means we don’t hold back on the amount of garlic in this recipe. We use 6 garlic cloves (sometimes more) for one pound of shrimp.
Tip 2: Use lots of lime. We use the juice and zest of a whole lime. To remove the zest, we use our Microplane (a fine hand grater). It’s quick and easy, plus the tool isn’t expensive.
Tip 3: Make a butter sauce. For the best flavor, cook the shrimp in a little butter, and then as the shrimp finishes cooking, slide the skillet off the heat and swirl in more butter. Since the pan isn’t too hot, the butter melts into a creamy sauce.
Serving Suggestions
These cilantro lime shrimp are perfect served family-style. The shrimp are a bit messy, but that’s a good thing in this case. Serve these by themselves, with pasta (hello garlic cilantro shrimp pasta), over cilantro lime rice, coconut rice, Mexican rice, on top of homemade grits, or wrapped in homemade tortillas. I also love them next to this avocado and cucumber salad.
Recipe Variations
Our recipe is flexible. Although we use garlic, cilantro, and lime in our photos to make the sauce, you don’t need to. You can always take our method and swap the flavors around a bit. Swap lime for lemon and cilantro for parsley. This lemon parsley version is similar to more traditional shrimp scampi. Or try fresh basil, dill, and tarragon. I also highly recommend our cajun butter shrimp!
Cilantro Lime Butter Shrimp
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
I love this garlic shrimp cooked in a creamy cilantro lime butter sauce. Serve this as an appetizer, with pasta, over rice, or in tortillas for tacos. The recipe is easy to adapt. Swap lime for lemon and try other tender herbs like parsley, dill, basil, or tarragon instead of cilantro.
You Will Need
1 pound (450g) extra large shrimp, peeled with tails left on and deveined
1 lime plus a few extra wedges for serving
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
2 tablespoons minced garlic, about 6 cloves
½ teaspoon ground coriander, optional
2 scallions, chopped
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems, chopped
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Directions
- Cook Shrimp
1Pat the shrimp dry, then season it with ¼ teaspoon of salt and fresh ground black pepper.
2Zest the lime using a microplane and set aside. Cut the zested lime in half, ready for the sauce later in the recipe.
3Add one tablespoon of the butter to a wide skillet. Save the remaining two tablespoons for later.
4Place the skillet with butter over medium heat, then add the garlic and coriander. Stir the garlic around the pan until the butter melts and bubbles for about 1 minute.
5Add the shrimp, nestling them into the pan so they are in one layer. A few shrimp stacked on top of each other is okay. Cook until the shrimp starts turning opaque, about 1 minute.
6Stir in the scallions and lime zest. Continue to cook, stirring, until the shrimp are firm and opaque, another 1 to 2 minutes. Slide the skillet off the heat.
7Add the cilantro, lime juice, and the remaining two tablespoons of butter. Stir the butter around the pan to melt into the lime juice, making the creamy butter sauce.
8Taste, then season as needed with salt and pepper. Serve with extra lime wedges on the side.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Lemon garlic butter shrimp: Swap lime for lemon and cilantro for parsley, then follow the recipe as written above. Add a splash of dry white wine at the end for extra flavor.
- How to make spicy cilantro lime shrimp: Add ½ to ¾ teaspoons of crushed red pepper flakes to the pan while adding the garlic.
- Olive oil instead of butter: While the sauce is not creamy, you can substitute olive oil for the butter. You will need one tablespoon to cook the Shrimp and only a light drizzle at the end (about half a tablespoon).
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
Absolutely delicious and I also made your avocado cucumber salad to go with it.
What a great combination!
Delicious…made this recipe as is with only a late add of chunk pineapple. Prepared Jasmine rice in chicken broth, added rinsed black beans and more cilantro/lime juice. Definitely will make this again.
Yum! That sounds delicious 🙂
This recipe was AMAZING! Made it with 4 cloves garlic, no coriander, and less butter. When cooled to warm it was mixed with fresh avocado to make the most incredibly decadent dip. So good!
Interestingly, someone at our gathering also described it as “tastes like summer!”
Omg this tastes like summer or at least a beach vacation. I threw in some leftover buttered green beans and served over leftover knorr Spanish rice and drizzled with hot sauce. Perfect on a gloomy winter night.
I made this recipe the other night and it was wonderful. I did add some pepper flakes as suggested. I just wish I had made more!
Amazing!! Made for tacos with yellow rice, bell peppers and onions.
This was delcious AND easy! I wanted to use up what I have at home and was so grateful to have found this recipe. I will be back to check out other recipes. Many thanks.
I love this type of dish! Quick and easy, but oh so delicious. Since I have also done a similar dish with lemon/garlic butter, I am thinking of making a variation of this recipe next time.I saw another review that mentioned doing the same. I’d like to add some wine and also freshly grated Parmigiano & Pecorino Romano and serve with linguini.I will definitely make it to this recipe again too!
Great recipe – super easy. Served them on tortillas with slices of avocado and they were amazing shrimp tacos.
Fantastic!! My kitchen smelled amazing when preparing and it tasted sooo good! I served it over homemade coconut rice. Wish I could post my picture! Thanks for a great recipe!!
My go-to recipe for shrimp. Easy and delicious! Thanks for the great recipe.
Great! We added a little cayenne. We will definitely make again. Thanks for sharing.
Made this tonight following the recipe exactly and it was a big hit! I try to make a new recipe every night for my wife & daughter, and they both said this was one of the best ones in a long while.
This recipe has been in my family for many years. We add 1/2 cup or so of white wine and include shredded Parmesan cheese to help thicken the sauce. Delicious with rice and slices of avocado.
Completely exceeded my expectations. I thought since it was such a simple recipe it would be simple in taste, however I plan to make this recipe a staple for tacos, over pasta, with rice etc.
This was delicious! Next time will use more butter & more garlic. Served over brown rice.
Thanks for your Shrimp recipes. My 4 year old has developed a taste for Shrimp, so I’m souring some good recipes. I’ll surely try some of these. I’ve quesion about the ingredients of this recipe. You say you use cilantro and chopped coriander in it. Aren’t cilantro and coriander the very same ingredient?
Kids went shrimping last week, so we thawed and cooked the shrimp using this recipe. We like to cook with shells on, so we did and then removed shell as we ate. We threw them in corn tortillas, with cabbage, avocado, cilantro, bit of lime, sprinkled with some queso panels, a bit of red chili garlic sauce, because I add that to everything, and Voilà! A perfect meal!
This was delicious! I made served it with grilled french bread slices to soak up the garlic butter sauce. My husband and I both loved it!!!
Good recipe. Thank you for all the other recipes. So far, so good
OMG – Just made for supper & hubby & I loved it! Thank you for such a great recipe! Served it with celery/onion fried rice and a Papaya Korean Melon Salad with Ginger- Mango Dressing & Mint – Delish!!!
I made these a few nights ago, and they were delicious!!! Only thing I would do different next time is not add as much cilantro. That’s just me though. I will definitely be making these again. Thank you for a great shrimp recipe!
Tired of shrimp and white wine sauce, I discovered your recipe. I had all ingredients listed and served with a thin spaghetti. My husband and I loved it! I would’ve loved to send you a picture as the presentation is beautiful,
I really like that you can make and serve under thirty minutes. Can’t wait to make it for a larger family meal.
PARTY. IN. YOUR. MOUTH. That’s what my husband and I. It’s said after trying this for lunch today. It’s amazing! I subbed some apple cider vinegar just because I didn’t have limes or lemons on hand. Followed all other directions exactly and what a unforgettable dish this was! I served with Brazilian white rice and steamed fresh broccoli. Huge winner for us and I’ll definitely make again soon! Best way I’ve ever cooked shrimp.
Yes! We completely agree with your husband 🙂 Thanks for coming back and sharing, Gloria!
This recipe was a 5 star recipe for sure. We had to make substitutions but it was so delicious. My cilantro was not big enough to harvest so I used flat leaf parsley and oregano. We couldn’t find the coriander so we used Italian herb blend. My lime was so dry I had to add lemon juice. We served it with Pasta and it tasted like something from a fine restaurant. This is something that does not require a high degree of cooking skills but it produces a great product.
Great thinking on your toes for the substitutions. Serving this shrimp with pasta is our favorite way to serve it. It also does well with zucchini noodles.
Wow just made this for dinner, it was delicious and easy to put together. I grilled the shrimp 1st and it was so flavorful!
Flavorful goodness! I just made this and LOVED it! I loaded it on taco shells with greens, tomatoes, sour cream and guacamole. It will be one of my go to recipes. Thanks
Made this for a potluck Christmas lunch at work. So easy to make and jam-packed with fresh and zesty flavours. Will become my go-to prawn recipe from now on.
This site has been instrumental in me and my boyfriend’s endeavor to cook more often and this recipe was a perfect example of why – so easy to make that the level of flavor was surprising! We did it over angel hair with peas. I’d never been super confident cooking shrimp before but these steps make me much more comfortable with it. I only wish fresh shrimp was a little less expensive!
I have made this recipe twice now and my husband and I love it! It’s so flavorful and the lime is what makes this dish. Thank you for sharing.
This sounds delicious. How should I adjust this recipe if I have frozen shrimp?
Hi Alexis, It is best to use fresh or thawed frozen shrimp for this recipe.
Wowwww! I never liked fish and shrimps much but this is so very tasty!!! It’s one of my favourite recipes now, thank you so much from the Netherlands
This looks delish! I think I will try it out on an appie night with my seafood loving friends.