Our favorite shrimp ceviche recipe combines lightly poached shrimp with lime juice, lemon juice, and avocado. It’s fresh, healthy, and delicious.
The moment I learned how to successfully make incredible shrimp ceviche at home, I was hooked. Ceviche is a dish popular throughout the coastal areas of Mexico, Central, and South America. It’s made with raw seafood “cooked” in citrus juices.
This shrimp turns out incredibly fresh and delicious. It’s happy food! We both love it served with homemade tortilla chips or plantain chips. If you love this, don’t miss our pickled shrimp, which takes a similar approach, but calls for more of a tangy, herb, and lemon flavor profile.
Key Ingredients
- Shrimp: Fresh-caught shrimp is best, but since it isn’t always accessible, we’ve adapted this recipe to gently poach store-bought or previously frozen shrimp for safety. Your ceviche will still be excellent! (If you do have access to trustworthy fresh-caught or sashimi-grade shrimp, see the tips section below for how to use them raw.)
- Citrus: I use a mix of freshly squeezed lime and lemon juice. Bottled juice just doesn’t compare here. Fresh really is best!
- Red Onion: You can use any onion, but red onion adds beautiful color. If you are sensitive to raw onion, don’t worry, the citrus juice “pickles” the onion slightly, toning down the sharpness.
- Cucumber: This adds a nice fresh crunch. I recommend peeling it and removing any seeds before dicing so your ceviche doesn’t get watered down. Or use a seedless variety, such as Hot House or Persian cucumbers.
- Chile Peppers: These add heat. Use as much or as little as you like. In our photos, we used a mix of Jalapeño and Fresno peppers. (Tip: For less heat, remove the seeds and white membrane before mincing.)
- Cilantro: This adds color and fresh flavor. If you aren’t a fan, feel free to substitute with fresh parsley or just leave it out.
- Avocado: Optional, but delicious! We stir diced avocado in right before serving so it stays creamy and bright green.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Shrimp Ceviche
Tip 1: Poach the shrimp. It may seem odd, but we lightly poach the shrimp before mixing it with the citrus juices. Authentic ceviche often skips this step, but recipes usually assume you are starting with fresh-caught raw shrimp. Since most of us buy shrimp from the store, we include this extra step for safety (poaching eliminates potential bacteria).
To do it, bring salted water to a boil, add your shrimp, remove the pot from the heat immediately, and let the shrimp poach until just cooked (2 to 3 minutes, tops). Then, spread the shrimp into one layer on a plate to cool.
Tip 2: Use a non-reactive bowl. Since there is so much citrus juice in this recipe, use a glass, stainless steel, or ceramic bowl (avoid aluminum or copper).
Whisk the lime juice, lemon juice, and salt together first so the salt dissolves. Then, add the cucumber, onion, chile peppers, cilantro, and poached shrimp. Since the shrimp is already cooked, you only need to marinate them long enough to pick up that fresh, citrusy flavor. We recommend at least 30 minutes, but no more than 4 hours, or the acidic citrus juices will start to toughen the shrimp.
Tip 3: Add avocado right before serving. When you are ready to serve, fold in diced avocado, add some homemade tortilla chips on the side, and dig in!
More Shrimp Recipes
Easy Shrimp Ceviche
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Our favorite shrimp ceviche combines lightly poached shrimp with lime juice, lemon juice, and avocado. The shrimp are best served the day you make it.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
1 pound extra-large shrimp, peeled and deveined (450g)
1 cup diced cucumber
¼ medium red onion, finely minced
2 chile peppers, deseeded and minced, like Fresno, serrano, or jalapeño
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
¾ cup freshly squeezed lime juice, from 6 to 7 limes (177ml)
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, from 1 to 2 lemons (60ml)
1 medium avocado, diced
Directions
1Poach the shrimp: Fill a pot with 2 quarts of water and add 2 tablespoons of salt. Bring the water to a boil, add the peeled and deveined shrimp, and immediately remove the pot from the heat. Leave the shrimp in the poaching liquid until just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. You can tell when the shrimp is cooked when it’s firm and opaque throughout.
2Cool the shrimp: Use a slotted spoon to transfer the shrimp to a large plate or baking sheet to cool. (Spreading them out helps them stop cooking faster). When the shrimp are cool enough to handle, remove the tails (if there are any) and chop the meat into bite-sized pieces.
3Make ceviche: Add the cucumber, onion, minced chile peppers, cilantro, and chopped shrimp to a large, non-reactive bowl (glass, stainless steel, and ceramic bowls are perfect). Pour over the citrus juices and a pinch of salt. Toss well, then press the shrimp down into the liquid as much as possible. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours.
4Serve: Just before serving, stir in the avocado. Taste and season with salt if necessary.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Why we poach the shrimp: Since most of us buy shrimp from the grocery store, we incorporate a quick poaching step to eliminate potential bacteria. It’s a simple safety measure that ensures the ceviche is safe to eat without compromising flavor. However, if you have access to very fresh, high-quality shrimp (like fresh-caught or sashimi-grade), feel free to skip the poaching step!
- Using raw shrimp: If you have very fresh shrimp, you can skip the poaching step and allow the citrus juices to “cook” the shrimp. Cut the shrimp into small pieces (no larger than ½ inch). Cover the shrimp with the citrus juice. Use enough juice to cover the shrimp and allow them to float freely (this might require a bit more juice than called for in our recipe). If there is not enough juice, the shrimp will cook unevenly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until the shrimp is “cooked” through.
- Using precooked shrimp: You can use precooked shrimp if you prefer, but our method for poaching the shrimp is quick and ensures perfectly cooked, seasoned shrimp.
- Spicy ceviche: You can leave some or all of the chile pepper seeds or add a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce.
- Non-reactive bowl: Since we are using citrus juice, use a non-reactive bowl (glass, stainless steel, and ceramic are perfect; avoid aluminum or copper).
- The nutritional information provided are estimates.
I made it tonight with homemade fajitas and WOW me and my daughter loved it so good and just enough tang and saltiness this was an amazing addition to the fajitas and put just a little bit in a butter leaf lettuce and did a lettuce wrap SO GOOD.. THANK YOU THE only thing I did different was use 2 lbs of shrimp
Thank you Joanne and Adam for this simple and delicious prawn ceviche recipe. Since I prefer to cook the prawns rather than leave them raw, my prefered way is to just wash and toss the prawns in a pan with a bit of salt and keep tossing them around till its own moisure comes out and they get gently cooked when they curl and turn pink.
So happy you found out recipe! Thank you for coming back.
The shrimp ceviche is just what I was looking for since I am not comfortable using raw fish. May I be a bit cheeky and tell you what I do with the shrimp. I clean it thoroughly and put it directly into a small pan and keep tossing it about till it curls and takes on the pink look to indicate that it is cooked. No over cooking as the shrimp will emanate some liquid. After cooling I use it in salads, after draining the excess liquid which can be used elsewhere. Thank you again for your easy, simple and delicious recipes.
OMG!! This was divine! My husband and I are eating Raw for 21 days and I was looking for more recipes when I came across your ceviche recipe. I already had frozen shrimp, so I was eager to try this. I made it last night and it was so delicious. My husband doesn’t eat shrimp so he did not eat any, but this was the best ceviche I’ve ever tasted. I added cucumbers and followed the recipe for the other items. I wanted tortilla chips so bad, but I resisted. Will be making again!
It sounds delicious I will be making it soon. I’m fortunate to live in the Pacific Northwest with fresh fish all the time! looking forward to more of your recipes!
Tasty! Delicious! Amazing! One of the best recipes I’ve ever made…and so easy! Thank You!!
Can’t wait to make this tomorrow…thanks for the great recipes
Looking forward to making the ceviche.
Made this for a late summer dinner and it was so amazing, my family ate it before I could take a pic! Thank you for sharing your recipe!! We will be making it again!
Can you substitute store bought ‘cooked’ shrimp?? Thx…
Hi there, You can use cooked shrimp in this recipe, however, we do feel that starting with raw shrimp will produce a better result. I often find that store-bought shrimp lack flavor and tend to be overcooked. Starting with raw shrimp does not add too much additional time, but let’s be honest, we all need a short-cut from time to time! Happy cooking.
I made this recipe last night and everyone loved it. It was great only one thing I did not make enough.
This was so easy and DELICIOUS! It looked really pretty too. I served it with tortilla soup. Ole!
Loved the blue cheese dressing gonna try this soon
It doesn’t say how much red onion
Thank you for catching that. All fixed!