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This Creamy Parmesan Basil Shrimp is a restaurant quality dish you can make at home! Creamy luscious sauce envelops plump shrimp, perfect for serving over pasta, or make it keto and serve with spaghetti squash instead!
The best creamy shrimp recipe
If you are looking for the best creamy shrimp recipe, this is it. Oh my goodness, you guys. So much flavor in this creamy basil sauce – all the best flavors, like garlic, Parmesan, butter, cream. Yes, this is the good stuff, and at least as good as you would get at a restaurant. This Creamy Basil Parmesan Shrimp is perfect for a date night at home, but quick and easy enough to serve on a weeknight.
We served this creamy shrimp over pasta, but it is also the perfect keto shrimp recipe. So to keep it keto and low carb, skip the pasta and serve it with veggies – like spaghetti squash, zucchini noodles (zoodles), or cauliflower mash.
Should you cook with shrimp with the shells on or off?
This is a personal preference. I usually buy frozen, peeled shrimp – so I cook them without the shells. But if you have shrimp with the shells, you can leave them on during the cooking and it will just add more flavor to the dish!
Should you leave the tails on or off when cooking shrimp?
Again this is a personal preference. I leave the tails on, but feel free to remove the tails before cooking if you prefer.
If you like this, you will love these other easy shrimp recipes
Easy Broccoli and Shrimp Stir Fry
Creamy Parmesan Basil Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds shrimp
- 3 tablespoon butter
- 4 large garlic cloves minced
- 1/2 yellow onion finely minced
- 3-4 ounces roasted red peppers thinly sliced.
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves plus more for garnish
- 1 cup fresh grated parmesan
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup white wine (or chicken stock)
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large non stick pan on medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Season shrimp with salt and pepper, then sear, 1-2 minutes on each side, until just pink. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- In the same skillet add 1 tablespoons butter. Add onion, garlic, peppers, paprika, red chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Sauté for about 5 minutes, until onions and peppers are softened.
- Add wine to deglaze the skillet and bring to a gentle simmer until reduced by half.
- Reduce heat to medium low. Add cream to the skillet and stir until a creamy sauce forms. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Add Parmesan, stir until melted into sauce. Stir in basil, simmer until wilted, 1-2 minutes.
- Add shrimp back to the skillet and reheat 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh basil and serve over pasta, zoodles, spaghetti squash.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made this tonight with turkey absolute sausage and it was amazing!
Could I substitute a non-dairy milk for the sauce? I’m lactose intolerant and would like to make it again without the pain.
Hi Lori – I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I haven’t tried a non dairy version so I can’t be sure. You could give it a try, but I don’t think it will be as thick and creamy.
I absolutely loved it. With this quarantine, I was missing seafood dinners. I complemented it with some cheddar biscuits. Thanks for the awesome Recipe
Hi Paige, I am so happy you loved it!
Great recipe! Only part of my crew will eat seafood, so I used chicken breasts instead. I forgot the red pepper flakes and used half and half instead of heavy cream. I realize that makes it a different dish altogether – but it turned out great!
I am so happy to hear it was a hit!
Delicious! Had to substitute the yellow onion with a whole shallot but it still came together wonderfully. We enjoyed it over spaghetti and plan to cook it again 🙂 Thank you!
So glad you loved it Christine!
Looks so yummy. I can’t wait to make this recipe!
It is so hard to find recipes every single person on my family loves and this got 10 out of 10 tonight for all!
Yay! I am so happy to hear that!
I’m about to make this recipe but the store didn’t have fresh basil leaves. I’m using fresh spinach instead. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Phenomenal! I’m a very novice cook and this was simple and delicious. I just used water to deglaze the pan before adding the cream and the sauce was still amazing.
So glad you loved it Derrick!
Easy to prepare and absolutely delicious. I used white wine and was thoroughly pleased with the flavor of the sauce.
So glad to hear that!
Yummy and amazing! We not eat after 19:00, but I my wife take an extra portion!
But…
– The next time I’ll take one half or quater amount of parmesan. Couse it not a cheese in conventional mind, it’s a seasoning.
– Better to “Taste and adjust seasoning” after adding parmesan, not before.
– roasted red pepper,
paprika powder,
red pepper flakes … too many similar ingedients. The next time I’ll not use red pepper flakes.
And again, it’s delicious!
So glad you loved it!
This was one of the best meals I’ve ever made! Absolutely delicious!
Yay! So glad you loved it Bailey!
Simply Amazing. Not my go to spices, which is not easy for me. SO good I couldn’t believe it!
Added andouille sausage as well and served over angel hair pasta. So good! The sauce was delicious.
Sounds delicious, so happy you loved it!
I used one package of regular frozen
shrimps and one package of shrimps with herbs. I also used smoked paprika to add some more flavor. It was sooo delicious!!
So happy you loved it!
Definitely will cook this again. I only had sweet red pepper relish- was delish!
Will pull the tails off while preparing the sauce next time.
So happy you loved it Pam!
Absolutely amazing. Not the ingredients I normally use. And I am still eating it two days later loving it
So happy you loved it Marianne!
Everyone loved it!
So happy to hear that!
This was amazing! Will be making this again and again. My husband loved it! Would be an impressive company meal too!
Yay! So happy you loved it!
This recipe was amazing! Even my 6 year old ate it up. I added spinach and orzo to it and it came out even better. The whole pot was gone.
So happy you and your family loved it. Thanks Samantha!
I loved this dish! So delicious.