Shrimp Tacos

I often reach for easy shrimp dinners on busy weeknights, and I make these fast shrimp tacos all the time! Big juicy shrimp get 15 minutes in a 3-ingredient marinade, then I cook them in a pan until they’re just pink. Pile them into a warm, tender corn tortilla and you’ve got a healthy, easy dinner that’ll please the whole crew. 

These stand alone as dinner with a few tortilla chips on the side, but if you feel like hipping up some guacamole and margaritas to go with your shrimp tacos, then you could even build a pretty terrific dinner party around this recipe! 

Key Shrimp Taco Ingredients

• Shrimp: It can be tricky to buy shrimp, check out our buying guide further down the page. Generally it’s best to look for wild American shrimp, if you can find it. I also often opt for frozen shrimp, just because it can actually be ‘fresher’ than what’s defrosted at the counter.  
• Tortillas: I like warm corn tortillas, but you can use flour tortillas if you prefer. 
• Shredded cabbage: Pre-shredded is fine, or you can do it yourself with a shredding attachment or mandoline slicer. You could shred it a day or two ahead of time, if you’re meal prepping. 

For The Shrimp Taco Marinade

• Fresh lime juice: Not the bottled stuff. 
• Olive oil: Doesn’t need to be extra virgin for this recipe. 
• Taco seasoning: Yes, it’s OK to use store-bought if you want to, but I’m partial to our spice blend recipe. 

The Best Shrimp Taco Sauce

You’re going to love this easy avocado crema! It’s a lighter, healthier riff on traditional Mexican crema. In these tacos, I’ve got it doing double duty! First, you use it to dress the cabbage slaw, and then you’ll use it on the finished shrimp tacos. All you need are:

• Avocado: Ripest you can find! 
• Sour cream: Full fat will make it most delicious, but you could use a vegan brand if you need this recipe to be dairy-free. 
• More lime juice: Like in the shrimp marinade, fresh-squeezed lime juice is best. 
• Garlic: Because of COURSE garlic. 
• Jalapeño: If you want a mild shrimp taco sauce, it’s OK to skip this. Or if you want spicy shrimp tacos, add more!  
• Cilantro: It’s fine to skip cilantro if you don’t like it. 

How to Make Shrimp Tacos

1. Marinate the shrimp in olive oil, lime juice and taco seasoning while you make the slaw and crema. TIP: Don’t leave the shrimp in the marinade for more than 15-20 minutes, it’ll start to “cook” and get tough. 
2. Make the avocado crema! You could make it a few hours before you want to serve this meal, if you need to.  
3. Make the slaw. Toss the cabbage, onion, and fresh cilantro with some of the avocado crema. 
4. Warm the tortillas gently in a skillet or in the oven. 
5. Sauté the shrimp. It should be done in just a few minutes, when the shrimp turn pink. 

How To Store

This recipe does not freeze well, but you can prep the components a day or two ahead of time for even quicker shrimp taco night! Just store the cooked shrimp, the slaw, and the shrimp taco sauce separately in airtight containers in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. Reheat the shrimp gently in a pan, or enjoy the shrimp tacos cold in warmed tortillas. 

Tips For Buying The Best Shrimp

• Know your shrimp sizes: We’re calling for “large” shrimp here, but what does that mean exactly? Large compared to what? Well, the shrimp industry defines shrimp size by how many shrimp it takes to make a pound. So, a label that says “16/20” means that those shrimp are big enough that it only takes 16-20 shrimp to make a pound. For this recipe you want large shrimp, and “large” shrimp are defined by the industry 26-40 shrimp per pound. 
• Fresh vs. frozen shrimp: Almost all shrimp is flash frozen when harvested, and delivered to stores in its frozen state. If you see “fresh shrimp” in the fish case, that’s just because the fishmonger has defrosted those shrimp. 
• When buying frozen shrimp, be sure to check the label and make sure that the only ingredient is “shrimp”. Many brands of frozen shrimp have processed the crustaceans with preservatives to extend their shelf-life. Not only are they not great for your health, these chemical preservatives will dull the flavor of the shrimp. 
• How to buy good-quality shrimp: There are a couple of organizations that certify seafood as sustainable, like the Marine Stewardship Council and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, so you can look for labels that carry a seal from either of these organizations.

Quick and Easy You Say? We’ve Got You!

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