Best Dang Shrimp Creole

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This classic Shrimp Creole is the perfect eat and my favorite weeknight & weekend savior. It’s my “quick and easy” go-to recipe that works equally for easy dinners, long lazy Sunday brunches as well as fancy dinners to wow my friends and families.

I loooooove being able to effortlessly add the flavors of the Deep South to my dishes with minimal effort and minimal prep and basic cooking techniques. And this recipe is delicious whether you serve on top of rice or turn it into a traditional creole shrimp and grits meal.

What Is Shrimp Creole?

Spicy Creole sauce, along with its various other names (aka red gravy, creole tomato sauce, and sauce piquant) is a staple found in southern cuisine as well as Caribbean cuisine, with tomatoes cooked with the holy trinity of flavor in cajun and creole cooking of onions, bell peppers, celery and spices.

And shrimp creole is simply shrimp cooked in this delicious sauce. Folks, trust me when I say that this tasty aromatic Creole shrimp recipe truly brings the best of both those worlds.

Ps if you love this then try this Jamaican Steamed Cabbage and this Smothered Potatoes or this easy Smothered Cabbage.

an easy Southern Squash Casserole or my favorite Jamaican Oxtail Stew.

Why Make This Recipe

• Easy – this one pot flavorful meal comes together in under 30 minutes.
• One dish – makes a great time saving one pot meal .
• Affordable – it requires just a few everyday affordable ingredients and can easily be doubled or tripled to feed a crowd. Plus, it’s an ideal way to use up your leftover tomatoes or leftover shrimp.
• Prep Ahead – a great make-ahead and freeze dish for when you need to grab something quick for dinner.

P.S. if you are interested – Creole Cuisine, which originated in Louisiana (thank you peeps) is my kind of cooking, as it is a mish-mash of African, Amerindian, French, Haitian, Spanish and southern cooking. This means aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the best finger-licking flavors and then some.

Ingredient Notes

• Oil – use rapeseed oil / canola oil.
• Vegetables – this recipe calls for onion finely, celery stalk and red bell pepper  (or green bell pepper) finely chopped.
• Broth – use vegetable broth or chicken broth if you prefer.
• Seasoning – this recipe gets it flavor from various herbs and spices like garlic cloves crushed, cayenne pepper, creole seasoning (or cajun seasoning), salt and black pepper.
• Tomatoes – this calls for diced tomatoes without any extra flavorings.
• Flavorings – this recipe gets it flavoring from fresh lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, tomato purée, melted butter
• Shrimp – large shrimp peeled and deveined. Authentic recipes would use Gulf Shrimp, but use the best quality ones you can get.

How To Make Shrimp Creole

Get complete ingredients list and instructions in recipe card below.

1. Heat oil in a saucepan or large skillet on medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and peppers and sauté for about 5 minutes until soft.
2. Add garlic, chili, creole seasoning, and cayenne pepper and cook for about 30 seconds and stir until fragrant.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, stock, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, tomato purée, and butter. Allow to boil, then reduce heat and simmer, with the lid ajar, for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the sauce has slightly thickened (feel free to simmer for a further 5 or so minutes if you want your sauce to reduce more).
4. Add shrimp and cook for up to 5 minutes until the shrimp is cooked through.
5. Switch off the heat and serve with some steamed rice.

Yeap, easy shrimp creole to the rescue just like you would have in the streets of New Orleans.

Recipe Tips

• You can prep the stewed tomatoes sauce ahead of time and store it in the fridge.
• Use a sharp knife to cut your veggies up nice and small so that they cook quickly.
• The flavor really develops over time, so best to prep ahead a few hours before serving.
• For best results use fresh shrimp but alternatively use frozen shrimp that you defrost just before cooking.
• Make your life easier by buying peeled and deveined shrimp for cooking.
• Top with some sliced green onions.

Delicious Variations

This recipe is sooooo as good as is, but you can easily mix and match herbs, spices, and other ingredients to suit your taste. And they don’t even have to be creole, just things that will pack this dish full of flavor such as:

• You can use fire-roasted tomatoes if you prefer some extra flavor.
• For more heat add in some hot sauce (or use instead of cayenne pepper).
• Vary herbs and spice – dried basil, dried oregano, dried thyme, bay leaves, fresh cilantro etc.
• Feel free to melt butter along with heating to oil.
• Feel free to add chicken stock or vegetable stock instead of broth.
• Fried bacon (you all seriously need to try this!) and sausage too.
• Feel free to add in other seafood like scallops or fish.

Meal Prep and Prep Ahead

This recipe was practically made for meal prep and prepping ahead. 

• Prep Ahead – The best thing you can do is whip up the sauce and store it in the fridge for a day or two beforehand. Warm it up before adding in the shrimp and cooking till pink.
• Store – Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days. 
• Freeze – You can freeze the sauce without the seafood (or even double or triple the amount) and follow these steps to store in the freezer until needed.
  • Let the sauce cool down, blend or mash, then transfer into glass jars or these very handy meal prep container.
  • If using bags, squeeze out all the extra air, seal, label, and then lay flat in the freezer.
  • Store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
• Thaw – Remove from the freezer the night before needed and let it thaw in the fridge. Then reheat and add in the shellfish and cook until pink just before you want to eat it.

FAQs

What To Serve With Shrimp Creole

Feel free to serve this with some hot rice, brown rice, mashed potatoes

• Instant Pot Brown Rice.
• Instant Pot Rice.
• Easy Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes.
• Jamaican Cornmeal Porridge. (to turn into creole shrimp and grits)

More Southern Recipes

For more southern or other shrimp recipes try these below.

• Cajun Shrimp.
• Air Fryer Cajun Fish Fillets.
• Air Fryer Frozen Shrimp.
• Southern Squash Casserole.
• Jamaican Oxtail Stew.
• Red Potato Salad.
• Cajun Shrimp Salad.
• Cornbread- Instant Pot + Skillet Versions.
• Yellow Squash Casserole.
• Grape Salad.
• Creole Sauce.
• Salmon Croquettes.

Recommended Tools

• An awesome skillet for even cooking.
• A sharp knife for peeling and cutting.
• Best sea salt flakes.

Weight Watchers Points

There are 6 Blue Plan SmartPoints in one serving of this.

Thank you for reading my Creole Shrimp Recipe post. And please come visit again as I continue to slice, dice and dream up affordable Air Fryer recipes, Instant Pot Recipes, Southern Recipes and more. Thanks for supporting Recipes from a Pantry, food blog.

Get The Creole Shrimp Recipe