Cilantro Lime Butter Shrimp Recipe

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!