The North Shore shrimp trucks are a Honolulu ritual, and they dredge. Flour is how Giovanni’s and the rest get that crust and that clingy garlic butter. I want the same pile of shrimp and the same ridiculous amount of garlic without the flour, so this is a hard sear in a hot pan and a whole head of garlic in butter. It is a weeknight dish. It is also what I cook when someone is visiting and thinks keto in Hawaii means sad salad.
Yield: 4 servings | Prep: 15 minutes | Cook: 12 minutes | Total: about 25 minutes
Hawaii Grocery Notes
- Costco: 2 lb frozen shrimp (16–20 or 21–25 count), tail on. Thaw in the fridge overnight or under cold water. Also butter in the big pack.
- Foodland / Times: fresh garlic (buy extra), lemons, parsley if you want it, a head of won bok or a bag of salad greens for the plate.
- Don Quijote: garlic by the bag, butter, chili pepper flakes, Kewpie if you want a little on the side (not in the pan).
- Do not buy pre-sauced “garlic shrimp” from a hot case. That sauce is usually sweet and often thickened with starch.
Ingredients
- 1½ lb large shrimp, peeled, tail on, patted very dry
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), divided
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil or tallow
- 1 large head garlic (10–14 cloves), peeled and roughly chopped — this is supposed to look like too much garlic
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more at the table
- Black pepper
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Optional: pinch of xanthan gum (literally 1/16 teaspoon) if you want the butter slightly clingy
- Optional: chopped parsley or green onion
- For the plate: steamed or pan-wilted won bok, or a simple green salad with olive oil
Instructions
- Thaw and peel the shrimp if needed. Leave the tails on; they help you flip and they look like the truck plate. Pat until the paper towel comes away dry. Wet shrimp will steam and you will lose the sear.
- Season the shrimp with salt, pepper, paprika, and cayenne. No flour. No cornstarch. No “light dusting.”
- Heat a wide skillet over medium-high until it is properly hot. Add the oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter.
- Add shrimp in a single layer. Do two batches if you have to. Cook 1½–2 minutes per side until just opaque and browned in spots. Transfer to a plate. They will finish in the butter.
- Drop the heat to medium-low. Add the remaining 6 tablespoons butter and the chopped garlic. Stir 1–2 minutes until the garlic is fragrant and just turning gold at the edges. If it starts to brown hard, pull the pan off the heat. Burnt garlic is bitter and it will wreck the batch.
- Return the shrimp and any plate juices. Toss 30–45 seconds. Add lemon juice. If you are using the pinch of xanthan, sprinkle it over the butter while tossing so it does not clump.
- Taste the butter. Add salt if it needs it. Serve immediately over won bok or greens, with extra garlic spooned on top. Eat the garlic. That is the point.
Kitchen-Estimate Macros (per serving)
Kitchen estimates only, not lab-tested. Calculated for 1 of 4 servings (about 6 oz shrimp plus garlic butter). Won bok on the side is extra, roughly 2 g net per cup cooked.
| Calories | Fat | Protein | Net carbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~410 | ~27 g | ~36 g | ~4 g |
Notes
- Hidden sugar / starch: the truck version is floured, and many copycat recipes add sugar to the butter. Skip both. Paprika and lemon do the work. Bottled garlic-butter sauces are usually sweet; make it in the pan.
- Garlic is a carb. A whole head split four ways still lands this plate under about 10 g net. Do not “keto it” by cutting the garlic in half. Then it is just shrimp in butter.
- Heads-on shrimp from a shrimp shack are a different cook. This recipe is for the peeled tails you can actually buy on a Tuesday at Costco.
- Leftover shrimp are decent cold the next day, but garlic butter firms up in the fridge. Reheat gently; do not microwave them into rubber.