My favorite Shrimp Creole recipe is delicious and so easy to make that you’ll be sitting down to eat in about 30 minutes. A classic dish of Louisiana Creole origin where buttery shrimp are tossed in a zesty sauce of tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, celery, garlic and spices, all served over hot cooked rice.
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It took several tries to come up with a recipe for Shrimp Creole that I felt was worthy to share with you. One that rivaled what I enjoyed in New Orleans. Some were too salty or too bland, others had so much sauce that you couldn’t taste the shrimp. This version thickens naturally (no cornstarch required) and is easy to modify to suit your taste.
“We made this tonight and it was delicious! We added a bit of broth to get a bit more gravy for our rice. Excellent recipe.”
Timothy M Lesniewski
Table of Contents
Recipe at a Glance
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings
- Skill Level: Easy
Shrimp Creole Ingredients
- Shrimp: Fresh, wild-caught Gulf shrimp is the most authentic choice if you have it available (I don’t). I prefer medium, wild shrimp for this dish and buy them uncooked and frozen, then thaw them overnight in the refrigerator the day before I plan to make this.
- Holy Trinity: Onion, green bell pepper and celery, all diced small. This combination is the base of Cajun and Creole cooking. Try to chop them so they’re roughly even in size.
- Garlic: Use fresh cloves instead of jarred or dried, which don’t have the same flavor.
- Diced Tomatoes: A standard can of diced tomatoes along with the juice. You need the juice because it becomes the body of the sauce as it simmers down.
- Creole Seasoning: Tony Chachere’s and Zatarain’s are widely available brands. Brands vary a lot in their salt content, so taste the finished dish before adding more salt.
- Worcestershire Sauce: Lea & Perrins is the traditional choice and by far my favorite brand.
- Bay Leaf: I like to buy a few at a time from the bulk section of my grocery store so I know they’re fresh, instead of relying on a jar that’s been in the cabinet for who knows how long. Discard before serving.
- Louisiana-Style Hot Sauce: Tabasco or your preferred brand.
- Butter: Salted or unsalted butter both work.
- Long Grain White Rice: For serving. I start cooking it first, so everything is ready to serve at once.
- Fresh Parsley: I like to use flat leaf parsley.
How to make Shrimp Creole
In a large skillet, soften onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic in melted butter. When vegetables are soft, add tomatoes, Creole seasoning, bay leaf and Worcestershire sauce. Stir and simmer 5 minutes.
Add raw shrimp to the tomato mixture and cook until pink and cooked through, then serve over hot, cooked white rice.
Pro Tips
- Shrimp Creole thickens on its own. No flour, no cornstarch, no roux. The juice from the canned tomatoes reduces with the vegetables as it simmers, and the sauce comes together naturally. If yours looks thin, give it another minute or two over the heat before adding the shrimp.
- Let the sauce simmer before adding the shrimp. Five minutes is the minimum. The flavors need a moment to meld, and the shrimp cook so quickly that you want everything else ready by the time they go in.
- Pull the shrimp off the heat the second they turn pink and curl. Two to three minutes is usually all it takes. Overcooked shrimp turn rubbery, and there’s no remedy.
- Taste and adjust at the end. The amount of salt in creole seasoning varies a lot by brand, so I like to season conservatively up front and finish with more seasoning or hot sauce as soon as the shrimp are cooked through.
Recipe Variations
- Kick up the heat with additional hot pepper sauce, cayenne pepper, or hot paprika.
- Serve over creamy grits instead of rice.
- Add some sweet red pepper along with the green for added flavor depth.
- Stir in sliced andouille sausage with the vegetables for something closer to jambalaya.
- Serve alongside warm Skillet Cornbread for a heartier meal.
Make-Ahead, Storage and Reheating
Shrimp Creole is one of those dishes that’s almost better the next day, and the sauce is very forgiving on the make-ahead front. To prep ahead, make the sauce through the simmering step but stop before adding the shrimp. Cool it completely and refrigerate for up to two days. When you’re ready to eat, bring the sauce back to a gentle simmer, then add the raw shrimp and cook just until pink.
Leftovers keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days. To reheat, warm gently over low heat with a splash of water or broth if the sauce has tightened up. Stir often and pull it off the heat as soon as the shrimp are warmed through, since they’ll toughen if you take them past that point.
For longer storage, the sauce alone freezes well for up to two months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, simmer back to temperature, and add fresh shrimp at the end. I don’t recommend freezing the dish with the shrimp already in it, as the texture suffers.
FAQ
Though you’ll find many of the same flavors and ingredients in shrimp creole (like the ‘holy trinity‘ of onion, green peppers and celery in Cajun and Creole cuisine) that you do in gumbo and jambalaya, creole dishes are typically thicker, spicier and served on top of hot rice rather than having the rice cooked and or stirred in to the dish. Shrimp Étouffée is another similar dish, but made with a roux (flour and fat cooked together to use as a thickener) base instead of a tomato base.
Yes. Sliced andouille is the easy pick. Brown it in the pan first, then carry on with the recipe. Cooked chicken or crab meat are good too, stirred in near the end with the shrimp.
Both come from Louisiana cooking but lean different ways. Cajun seasoning is heavier on ground peppers like cayenne and black pepper, so it brings direct heat. Creole seasoning leans more on herbs like paprika, oregano and thyme. Either one works here. Tony Chachere’s is sold as Creole seasoning and is the brand I typically use.
It thickens on its own. The juice from the canned tomatoes reduces with the vegetables as everything simmers, and the sauce comes together without help. If you add flour or a roux, you’re closer to étouffée, which is a different dish.
More Classic Louisiana Recipes
- Slow Cooker Jambalaya
- Brabant Potatoes
- Cajun Potato Salad
- Cajun Potatoes
- Remoulade Sauce
- Muffaletta Olive Salad
- Shrimp Remoulade
Shrimp Creole
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup long grain white rice
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium onion diced small
- 2 ribs celery diced small
- 1 medium green bell pepper diced small
- 3 large cloves garlic minced
- 14 1/2 ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
- 2 teaspoons Creole seasoning or more
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 bay leaf
- Louisiana-style hot sauce such as Tabasco brand, to taste
- 1 pound medium shrimp or large shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed
- chopped fresh parsley to taste
Instructions
- Cook rice according to package directions.
- Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, green bell pepper, celery and garlic; cook and stir for 7-10 minutes until tender.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and add tomatoes with juice, Creole seasoning, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaf; stir and simmer 5 minutes, allowing flavors to meld. If desired, add more Creole seasoning and hot sauce to taste.
- Increase heat to medium-high and add shrimp; cook and stir until shrimp is pink and cooked through. Serve over hot white rice, sprinkled with desired amount of chopped fresh parsley.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this dish last night and we enjoyed it. I added some seafood stock to the dish so it would be a bit more saucy to serve over the rice. Would definitely make again. Thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Glinda!
We made this tonight and it was delicious! We added a bit of broth to get a bit more gravy for our rice. Excellent recipe.
That’s wonderful to hear, Timothy. I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed it!
Delicious. I upped the ante on the creole seasoning and added a salt seasoning I had handy (1 1/2 tsps).
So glad you enjoyed this and made it your own, Susan!
I’m still working on getting the boys to like shrimp, but hubby and I love it!! I know we’d be all over this dish, it would be gone in no time!
haha, they’ll come around, Katherine! 😉 Thank you!
This is excellent I doubled the recipe so I could share with family! This is definitely a keeper.
That’s wonderful, Johannah! Thank you for letting me know!
I added crab meat to the sauce – delicious!! Thank you
Sounds wonderful, Lynn!