Sweet and sour shrimp is a colorful and satisfying main dish that your whole family will love! The crispy shrimp and crunchy peppers are brought together with a fragrant sweet and sour sauce. It’s easy to put together and tastes perfect over steamed rice for dinner. {Gluten-Free Adaptable}
Sweet and sour sauce is one of the most popular Chinese sauces and it works beautifully with shrimp. I always keep some frozen shrimp at home, because I can easily put together a meal in a pinch, by thawing some in water. No matter whether it’s a big pan of shrimp fried rice or shrimp chow fun, a tasty and well balanced meal is guaranteed!
Sweet and sour shrimp is quite easy to make at home. Compared to the takeout sweet and sour shrimp, my homemade version contains less sugar and oil, plus it’s loaded with veggies. And it tastes just as satisfying. In this recipe, I will share the simplified homemade version that you can easily cook in your own kitchen without using a wok or needing to deep fry the shrimp.
Sweet and sour shrimp ingredients
When you’re ready to cook, your table should have:
- Mixed sauce
- Sliced vegetables (pepper and onion)
- Marinated shrimp
- Cornstarch
- Sliced ginger
I love the homemade sweet and sour sauce. It contains less sugar than the bottled sauce and has a better depth of flavor. Paired with sliced ginger, you will create a very rich and fragrant dish in no time.
How to make sweet and sour shrimp
- Pan fry the shrimp until crispy
- Saute the ginger
- Cook the onion
- Cook the pepper
- Pour in the sauce
- Add back the shrimp
That’s it!
The shrimp will be juicy and slightly crispy, and the vegetables nice and crunchy. Everything is brought together by the super fragrant sauce that is well balanced with sour and sweet.
I enjoy serving the dish over steamed rice, but you can serve it by itself as a main.
Other delicious Chinese takeout recipes
- Beef and Chinese Broccoli (芥蓝牛肉)
- Sesame Beef
- Moo Goo Gai Pan (蘑菇鸡片)
- Chinese Curry Chicken
- Walnut Shrimp
- Easy Mongolian Meatballs
Sweet and Sour Shrimp (糖醋虾)
Ingredients
Marinating
- 1 lb (450 g) shrimp , peeled and deveined
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1 teaspoon ginger , grated
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons white sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Stir Fry
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil (*Footnote 1)
- 1 small thumb ginger , julienned
- 1/2 white onion , diced
- 1 bell pepper , diced (or red pepper) (I used a mix of both)
Instructions
- Add the shrimp, salt, and Shaoxing wine into a medium-sized bowl, mix well. Let marinate while preparing other ingredients.
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and set aside.
- When you’re ready to cook, add the cornstarch to the marinated shrimp, and toss it to coat it completely.
- Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet until hot. Shake the excess cornstarch off the shrimp and spread the pieces into the pan without overlapping. Cook without touching until the bottom is browned, 2 minutes or so. Flip to cook the other side until browned. Transfer to a big plate to let it cool.
- If your pan doesn’t have enough oil, add 1 tablespoon of oil. If you used more oil to fry the shrimp, remove the excess oil using paper towels. Heat the skillet over medium-high heat and add the ginger. Stir a few times to release the fragrance.
- Add the onion. Cook and stir until the onion just starts to soften, 2 minutes or so.
- Add the pepper. Stir and cook for 1 minute.
- Stir the sauce again to dissolve the cornstarch completely, and pour it into the pan. Cook until the sauce is fully thickened.
- Add back the shrimp and turn off the heat. Toss to coat the shrimp with sauce. Then transfer to a serving plate. Serve hot as a main or with steamed rice.
Notes
- For a crispier result, use a bit more oil, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Pan fry the shrimp until golden and they will become quite crispy.
This turned out great. Added broccoli florets to it. Shrimp was crispy and flavorful. Served with jasmine rice.
This recipe was easy to make and it was delicious. We don’t order sweet n sour from a restaurant because the sauce is usually too sweet and thick for our taste. This sauce was light and had the right balance of flavors.