Chinese Style Shrimp in Garlic Sauce

There’s something fun and extra challenging about recreating favorite Chinese food takeout dishes at home. Maybe it’s the extra difficulty of trying to find and choose the ingredients from the shelves of the Asian market or maybe it’s because of the exotic nature of some of the ingredients. Either way the end result is great- Chinese food from your own kitchen. Yum!

So this is the chili garlic sauce I chose from the store. I have no idea where it stands in terms of quality. I think it was pretty decent though. It was one of the smaller bottles available (though still pretty big) and super cheap (< $2). Generally this would make me skeptical but everything in the Asian market is SO cheap. Even the produce. I love shopping there for that reason alone 🙂

The first thing I did was prep everything- from the sauce to peeling the shrimp to prepping the bok choy. Once everything is ready to go the cooking time is relatively short ~ about 10 minutes.

First I made the sauce. Chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and rice wine, and sugar.

I also prepped the garlic, ginger and green onion- it’s quite a bit ~ about 2 TBSP of each.

For the veggie component I used “Taiwan bok choy” (what it said on the bag). You could really use just about any veggie you like with this. Eggplant, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers would all be good too. I began by cooking this first just to get some of the moisture out of it.

Before

After

I set this aside once it was cooked and then heated up some oil and cooked the garlic and ginger for just a minute so it wouldn’t get burnt or bitter.

This smells so good!

Then I added the shrimp and cooked until about 75 % cooked.

Then added the greens back to the pan along with the chili garlic sauce.

At this point the sauce is relatively thin. I like mine a little thicker so I made a slurry with equal parts cornstarch to water. Do not add cornstarch directly to the sauce! Mix it with water and then add it. Let it simmer for another 5-7 minutes or until the veggies are cooked through and/or the sauce is at the thickness you like.

Add green onions and you are set!

The sauce is spicy and sweet and has a nice thickness to it (coats the back of a spoon without dripping off).  You can kind of see it in this picture below.

Once you get all the ingredients (and there really aren’t too many) you are set! It doesn’t take long to make this delicious meal and I think you will really enjoy it.

-E

Recipe for Chinese Style Shrimp in Garlic Sauce