This Greek Style Garlicky Shrimp with Feta is incredibly delicious and the recipe is easy. A steaming pot of shrimp in spicy, lemony, buttery garlic sauce with melted feta that's ready in 35 minutes. Serve it with crusty bread to sop up every delicious drop of amazing sauce.
I can't rave enough about this recipe. It's a treasure. Perfectly cooked shrimp simmered in lemony, garlicky melted feta sauce. Truly outstanding! And it practically cooks itself. All you do is scatter a bunch of stuff in a pot, put the cover on, turn on the heat, and the magic happens.
How To Make Greek-Style Garlicky Shrimp with Feta
Gather all of your ingredients together: Shrimp, butter, oil, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, chili powder, salt and feta cheese.
Layer everything into the pot except the lemon juice and feta:
You'll need a heavy casserole dish or shallow pot with a lid.
- Cut the butter and sprinkle it over the bottom of the pot.
- Lay half the shrimp over the butter.
- Next scatter on half the garlic, parsley and chili powder.
- Then add the rest of the shrimp, the rest of the garlic, parsley, chili powder and salt. Drizzle with olive oil.
- Cover the pot and simmer for 8 minutes.
- Add the lemon juice and feta cheese and cook for another 8 minutes, until the shrimp is just cooked through and the cheese is melted.
Inside the steamy chamber the flavors meld and everything gets warm and tender. When you take off the cover an intoxicating aroma is unleashed and the sight of steamy fresh shrimp, floating in a lemony, garlicky sauce with melted feta on top is truly irresistible.
If you like a lot of heat, add extra chili pepper. I adapted this recipe from Pure Simple Cooking by Diana Henry. She uses a fiery hot South African red chili pepper called peri-peri in her version.
How To Serve This Garlicky Shrimp:
- Serve Greek Style Garlicky Shrimp for dinner with this simple green salad or this green salad, and crusty bread.
- This dish also works really well over pasta. There's plenty of delicious sauce to coat the noodles and make a delicious garlic shrimp pasta.
- My favorite way to serve this dish is at the start of a party, as an appetizer. I take the pot right from the stove, steaming hot, and set it on my kitchen island. I have a basket of sliced crusty bread nearby, a stack of bowls, spoons and forks. It's also good to have napkins on hand in case people want to pick up the shrimp by the tails. When guests arrive, I take off the lid and let people dig in. Pure heaven!
It's great to have some recipes like this in the repertoire. So nice when you don't have to work very hard and you can still get something incredibly delicious on the table fast. This garlic shrimp recipe gives way more than it takes.
If you like quick and delicious shrimp recipes, you'll love this recipe for Gambas Al Ajillo (Spanish spicy garlic shrimp)
Here's the recipe for Greek-Style Garlicky Shrimp with Feta. If you try this recipe I hope you'll come back to leave a star rating and a comment. I'd love to know what you think!
PrintGreek-style Garlicky Shrimp with Feta
- Total Time: 35 mins
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
Garlicky shrimp with lemon, parsley and feta. A quick and easy recipe that's delicious enough for a special occasion and easy enough for a weeknight.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds peeled and deveined shrimp, tails on
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 8 garlic cloves, finely minced
- ½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
- 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt.
- 2 cups crumbled feta cheese (about 10 ounces)
- For serving Thick slices of crusty bread
Instructions
You'll need a shallow heavy pot or Dutch oven with a lid.
- Chop butter into pieces and scatter around the bottom of the pot. Scatter half the shrimp over the butter. Scatter half the garlic, half the parsley, half the chili powder and half the salt over the shrimp. Drizzle on 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Arrange the rest of the shrimp on top, followed by the rest of the garlic, parsley, chili powder and salt. Drizzle on the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
- Cover the pot and turn the heat to medium high. Cook for 6-8 minutes or until the shrimp have lost their raw color. Pour in lemon juice and scatter the feta cheese on top. Baste the shrimp with a few spoons of sauce from the bottom of the pot, and gently jiggle the pot to distribute the sauce throughout.
- Lower the heat to medium-low, cover and cook for another 6-8 minutes or until the feta is just melted.
- Serve shrimp with hot with crusty bread for dipping or tossed with linguini or spaghetti.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Main course or Appetizer
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: Greek
[Originally published December, 2013. Updated December 2018 with added nutritional information and some tweaks to the writing]
Brenda
FANTASTIC recipe!!!! I added spinach and chopped sundried tomatoes, it was AMAZING!!! Served it over protein angel hair. Sublime!!
Sara
Can you use frozen shrimp? And how would be best to do this? Thanks!
Lisa Goldfinger
Hi Sara - that's a great question. Yes, you can use frozen shrimp for this. in fact I often do. Make sure the frozen shrimp is raw and look for peeled and deveined raw shrimp with the tails on, if possible. Defrosting frozen shrimp is quick and easy. Fill a large bowl with cold water. Remove the frozen shrimp from their packaging, and seal them in a zip-top bag, squeezing out the air. Submerge the bag in the cold water, placing a plate or lid over it, to keep it fully submerged. Let sit for 20 to 30 minutes, until the shrimp are fully thawed. I hope you enjoy this recipe!
T Shields
simple recipe but the cook time for shrimp is way too long. the shrimp and lemon juice could be added last to cook for 4-5 minute, then finish with the feta. an extra drop of parsley would work for serving.
Kim
This recipe was delicious with a few modifications. The main change was substituting an equal amount of Za’atar seasoning for the chili powder. I sautéed the garlic and seasonings in olive oil and butter for 1-2 minutes, then added the lemon juice, shrimp and feta and cooked in the covered pot for about 5 minutes, stirring a couple of times. This shrimp recipe is a keeper!
Michelle
We loved this! I do believe the next time I make this, I will be adding some Greek olives.
Lisa Goldfinger
I'm glad you enjoyed! I bet this will be great with olives!!
Gerasimos Makaras
The only reason I didn’t give this 5 stars was the chili powder - that’s not Greek … And 8 minutes plus 8 more minutes would have resulted in rubberized shrimp. 3-4 minutes total was plenty.
I also added a touch of Greek Oregano and dill.
yummy, Yummy, YUMMY!!
This recipe will get made again!
Rachel
can this be halved? I'm only serving 3. It seems like it is possible if I just use a pot that can hold it similarly stacked, yes?
Lisa
Hi Rachel - Yes - You can definitely cut the recipe in half. It should work out well. I hope you enjoy!
Christine
This looks and sounds really delicious and I can't wait to make it.
I don't mean to appear as if I'm questioning you, but I am just wondering if the shrimp will not become rubbery if cooked for 16 minutes.
Lisa
Hi Christine, that's a great question considering shrimp is fast-cooking. The shrimp is never rubbery for me, when I make this. I think the reason this needs a bit more time than usual is that there's a lot of shrimp piled up and a good amount of feta that has to heat up and melt. It doesn't have to go for the full 16 minutes - I mention that in the recipe but maybe it's not as clear as it could be. I'll take another look and see if the recipe needs clarification. In any event, I'm glad you're going to make this. I hope you'll report back on how it turns out.
Erin Moore
This looks delicious! Can't wait to try.. I wonder if it could be done with something other than shrimp though.. ?
Lisa
That's an interesting question. What were you thinking? I wonder if you could use boneless chicken? It would be worth a try. If you do make this with something other than shrimp I hope you'll circle back and let me know how it turned out.
Julia
Nice and fresh for a very hot day! Used fresh dill instead of parsley and it was delish! Thanks!
Christine
Even my 5 year old asked for more! We served it over cod with a side o fresh garden greens and fried potatoes, and the shrimp sauce made it amazing, my husband said it is his new favorite meal!
Lisa
Wow, Christine, that's a sophisticated palate for a 5 year old! What a delicious sounding meal!! I'm glad your whole family enjoyed the Greek Shrimp. Thanks so much for your note 🙂
Niamh
I loved this. I swapped coriander for parsley (just personal preference) and added in layers of spinach, cherry tomatoes and cubed (floury) potato. And served as a main course with rice. We were licking our chops. Also used some Bay seasoning along with the chilli powder. Thanks for the inspiration!
Kelly Hayes
Hi there,
I've had your recipe booked marked for quite some time and finally made it last night; wow! We all loved it!
So easy and made for a wonderful social appetizer before dinner. Thank you!
Karen Lynch
THIS was phenomenal!!! It couldn't have been a bigger hit. It was a group dinner to which others were contributing, so I shared your site with a friend and she made this kale salad (https://www.panningtheglobe.com/easy-roasted-vegetable-salad-kale/) and it was GREAT right on the same plate! I also had a side of orzo because on of the guests was a big guy -- thought he might need more carbs. All good! Thanks!
Lisa
I'm SO happy to hear you all enjoyed!! Thank you so much for coming back to leave a comment Karen and for spreading the word about Panning The Globe 🙂
Courtney Harrison
Amazing. Just made this for my family over the holidays. Easy, fast and delicious. It was everyone’s favorite meal of the whole week! Thank you! It made me look like an incredible Chef.