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 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 8 minutes or until the feta is just melted. Serve hot with crusty bread for dipping.
- 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]
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.
Ryan J
The feta cheese works so great with this recipe. I love how everything comes together.
Ayzsa
Hi! I've been really wanting to try this recipe because it looks absolutely amazing, but I do not eat cheese. Is there any alternative you can recommend? Thanks so much!
Carol
Feta is so integral to this dish that I can’t imagine without.
Ayzsa
Yeah I figured it was a long shot, but doesn’t hurt to ask! Thanks Carol 🙂
Jonas
I would never have thought of combining shrimp and feta, but this is simply amazing. I have made it a few times now and everyone that tries it just loves it. Cheers for this one, Lisa!
Lisa
Thank you so much for your comment Jonas. I'm so happy to know that you and your friends have enjoyed the shrimp with feta. Some people are surprised by the combo but I think it works well in this recipe and I'm glad you agree!
Alex G
I've made this four times and it's come out great every time. You can also make it with the equivalent weight in little little shrimp without tails and it still works and is delicious!
Meredith S
Made this last night for my boyfriend (who is half Greek and used to live in Athens). He loved it! I added two extra cloves garlic, black pepper on top of the raw shrimps, and a dash of red pepper flake. I used only 2 pounds of large shrimp (but left all other proportions the same) so I could have plenty of sauce left to serve over orichiette. Delicious!
Joel S
Another winner - Yum!
Our palettes align around garlic that is for sure!
I did add a bit more chili powder..dont think it needed it, I just did it for a bit more heat.
I was afraid the recipe would be too cheesy for me - but was not at all.
The flavor was similar to an awesome scampi - but richer and much simpler to pull together.
Oh what to make next???
Thanks as always.
Lisa
It does have a good amount of garlic and I bet the extra heat was delish. The dish has a lot of flavor doesn't it? I love this one. and it's so easy, right? I'm glad you enjoyed 🙂
Donna
Hi, This sounds great! What size shrimp did you use (number per pound)? That will make a difference in the cooking time. Thanks!
Jeff C
I dropped you an email asking for a suggestion to make a nice dinner for my girlfriend. I asked for something delicious and simple, preferably with seafood. I had to put it off for a couple of weeks because of our schedules. Then last weekend I gave it a try. I served it with a salad and pasta. It was delicious and my girlfriend was duly impressed! Thank you so much!
Lisa
That's great! Very sweet of you to cook such a nice dinner for her and to come back and let me know how it turned out. 🙂
Roz
Came across this today on Pinterest. Ran out and bought all the ingredients because I just had to make it tonight. The only thing I'm doing different is cooking 2lbs of shrimp and adding some red and yellow peppers. That way I'll have enough awesome sauce to serve this meal over some thin whole wheat pasta
Lisa
Hi Roz, I hope you had a fabulous shrimp and pasta dinner. The addition of bell peppers sounds lovely!
Abbey
This was one of the BEST dishes I have ever made!!!
Kelly
Delicious, I am dreaming about when I can make it again!
paul toogood
I cooked this for friends the other night a great recipe 10 out of 10
Lisa
I'm so glad to hear it - thank you!