This shrimp curry is the curry of my dreams! Incredible flavor, just a few simple ingredients, and easy enough for a weeknight!
Thai Shrimp Curry with Yummy Shallot Crispies
Shallot Crispies For Prez.
Breaking news: from here on out, any creamy curry dish that I make will be needing a spoonful of shallot crispies on top.
Holy smokes! This whole shrimp curry combo is SO yummy. Might be my favorite dish from the whole SOS series so far? Can I say that? It has incredible flavor from, like, 5 main ingredients. (I use this Thai Kitchen red curry paste and consistently love it. For yellow curry, I like Maesri.)
Plus, if you can muster up a little bonus energy, those shallot crispies on top! Getting into all the saucy crevices! I can’t stop talking about them.
Fried shallots are not new – they’re a known and loved Southeast-Asian style topping, but to my knowledge the addition of fried panko is just the slightly-weird iteration of a hungry home cook in Minnesota looking to take the shallot-y crunch even further. (She’s me.)
The curry of my dreams:
How it looks for my kids:
I serve the shrimp curry and rice to the table so they always have that option, and maybe someday they’ll be as excited as I am about it. But I usually also offer a plate of plain shrimp (like, just rinsing the curry sauce off of a few of them, for real) and some additional steamed green beans or pepper strips. They usually go for the plain stuff, adding butter or salt or store-bought sauces that they’re more comfortable with. Works for everybody without changing ingredients! ❤️
You can use a different protein here if you want, but my pitch for shrimp: they are delicate and tasty and can be thrown on top to cook in 5 minutes flat. Hard to beat.
Hope you love this beauty!
Thai Shrimp Curry with Yummy Shallot Crispies
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
This shrimp curry is the curry of my dreams! Incredible flavor, just a few simple ingredients, and easy enough for a weeknight!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Shrimp Curry
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 2 cloves garlic, minced (or 2 teaspoons garlic paste)
- 1/2 inch piece ginger, grated (or 1 teaspoon ginger paste)
- 2 cups veggies of choice (I use red pepper and green beans – see notes)
- one 14-ounce can coconut milk
- 1 lb. frozen shrimp, thawed (I like to use jumbo shrimp that are peeled with tails removed)
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Shallot Crispies
- 3–4 tablespoons avocado oil
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced into rings or strips
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro and/or torn Thai basil
Instructions
- Make shallot crispies (optional): Heat the oil over medium heat in a large wide skillet. Add the shallots; sauté until golden, 5-10 minutes. Add panko and mix with the shallots in the pan; sauté another couple of minutes until the whole mixture is golden. Transfer to a small bowl. Toss with the herbs and a pinch of salt.
- Start the curry: Wipe the pan out. Turn the heat back on to medium. Add the oil, curry paste, garlic, ginger, and veggies; let it cook for a few minutes. Add coconut milk; simmer until the sauce has thickened slightly and veggies are starting to get tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add shrimp: Place the shrimp on top of the gently bubbling curry. The shrimp will basically just steam / poach in the liquid! Easy. After 2-3 minutes, flip the shrimp so they can finish cooking on the other side. When they’re done they’ll start to curl and be fully opaque – in this picture they’re about half done.
- Season: Stir in the fish sauce and brown sugar. Taste and adjust – make it more spicy with chili crisp, more salty with fish sauce, etc.
- You’re Done! Yum. Scoop the curry over some rice, and top with a little sprinkle of the shallot crispies (OMG).
Notes
For the veggies: I typically do sweet red peppers sliced into rings, and green beans cut in half or thirds (about a heaping cup of each).
Other veggie options: Fresh spinach would also be great (hardly needs any cooking time – only about 1 minute, so add right at the end). Frozen mixed veggies would also work (don’t need much cooking time here, either – probably 4-5 minutes).
More flavor: Adding a bit of lemongrass or lime to the sauce is also bright and delicious! I didn’t want to get too carried away with the ingredients so left it out, but if you have some, go ahead and add it!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Thai
Keywords: shrimp curry, curry recipe, crispy shallots
Three More Amazing Curry Recipes
May 27, 2025
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
I can’t wait to make this! Do you think crispy fried onions (that half can hanging out in my pantry since I made my Thanksgiving green bean casserole) would work in place of the fried shallots? I also noticed the ginger isn’t in the instructions. Should it be added with the garlic? Thanks!!
Hello! Yes, the recipe is updated with the ginger addition in the instructions. Canned fried onions should work, just use 2 tablespoons to toast the breadcrumbs and add the onions when those are done, since they don’t need to be cooked.
Sounds delicious. Just wondering about spice level- on a scale of one to ten with ten being extremely hot, how spicy would you say the red curry paste is?
Hi! The Thai Kitchen brand of red curry is very mild, probably a 3 on scale of 10.
Amazing!
Fabulous combination of flavours especially with the shallot crispies. Mild heat. Definitely a new favourite.
(Only had Thai Kitchen green curry paste available — worked well).
So glad it was enjoyed! And thanks for the note about using green curry paste!
This sounds delicious! I can’t to try. Question about using avocado oil– that’s not something I’ve ever used so I don’t have it on hand. Does it add much to the flavor or could I use olive oil as a substitute?
You can use olive oil!
I loved this recipe and will definitely be making it again! One thing I will say, the prep time was not 25 minutes for me. It was probably double that. Slicing peppers, grating garlic and ginger, making the crispy shallots (which should not be skipped!), making rice (assuming you are serving with that), plus the actual time it takes to saute/cook the curry… I found it to be pretty involved but flavors were great!
So good! I made this with tofu and subbed the fish sauce for soy sauce a vegetarian dinner. The crispy shallots are next level 👌
Love the swaps!
This was so good. Easy and fast – exactly what I needed after a long week and I didn’t much feel like cooking.
I made this dish the very night the recipe was published and holy moly was it incredible and so easy!! We did baby spinach for our veg, super quick, and added the fish sauce a lil sooner than the recipe calls for so it’d cook off a bit (my husband’s tummy is sensitive to it). Utter perfection🤌🏻🤌🏻
That sounds great with the spinach!
This was so so good
The best curry recipe yet and I love everything on this site!I did ad lemongrass and a lime juice per the notes and it was perfection! The only substitution I made was using asparagus rather than beans. 10/10!
Love the asparagus swap, yum!
Absolutely loved! I feel like this sauce would be great with chicken and mango too! Not spicy at all so definitely add the heat if you want. I will definitely be making again!
I topped with a healthy amount of cilantro, mint, and basil, which, along with the crispies, made this curry next level. I used the recommended green beans and red peppers and they were great veggies with the shrimp.