Lemon Garlic Shrimp

I love garlic. My family loves garlic. My Dad would often tease that "garlic goes in everything but angel food cake. And we leave it out of that begrudgingly." So I love dishes where you can really let the garlic flavor stand out. This is a super fast easy dish.

I believe it is important to start with shrimp that is deveined and peeled but still have the tail on. I think cooking it with the tail on gives the dish much more flavor. However, my husband gets very annoyed if he has to work to eat his food and I don't want to handle the shrimp after it has been cooked so when I make shrimp I sadly remove the tails before cooking. But you can do it the right way!

Oh and if you don't have fresh lemon. Make something else. :)

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Lemon Garlic Shrimp

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2 lbs. shrimp, uncooked deveined and peeled with tail on

1/2 head of garlic (6 - 8 cloves) peeled and chopped (not too fine)*

1 whole fresh lemon (2 if you want to garnish with some lemon slices)

1 stick of butter

1 tablespoon basil (I use the chopped basil in the tube) or fresh basil 1/4 cup chopped - DO NOT USED DRIED BASIL

Salt & Pepper to taste

I use a large wok for this dish but you can do this in a skillet as well. Take a zester or peeler and shave off about half of the lemon peel. If using a peeler, chop the peeled rind finely. Juice the whole lemon, remove any seeds and set aside. Heat your skillet or wok, add the stick of butter and the garlic. Sauté until the garlic is fragrant and starting to brown. Make sure you drain your shrimp out in a strainer, I always rinse my shrimp before cooking and just want as much water off of them as possible. No need to pat dry you just don't want to throw extra water in with the sauce.

Add the lemon juice and zest to the pan and toss in the shrimp turning until they start to turn pink on both sides. Stir in the basil and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with something that you can sop up the yummy sauce. I served it with keto friendly bread that I turned into garlic sticks by buttering and adding a little garlic salt and toasting them in the oven.

We also ate this with impastable pasta.

*How finely I chop my garlic depends a lot on what flavor I'm going for and how long the dish will cook. The shorter the dish cooks the smaller chop. If a dish is going to cook low and slow I use a larger chop, or slice or leave whole. For this dish I like a medium chop, it's a lot of garlic and I think if you chop the garlic too small the garlic will overpower the shrimp.