Easy 1-Pan Garlic Shrimp And Ramen Noodles Recipe

There is nothing like a one-pan meal when you're looking for a satisfying weeknight dinner. This garlic shrimp and ramen noodles recipe all comes together in a single skillet so you have fewer dishes to wash, but it still packs a deep, complex flavor. In 30 minutes you can whip up a delicious, balanced meal with plump shrimp, perfectly cooked noodles, and tender broccoli, all coated in a sweet, salty, spicy, and tangy sauce. When the week gets busy and those takeout menus start calling your name, put down the phone and cook this instead.

Though this recipe is cooked in one pan it involves a few stages. We begin by sauteing the shrimp with garlic, ginger, and scallions. This allows us to cook the shrimp exactly right and infuse them with a wide array of aromatics before removing them from the pan to rest. Next, the ramen noodles, broth, and broccoli go into the pan, to simmer until perfectly tender. Finally, the sauce is finished with soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, rice vinegar, crushed red pepper, and a bit of cornstarch slurry. The result is a perfect pan of food: noodles coated in a complex, fragrant, and unctuous sauce, and studded with tender, pink shrimp and fresh broccoli.

For this recipe, you will need vegetable oil, peeled shrimp, minced garlic and ginger, thinly sliced scallions, instant ramen noodles, small-cut broccoli florets, vegetable broth (or other light broth), soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, crushed red pepper, and a bit of cornstarch. Once you have all these ingredients together, you are only 30 minutes away from a delicious one-pan meal.

Start a large skillet over high heat and add the vegetable oil.

Add the garlic, ginger, and scallions, and cook for 2 minutes, until fragrant.

Next add the shrimp and cook for around 3 minutes, or until just cooked.

Remove the shrimp from the skillet.

Add the ramen noodles and broth to the pan.

Once the broth is boiling, add the broccoli and cook the noodles and broccoli for around 6 minutes, or until the noodles are done.

Stir in the soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, sesame oil, and crushed red pepper.

In a small bowl, make a slurry with the cornstarch and a tablespoon or two of water.

Add the cornstarch slurry to the pan and mix well. Cook until the sauce thickens.

Return the shrimp to the pan and toss to coat with sauce. Remove from the heat.

Serve immediately, garnished with thinly sliced scallions, crushed red pepper, and toasted sesame seeds, if desired.

Instant ramen noodles are a quick and inexpensive way to get some food in your belly, but they certainly aren't the highest-quality noodles out there. In this recipe, we use two 3-ounce packages of instant ramen to quickly whip up a one-pan meal, but if you want to class it up a bit, there are other Asian noodle options that would make a great substitute.

For starters, you could try fresh ramen noodles. While you won't find them in every grocery store, fresh ramen noodles are becoming more widely available. These noodles are typically of a higher quality than their instant noodle relatives and will add a touch of class to this one-pan meal. If you want to experiment further, soba and udon are also great substitutes, which will each lend the dish a unique character. Udon noodles are a thicker wheat noodle with a chewy texture. Like ramen, they are often served in broth. Soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour. This lends soba noodles their delicate texture and nutty flavor, which many love.

Be aware that cooking times for fresh ramen noodles, udon, and soba will differ from the instant ramen noodles used in this recipe. Additionally, if the noodles are fresh, they will not need as much broth to properly hydrate. If you choose to substitute another noodle variety, just be sure to read the package instructions and adjust accordingly.

To make a rich, complex sauce, a little bit of broth can go a long way. The work of infusing the flavors of many vegetables and (sometimes) meats is already done for you, all you need to do is pour it in to add a depth of flavor. But choosing the right broth can be a bit tricky.

In this recipe, we chose vegetable broth for the sauce for a few reasons. The first reason is ubiquity. Vegetable broth is likely available in every grocery store. While a fish or shrimp stock would suit this dish perfectly, those are not as widely available, and this recipe is about simplicity. The second reason we chose vegetable broth is to keep this dish pescatarian-friendly. Really, you could use any light broth (vegetable, chicken, shrimp, etc.), and they would all work. So, play to your tastes here. If you are a meat eater and have chicken broth on hand, feel free to use that.

If you want to get fancy, you could make your own shrimp stock from scratch, though that would take longer than the rest of the meal. Or for a simpler method to add more shrimp flavor to the dish, you can simply simmer the shrimp shells in the vegetable broth for 5-10 minutes. You might be surprised how much flavor you can get out of those shells.