Scrambled Eggs, Cheese, and Avocado Tortilla Bowl Recipe
September 16, 2025
Prawn (Shrimp) Stir Fry Recipe
Bought prawns? Bought quarter-hour? Dinner is sorted with these plump and juicy prawns in a traditional ginger sesame Chinese language stir fry sauce, with snow peas and broccolini. It’s a Chinese language restaurant commonplace!
Truth: Even essentially the most seasoned of cooks can battle with a Prawn Stir Fry. Timing the whole lot so the prawns are completely cooked when the greens are tender-crisp, whereas the stir fry sauce has thickened to the suitable consistency is definitely tougher to nail than it sounds. As a rule, one thing shall be not fairly good. The pure tendency is the give attention to not overcooking the prawns (a dry, chewy crime!), so usually both the greens are a bit undercooked or the sauce continues to be a bit watery.
The answer? Easy: Prepare dinner the prawns first, take away from the pan, then add them again in on the finish after you’ve carried out the greens. Good, juicy and plump prawns. Each. Single. Time!
Simply to reassure Sauce Fiends on the market, I’ve bought your again: this Prawn Stir Fry comes with loads of sauce! We fiends know sauce is important for soaking into rice.
See?
Right here’s what it is advisable to make this Prawn Stir Fry:
Stir fry add-ins
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Prawns (aka shrimp) – Use 500g (1lb) recent complete prawns that you simply peel your self, or 250g (8oz) recent and peeled or frozen and thawed prawns. If utilizing frozen and thawed prawns, you should definitely drain them effectively and pat off extra water.
Tails on or off? I go away the tail on for visible causes solely. For ease of consuming, take away them!
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Garlic and ginger – The important aromatics. You get particularly nice ginger flavour on this stir fry as a result of we lower the ginger into nice strips;
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Onion – One other key fragrant and vegetable part; and
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Snow peas and broccolini – My greens of alternative, partly for his or her pretty inexperienced color. Snow peas specifically are generally paired with prawns at Cantonese Chinese language eating places. However actually, you should use any greens you need.
Prawn Stir Fry Sauce
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Gentle soy sauce – I take advantage of gentle soy sauce right here which isn’t as darkish as all-purpose or darkish soy sauce, so the stir fry sauce stays fairly clear. All-purpose soy sauce will work simply nice too, though the sauce color shall be a bit darker. Don’t use darkish soy sauce, the color and flavour shall be too intense. Extra on several types of soy sauces right here;
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Oyster sauce – An important sauce from the Chinese language pantry that’s barely candy and loaded with advanced, savoury flavour. Because the title suggests, it’s constructed from oyster juices which is the explanation why it’s bought such terrific flavours.
For those who can’t eat seafood and need to make this stir fry with one thing aside from prawns, substitute the oyster sauce with vegetarian oyster sauce. It’s pretty broadly out there lately at giant grocery shops in Australia and in Asian shops;
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Sesame oil – For pretty, nutty sesame flavour. Use toasted oil which is brown in color and has extra sesame flavour. Untoasted sesame oil doesn’t have as sturdy a sesame flavour (and really, it’s tougher to search out right here in Australia);
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Cornflour / cornstarch – For thickening the sauce; and
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White pepper – White pepper is usually utilized in Chinese language cooking somewhat than black pepper so that you don’t see specks within the in any other case clear sauce.
The important thing to creating a very good prawn stir fry (aside from having a superb stir fry sauce! 😇) is to prepare dinner the prawns first individually. That is one of the best and simplest way to make sure the prawns don’t overcook. Even I discover it troublesome to time a stir fry completely in order that the prawns are completely cooked on the identical time the greens are carried out and the sauce is thickened to the best consistency!
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Make up the stir fry sauce: Combine the Sauce components collectively first – the whole lot however the water. It is because we’re making a reasonably saucy stir fry right here and we use a good quantity of water (3/4 cup). It’s tougher to make cornflour / cornstarch dissolve lump-free in something quite a lot of tablespoons of water.
As soon as the Sauce is combined, set it apart, able to pour into the wok / pan when required;
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Steam broccolini: Steam the broccolini (or broccoli or cauliflower). Because of the form and dimension of the broccolini, it is advisable to pre-cook it earlier than stir-frying;
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Prepare dinner prawns / shrimp first: Prepare dinner the the prawns first, only for 1 1/2 minutes on the primary facet then 1 minute on the second facet till they’re simply cooked by. Take away to a bowl. We prepare dinner the prawns on medium to medium-high warmth so that they don’t turn into too golden. Ever discover how prawns at Chinese language eating places are seared till golden? That’s what we’re going for!
The best way to inform prawns are completely cooked: They may curl right into a “C” form, as pictured in step 3 above. Uncooked prawns dangle straight, overcooked prawns curl up tightly into an “O” form;
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Onions, ginger and garlic: Give the onions a head begin first as a result of they are going to take the longest. Once they’re partway by cooked (only a minute or so) add the garlic and ginger and prepare dinner till they’re beginning to flip golden and scent superb.
Snow peas subsequent – Toss the snow peas in subsequent and stir till they’re shiny with the garlicky ginger oil;
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Broccolini goes in: Lastly add the broccolini and given them a fast toss as effectively.
Add Stir Fry Sauce: Pour the stir fry sauce in and begin stirring immediately. Stir for 45 seconds to 1 minute till the sauce thickens to a syrup consistency. In case your sauce will get too thick too shortly (eg. as a consequence of floor space since you’re utilizing a very giant skillet OR in case your range is powerful) then simply add a splash of water to skinny it out; and
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Add prawns again in: Lastly, add the prawns again in, together with any juices pooled within the bowl. Toss them for round 30 seconds, simply to heat them by. Now it’s able to serve!
The tip end result we’re searching for: Every part properly coated within the shiny clear pale brown sauce. The broccolini and snow peas are shiny inexperienced and “tender-crisp”, that means they’re simply cooked however nonetheless have a pleasant little bit of a chew to them as an alternative of floppy and a tragic, boring inexperienced color (to not point out all of the vitamins misplaced within the overcooking!). And most significantly, these prawns are plump, pink, juicy and succulent!!
As with all stir fries, the pure possibility is to serve with rice. Rice is a wonderful car for soaking with stir fry sauces! Select from one among these:
For those who’re up for making a full-on Chinese language banquet, strive beginning off your feast with some do-it-yourself Spring Rolls or Potstickers (pan fried-steamed-dumplings), or a Chinese language Chicken Corn Soup. And maybe add one other principal dish comparable to one among these:
Completely happy stir-frying! – Johnsat x
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce (sub all purpose soy, Note 1)
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (sub Mirin or dry sherry, Note 2)
- 2 tsp oyster sauce (Note 3)
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil , toasted (Note 4)
- 1 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch
- 1/8 tsp white pepper (sub black pepper)
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tbsp oil , peanut, canola or vegetable
- 250g / 8 oz medium prawns , raw, peeled and deveined (equiv. 500g/1lb whole prawns, Note 5)
- 1/2 onion , sliced, brown or white
- 2 tsp ginger , finely julienned (~2cm / 0.7" piece)
- 2 tsp garlic , finely chopped (~ 2 cloves)
- 1 1/2 bunches broccolini , trimmed, cut into 5cm / 2" lengths, (~1 1/2 cups. Sub normal broccoli)
- 120g / 4 oz snow peas , thin string removed from both sides
Instructions
- Steam broccolini: Steam broccolini until crisp-tender, about 2 – 3 minutes (remember it will cook more in the stir fry). Set aside to drain and dry.
- Stir Fry Sauce: Put all Stir Fry Sauce ingredients except water into a bowl. Mix until cornflour is dissolved. Then stir in water.
- Cook then remove prawns: Heat oil in a wok or large skillet on medium to medium-high heat. Add prawns and spread them in a single layer. Cook for 1 1/2 minutes, then turn and cook the other side for 1 minute until cooked through. Try not to make the prawns too golden (they are only lightly browned in stir fries). Remove prawns to a bowl. Set aside.
- Cook onion, garlic and ginger: Add more oil if the pan seems a bit dry. Still on medium-high heat, add onion and cook for 1 minute. Then add ginger and garlic and cook for another 1 minute until onion is starting to soften but not colour.
- Add snow peas, then broccolini: Add snow peas and toss until coated with oil. Then add broccolini and toss through.
- Add Sauce and thicken: Give the Sauce a stir (to dissolve cornflour settled at bottom), then pour into skillet. Cook, stirring, until sauce thickens to syrup consistency (about 1 minute) and coats the ingredients nicely.
- Add prawns back in: Then add the prawns back in (including any juices in the bowl). Toss for another 30 seconds until prawns are warmed through.
- Serve: Serve with rice!
Notes
1. Soy Sauce – Light soy sauce is best here, for a clear stir fry sauce. Ordinary all purpose soy sauce will work too but the sauce colour will be slightly darker. Do not use dark soy sauce, the flavour and colour is too strong. See here for more information about different soy sauces.
2. Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing wine) – sub with dry sherry (a close approximation). If you can’t consume alcohol, use low-sodium chicken broth in place of the cooking wine in the Sauce AND in place of the water. Also reduce oyster sauce by 1 tablespoon.
3. Vegetarian oyster sauce – Nowadays you can find vegetarian oyster sauce (suitable for vegans) products even at supermarkets. For example, Ayam Vegetarian Oyster Sauce. It’s actually pretty good!
And here’s homemade Vegetarian Oyster Sauce recipe by Omnivore’s Cookbook, a Chinese recipe blog. I was extremely impressed with it!
4. Sesame oil – Use toasted, which has a more intense sesame flavour (it’s brown in colour). Untoasted oil is yellow and harder to find in Australia.
5. Prawns/shrimp – Fresh is always best, though these days frozen is pretty good! If using thawed frozen prawns, drain off excess water well then pat dry before using.
6. Rices to serve with this stir fry:
Plain white rice
Brown rice
Jasmine rice
Basmati rice
Cauliflower rice
Fried Rice
7. Storage – Leftovers will keep for 3 days in the fridge. Freezing not recommended.
8. Nutrition per serving, assuming 3 servings, excluding rice.
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