“Our kids are going to be so cultured.” We giggled in bed, thinking about the wildly different lives our children would lead, compared to our fried bologna childhoods.
Indian, Lebansese, Ethiopian, sushi, seafood… we were idiots.
You know why you feed kids chicken fingers? It’s cheap and yummy.
You know what’s not cheap? An 8 year old who orders swordfish.
So here I am, years into this foolish experiment, making my kid yummy seafood in a landlocked state in January.
Shrimp Scampi is a a special request food that so affordable and easy, you can make on a regular old Tuesday.
You’re welcome, Jude.
In fact, the whole thing only really requires three staple ingredients that you can basically always have on hand in your cupboard, fridge and freezer.
Shrimp. Butter. Ranch salad dressing seasoning packet. That’s it.
LIES! Look at all the other stuff in this picture!
Oh this other stuff? That just helps make it extra yummy.
Consider those three main ingredients a delicious base.
Garlic, lemon, parsley, Parmesan cheese, and tomatoes all help this dish level up. In fact, I love adding in whatever fresh veggies I can find to make this scampi even more interesting.
I had these tricolor tomatoes handy, but also good: asparagus, red bell pepper, green beans, I mean, everything, all of it, everything works.
First up, thaw your frozen shrimp under cold water.
I like to buy raw, peeled and deveined shrimp, so it has more time to cook and broil before getting all rubbery like precooked frozen shrimp does.
Then I toss it in an oven safe dished with the dry Ranch dressing packets, some minced garlic, and cubed butter.
Again, no need to melt the butter, just cube it up and throw it in, let the oven do the work for you.
Mix everything a bit to coat, and place it in the oven until the shrimp turns pink and the sauce is boiling and delicious.
You could, like, be done right now if you want. You could just take it out and eat it just like this.
But, I’m extra so after I’m done cooking the shrimp, I add in some halved tricolor grape tomatoes.
I just toss them on top of the cooked shrimp, and put it under the broiler for 5-8 minutes.
Everything is better when butter runs down your chin, amirite?
So how to you eat this? Well, you can stick to tradition, and serve it over pasta.
It’s also perfect with mashed potatoes, or if you’re nixing carbs, just eat it by the bowl full as is.
I like to eat this in a big bowl, covered in fresh Parmesan cheese and parsely, with toasted bread on the side to lap up all the butter garlic goodness at the bottom of the dish.
Three Ingredient Shrimp Scampi
Just three ingredients gets you the most delicious and simple shrimp scampi you've ever made!
Ingredients
- 24 oz Frozen XL Raw Peeled and Deveined Shrimp, thawed
- 1 stick of Butter, cubed
- 2 packets Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning and Dressing Mix
- 12 oz Cherry Tomatoes, halved (optional)
- 2 tbsp minced Garlic (optional)
- 1/2 Lemon, juiced (optional garnish)
- Parmesan Cheese (optional garnish)
- Chopped Parsley (optional garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Thaw, rinse and dry frozen shrimp.
- Add shrimp, ranch mix, butter, and garlic (optional) to oven safe baking dish.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until shrimp is cooked and sauce is boiling.
- Remove from oven, set oven to broil.
- Add any optional chopped vegetables to baking dish.
- Return dish to oven, and broil for 5-8 minutes, until shrimp tails start to brown and vegetables crisp up.
- Remove and serve hot, garnished with fresh squeezed lemon, Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley.
I just made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! So easy! I had some leftover zucchini and corn, so I added those for some veggies and served it over angel hair pasta. Thanks for sharing – this is definitely going to be one of our goto meals.
I have so many funny things to ask about why you’ve suddenly become a food blogger. They all just sound snarky and bitchy and complainy when I type them out. I don’t really do social media, and I haven’t read your books, and your podcast has too much language to listen too with my littles running amok. But I enjoy your blog greatly; so keep doing your thing. Even Camp Throwback I’ve rooted for! Whatever you want to do and however it looks keep doing your thing. People are for you!
THANK YOU!
It’s crazy to to think about, but this began as a food blog, haha!
Honestly, cooking just makes me really happy right now, and it’s been fun to revisit the recipes I’ve posted on this blog over the years and remake them.
I’m just dorking around in the kitchen, it’s a good time. Also, fooooooooood.
This started as a food blog?!? SAY WHAT!?!. I had no idea (I guess I haven’t been around as long as I thought!). Your photos are actually great, your recipes easy to follow, so job well done. And fooood…so easy to get behind that!
Oh my! This was awesome! My husband loves it and it was so easy! I added some sun dried tomatoes and yellow peppers just to use up a few things. Yummy!!!!!