It has been a slow week around here in the kitchen as I’ve been busy with lots of home update projects here in France. (For those of you that are new, my husband and I packed up from California a few months ago for an expat opportunity in Montpellier, France)! Our moving container should arrive soon so I’ve been busy painting rooms while they are still empty, and even built a custom kitchen table top (ahem… the wood you see behind the plate up there..)!!! I’m sure I’ll share some more pictures of that soon, but for now we need to get to this recipe because it. is. so. good.Â
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I’ve been experimenting a lot over the last few weeks quick and easy soy sauce based sauces that add so much flavor goodness. This easy four ingredient teriyaki sauce, made with honey instead of your typical brown sugar is easy, so good and can probably be whipped up with things you already have on hand.
While the teriyaki sauce is both quick and simple, the same cannot be said for the caramelized onion and pineapple topping. It is simple, but not quick. We’ll spend at least 20 minutes on this as caramelizing onions takes time. In this recipe we don’t spend the full hour plus that you can getting extremely brown caramelized onion, but enough time that they turn a soft brown and the sugar starts to come out creating a wonderful but not overpowering flavor to pair with our pineapple. If you don’t have the time for this, you can simply stick to the teriyaki shrimp, and maybe even just cook the pineapple which is less time consuming and omit the onion, I’ll leave that up to you!Â
Lastly, for this two person recipe, I used 2/3 pound of shrimp and about 1 cup uncooked white rice. This recipe calls for cooked as I don’t love providing instructions on the rice, follow the instructions on the rice, packaging, use your rice cooker, or whatever your preferred method. Rice is finicky depending on the exact kind you’re using, heat of your stove, etc. I tend to stick to the general rule of thumb to put 1 part rice to 1.5 part water in a sauce pan with a generous pinch of salt, bring to a boil and immediately turn to low heat and cover until ready to serve. As for the amount of rice, I’d go anywhere between 1/2 cup to 1 cup dry. I made a full cup, I had leftovers, my husband did not. You can always save un-plated white rice in the refrigerator, so it never hurts to make more than needed.
Lastly, for this two person recipe, I used 2/3 pound of shrimp and about 1 cup uncooked white rice. This recipe calls for cooked as I don’t love providing instructions on the rice, follow the instructions on the rice, packaging, use your rice cooker, or whatever your preferred method. Rice is finicky depending on the exact kind you’re using, heat of your stove, etc. I tend to stick to the general rule of thumb to put 1 part rice to 1.5 part water in a sauce pan with a generous pinch of salt, bring to a boil and immediately turn to low heat and cover until ready to serve. As for the amount of rice, I’d go anywhere between 1/2 cup to 1 cup dry. I made a full cup, I had leftovers, my husband did not. You can always save un-plated white rice in the refrigerator, so it never hurts to make more than needed.
I provide all this detail before we get started as I am such a firm believer in making the recipe your own. We all have different appetites, taste buds, etc. I have plenty of onion haters in my life (honestly not sure how this is possible, but I know enough of them to know it is). I know some days I could eat copious amounts of rice and other days it’s just way too filling. I love sharing recipes with y’all, and will usually stick to exact amounts where I feel needed and let you know what is optional or adjustable based on preference. With all that being said, let’s get to it!Â
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Honey Teriyaki Shrimp
Ingredients
- 2/3 lb shrimp 300g / 10 oz, thawed and tails removed.
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- pinch of salt & pepper
- 1/4 cup soy sauce I used low sodium
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp cilantro finely chopped or dried.
- cooked white rice for serving.
Optional Salsa Topping
- 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
- 1 cup finely diced pineapple
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp olive oil + more if needed
Instructions
- Start by getting your rice cooking, when finished set to low heat or turn off and cover until ready to serve.
- Make sure all ingredients are chopped as needed and ready to go.
- In a small bowl add soy sauce, water, honey and ginger. Stir until evenly combined and set aside until ready to use.
- If you haven’t yet, remove tails from your shrimp and season with salt and pepper.
- Add one tbsp of olive oil to a medium/large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds to a minute until fragrant. Add shrimp to skillet and cook a couple minutes each side until pink. Remove from pan and set aside on a plate. Wipe pan clean, if desired.
- IF you are making the caramelized onion and pineapple topping, we’ll make that next. If not skip ahead to step 7.​ In the same pan you used for shrimp, turn to low/medium heat and add butter and 1 tsp of olive oil to pan. When butter is melted add in diced onion and cook about 15 minutes, stirring fairly constantly. They key here is low and slow, if we turn the heat up or try to rush this step the onions will crisp. We want them to soften and allow the natural sugar and caramel color to come out. After 15 minutes add in pineapple and cook another 5-10 minutes until pineapple is softened to desired texture. Pour mixture into a bowl and set aside, no need to wipe pan clean. Let any leftover juices or oil go right into the sauce!
- Turn pan up to medium/high and pour in teriyaki sauce. Bring to a simmer and stir constantly until sauce starts to thicken. Depending on heat of your stove this could take up to a few minutes. As soon as its thickening, reduce heat to low and add shrimp back into sauce pan and stir to coat.
- Plate by adding desired amount of white rice to your plate, topping with teriyaki shrimp and then if desired layer on cilantro and pineapple/onion sauce.
- ENJOY!