Chinese Salt and Pepper Shrimp. Asian salty peppery fried shrimp with a slight spicy kick. Savoury, delicious, easy to make and addictive. A great dish for dinner or lunch. Comes together in less than 20 minutes.

I’m a big fan of salt and pepper recipes and I’m also a big fan of shrimp. So I thought it’s about time I share a recipe for tasty Chinese Salt and Pepper Shrimp that will keep you coming back for more.
Quick and easy to make!
This Chinese salt and pepper shrimp recipe is INCREDIBLY easy to make! I share a video on how to make it as well if you click here. (ps. Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube Channel – shameless plug).
There aren’t too many foreign ingredients in the dish and you may have most of them in your pantry already! What I love most about preparing this dish is that you can mix everything in bowl and fry it all in one pan! Super easy. It’s a great quick weeknight meal if you’re craving some salty spicy seafood.

This Chinese spicy salt and pepper shrimp is best served with rice and leafy greens.
Shrimp is very salty to begin with
I also wanted to mention that I left out the salt in this dish because if you’re familiar with cooking shrimp, shrimp is SUPER high in sodium. So if you add more salt to this dish, it will ruin the taste of it. So trust me on that! If you are a big fan of salt, feel free to add more salt to taste after you’ve cooked the dish.
Tips for making the best Chinese Salt and Pepper Shrimp
- Prepare your ingredients ahead of time. This makes it easier when you’re fast frying that shrimp. You never want to overcook or undercook shrimp so when you have all the ingredients ready, it allows for a quick and delicious tender shrimp dish
- Don’t skip out on the dry sherry wine, it offers amazing taste to this dish
- For a very spicy shrimp, use bird’s eye chillies but for a more mild dish use Korean red hot chillies

What is Chinese salt and pepper shrimp?
It's fried shrimp that is coated in a light batter and seasoned with pepper, ginger, garlic, chilies and wine. It's very popular in Asian cuisine and absolutely delicious.
Is it better to cook shrimp with shell on or off?
For this recipe, you can cook it without the shell it to make it easier to eat. But if you enjoy eating shrimp with the shell on, you may keep it on. The shells also offer extra flavour.
Can you eat shrimp with veins?
Yes you can but when you remove the veins, they taste much better. The veins usually carry a lot of dirt and bacteria.
What happens if you don't devein shrimp?
When you don't devein a shrimp, the dirt inside the veins lend a fishy and grimy taste to the shrimp.
Other recipes you may like!
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CHINESE SALT & PEPPER FISH
For this recipe
You will need the following ingredients for my authentic Chinese salt and pepper shrimp recipe:
340 grams shrimp peeled and deveined
3 tsp garlic minced
1 red chili sliced
¾ tbsp Dry Sherry Wine *not shown in video
1 tsp ginger finely chopped
½ tsp cane sugar
1 stalk spring onion, finely chopped
¼ cup cooking oil
Shrimp Marinade:
1 tbsp Dry Sherry Wine
½ tsp pepper
3 tbsp cornstarch
How to make Chinese salt and pepper shrimp
Prepare your ingredients as listed above.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together your shrimp, cornstarch, pepper and dry sherry wine until every shrimp is well coated.
Then in a hot pan or wok set over medium high heat, add cooking oil. Quickly add in your shrimp and fry until they have curled and are crispy.
Quickly add in your remaining ingredients and stir fry everything together.
Serve immediately and enjoy! Season with salt to taste but the shrimp should be salty enough as shrimp is high in sodium.

Give it a try!
Well I hope you give my Chinese Salt and Pepper Shrimp recipe a try! It always excites me when you guys make my recipes and I hope this is one you try.
Thanks for visiting my blog! If you enjoyed this Chinese crispy salt and pepper shrimp , please share it with your family and friends or on social media! Take a picture if you've made my recipe and tag me on Instagram @ChristieAtHome in your feed or stories so I can share your creation in my stories with credits to you!
Made this recipe and loved it?
If you could leave a star rating for my Chinese salt and pepper fried shrimp recipe, I would greatly appreciate it 🙂 Thanks so much!
Take care,
Christie
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Chinese Salt and Pepper Shrimp (20-min. Recipe)
Ingredients
- 340 grams shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 3 tsp garlic, minced
- 1 red chili, sliced
- 1 tsp ginger, finely chopped
- 1 stalk spring onion, finely chopped
- ½ tsp cane sugar or white sugar
- ¾ tbsp Dry Sherry Wine
- ¼ cup cooking oil
Shrimp Marinade:
- 1 tbsp Dry Sherry Wine
- ½ tsp pepper
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Prepare your ingredients as listed above. In a large mixing bowl, mix together your shrimp, cornstarch, pepper and dry sherry wine until every shrimp is well coated.
- Then in a hot pan or wok set over medium high heat, add cooking oil. Quickly add in your shrimp and fry until they have curled and are crispy.
- Then add in your remaining ingredients and stir fry everything together.
- Serve immediately and enjoy! Season with salt to taste but the shrimp should be salty enough as shrimp is high in sodium.
I have never made shrimp this way! You make me want to give it one more shot!!
I actually do have all but one of the ingredients for this recipe already in my pantry and freezer. This is such a tasty fun way to prepare shrimp!