Shrimp Tacos are a quick meal that everyone loves. Shrimp is tossed in an easy seasoning mixture and cooked until tender and juicy.
Tuck them into corn (or flour) tortillas with some fresh veggies like cabbage and slaw and you’ve got a meal in literally minutes!
The Perfect Quick Meal
- Shrimp is a protein that is quick to cook making this dish come together FAST!
- Tuck these into flour or corn tortillas (or even turn them into a shrimp taco salad).
- Add in lots of fresh veggies to make them healthy and flavorful!
Ingredients
SHRIMP I use medium shrimp for these tacos and add homemade taco seasoning. It’s easy and allows you to control the ingredients and the salt. This seasoning can be used for Fish Tacos too), so make extra to keep on hand!
You can either cook these in a pan on the stove or make grilled shrimp tacos.
TOPPINGS Instead of ordinary chopped lettuce, a tangy slaw with lime juice and mayo makes these shrimp tacos muy bueno! Most shrimp tacos with slaw are heavy on the mayonnaise, but this recipe has just enough seasonings added to add the perfect flavor.
How to Make Shrimp Tacos
For the best tasting slaw, prepare it well ahead of time and keep refrigerated so the flavors can all blend. Once the dressing is prepared, use only enough to keep the slaw coated but not soaking so it stays crisp and crunchy!
How to Cook Shrimp for Tacos
- Peel and devein the shrimp (and remove tails if desired). Mix with taco seasoning, garlic and lime juice.
- On a hot skillet or grill, cook shrimp until they are pink.
- Scoop slaw into warm tortillas and add shrimp and desired toppings.
Crazy easy right?! For a low-carb version, scoop slaw into a bowl and top with shrimp!
What to Put in Tacos
What can’t go into a taco?
Guacamole, sour cream, homemade salsa are great flavor enhancers!
Olives, jalapenos, and cabbage or coleslaw all make great taco toppings no matter what kind of meat is used. Create a taco bar on the patio for your next get-together and let guests can build their own taco creations…get festive and have fun!
Great Side Dishes
Anything goes with tacos, making it a simple and fun dinner. For an appetizer, serve some tortilla chips with mango salsa and Pico de Gallo.
Since these are Mexican inspired shrimp tacos, we add in rice and our favorite corn salad! For beverages, offer up some homemade mojitos, or a fun assortment of margaritas like mango margaritas, orange, or strawberry!
More Taco’d Recipes
- Instant Pot Chicken Tacos (Pressure Cooker) – easy and delicious!
- Easy Fish Tacos – so fresh!
- Beef Taco Casserole – fun for the whole family
- The BEST Loaded Nachos – great appetizer with leftover shrimp!
- 5 Minute Taco Dip – delicious snack in minutes
- Salmon Tacos – with pineapple salsa!
- Roasted Cauliflower Tacos – a vegetarian favorite
Shrimp Tacos
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound medium shrimp shelled & deveined, tails removed if desired
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning bought or homemade
- ½ lime juiced
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 8 corn tortillas or flour tortillas
Cilantro Slaw
- 1 cup cabbage finely sliced
- ¼ cup purple cabbage finely sliced
- 2 tablespoons cilantro chopped
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ½ teaspoon cumin
Instructions
- Combine all slaw ingredients in a bowl. Refrigerate.
- Mix shrimp, taco seasoning, lime juice and garlic powder.
- Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and cook 2 minutes, flip and cook an additional 2-3 minutes or until cooked through.
- Heat tortillas according to package directions.
- Fill tortillas with slaw, shrimp and desired toppings.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Main Course
Cuisine American, Mexican© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
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Just a question: your photos show a doubled taco wrap enveloping the filling. But there is no note to do so …………. and your serving size states 4 ……… but your list of ingredients lists 8 wraps.
Assuming this means there is a total of 4 double walled tacos ?
Reviews all make these sound pretty tempting !
Hope to try soon.
Hi Toni, each serving is for 2 tacos for a total of 8 tacos. Enjoy!
These are delicious! Thank you! Loved the house made taco seasoning – so much better than the packaged variety. The only thing that confused me a bit was in the narrative, you mention lime juice for the slaw but its not listed in the ingredients (or did I miss it)? We added the juice of the smaller half of a lime. We so enjoy your recipes and look forward to being on your mailing list (saw the link in previous post). Thank you! A taco Tuesday wind!
I think adding the lime juice is key. I was trying to figure somehow to cook or marinate the shrimp the same as beef , adding water , etc. I just used low sodium taco seasoning with extra garlic powder and added lime juice and grilled on a panini grill. I heated the 6” corn tacos, added avocado,cheese and green chili sauce. Scrumptious!
That sounds delicious, Linda! Thanks for sharing.
I look forward to receiving recipes on a regular basis. Your shrimp tacos were amazing!!
Thank you Lorraine! To receive emails with new recipes, you can click here to sign up to receive emails. Look forward to sending you recipes!
If you are looking for fast weekday dinner idea – this is it! I added jalapenos to the slaw, we like it hot! And cayenne to the seasoning. Yuuum!
this is a great website for moms feeding large crowds
It was really good!
So easy to make & lots of flavor!
Hi! Looks delish. Which slaw are you using, the apple one you mention in the notes or the cilantro one? Thank you!
Hi Ruth, we used the cilantro slaw in this recipe :)
Made these shrimp tacos for dinner making only one minor adjustment by also adding fresh squeezed lime juice and zest to the slaw. The flavors were amazing!! My husband loved them. Amazing taco recipe
Has anyone tried this with pre cooked shrimp? I need to do about 8 lbs of shrimp for a party and I really don’t have time or patience to prep that much shrimp.
Hi Janis, we have only made this recipe with raw shrimp seasoning it before cooking but we would love to hear how it turns out for you with pre-cooked shrimp!
Nothing like crunching down on one of those shrimp tails! I get that they look good for a photo, but it’s disingenuous to take a photo of someone about to eat a taco with shrimp tails left on!
You can remove them before cooking if you’d prefer. Enjoy the recipe!
This was quick and simple with amazing flavor!!!
I am so glad you enjoyed the tacos Mollie!
Simple and yet delish! Used it just today for a quick dinner to whip out of nowhere. My husband was very happy!
We love those quick and easy recipes too Lyndsay. So happy your husband loved it!
Making them tonight and I wish the ingredients for different toppings were in the list of ingredients or at least printed along with the recipe.
Thank you for the suggestion Nate!
The best shrimp taco I’ve ever had. I used all organic & used a NON GMO tortilla, avocados, salsa, my own taco seasoning. Oh man is this ever good.
I enjoy quite a few of your recipes & so glad to have found you, thanks!
Thank you so much Sharon! Happy cooking!
COuld you substitute the mayonnaise for something else (mayonnaise is basically the bane of my existence as far as food items go, I can’t even have it in my refrigerator at home, the look of it alone isn’t just too disgusting)????
Do you have any recommendations?
Sure you can, you could use a little bit of sour cream (although it’ll be more tart) or even create a vinaigrette with olive oil, seasonings and a little bit of cider vinegar or just lime juice. Let us know how it goes!
I always substitute plain greek yogurt for mayo, and sometimes for sour cream. It’s less calories and more healthy. No one in my family has caught on yet. I’ll try the taco recipe tonight!