Easy Shrimp Cakes

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Easy Shrimp Cakes — Easy, ready in 10 minutes, and they taste better than from a fancy restaurant!! A CRISPY exterior with JUICY and tender pieces of shrimp on the inside, with spicy mayo on the side! Great as an appetizer or main course!!

Easy Shrimp Cakes - Easy, ready in 10 minutes, and they taste better than from a fancy restaurant!! A CRISPY exterior with JUICY and tender pieces of shrimp on the inside, with spicy mayo on the side! Great as an appetizer or main course!!

Easy Shrimp Cakes Recipe

I love shrimp and realized I didn’t have a recipe for shrimp cakes on my website and knew I needed to change that. In fact, the last time I made something similar was these Southwest Salmon Cakes way back in 2014. Whoops.

Skip the overpriced (and often tasteless) restaurant shrimp cakes and make your own in 10 minutes. They are even better than a restaurant and far more cost effective to make them at home.

They are crispy on the outside and the succulent pieces of shrimp on the inside are juicy, tender, and cooked just right. I hate overcooked rubbery fish and seafood and at about 3 1/2 minutes per side, these were cooked perfectly for my liking.

Garnished with extra green onions and lemon wedges (from my lemon tree in my front yard!), these definitely hit the spot. Hearty enough to be satisfying but they still felt light.

Easy Shrimp Cakes - Easy, ready in 10 minutes, and they taste better than from a fancy restaurant!! A CRISPY exterior with JUICY and tender pieces of shrimp on the inside, with spicy mayo on the side! Great as an appetizer or main course!!

Ingredients in Shrimp Cakes

To make the shrimp patties, you’ll need: 

  • Eggs
  • Sriracha 
  • Panko breadcrumbs
  • Green onions 
  • Salt and pepper
  • Lemon zest
  • Smoked paprika
  • Fresh shrimp
  • Olive oil
  • Lemon wedges (for garnish) 

And for the spicy mayo, you’ll need: 

  • Mayonnaise 
  • Sriracha 

How to Make Shrimp Cakes

Simply beat two eggs, add panko breadcrumbs, lemon zest, salt and pepper, and smoked paprika before adding the shrimp.

Stir everything together, form four patties, and cook them over medium heat. I recommend keeping the heat at medium so the shrimp cakes don’t brown too quickly or get too dark. It’s the same principle as making a grilled cheese sandwich — you don’t want to crank up the heat and burn the bread before the cheese melts in the interior.

You could probably reduce the size of each shrimp cake and make 5 or 6 smaller shrimp cakes or about 7 to 8 mini cakes. Bigger was better for me — less to form into patties, less to cook and flip, and the results were hearty shrimp cakes.

One is great as an appetizer and two easily make a meal along with a nice side dish.

Easy Shrimp Cakes - Easy, ready in 10 minutes, and they taste better than from a fancy restaurant!! A CRISPY exterior with JUICY and tender pieces of shrimp on the inside, with spicy mayo on the side! Great as an appetizer or main course!!

What Kind Of Shrimp to Use for Shrimp Cakes?

I bought one pound of fresh, raw shrimp that were deveined but still had the shells on. By the time I took the shells off, I was probably working with 3/4-pound shrimp.

You do not want to use shrimp that have already been cooked because you’re cooking it again to make the shrimp cakes and it would turn into inedible rubber.

From there, I finely chopped the shrimp on a cutting board with my knife. Although you could probably use a food processor, there is the risk of easily over-processing the shrimp and ending up with pulverized shrimp paste.

I definitely wanted to bite into distinguishable pieces of shrimp when I was eating the shrimp cakes and that’s another reason I avoided the food processor. Not to mention, it would take longer to clean all those food processor pieces and parts than to just chop the shrimp by hand.

Easy Shrimp Cakes - Easy, ready in 10 minutes, and they taste better than from a fancy restaurant!! A CRISPY exterior with JUICY and tender pieces of shrimp on the inside, with spicy mayo on the side! Great as an appetizer or main course!!

Tips for the Best Shrimp Cakes

I added sriracha to the shrimp cake batter and while it does add flavor, I don’t think it makes them spicy. It just gives them a bit of oomph so they aren’t bland.

The spicy mayo on the other hand does have a kick but you can easily customize it to make it less spicy if you prefer. It’s a great complement to the shrimp cakes.

Panko breadcrumbs are Japanese-style breadcrumbs and are not the same as regular breadcrumbs so don’t substitute those. These are bigger, crunchier crumbs and yield shrimp cakes that have a lovely crispiness on the outside that you wouldn’t get from regular breadcrumbs.

Easy Shrimp Cakes - Easy, ready in 10 minutes, and they taste better than from a fancy restaurant!! A CRISPY exterior with JUICY and tender pieces of shrimp on the inside, with spicy mayo on the side! Great as an appetizer or main course!!

What to Serve with Shrimp Cakes

If serving this shrimp cakes recipe as a main course, try one or more of the following sides to go with them: 

 

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Yield: 4

Easy Shrimp Cakes

Easy Shrimp Cakes

Easy, ready in 10 minutes, and they taste better than from a fancy restaurant!! A CRISPY exterior with JUICY and tender pieces of shrimp on the inside, with spicy mayo on the side! Great as an appetizer or main course!!

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 7 minutes
Additional Time 3 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

Shrimp Cakes

  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons sriracha, optional and to taste
  • 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
  • 2 tablespoons green onions, finely chopped plus more for garnishing
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (regular paprika may be substituted)
  • 1 pound fresh shrimp, cleaned and finely chopped
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

Spicy Mayo

  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
  • 1 tablespoon sriracha, or to taste
  • lemon wedges, for garnishing

Instructions

Shrimp Cakes

  1. To a large bowl, add the eggs, optional sriracha, and whisk to combine.
  2. Add the panko, green onions, salt, pepper, lemon zest, smoked paprika, and stir to combine.
  3. Add the shrimp and knead the mixture with your hands to evenly distribute the shrimp within the other ingredients. Form 4 large patties.
  4. To a large skillet, add the olive oil, shrimp cakes, and cook over medium heat for about 3 to 4 minutes per side. I recommend keeping the heat at medium so the shrimp cakes don't brown too quickly or get too dark. While they cook, make the spicy mayo.

Spicy Mayo

  1. Add both ingredients to a small bowl and stir to combine.
  2. When shrimp cakes are done, garnish with green onions, and serve with spicy mayo and lemons.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 480Total Fat: 37gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 30gCholesterol: 319mgSodium: 944mgCarbohydrates: 7gFiber: 1gSugar: 4gProtein: 31g

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About the Author

Welcome to AverieCooks! Here you’ll find fast and easy recipes that taste amazing and are geared for real life. Nothing fussy or complicated, just awesome tasting dishes everyone loves!

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Comments

  1. Thanks for this easy, delicious recipe. Will definitely make these again. I served them on buns with lettuce, tomato and siracha mayo.

    Rating: 5
    1. Thanks for the 5 star review and I’m glad that you will definitely make them again!

    1. Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad it’s a new favorite and you’ll definitely make them again!

  2. Your recipes are wonderful! But I wish that when you print off the recipes the picture was included. I keep notebooks of recipes and always seem to cook the ones with a picture the most. Most people like to see what they are cooking.

    1. So this is a dilemma because I get complaints from people if I have it set up to print the photo as well that I am ‘wasting their ink’ so in an effort to cut down on that, it’s not included. BUT you can copy paste directly from the screen into an email and grab the top photo.

  3. I’ve never had shrimp cakes but these look delicious–especially with some spicy mayo! So cool you have a lemon tree! I have thought about trying to grow an indoor dwarf variety but not sure it will get enough sunlight with all our grey winter skies around here.