General Tso Shrimp
General Tso Shrimp with sweet chili sauce and broccoli is a sweet and spicy dinner served over rice using succulent shrimp instead of chicken. Make this quick and easy weeknight dinner at home instead of ordering Chinese takeout!
What’s your favorite protein?
Mine has to be shrimp. If I could use shrimp in all of my cooking instead of chicken or beef, I’d be happy.
Not only is shrimp one of the easiest, quickest proteins to cook (see: air fryer coconut shrimp), I just love the taste of seafood.
Today’s recipe is a variation of my favorite Chinese-American dish: General Tso Shrimp!
Every few months I get Chinese takeout for dinner and almost always order general tso’s chicken.
However, for making it at home I decided to make a few changes. First of course is using shrimp.
Second, I made sure there was plenty of broccoli. I always feel jipped when I get two pieces of broccoli. Bring on more broccoli!
Third, I made general tso’s sauce using sweet chili sauce instead of traditional hoisin.
I feel like you’re more likely to have sweet chili sauce in your pantry once you check out all the recipes using sweet chili sauce I’ve made.
You can probably argue this is resembles sweet chili shrimp more than general tso’s shrimp, but I wanted you to know where the inspiration came from.
I promise you’ll still love this general tso shrimp recipe. In fact, dare I say my version is even better!
Ingredients For General Tso Shrimp
To make your shrimp with sweet chili sauce, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- White rice: Because general tso’s shrimp is saucy, you’ll want to serve it over rice to soak it all up.
- Shrimp: Shrimp can vary in size, but really any kind will do as long as it’s raw and not pre-cooked. I like to buy already shelled and deveined, but you can also peel them yourself.
- Broccoli: No Chinese meal is complete without broccoli.
- Chicken broth: To help make the sauce
- Sweet chili sauce: You can make it homemade or buy a bottle in your grocer’s Asian aisle. You can also use hoisin for a more traditional general tso’s sauce
- Soy sauce: Adds umami and saltiness
- Rice wine vinegar: Rice wine vinegar is often used in Asian sauces, but you can also use apple cider vinegar in a pinch
- Sugar: Helps sweetened the sauce so it’s not too acidic
Cornstarch: Thickens the sauce
How To Make General Tso Shrimp
Ready to make your homemade general tso’s shrimp?
- Steam broccoli in a skillet with water until softened.
- Add shrimp then cook until pink and no longer transparent.
- Whisk together broth, sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and cornstarch then stir into the skillet.
- Cook until thickened then serve over rice.
Refrigerate leftovers for up to 3 days.
General Tso Shrimp FAQ
You can make the sauce ahead of time then cook the shrimp when ready to serve.
Soy sauce is not gluten-free. However, you can substitute tamari as a gluten-free option.
Yes! You can easily swap in chicken or tofu. You’ll need to adjust the cooking times to ensure each protein is cooked properly.
More Shrimp Recipes
Enjoyed your sweet chili shrimp? Check out these other easy shrimp recipes:
General Tso Shrimp
General Tso Shrimp with sweet chili sauce and broccoli is a sweet and spicy dinner served over rice using succulent shrimp instead of chicken. Make this quick and easy weeknight dinner at home instead of ordering Chinese takeout!
Ingredients
- 1 + 1/4 cups water
- 1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice
- 1 cup chopped fresh broccoli
- 6 ounces raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and patted dry
- 1/3 cup chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons sweet chili sauce (or hoisin sauce for a more traditional sauce)
- 1 + 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce*
- 1 + 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 + 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, add 1 cup water, rice, and a pinch of salt then bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and cover. Simmer 10 minutes or until the water is absorbed and rice is fluffy. Remove from the heat and let sit covered 10 minutes.
- While the rice is cooking: Heat up a large dry skillet. Once hot, add the broccoli, remaining 1/4 cup water, and a pinch of salt. Cover with a lid and cook 3-5 minutes until it starts to soften. At this point the water should have evaporated.
- Add the shrimp then cover again. Cook 2-3 minutes or until the shrimp is pink and fully cooked, stirring occasionally.
- In a large measuring cup or bowl, whisk together broth, sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and cornstarch.
- Pour sauce into skillet then cook until thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Serve over rice.
Refrigerate leftovers for up to 3 days.
Notes
- *You can substitute tamari for soy sauce to make this recipe gluten-free.
- Enjoyed this recipe? Check out Spicy Beer Shrimp and Teriyaki Shrimp.
First published March 24, 2014
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Yum! This looks so easy and delicious!
Healthier but just as delicious! Yum!
We LOVE General Tsos in my house! I love that you’ve made it with shrimp and that it’s a lot healthier than takeout! Pinning now!
Ha-the one time we peeled shrimp here I made my kids do it lol. And I am so with you about the broccoli. Pinning!
I’m with you, I looooove shrimp! I feel like I make so many blog recipes with it! I know many people don’t prefer it, but I can’t help myself. Heck, I’m drooling over this recipe, too! I was also really impressed with the shrimp cleaner. It made such quick work of the peeling and deveining!
I use an electric steamer for my fresh veggies all the time but never thought about doing shrimp in it. Thanks for that idea and I plan to try this dish this week. I had fish on the menu already so I think I will just change it to shrimp and do it this way. I feel certain we will love it.
Those look absolutely delicious! I am Pinning these to my dinner board. Could you believe the size of those shrimp? They were absolutely fantastic to cook with.
I’ve never used a steamer to cook shrimp before but I’m going to have to find one and try this out! This recipe looks delicious!
Wow, that sweet chili sauce looks delicious! I am going to have to try that one :) Don’t you just love that nifty oxo steamer, that is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets :) Pinning your yummy recipe for future use <3
Carla,
I freaking LOVE this recipe!!! My kids love shrimp. . totally trying this and it looks delicious!!
What a great gift pack! I would love to win.
OXO provided us with the widget, so I’m not sure what the options look like (it forces me to log in, which of course I can’t enter). If you go to http://www.oxo.com and look at the bottom, there’s an area to sign up for their email.
This looks amazing. I am also a general Tsos fiend, but when out, I tend to go towards the seafood dishes. This way, I get both at once. I love it! :-D
We love homemade Chinese take out! And I love General tsao’s chicken – what a great idea to use shrimp!
“My inspiration for this dish were my tastebuds” <– lol, you're awesome! I agree with you – I LURV shrimp and thankfully, Chinese cuisine features a lot of shrimp dishes. This recipe looks so simple and healthy, Carla! Waaaaaaaay better for you than take-out that's loaded with (delicious but bad-for-you) MSG.
This shrimp dish is so mouthwatering..
This looks amazing and I even have your chili sauce in the fridge to use!
shrimp is my all time favorite too! This recipe looks great. Great photos too!
This is so great…one of my kids is CRAZY about General Tso’s chicken. We’ve never made those flavors with shrimp, but considering her love of shrimp, this would be a huge hit. Thanks for this!
This sauce would be fabulous on so many things!
I have just started eating shrimp, This is an awesome recipe i`ve just tried. I also made the sweet chilli sauce. What can i say….Awesome! and so easy to make, You`ve made my husband happy too.
Oh this is a great recipe to start with if you’re new to eating shrimp! Glad you and your husband enjoyed it :)
Truly appreciate the way you made this delicious shrimps. They are very nutritious and healthy. Seafoods are my favorite and I am going to make this for our family dinner. Thanks for this lovely recipe and looking forward for more in future too.
Thanks! Let me know if you try it.
I plan to cook this tonight! Sounds yummy. What type of vinegar did you use?
You can use white distilled, apple cider, or rice vinegar.
This recipe is very good! Made it for lunch today.
Glad you liked it!