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Shrimp Burgers
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- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1large clove garlic, peeled
- 1dried or fresh chile, stemmed, seeded and deveined, or more to taste
- 11-inch piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1½pounds peeled shrimp, deveined if you like
- ¼cup roughly chopped shallots, scallions or red onion
- ¼cup roughly chopped red or yellow bell pepper, optional
- Salt and pepper
- ½cup cilantro leaves, or to taste
- Neutral oil, like corn or canola, as needed
- Toasted buns, optional
- Lime wedges or ketchup for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Start a charcoal or gas grill; fire should be moderately hot and rack about 4 inches from heat source.
- Step 2
Combine garlic, chili, ginger and ⅓ of the shrimp in a food processor and purée, stopping machine to scrape down sides of container as necessary. Add remaining shrimp along with shallots, bell pepper, salt, pepper and cilantro, and pulse as many times as necessary to chop shrimp, but not too finely. Shape mixture into 4 patties. Chill for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Step 3
Brush grill or patties lightly with oil and place them on grill. Cook undisturbed until a dark crust appears on bottom and they release fairly easily with a spatula, about 5 minutes. Turn and cook an additional 3 to 4 minutes on the other side. Serve on buns or not, as you like, with ketchup or lime juice as a condiment.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
A fabulous recipe and another family favorite, frequently served with an avocado aioli: 1 avocado, 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 tbs lime juice, 2 cloves garlic, 1 serrano chile, 2 tbs cilantro, salt & pepper. Highly recommended. Save the shrimp shells for making shrimp stock.
What kind of shrimp work best here?
These were excellent, absolutely delicious. We found them to be too much of a mouthful as a burger, so the second time we rolled half the batch into balls to stuff into a roll for a bahn mi-like sandwich, and we crumbled up the other half and cooked it like sausage that we added to a Vietnamese-style rice noodle and herb salad with a fish sauce and lime dressing.
Best Burger Ever!
We top with a spicy mayo - good old Hellmann's mixed with a dash each of Sriracha, lime juice and soy sauce.
Thanks as always M. Bittman.
Pureed shrimp all by itself is a strong binder. Cooks Illustrated uses pureed shrimp as the only binder in a recipe for crab cakes.
I have made these several times. The key is make sure the shrimp are dried and not too wet. I use paper towels to press out excess moisture. The burgers won't fall apart . I process the shrimp, veggies and spices and then add chopped shrimp by hand. I have altered this recipe by adding Maryland lump crab meat with the chopped shrimp. Next time I will add some cod or halibut.
We loved it. The shrimp was so sweet. I made an Asian mayo with sesame oil and ginger to go with it. Thanks. And, Thomas, I always save the shrimp shells.
A fabulous recipe and another family favorite, frequently served with an avocado aioli: 1 avocado, 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 tbs lime juice, 2 cloves garlic, 1 serrano chile, 2 tbs cilantro, salt & pepper.
I broiled them in my oven (dab a little oil underneath as well as on top). Took a little longer (8 minutes + 4 minutes), but they didn't shrink or fall apart. And they are delicious! I love the absence of bready taste.
These were delicious! I've definitely added this recipe to my collection. I opted to fry them because I was afraid they might fall through the grill. I made a spicy sauce with mayo, sriracha, soy sauce and lime juice. Suggestion: if you serve them with a spicy sauce, I'd hold off on the salt until you've tasted them.
Delicious! As noted above purée of shrimp is also a great binder for crab cakes and it does not need any other binding agent. We have changed the flavor profile depending on the hers we have on hand and found that basil and a touch of garlic also worked well.
Delicious! Rolled the shrimp in some Old Bay seasoning and cayenne, added a few tbs of panko, loaded up on more peppers and cilantro, added lemon zest and celery salt, and finally shallow fried instead of grilled. All the suggestions for twists on the standard mayo accompaniment are excellent. I served along with wasabi-garlic mayo, tartare sauce, sweet & hot mustard, lettuce and thinly sliced tomatoes. Heaven!
Terrific - but very difficult to grill , will pan fry on non stick pan to get a golden brown crisp next time. Also leave some big almost whole chunks of shrimp to add a nice texture profile. A thin smear of mayo on the roll toasts beautifully and crunch.
Maybe not the best recipe for newer cooks. Ours fell apart quite a bit on the grill to half their original size. Would definitely recommend chilling for longer. Burgers themselves were good but nothing out of this world.
Seems like it would need a binder of some kind, like some bread crumbs and/or possibly a little olive oil?
These are soooo good. The flavor was more than expected for the short time involved. I know my grill so I didn't attempt it, but like other reviewers said they cooked up in a non-stick pan beautifully. I used about 1/2 tsp olive oil for each patty and the sear and crispy edges were perfect. Served on brioche with lettuce and a quick sriracha/cilantro mayo. Will make again!
I added a dash is sesame oil to the puréed shrimp and also ripped it in the patties before I stuck them in the freezer for 20 mins. It can be a little tricky on the grill but these cooked beautifully in a cast iron with canola and sesame oil. The only downside is the bigger than usual mess afterwards.
Delicious! I used large portabellas as buns, sautéed filling loosely than added goat cheese, ate it open faced. I will definitely be making this again!
Very, very good. I had a hard time keeping them together, but I think my skillet wasn’t hot enough to get the good char on the outside. Would make again.
This was delicious, and easy to make. Served on brioche buns with a lemon aioli and lettuce. Semi-froze instead of refrigerated the patties and followed the tip of using a perforated grill pan to cook. When with the pan and patties oiled, they did stick a tad but didn’t fall apart. Extruding as mush water as possible beforehand is key to the patties not falling apart.
Excellent recipe. Broiled as suggested in comments: 8 minutes on one side, but did 5 minutes after flipping them. Didn’t have to oil them. Put each one on a bun slathers with homemade Mayo/aioli. Delicious!
I used this recipe but cooked them in the oven on an oiled sheet pan, a little oil on the top too at 425 degrees. Cooking time was about 15 minutes. Very good!
I'm with the folks who found it problematic on the grill. You have to have near new grates or vigilantly polished to a shine and heavily oiled to pull them off the grill without leaving alot of the mass behind. If I try this again, will add oil to the pureed mass to help with the sticking and push out the moisture as suggested by 'Kay'. Taste is good, but when you leave the caramelized crust on the grill from sticking, not so exceptional. Heavily oil the grates and put the burgers on soon after.
Pan fry, not grill
Live urban without BBQ option but not an issue. This is a great burger in a nonstick pan and any crumble factor on the grill disappears. As an aside, these keep and reheat well. It's a great protein bomb and I keep them available after a lifting session so i don't reac for easy snacks.
Make avocado aioli recipes in the comments. Use small meatballs not burger shaped and roll in panko and pan fry for crunch
I only had the tiniest bit of cilantro, so supplemented with parsley. More cilantro would have been better but even so, this is a delicious sandwich. I'll be making these again. Mixed mayo with chile garlic sauce for a condiment. Yum!
We cooked the burgers in a nonstick frying pan and they came out browned and wonderful.
See other notes for bahn mi and aioli
Not our favorite shrimp burgers. Used the grill basket which worked well, but the consistency of the burger and taste was meh.
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