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How to Make Baked Shrimp in a Lemon Garlic Sauce

Lemon and garlic tend to be the easiest flavors to match with shrimp to end up with a delicious end product. This recipe can be prepared in about thirty minutes, but much of that time is preheat time.

This recipe for a baked shrimp in a lemon and garlic sauce is essentially a slight modification of our pan-fried garlic butter shrimp recipe.

Baked shrimp served over rice

Serve with rice. Or don’t.

Ingredients for Baked Lemon Garlic Shrimp

This recipe is based on two pounds of shrimp, which should be more than enough for a family or one or two very hungry people.

You will need:

  • Two pounds of raw (shelled and deveined) shrimp
  • A cup of butter
  • Two to three tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
  • A tablespoon of parsley
  • A tablespoon of chopped, fresh garlic
  • Optional: one to three tablespoons of Dijon mustard, for an added zip

How to Bake Shrimp (in a Lemon Garlic Sauce)

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit or 230 degrees Celsius.

While your preheating your oven, place a cup of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add your lemon juice, parsley and garlic to the butter and stir it around until the butter is completely melted. If you choose to use Dijon mustard, you would add it now as well.

Arrange your shrimp in a baking dish. Any dish will do. Even a cookie sheet covered in foil if you’re really desperate. Pour your melted lemon garlic butter mixture overtop of the shrimp. Try to get it on every piece. Full coverage is kind of important.

Bake the whole thing in the oven for about twelve to fifteen minutes.

Tips for Baking Shrimp

  • You can tell the shrimp is about done when it turns pink and opaque.
  • Always buy shelled and deveined shrimp. It’s just terrible doing that part. Trust me.
  • Substitute the lemon juice out in place of lime juice for a softer citrus flavor. You can follow our guide on how to get more juice from a lime and actually only use a lime or two for the whole recipe.
  • A good casserole dish would be the best thing to use for baking the shrimp in this recipe.
Sweet and sour chicken
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Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe

This simple recipe for sweet and sour chicken doesn’t use any crazy Chinese ingredients. It’s basically the american-ized version of the dish. It’s also very delicious.

This recipe is intended to be served with rice, but there is no rice in the recipe. Serve it with rice anyways.

Sweet and sour chicken

This sweet and sour chicken recipe uses this simple sweet and sour sauce recipe. An abridged version will be included below to keep everything on one page, but the sauce can be used for many other dishes as well.

Ingredients for Sweet and Sour Chicken

For this recipe, you will need:

  • Four boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • One red pepper
  • One green pepper
  • Some finely chopped ginger
  • Five to seven garlic cloves, depending on how much you love garlic
  • A couple of onions
  • Some pepper
  • Vegetable oil
  • Sweet and sour sauce
  • Optional: some sliced pineapple (usually from a can)

How to Make Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken

Bring a frying pan to medium heat and start cooking your chicken.

While your chicken is cooking, chop your red peppers, green peppers and onions into fairly large pieces. Big chunks of each is the general standard for sweet and sour chicken.

Finely chop your garlic cloves and your ginger.

While your chicken is (probably) still cooking, start preparing the sweet and sour sauce.

The Short Version of the Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe

Combine:

  • Three quarters of a cup of sugar
  • Two thirds of a cup of water
  • A third of a cup of white vinegar
  • A quarter cup of soy sauce
  • About a tablespoon of ketchup
  • And about two tablespoons of corn starch

In a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

With your chicken (probably) about cooked, add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil to a frying pan and begin cooking your peppers, your garlic, and your ginger. Once the peppers have started to soften, add your onions. Cube up your chicken breasts and add those as well.

Pour your sweet and sour sauce overtop and allow to simmer for a few more minutes, and you’re done.

Tips for Making Sweet and Sour Chicken

  • This recipe is written in an order that allows for the cooking times to align with your prep time. You can pre-make the sweet and sour sauce if you consider it simpler.
  • If you choose to use the pineapple, add it at the same time you re-add the chicken.
  • Some recipes suggest you cook the chicken along with the peppers. This one doesn’t. It’s for health reasons and for simplicity’s sake. Do what you will.
  • Serve with rice.
Garlic butter shrimp with broccoli
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How to Make Garlic Butter Shrimp

This is a very simple recipe for pan-fried shrimp cooked with a garlic butter sauce. It can be prepared in about seven to ten minutes and turns out surprisingly similar to some of the mass-produced restaurant shrimps you’ve had while you’re out.

Shrimp is one of those foods that you should buy partially prepared. No one wants to bother de-veining shrimp. So with this recipe it will be assumed you’re using peeled and de-veined shrimp.

Garlic butter shrimp with broccoli

Ingredients in Garlic Butter Shrimp

You’re going to need a bunch of medium sized uncooked shrimp.

You’ll also need:

  • lemon juice
  • butter
  • garlic

Cooking Your Shrimp

Put a large skillet on the stove and throw in a quarter cup of butter. Set to medium-high heat.

While that’s warming, finely chop two or three garlic cloves.

Once the butter has melted and your skillet is reasonably hot, throw in the chopped garlic cloves and one pound of shrimp. Heat until the shrimp turns pink, which should take about five minutes.

Now add a bunch of lemon juice. Three or four tablespoons is a safe guideline, but feel free to play with it. It’s your shrimp.

Simmer for about two or three more minutes. And you’re done.

Tips for Making Garlic Butter Shrimp

  • Serve with rice. Or just eat a whole ton of shrimp.
  • Tell people you got the recipe from Red Lobster. Because that’s more interesting than where you really got it. And this will end up tasting pretty much the same, anyways.
Fresh homemade hamburger
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How to Make Homemade Hamburger Patties

A lot of folks don’t bother with homemade hamburgers. Since we’re already so used to fast food garbage, the frozen overpriced boxed burgers don’t really seem so bad.

But that’s because most people can’t even remember the last time they had a good fresh hamburger. That can be remedied with this easy recipe for hamburgers.

Fresh homemade hamburger

Photo by kalleboo on Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons

This recipe, as with any hamburger recipe, is best when you have access to a barbecue or a grill, but for simplicity’s sake, it will be assumed you’re cooking on a frying pan in a regular kitchen.

Ingredients for Making Hamburgers

You will need a pound and a half of ground beef. You can use a bit less meat if you’re willing to pad out your burgers with bread crumbs. You shouldn’t do that.

You’ll also need some fresh garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage, and parsley. A bit of worcestershire sauce is recommended, and as with just about everything else, a bit of salt and pepper.

Cooking Your Homemade Hamburgers

Put your pound and a half of ground beef into a bowl and mix in two finely chopped garlic cloves, and a few shakes of rosemary, thyme, parsley, and sage, each. Add two tablespoons of worcestershire sauce, as well as a teaspoon of salt.

As far as pepper goes, it’s ideal to use freshly ground pepper, but if you don’t have any, it’s okay to use the regular stuff.

Mix everything together. Since it’s going to be easiest to use your hands, moisten your hands in cold water to help prevent the meat from sticking to you.

Now divide the mixture into five equal balls. Roll them up and then flatten them into a patty.

Assuming you’re cooking the burgers on a frying pan, use medium to high heat and cook each side until browned. Generally you’re looking at five to seven minutes on each side.

Hamburger Cooking Tips

  • Add cheese.
  • This recipe for homemade hamburger patties makes about five patties. If you’re cooking for a lot of people, just double or triple the recipe.
  • You can use any mixture of spices you’d like. Experiment to come up with a recipe for burgers that you love.
  • Pair up with either baked fries or fried french fries. If you bother making a real hamburger you better actually make real fries too.