Honey Chili-Lime Shrimp Tacos
These chili-lime shrimp tacos are ready in 30 minutes! The shrimp are coated in a sweet and spicy sauce with chili seasonings, honey, lime juice, and garlic. Serve the shrimp and sauce with a simple creamy cabbage slaw and wrap it all up in warm flour tortillas.
In my world, the best shrimp tacos are easy shrimp tacos, and this recipe hits that mark. You can cook and assemble it all in about 30 minutes. I repeat: In 30 minutes, you’ll have delicious chili-lime shrimp tacos with a sweet and spicy sauce and creamy salsa verde slaw.
What I love about this recipe is the sauce. It’s made with chili powder, cumin, lime juice, and garlic, with a touch of honey for sweetness. You cook the shrimp in it, then reduce it until it’s thick, glossy, and a little sticky. Toss the shrimp back in, serve them up with the creamy slaw, and pile it all on warm tortillas.
These shrimp tacos are so good and so easy.
Ingredients
- Shrimp: You’ll need 16 ounces of peeled and deveined shrimp with the tails removed. I like to use small to medium-sized shrimp.
- Finely chopped garlic cloves
- Honey
- Olive oil
- Chili powder
- Ground cumin
- Cayenne pepper
- Salt and pepper
- Fresh lime juice
- Shredded cabbage: I like bagged coleslaw mix – it makes the prep easy!
- Sour cream: Or use the same amount of plain Greek yogurt
- Salsa verde
- Chopped cilantro
Use your favorite taco seasoning mix instead of the individual spices to make it a little easier. A generous tablespoon would be a good amount. If you like spicy shrimp, add more cayenne pepper.
The prep time is pretty quick, but save yourself the chopping and sub the fresh garlic for garlic powder to make it even faster. Use a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder instead (or up to a teaspoon if you like it garlic-y). I prefer fresh garlic, but sometimes a shortcut is nice.
How to Make Chili-Lime Shrimp Tacos
☑️ Make the Slaw
Mix the sour cream, salsa, and cilantro in a bowl. Add the shredded cabbage and stir to coat it evenly. Set the slaw aside while you prepare the shrimp.
☑️ Make the Sauce
Combine the garlic, honey, oil, chili powder, cumin, cayenne, salt, pepper, and lime juice in a large skillet. Whisk to combine, then bring the sauce to a simmer over medium-high heat.
☑️ Cook the Shrimp
Once it’s simmering, add the shrimp and stir to coat them in the sauce. Simmer them in the sauce for four to five minutes or until they are pink and opaque. The sauce will be thin at this point, which is fine.
☑️ Reduce the Sauce
Take the shrimp out of the pan and place them in a large bowl. Boil the sauce until it thickens.
Pour the thickened sauce over the shrimp in the bowl and toss to coat them. You can also reserve some of the sauce to spoon over the shrimp once you’ve assembled the tacos.
☑️ Assemble the Tacos
Place some slaw on a tortilla, top it with the chili-lime shrimp, and add your favorite toppings! Here are some of my favorites:
- A dollop of sour cream
- Diced jalapeno or red onion or both!
- Diced avocado
- A spoonful of guacamole
More Taco Recipes
Honey Chili-Lime Shrimp Tacos
These shrimp tacos are ready in 30 minutes! The shrimp are coated in a sweet and spicy sauce made with chili seasonings, honey, lime juice, and garlic. Serve the shrimp and sauce on warm tortillas with a simple creamy cabbage slaw for a great weeknight dinner.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Simmer
- Cuisine: Mexican-American
Ingredients
- 2 cups shredded cabbage
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons salsa verde
- 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Juice of 2 limes
- 16 ounces peeled and deveined shrimp (see note)
- For serving: Tortillas, chopped cilantro, lime wedges, or other taco toppings you like
Instructions
- Make the slaw first by combining the cabbage, sour cream, salsa, and cilantro in a bowl. Set it aside while you prepare the shrimp and sauce.
- Combine the garlic, honey, olive oil, all the spices and seasonings, and the lime juice in a large skillet. Turn the heat to medium-high and whisk the sauce until it simmers.
- Lower the heat to medium, and add the shrimp to the sauce. Stir to coat them and cook them until they are opaque and pink, about four to five minutes. The sauce will thin as the shrimp cooks, which is fine.
- Once the shrimp are cooked, take them out of the skillet and place them in a large bowl. Leave the sauce in the pan and bring it to a boil. Boil it until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. This will take a couple of minutes.
- Pour the sauce over the shrimp and toss to coat them evenly.
- To assemble the tacos, place some slaw in a tortilla and top it with shrimp and sauce. Garnish with cilantro and serve with lime wedges.
Notes
For the shrimp, you can use fresh or frozen. If you use frozen ones you will need to thaw them first. I like to use a medium-size, which is the 21-25 count.
I like to use the small street taco tortillas for this recipe, which gives you approximately 8 tacos. You can also skip the tortillas and serve the shrimp over rice with the slaw for taco bowls.
The nutrition estimate is for the shrimp, sauce, and slaw only.
Nutrition
- Calories: 203
- Sugar: 11.3g
- Sodium: 897.4mg
- Fat: 8g
- Saturated Fat: 2.3g
- Unsaturated Fat: 4.6g
- Trans Fat: 0.1g
- Carbohydrates: 17.6g
- Fiber: 1.7g
- Protein: 17.1g
- Cholesterol: 151.3mg
The nutrition is an estimate only. It was calculated using Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator.
More Recipes with Shrimp
I hope you try this shrimp taco recipe – especially if it’s a Tuesday because we all know that’s the day tacos are the most tasty.
Happy cooking,
This post was updated from the archives. It was first published in April 2021.