This is my all-time favorite shrimp salad recipe. It’s absolutely delicious, thanks to perfectly cooked shrimp, fresh dill, and an out of this world homemade dressing. You will love it!
This is the best shrimp salad I’ve made in a long time. I love serving it with saltine crackers (thanks for the suggestion, Lindsay), but it’s just as delicious in a sandwich, wrapped in flour tortillas, or served in lettuce cups.
This cold shrimp salad keeps in the fridge for three days. I can’t wait for you to try this recipe. It’s a keeper! For more easy shrimp recipes, see my easy shrimp scampi or this fresh shrimp ceviche.
Key Ingredients
- Shrimp: For the best shrimp salad, cook your shrimp. I poach shrimp for this salad and love how gently poaching keeps the shrimp succulent. I use large shrimp and have shown how to poach shrimp them below. (You can use pre-cooked shrimp, but cooking the shrimp yourself only takes a few minutes.)
- Bell pepper, celery, and green onion: Add flavor, color, and crunch. I especially love the added sweetness of the bell pepper in this salad.
- Mayonnaise: Is the base for our creamy shrimp salad dressing. Use a good-quality store-bought brand or make your own (here’s our recipe for homemade mayo).
- Lemon juice: Keeps our salad fresh and cuts through any heaviness of the mayo.
- Dill: A classic herb with shrimp. I add a lot of dill to this salad and love it!
How to Make Shrimp Salad
To poach the shrimp, I follow a similar process to poaching chicken. You’ll start by bringing water to a boil with a few aromatics (garlic, lemon, and salt).
When boiling, turn off the heat and add the shrimp. The hot water will poach large shrimp, like the shrimp shown in our photos, to perfection in approximately 3 minutes.
Next, allow the poached shrimp to cool on a plate in the refrigerator while you gather the remaining salad ingredients (mayonnaise, lemon juice, drill, bell pepper, celery, green onion, salt, and pepper).
Gently mix all the shrimp salad ingredients, and you’re done. If you are in a rush, enjoy the salad now but if you can wait an hour, the flavors will develop even more (I cover it and store in the fridge).
Best Shrimp Salad
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This is the best shrimp salad recipe we’ve made! It’s also very simple to make. You can use pre-cooked shrimp from the store or cook it yourself. We highly recommend cooking the shrimp for the most flavorful and perfectly textured salad, which only takes a few minutes.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
Shrimp Salad1 pound poached shrimp, recipe below
1/2 cup finely diced red bell pepper (Half of a large pepper)
1/2 cup finely diced celery (1 large stalk)
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion (3 to 4)
1/2 cup (100 grams) mayonnaise, try homemade mayo
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh dill
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
4 twists of pepper grinder
Poached Shrimp1 pound large shrimp (31-40 per pound), peeled and deveined
2 quarts water
1 lemon, cut in half
2 cloves garlic, peeled and gently smashed
1 bay leaf
3 twists pepper grinder
1 ½ tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning, optional
Directions
- Poach the Shrimp
1Add 2 quarts of water to a large pot and place it on the stove over high heat. Squeeze a little lemon juice into the water and drop the lemon halves into the pot. Add the garlic, bay leaf, pepper, salt, and Cajun seasoning. Bring the liquid to a rolling boil.
2Once the water reaches a rolling boil, remove the pot from the heat and immediately submerge the shrimp into the hot water. Poach them for three minutes.
3Using tongs or a slotted spoon, carefully transfer the cooked shrimp to a plate. Allow them to cool by placing them in the refrigerator.
- Make the Salad
1Once the shrimp have cooled, place them in a large bowl with the bell pepper, celery, green onion, mayonnaise, lemon juice, dill, salt, and pepper.
2Gently mix the ingredients until they are well combined.
3Allow the salad to sit in the refrigerator for at least one hour before serving, which allows the flavors to marinate and develop.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Shrimp salad lasts up to 3 days in the refrigerator. Store it in an airtight container. I love having this salad ready in the fridge for an easy lunch or dinner! We do not recommend freezing shrimp salad.
- Bell pepper substitute: If you do not want to add bell peppers, leave them out.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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This is by far the most delicious shrimp salad I have made. I had to substitute the fresh dill for dried dill because I could not find it in my local food store!, I live in the Bahamas and cannot always get the ingredients I need without going to several stores. It was incredible, nonetheless. I only used two heaping tablespoons of mayo, not half a cup….only because I wanted the other flavors to dominate.
Can you add some romaine lettuce to the shimp salad.
That’s a great idea, Aggie! I’d either add it to the salad or use as a base. You can also turn into lettuce wraps.
The recipe I was looking for, simple and versatile. I feel confident cause I got Duke’s mayonnaise. Thanks for sharing
Glad you found us, Phyllis!
This shrimp salad is fantastic! I doubled the recipe and glad I did as I think I “tasted” almost 1/3 of the bowl!!! Will definitely be making again.
The same thing happens to us. We always make a double batch. Glad you love it as much as we do 🙂
This is delish! I didn’t have fresh dill. I used 1Tbsp dried dill. No green onions I subbed in Vadalia onions-a little less since it is stronger than stick onions. When poaching I deleted the salt, shrimp is naturally salty enough IMHO. I ate over shredded lettuce and added a roll for a starch. I added sliced black olives just because I had some open. In the time, it would have been nice to know early that an hour is needed to allow it to marinade to full flavor-so lunch was a little late. That’s my nit. Otherwise, excellent. I will try this as a cold pasta dish using small ring pasta next time. I forgot to take a snapshot.
Just made the salad I had 1pound raw shrimp and 1pound cooked shrimp I added the cooked shrimp for a few minutes had to double the recipe for church lunch very yum thank you very much
This recipe is spot on. A definite keeper and will be in our meal rotation. Its great as is, and is very adaptable for additions or deletions based on peraonal taste. Thanks for sharing!!
So glad you gave our recipe a try, Chris. Thank you for coming back to let us know.
I added 2 hard boiled eggs, only because I had them cooked and it was amazing. I’ve done it both ways. Great recipe!
Great idea! Glad you loved it 🙂
Ok I was skeptical about making this bc of the ingredients. I used pre cooked shrimp, followed the recipe to a t and Joanne is right! This is the best shrimp salad I’ve ever had. Not too much mayo, I taste the celery, pepper and dill. Super fresh & easy to make!
We are so happy that you loved it 🙂
That salad is truly amazing and so delicious 😋 honestly I could eat it all day.😊prefect for summer 😊😊 thank you very much for this incredible recipe
Great shrimp salad. Should have let the shrimp drain/dry a bit more before mixing, but it was great. Let it sit overnight, so a great make-ahead. Served on lettuce with melon on the side. Perfect luncheon dish.