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). (Note that in the photo below and in our video, I am using Patagonia pink shrimp, which are pink when raw and when cooked.)
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 raw 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.
It’s good I added additional seasoning and that’s all. Thanks
If I could give this recipe 6 stars, I would! Just made it, with a small difference but basically followed the same ingredients, a bit more shrimp so I could add one to the top of the cups I used, in Canada called Siljans. Bite sized apps for an event this evening. Love this site, will definitely be following for more great ideas!
Thank you so much for coming back to leave this review. We are thrilled you love the recipe! 🙂
Amazing! So simple and elegant, with a delicious silky complexity. My husband loved it – it brought him back to the delicious seafood rolls we had at the Auberge du Soleil in Napa, California many years ago. (I added a small dash of Old Bay seasoning and a teaspoon of sour cream.) So wonderful – thank you!
Yay! We both grew up around Annapolis, Maryland so we love adding a little Old Bay 🙂
Going to make this tomorrow. Do you leave the lid on to retain heat while poaching the shrimp ?
I do not place the lid back on.
This is a fabulous recipe, as of now my favourite prawn salad. I made it as per the recipe except I did use precooked prawns, it was still delicious. Next time I will poach. We had it on little buttered baked rolls. Keen to try your other seafood recipes now!
So glad you liked it! If you like this recipe you might like our shrimp carbonara or our cajun shrimp.
was very impressed and happy that the instructions for poaching shrimp was added to this recipe! Turned out well and I will revisit other recipes
Great salad. Instead of all that mayo, I cut some county Dijon and sour cream into the majo and it was delish!
I can’t stop raving about this shrimp salad—it’s absolutely delicious! I’m completely hooked, and I promise you won’t regret trying it.
I was looking for an easy recipe to use some leftover shrimp. This turned out delicious. Thank you.
Absolutely flipped for this! Four of us were at a Sushi bar, and from out of the blue, your cooking reels popped into my brain. My friend Debbie is a cook like me, and I think I must have wanted to tell her about you. Anyway, I decided while being out that night, to put your Shrinp Salad on my docket. Last night was the event! I treated your fantastic Shrimp Salad as if I were making “Lobster Rolls”. I pan toasted a Brioche bun with a light garlic butter slather on the cut sides. Then I stuffed the salad in between. Oh my! Fantastic, and thank you soooo much for sharing.
Amazing, Jeff! Thanks so much for sharing and I am so happy we popped up in your feed! Happy cooking!
I just made this recipe for work luncheon. I doubled the recipe, which I always hesitate to do. It is fabulous!!! Of course I had to taste it!