Prepare to fall in love with this upgraded classic shrimp salad. It features perfectly cooked shrimp and a simple creamy dressing made from mayonnaise, fresh lemon juice, and fresh dill. Whether you enjoy it for lunch or dinner or share it with friends, this salad is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Trust us. It’s delicious!
Watch the Video
Related: We love these amazing lobster rolls made with melted butter and mayo!
How to Make Amazing Shrimp Salad
This shrimp salad is undoubtedly the best we’ve ever made, and what sets it apart is the simplicity of its ingredients. While I love serving it with saltine crackers (thanks for the suggestion, Lindsay), I can assure you it’s equally delightful alone, in a sandwich, wrapped in flour tortillas, served in lettuce boats, or as a side to other refreshing summer salads, like this corn salad.
Our shrimp salad is served cold, so you’ll need cooked shrimp. You can use pre-cooked shrimp from the store or cook it yourself. However, if you want the most flavorful and perfectly textured salad, I highly recommend cooking the shrimp yourself, which only takes a few minutes.
To poach the shrimp, follow a similar process to poaching chicken. Start by bringing water to a boil with added aromatics such as garlic, lemon, and salt. Once boiling, turn off the heat and gently 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 ingredients:
- Mayonnaise (you can even try making homemade mayo!)
- Fresh lemon juice
- Fresh dill
- Chopped bell pepper, celery, and green onion
- Salt and pepper
Gently mix all the salad ingredients, and you’re done. While you can enjoy the salad immediately, allowing it to rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour helps to develop the flavors even more.
More Easy Salads
- We love this easy chicken salad made with lots of fresh herbs.
- This three-bean salad does not get much simpler.
- Our watermelon and feta salad screams summer!
- If you love tzatziki, you must see this tzatziki-inspired cucumber salad.
Perfect Shrimp Salad
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Our shrimp salad is simply the best! Its secret lies in the simplicity of its ingredients. While I enjoy it with saltine crackers (thanks, Lindsay!), it’s equally delicious on its own, in a sandwich, wrapped in tortillas, or as a side to other summer salads.
Use pre-cooked shrimp from the store or cook it yourself. If you want the most flavorful and perfectly textured salad, we highly recommend cooking the shrimp yourself, 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.
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I followed this recipe to a T and have to say its the most amazing shrimp salad ever. Family loved it also and now its a must have at our family get togethers. I wish i could give it more than five stars.
DING DANG DING DONG This was amazing! I added a couple of things to amp it up – my gosh, those shrimp when they came out of the poaching liquid. I wanted to make it more of a meal than a side so I used 8oz of mini pasta shells which I boiled and then cooled. Next I added to the mixture before adding in pasta and shrimp 1/3 cup additional mayo and 1/3 cup sour cream AND 3 tablespoons of the poaching liquid (cooled down of course)and when the pasta and shrimp had cooled off mixed it all together. This was a winner winner chicken dinner for sure.
Mayo either makes or breaks this recipe…what Mayo do you use, they all tear so differently thanks in advance
We like making our homemade mayo or we use Best Food’s.
This looks delicious! I will be making it soon. How long will it keep in the frig?
If you started with fresher shrimp it should last about 3 days in the fridge. We don’t think it will last that long though 🙂
What does it cost to subscribe? This recipe looks so good. I will try it in the next few days. Thank you.
It is completely free to subscribe to our newsletter 🙂
You inspired me after seeing your post on IG this morning! I had shrimp in the freezer and most of the ingredients. I poached the shrimp before leaving for work this afternoon so they could chill and when I got home from work Iput the rest of the ingredients together to make this wonderful shrimp salad. I served it over some cut romaine lettuce and little petite roasted potatoes on the side which I had left over from a previous meal. This will definitely be a repeated salad for our meals! I told my husband crab would be delicious in place of the shrimp as well!! Thanks for the recipe!
Crab would work well in this recipe! So glad you found us and enjoyed the salad 🙂
Can this be made the night before? Or would it be a limp mess? I’m too lazy to get up in the morning to make before church.
You definitely can make this the night before. We actually think it improves when all of the flavors have time to mingle if it last that long 🙂
Can not tell you how much I love this salad! I follow keto and this is my all time favorite salad as of today! I had an english cuke that needed to be used so finely chopped it and added it. I could eat the whole recipe. Thank you😁
Could I use lime instead of lemon? (too many limes leftover 😅)
Lime would be delicious in this if you don’t have lemon.
I snuck a bite before refrigerating and OH MY GOODNESS it’s already so good! Cannot wait for the flavor melding process to finish so I can dive in! The Cajun seasoning in the boiling method and the lemon and dill in the mix….SO GOOD!
Thank you for the recipe.😀 I will definitely try this out next time I can go to my church’s after service potluck lunches.
Absolutely delicious!!! the fresh lemon and dill kicks this simple shrimp salad to a new level!! Excellent!
We totally agree and love the dill in this salad. So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I love shrimp salad,so I hope mine looks as good as the one shown here.Thanks for the recipe. I love it.
Hi I have a lot of frozen white fish can I substitute this for the shrimp but keep all the other ingredients?
Hi Janine, Yes, but the cooking method/time might be different for you.