Let’s make a delicious dish of Chipotle Orange Shrimp with Cilantro Rice! Here’s how you can whip it up in your kitchen.
First, let’s gather our ingredients. For the Chipotle Orange Sauce, you’ll need one chipotle pepper (or half if you prefer less spice), 3/4 cup of heavy cream, two cloves of garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and the zest of one orange.
For the shrimp and rice, you’ll need a drizzle of olive oil, one pound of uncooked shrimp (with the tails removed and patted dry), 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, 1 1/2 cups of white rice (jasmine or long grain rice works great), and 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro.
Lastly, for the cucumbers, you’ll need two small cucumbers (or one large one) thinly sliced, one tablespoon of olive oil, two tablespoons of white vinegar, one tablespoon of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Now, let’s get cooking! Start with the cucumbers. Toss all the cucumber ingredients together and set them aside.
Next, blend the sauce ingredients together until they’re mostly smooth. But be careful not to overblend! We want the garlic and chipotle to be mostly smoothed out so they can incorporate into the sauce.
While that’s blending, cook your rice according to the package directions. Once it’s done, stir in the cilantro and salt to taste. If you want some citrus goodness in there, add lime juice or the juice of the zested orange.
Now, let’s move on to the shrimp. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and sauté for two minutes on each side, sprinkling with the cumin, plus some salt and pepper.
Finally, add the sauce to the shrimp and let it simmer for another five minutes or so. Serve the shrimp over the rice, with a side of the tangy cucumbers you prepared earlier.
A couple of things to note: The heavy whipping cream in the sauce will start to get a whipped texture the longer you blend it, so don’t over-blend! If you accidentally find yourself with a whipped texture, don’t worry, it’ll settle down and loosen up once it warms up in the pan.
Also, you don’t want your shrimp to be watery, so if you’re using frozen shrimp, be sure to fully thaw it and pat the excess water out before sending it to the pan. If there’s some moisture in the pan before adding the sauce, you’ll want to drain that out. The shrimp is also good with a pinch of sugar added to it for a little sweetness, or the juice of the orange squeezed in!
This dish takes about 15 minutes to prep and another 15 minutes to cook. Enjoy your homemade Chipotle Orange Shrimp with Cilantro Rice!
