If you love shrimp (and aren’t allergic) then I must highly suggest that you make your own Homemade Shrimp Stock for your next seafood-y soup or risotto.
Oh yes!!! Shrimp STOCK!
So, don’t freak out. Unless you absolutely, 100%, hands-down HATE shrimp. Or are allergic. BUT if you love shrimp and are not allergic, then I must highly suggest that you make your very own homemade shrimp stock for your next seafood-y soup or risotto.
Shrimp broth (or stock) is surprisingly easy, or as easy as you want to make it. It can be as basic as shrimp shells and water for a quick light stock. Orrrr go on and gussy it up with onion, carrots, celery, herbs and spices. You get to choose your own adventure here.
Today, we’re gussy-ing. Natch.
To Make Homemade Shrimp Stock You Will Need:
- light olive oil
- shells from 1 to 2 pounds of shrimp
- onion
- carrot
- celery
- garlic
- parsley
- bay leaf
- whole coriander
- black peppercorn
- water
Believe it or not, this is my first stock or broth recipe to be posted on SS. I do have others broth recipes, both a vegetable broth and chicken broth– which can be found in my book. But after recently having the most amazing soup at a local restaurant, I tasted my way through it, bite by bite. Which then inspired me to make and test out a recipe for homemade shrimp stock.
Because I’m pretty sure it was in the soup that I ate.
So I bought a few pounds of wild caught, headless, shell-on and tail on shrimp. I removed the shells, tails and de-veined about 25 to 30 shrimp total. Do not let the shelling and deveining of scare you!! This whole process takes a little bit of time, if you’re new to this shelling process you can see how I did it in this post. If you’re more familiar then this process should take about 25 minutes. I listen to my favorite station on Pandora while doing this which makes it much more bearable. Once you’ve successfully peeled and deveined all the shrimp, rinse the shells under cool water. I also rinse the shrimp too, but separately.
Then I just drizzled a teaspoon of safflower oil into the bottom of my heavy bottom pot and then dumped in the rinsed shrimp shells, onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Then simply cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
After the 10 minutes are up, add in the parsley sprigs, bay leaves, peppercorns and coriander seeds along with 6 cups cool water. Now just cover–leaving the lid askew–and bring to a boil. Once at a rolling boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.
FUN FACT!
The peels from the onion will help deepen the color of the broth to a beautiful rich golden color. I always leave the peels on when making homemade broth or stock.
That’s it! See how easy AND how pretty!?
Ladle most of the veggies into a mesh strainer that is set into a large bowl before pouring the rest of the homemade shrimp stock through. Allow to cool, then store it in pre-measured, freezer-safe containers or ice cube trays for easy portioning later on when cooking.
You can use homemade shrimp stock in replace of store-bought fish broth/stock and even clam juice. It’s amazing and I’m super excited to use it in my upcoming soup recipe. So the next time you have a bunch of shrimp shells leftover DO NOT toss them! It takes only minutes to make a quick stock. If you’re not in the mood the freeze the shells and make the stock later on.
Go on! Get your shrimp stock on. (<—–sounded way cooler in my head)
Enjoy! And if you give this Homemade Shrimp Stock recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
Homemade Shrimp Stock
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon extra light olive oil
- shells from 2 pounds of shrimp, rinsed
- 1 medium yellow onion, peel left on and quartered
- 2 carrots, roughly chopped
- 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
- 3 cloves fresh garlic, smashed and peeled
- 6 sprigs fresh parsley
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon whole dried coriander seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 6 cups cold water
Instructions
- Add the oil, shrimp shells, onion, carrots, celery and garlic to a heavy bottom pot that has a tight fitted lid. Heat over medium and cook the shrimp shells until pink and vegetables start to soften, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Next add in the parsley, bay, coriander, peppercorns and water. Cover the pot, leaving the lid askew and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Place a mesh strainer into a large bowl or 8-cup liquid measuring cup. Use a ladle to remove most of the vegetables and shells to the strainer before carefully pouring the remaining stock through. Discard shrimp shells and vegetables.
- Allow the shrimp stock to cool before storing. This can be kept in the fridge for a few weeks or frozen up to 3 months.
- Simply Scratch Tip: To freeze, pre-measure the stock into freezer-safe containers or ice cube trays for easy portioning later on when cooking. 2 cup measures are great for soups and risotto, while the ice cube trays are best for sauces.
Buy the Cookbook: Simply Scratch : 120 Wholesome Homemade Recipes Made Easy Now available on Amazon »
THANK YOU in advance for your support!
This is too easy and I love shrimp. I hope you will post a soup recipe soon using this goodness you’ve shown here!!
Hi Julie! Just in case you didn’t see it, here’s the link! http://www.simplyscratch.com/2016/08/roasted-tomato-curry-soup-with-shrimp.html
Hi Laurie
What did you do with the shrimp.
Hi Jackie! I used them in this soup 🙂 http://www.simplyscratch.com/2016/08/roasted-tomato-curry-soup-with-shrimp.html
Question? You call for 1 – 2 lbs of shrimp shells. Do you know how many shell-on shrimp would be required to yield just one or two pounds of shells?? I think it would be many.
I typically buy two pound bags of “shrimp” and then shell them as required for the meal, saving the shells in the freezer. I also buy head-on shrimp.
HI there! It should read: the shells from 1 to 2 pounds of shrimp. Sorry for the confusion!
Would cooking the stock for longer than 15 minutes continue to make the flavor stronger? How long can i cook the stock for without killing nutrients? The only stock I’ve made before was chicken bone broth, and I only used chicken scraps and water, but I cooked it over the course of 2 days. Time doesn’t bother me
Because the shrimp shells are so delicate (unlike chicken bones) it doesn’t take long to pull out the flavor/nutrients. I hope this helps 🙂
I’m assuming raw shrimp shells and not shells off of shrimp that has already been cooked?
You are correct, Jody 🙂
You can use precooked shells as well. Cook time to draw out the flavor is a bit longer and you’ll want to reduce to compound the flavors.
Great tip! Thanks Stacey!
Shrimp stock can be canned. Pressure can it in cup or pint jars at 10 psi for 100 minutes.
If I use this in a gumbo, can I reuse the celery, onions, etc. in my broth without repercussions? I hate to waste!
Hi Celeste! In my opinion, once you use it in stock they have served their purpose (flavoring it). You can most certainly use it, but I would also use fresh as the recipe directs.
Hi Celeste, we are making etouffee (not the SAME as gumbo, but enough shared ingredients to be considered similar) and to save waste I am making this stock with the leftovers of the veggies that i used in the etouffee (the “butts” of the onions, the leaves/end of the celery, etc) then I either freeze this shrimp stock for later or use it to make the rice we serve our etouffee with (using it in the rice make the whole meal taste a bit more seafood-y but we like it that way!)
I am a “cook down more to get flavor out” kind of home cook so I simmered longer (plus added double the shrimp shells b/c I had them in freezer already). If it is is too concentrated I will just add liquid. Since I plan to use this for Ciopino I am sure it will be fine.
Great! Enjoy, Beth!
I’m excited to try this as it sounds so simple-can’t believe I never tried this before!
The Atlanta Breakfast Club used to serve this divine shrimp gravy -it was drinkable good. I think that’ll be what I make with my shrimp stock first.
Thanks for sharing!
Looking at your recipe for shrimp stock/broth and wondering why you do not use the shrimp heads?
They Michael! The shrimp I used did not have their heads attached.
Hi you call for the shells and tails what about the heads of the shrimp can those be added also?
Hi Kala! Personally, I can’t ever find head-on shrimp, but I don’t see why you couldn’t. Enjoy!
Simple and easy, yet very flavorful stock. Used some of the stock for a sautéed shrimp and rice dish.
Thanks so much! I love shrimp and I’m always wanting to make a stock from the shells but never have until TODAY! Can’t wait to use this in the soup recipe you posted! Yum yum!!
Want to make it even better, all that it can be? Use the HEADS! There is no better shrimp stock than stock made with the heads.
I’m Doing this now! It’s my first time I saved the shells from last nights shrimp scampi ♀️ I discarded them into a large sauce pot and placed it into the fridge……
I’ll make crab ( from the can) risotto tonight…thanks so much!!
I have about 2 pounds of shrimp and lobster shells. Can I use them all at once?
yes, it will have slightly different flavor than the above recipe
I made shrimp stock last night. I read this today. I didn’t heat nor cook the shrimp shells beforehand. I just threw them in a pot and poured in water and seasoning. I let them simmer about 1.5 hours. Aside from missing flavor, did I make a mistake by not cooking them in oil before?
Unfortunately, you made a couple of mistakes: 1) you simmered them way too long, and 2) you didn’t cook them over high heat in the oil before adding the liquid.
America’s Test Kitchen did a study to determine the optimal time to simmer shrimp shells. Worth a look if you can find it. They determined that simmering for more than 5 minutes destroys the flavor components (they “showed that the compounds that we associate with shrimp flavor are highly volatile,” meaning they’ll evaporate quickly.), and browning the shells in the oil develops savory Maillard flavors as well as other subtle seafood aromas. I also used to try making shrimp stock and simmering for a long time, but it was always tasteless, so I gave up until reading the ATK article. Good luck 😉
Can you clarify the serving size? It says 1 g. I’m trying to figure out how much calcium the shrimp broth has. Thank you!
Hi Brenda! I’ve updated the recipe nutritional information.
Buttah is Bettah!! Good stock recipe. I used butter, not olive oil, but that’s because I grew up in Florida “Flicker Style”, where we ate our unused shrimp bait as breakfast (with grits and sliced ‘maters) after fishing since before dawn. Easy on the carrots and the celery – this is not about vitamins, but SKRIMP! Their flavor is easily over powered. This recipe has the right balance.
Good and easy recipe to enjoy
Thanks
I’m not seeing the yield from this? I imagine the 6 cups of water boils down a bit.