Shrimp in Chili Sauce Recipe

Shrimp in Chili Sauce, often called “Ebi Chili” in Japanese, is stir-fried shrimp in a flavorful ginger-garlic chili sauce. This is not a traditional Japanese dish, but it is one of the most popular kinds of Chinese food for Japanese home cooking, like Gyoza and Mabo Tofu.

Ebi Chili is almost guaranteed to be on the menu of any Chinese restaurant in Japan. Based on Szechwan Shrimp, and the spicy chili paste called Doubanjiang (Tobanjan), you might expect it to be quite hot. Actually, Ebi Chili is much less spicy than Szechwan Shrimp. It keeps the Szechwan flavor but not all the heat. There are not too many spices used in Japanese cuisine generally, but we still like a little heat and chili flavor especially in ethnic food. Ebi Chili also has other key ingredients in the sauce, such as ketchup, ginger and garlic.  Ketchup is a wonderful flavoring for its sweetness and a little sourness, and the tomato taste of course to give the dish depth.  Along with ginger, garlic, and chili paste, it’s a great sauce for sauteed shrimp.

Ebi Chili at restaurants is very good, no doubt, but the dish is great to make at home too.  There are a lot of convenient instant sauces for Ebi Chili sold at supermarkets in Japan. Using a store-bought sauce would skip a step of mixing the chili sauce for the dish. And the taste is actually not bad. At the same time, it is not that much work to make your own sauce.  If you have the ingredients in your pantry, 80% of the job is done already.

There is one good tip to take the dish from good to great: prep shrimp by cleaning and seasoning. Clean shrimp using potato starch.  Rub, and wash very well.  Then season with salt and Sake. This process will remove the fishiness of shrimp and improve the texture of the meat.

If you are a little bored with quieter traditional Japanese dishes, spice up some shrimp with this chili sauce. We’re sure you will enjoy this spicy, but not too spicy, Japanese Chinese flavor.

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5 from 1 vote

Shrimp in Chili Sauce Recipe

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time25 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Chinese, Japanese

Keyword: shrimp

Servings: 4 servings

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Ingredients

• 16-20 large raw shrimp
• 2 Tbsp potato or corn starch divided
• 1/2 Tbsp Sake
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp oil divided
• 1 tsp ginger minced
• 1 tsp garlic minced
• 3-4 white part of green onions chopped

Chili Sauce

• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1-2 tsp Tobanjan Doubanjiang or other chili paste
• 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Sake
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp potato or corn starch
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Instructions

• Devein shrimp. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp potato starch over the shrimp, rub together well, and rinse out a few times. Remove moisture by patting dry with a paper towel. In a bowl, mix shrimp, 1 Tbsp potato starch, Sake, and salt together. Let sit for 10 minutes.
• Mix ingredients of Chili sauce in a medium bowl. Set aside.
• In a wok or frying pan, heat 1 Tbsp oil. Cook prepared shrimp until the color changes, turning a couple of times. Remove shrimp from the pan.
• In the same pan, add another 1 Tbsp oil with ginger, garlic, and onions, and cook at medium heat to be fragrant. Add Chili sauce mixture, and cook until the sauce gets slightly thicker. Add shrimp and cook for a minute. Serve immediately.

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