This Is The Only Way To Cook Prawns ｜ 20-Minute Garlic Prawns ｜ Everyday Gourmet 2026

Garlic prawns. They're usually something that you would order at a restaurant, but they're so easy to make at home. It's all about timing of cooking the prawns and the garlic so the garlic doesn't burn and the prawns don't overcook. So I've been preheating my pan. You want a really good quality pan for this. This is a durable nonstick ceramic pan, and I've got it on a medium to high heat. You don't want it to be too high because the prawns won't cook evenly. We just want it to be on that medium heat. It's just perfect. So before we add the butter to the garlic prawns, which is a must, we do start with some extra virgin olive oil. So just a little drizzle of the oil. You don't need too much because it is a nonstick pan, and we just want to swirl that around. To that, we're going to add our prawns. Look at these stunning Australian prawns. I've taken the head off. You can leave the heads on if you like. I just find when they cook for a long time, they detach anyway. And I've also just pulled out the intestinal track. I do leave the shell on because I find the flavour really stays in the prawns. And I kind of like the idea of peeling the prawns, butter all over your fingers. Just absolutely delicious. So in with our prawns in our gorgeous pan here. And hear that? We've got a gentle sizzle as opposed to an aggressive sizzle. This pan's great too because it's super versatile. So it goes on gas, induction. It also goes in the oven. So just let them sit there for a moment. And then once they start to change colour... Let's have a look. See how they're starting to change colour? But we want them to colour just a little more. Then we can turn them. So we'll just let them be for a moment. I just want to chop up some parsley. So a few sprigs of parsley. And we just want the tops of that. And I'm just going to finely chop that. So scrunch it all together. If you do want to use parsley for this, chives would be another fantastic alternative. That's looking good. And let's have a look at these prawns. Oh, yes, look at that. See, we've got a slight caramelisation. And they're really turning that gorgeous orange colour. So we're going to turn our prawns. And I want to give them another minute on the other side. Essentially, we're cooking them three quarters of the way with nothing else in the pan. And then we can add our butter and our garlic. Alright, these prawns are almost cooked. So now it's time to work fast. We're going to turn that heat down because I don't want to burn this butter in a hot pan. It's all about controlling the heat, controlling the pan. And then in with a few knobs of butter, ideally cold butter, so the butter doesn't burn either. Ooh, and this is the bit I love, just watching that slowly melt in with the prawns to flavour those prawns. I'll add our garlic, three cloves of garlic. They are garlic prawns after all. I'll add some chilli. This is optional, just a hint of chilli. This is a delicious chilli condiment. But you could also just use some fresh chilli if you like or leave it out. So the smallest amount because it is hot. And a hint of the oil. And I'll get some lemon ready to go. We don't want to be adding the parsley and the lemon at this stage because we want the freshness of that. So that'll happen just at the end. This hasn't been seasoned yet and I used unsalted butter, so a good crack of salt. And I'm not adding any pepper because I have the chilli in there. I want minimal ingredients in this so those prawns really shine. This is how true garlic prawns are done. OK, I can start to see that that's caramelising, so I'm going to turn the heat off. And to stop the cooking process, this is when I'm going to add lots of lemon juice off the heat. And our parsley. And that is good to go. Little toss. How good does that look? A shallow bowl to serve up. And we'll pile our prawns just in the middle there. You could actually serve this with some rice if you like. That would be quite traditional. If I was doing that, I would peel them first. But with bread, leave them whole. And then you just want to bathe it in that delicious garlic butter. All of it over the top. Very nice. And another squeeze of fresh lemon juice over the top. That is how I love to make garlic prawns. Good, crusty bread on the side. It's the simple things that taste the best. I'm going to taste that butter to start with. Mmm. That butter. It's just the best thing ever. Yes, this is going to be messy. You're going to need lots of napkins, even a bib, but it is totally worth it.