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Camarones Enchilados, shrimp in a red sauce arranged around white rice and garnished with chopped parsley
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Camarones Enchilados

Saucy and a little bit spicy, camarones enchilados is a Cuban dish similar to a shrimp creole.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Cuban
Keyword spicy shrimp
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 4
Calories 294kcal
Author Elizabeth

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
  • 1 Small Onion finely diced
  • 5-6 Garlic Cloves minced
  • 1 teaspoon Paprika
  • ½ teaspoon Cajun Seasoning
  • ¼ teaspoon Cumin
  • ¼ cup White Wine
  • 2 cups Tomato Sauce 16 oz.
  • ½ cup Water
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
  • Dash Cayenne Pepper Based Hot Sauce like Crystal or Frank’s Red Hot
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • pounds Medium or Large Shrimp peeled and deveined
  • Pinch of Kosher or Sea Salt
  • ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
  • Finely Chopped Fresh Parsley for garnish optional
  • Cooked White Rice for serving optional

Instructions

  • Peel and clean the shrimp. Pat them dry with a paper towel.
  • Season the shrimp with just a pinch of salt and black pepper.
  • Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for approximately 3 minutes until they start to soften, stirring frequently.
  • Add the garlic, paprika, Cajun seasoning, and cumin to the skillet, stir to mix well. Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.
  • Add the white wine and cook for about 1-2 minutes while stirring and gently scraping any bits from the bottom of the skillet.
  • Add the tomato sauce, water, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce and the bay leaf to the skillet, stir. Bring the sauce to a simmer, lower the heat to medium-low to low, cover and cook at a gentle simmer for 25-30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
  • If the sauce is simmering too vigorously, lower the heat a bit, if it isn’t up to simmer raise the heat a bit.
  • Remove the bay leaf from the sauce and discard. 
  • Raise the heat to medium-high, and bring the sauce to a boil. Add the shrimp to the sauce, stir and cook uncovered for approximately 5 minutes.
  • The shrimp are cooked through when they are pink, opaque and curled. Avoid overcooking as they’ll get rubbery.
  • Taste the sauce and add more salt and pepper, if needed.
  • Garnish the camarones enchilados with the chopped parsley and serve over a bed of white rice, or serve with bread.

Notes

If you plan on serving the shrimp over white rice, start it right before you start cooking. The rice and the enchilado will take roughly the same amount of time to make.
 
Go easy on the salt. The tomato sauce, hot sauce, Cajun seasoning and Worcestershire sauce all contain a good amount of salt already. You can adjust at the end if needed.
 
Things move quickly with this sauce, so there’s not a lot of time in between adding each ingredient. Make sure you have everything diced, minced and measured before you start.
 
If you don’t cook with wine, use chicken broth to deglaze the pan.

Nutrition

Calories: 294kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 37g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 428mg | Sodium: 1983mg | Potassium: 630mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 900IU | Vitamin C: 18.7mg | Calcium: 276mg | Iron: 5.3mg