Halved baby potatoes tossed with olive oil, melted butter, half the garlic, Old Bay, smoked paprika and lemon zest, then slow-cooked in a little broth until just tender.
A second garlic butter — the rest of the butter and garlic with the lemon juice and remaining zest — is poured over raw shrimp added to the hot potatoes, and the whole thing cooks for a final fifteen to twenty minutes.
Why This Recipe Works
- Only a quarter cup of broth goes into the slow cooker. A covered pot loses almost nothing, and more liquid would boil the potatoes rather than let them cook in seasoned butter.
- The shrimp are added raw at the end rather than at the start. Three hours of slow cooking would render them rubbery; fifteen to twenty minutes in a hot pot is all they need.
- The garlic is divided so that half is cooked long and half is barely cooked at all. One gives sweetness through the potatoes, the other gives the sharp top note in the sauce.
- Lemon zest goes in at both ends and the juice only at the end. Zest survives long cooking; juice added at the start would have flattened over three hours.
- Old Bay and smoked paprika both season the potatoes rather than the shrimp. By the time the shrimp arrive, the butter they are tossed in has already picked that seasoning up from the pot.
- The optional broil at step 7 exists because a slow cooker cannot crisp anything. It is the recipe's own answer to the one thing this method cannot do.
Two Garlic Butters, Hours Apart
The eight tablespoons of butter and the six cloves of garlic are both divided, and the halves do completely different jobs at completely different times. Reading the recipe as two tracks makes the division obvious.
In the slow cooker, from the start
- Before it goes on
Potatoes tossed with olive oil, 2 tbsp of the melted butter, half the garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, Old Bay and half the lemon zest, then the broth poured in.
- 3–4 hours on High, or 6–7 on Low
Covered, until the potatoes are just tender. This half of the garlic is cooked for hours and goes mellow and sweet into the potatoes.
In a bowl, waiting
- Any time before the shrimp go in
The remaining melted butter stirred with the remaining garlic, the lemon juice, the rest of the zest and the red pepper flakes.
- Held raw
This garlic is never cooked on its own. It goes onto hot potatoes with the shrimp and gets only the fifteen to twenty minutes the shellfish needs, so it stays sharp and aromatic.
The last twenty minutes
The shrimp go on top of the hot potatoes, the waiting garlic butter is poured over and everything is tossed to coat. Covered on Low for 15–20 minutes, just until the shrimp are opaque and pink. Parsley and dill finish it off the heat.
How to Make It
Season and load the potatoes
Toss the potatoes with olive oil, 2 tbsp melted butter, half the garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, Old Bay and half the lemon zest. Add the broth and transfer to the slow cooker.
Cook until just tender
Cover and cook the potatoes on High for 3–4 hours, or Low for 6–7 hours, until just tender.
Make the second garlic butter
Stir together the remaining melted butter, remaining garlic, lemon juice, remaining zest and red pepper flakes to make the garlic butter.
Shrimp on top
Add the shrimp to the hot potatoes in the slow cooker. Pour the garlic butter over and toss to coat.
The short cook
Cover and cook on Low for 15–20 minutes, just until the shrimp are opaque and pink. Do not overcook.
Herbs and serving
Finish with parsley and dill. Taste and adjust the salt. Serve with Parmesan and lemon wedges.
Optional: broil the potatoes
For extra texture, broil the potatoes on a sheet pan for 3–5 minutes before adding the shrimp back to the slow cooker with the sauce.
Ingredient Notes
- Large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
- A pound and a half, and raw is essential — pre-cooked shrimp given another twenty minutes would be tough. Tails on is the recipe's own option.
- Unsalted butter, melted, divided
- Eight tablespoons split two and six. Melted before it is divided, because both halves are poured rather than stirred in solid.
- Garlic, minced, divided
- Six cloves, half cooked for hours with the potatoes and half held back raw for the finishing butter.
- Low-sodium chicken broth (or seafood stock)
- Only a quarter cup. A slow cooker under a lid gives back nearly all the moisture it takes, so this is a deglazing amount rather than a braising one.
- Old Bay seasoning
- A teaspoon, going onto the potatoes at the start. It is the seasoning that makes this read as a shrimp boil rather than a butter braise.
- Lemon, zested and juiced
- One lemon, split across both stages: zest divided between the potatoes and the finishing butter, juice entirely in the finishing butter.
Success Tips
- Halve the potatoes to a consistent size so they finish together.
- Mix the finishing butter while the potatoes cook, not while the shrimp wait.
- Set a timer for fifteen minutes when the shrimp go in and check them then.
- Pull the shrimp the moment they turn opaque and pink.
- Stir the dill and parsley in with the cooker switched off.
Serving Ideas
Lemon wedges and grated Parmesan, both of which the recipe lists for serving. Bread to mop the garlic butter is the obvious addition — there is a lot of it and it is the best part.
Storage and Reheating
Refrigerate
Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Cooked shrimp does not keep as long as the potatoes would on their own.
Freeze
Not recommended. Shrimp that has already been cooked once comes back from the freezer noticeably tougher.
Reheat
Reheat gently and briefly — just enough to warm through. Any real reheating cooks the shrimp a second time, which is the one thing the recipe warns against.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use frozen shrimp?
The recipe calls for raw shrimp, peeled and deveined. Thaw them fully first — frozen shrimp added to the pot would extend the fifteen to twenty minutes unpredictably.
Can I put the shrimp in at the start?
No. The whole structure of the recipe is that the potatoes cook for hours and the shrimp for minutes. Shrimp given three hours would be rubbery.
High or Low for the potatoes?
The recipe gives both: 3–4 hours on High or 6–7 on Low, in either case until the potatoes are just tender. The shrimp stage is always on Low.
What is the optional broil for?
Texture. A slow cooker cannot brown anything, so the recipe offers 3–5 minutes under a broiler for the potatoes before they go back in with the sauce.
