There is no better comfort food than a creamy and decadent cheese sauce with rich bits of salty cheese. It’s true, alfredo sauce just cannot be topped…but it certainly can be improved upon, simplified, and healthied up. It just takes a few minor adjustments and some quick cooking tips to make this one pot shrimp Alfredo!
My absolute favorite part of this one pan recipe is that it goes from raw shrimp to a creamy sauce so quickly! Because you are cooking everything in a series of quick steps, getting dinner on the table and in your belly is less of a marathon and more of a sprint. Plus, you can put this sweet and salty sauce on top of any low-carb vegetable and it’s amazing. Pictured below is the sauce and shrimp over a bed of fiber packed greens but you could do anything from cauliflower rice to zoodles.
The second most appealing alteration of this recipe is that it uses a mixture of milk and cream cheese as the sauce to take out the agonizing “cooking down” portion of making alfredo. Just a little butter, cream cheese, milk, and Parmesan makes this sauce come together in a snap. Dried herbs are also perfect for a quick meal with minimal prep work and they are easy to keep on hand!
Yields 4 servings of One Pot Shrimp Alfredo
The Preparation
- 1 tablespoon butter, salted
- 16 ounces shrimp, raw, peeled and deveined
- 4 ounces cream cheese, cubed
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
- 5 whole sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips
- 1/4 cup baby kale
The Execution
1. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the shrimp to the skillet and reduce heat to medium low.
3. Turn the shimp after about 30 seconds and cook the other side until they are only slightly pink. This is important because the sauce will continue to cook the shrimp once it is added. If you over cook the shrimp it will become tough and rubbery!
4. Add cream cheese cubes to the shrimp pan.
5. Pour milk into pan and increase your heat to medium. Stir frequently until the cream cheese has melted into the milk and no lumps are present.
6. Sprinkle the garlic, basil, and salt into the pan and stir well.
7. Dump in the Parmesan cheese and stir to combine. Let simmer until the sauce begins to thicken.
8. Complete the dish by folding in sun dried tomatoes and baby kale or spinach.
9. Remove from heat and serve hot!
This makes a total of 4 servings of One-Pot Shrimp Alfredo. Each serving comes out to be 311 calories, 17.8g fats, 6.5g net carbs, and 31.4g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 1 tablespoon butter | 102 | 11.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 |
| 16 ounce shrimp | 386 | 2.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 91.2 |
| 4 ounce cream cheese | 388 | 38.6 | 4.7 | 0 | 4.7 | 7 |
| 1/2 cup whole milk | 74 | 4 | 5.9 | 0 | 5.9 | 3.8 |
| 1 tablespoon garlic powder | 31 | 0.1 | 6.9 | 0.9 | 6.1 | 1.6 |
| 1 teaspoon dried basil | 3 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| 1 teaspoon salt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/2 cup parmesan cheese | 216 | 14.3 | 2.1 | 0 | 2.1 | 19.3 |
| 5 whole sun-dried tomatoes | 39 | 0.5 | 8.4 | 1.9 | 6.5 | 2.1 |
| 1/4 cup baby kale | 5 | 0.1 | 1 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| Totals | 1243 | 71.3 | 29.3 | 3.5 | 25.9 | 125.6 |
| Per Serving (/4) | 311 | 17.8 | 7.3 | 0.9 | 6.5 | 31.4 |

One-Pot Shrimp Alfredo
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter salted
- 16 ounce shrimp raw, peeled and deveined
- 4 ounce cream cheese cubed
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup parmesan cheese shredded
- 5 whole sun-dried tomatoes cut into strips
- ¼ cup baby kale
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Add the shrimp to the skillet and reduce heat to medium-low.
- Turn the shrimp after about 30 seconds and cook the other side until they are only slightly pink. This is important, because the sauce will continue to cook the shrimp once it is added. If you overcook the shrimp, it will become tough and rubbery!
- Add cream cheese cubes to the shrimp pan.
- Pour milk into the pan and increase heat to medium. Stir frequently until the cream cheese has melted into the milk and no lumps are present.
- Sprinkle the garlic, basil, and salt into the pan and stir well.
- Dump in the Parmesan cheese and stir to combine. Let simmer until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Complete the dish by folding in sun-dried tomatoes and baby kale or spinach.
- Remove from heat and serve hot!



















Oh man, another winner recipe! Have made this twice already and used a bed of spinach for the greens. The arugula would be a nice touch, too.
This dish is super easy to make, and the flavor is super rich with a wonderfully satisfying mouth feel. This dish is really what keto is all about for me– getting super satisfied from a flavorful meal and not being hungry at all for several hours.
Thanks for knocking this one out of the park!
Only the second dinner I’ve ever cooked. (I’m 60) I even bought a big stainless pan like the picture, cuz it looked so cool. I was a bit concerned because I needed to cook for about 8 and was forced to multiply. 😉 I doubled the ingredients, but almost quadrupled the shrimp. 3 1/2 lbs. The only change in “procedure” is I buttered up and cooked the first batch of shrimp and removed them for a couple of minutes and then repeated for the second batch. Then threw them all back in and finished the documented recipe. How did it come out? I marveled as I watch my adult children scarf down raw spinach, kale, sun dried tomatoes (in oil. that’s all I could find. tasty, in fact)
Cooked it all outdoors on a Camp Chef Explorer x2 30,000 btu outdoor stove. The grandkids watched pawpaw cook with incredulous looks. Had a blast. Awesome recipe. So simple too.
Thanks for sharing the recipe! https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Thank you for sharing your experience Bruce, I love seeing your comments! 🙂 I’m really glad your family enjoyed this recipe. Did you really only start cooking recently? I think you’re great! (I just burned everything when I first started…)
Thanks for the kind words. I’m betting the early success is age related? I’m in no hurry. And I’m emphasizing “prep”. Following your instructions is far easier if everything is already measured and ready and staged. My only complaint so far is I’m spice-$poor. I only had salt and pepper in the kitchen a week ago. The recipe I made tonight required 10 spices alone! (Spicy Curry Rubbed Chicken Thighs) What IS ground Cardamon? 😉 https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
You’ve got quite the collection going! I have spice jars taking up a whole kitchen cabinet, it’s kind of getting out of hand….
Doesn’t that overcook the shrimp? I would add it last, not first.
Soooooo delicious and so easy!
Hey! This recipe looks delish. My only concern is that i cang drink regular milk. Is there a good substitute besides hwc?
For this recipe you should be able to sub a lactose free milk, or coconut cream.
I buy 2% for my husband to drink. Can I mix with HWC? Or I also always have plain unsweetened cashew milk on hand. Which is a better sub? Thanks! Excited to try!
Either mixed with HWC would work 🙂
My husband and I love this recipe. I serve it over zoodles and it’s amazing! So quick and easy too!
Is there any way to substitute heavy cream for the milk? We drink flax milk. Would that work? It tastes just like milk to me, but we use the unsweetened version. I also have heavy cream in the fridge. Thanks in advance!
I think either should work okay! (Personally, I would go with heavy cream.)
Should I cut the cream with water?
If the sauce is too thick yes, but it might not be necessary!
Made this tonight using heavy cream as that’s all we had. Absolutely delicious, filling, and satisfying. This will be a regular dish around here! Thanks for sharing 🙂
this is the most sensational recipe. Made it last night and everyone loved it. Easy to prepare. The spinach and sun dried tomatoes absolutely lifted the sauce beautifully. Thanks Forgot to take a picture as I was too busy eating. But it looked just like the oicture.
This was so delicious! I substituted heavy whipping cream for the milk because that was all I had. Served over sauteed zoodles. It was awesome. Simple recipe that tasted like heaven.
This recipe was amazing!!! Next time I’ll try it with heavy cream. So tasty and fulfilling.
I have a jar of sun dried tomatoes and they measure out in tablespoons. How would that equate to 5 whole sundries tomatoes?
Probably around 2-3 tablespoons. You should be able to just pick them out of the jar, then chop them, though.