Skinny Copycat General Tso’s Shrimp

This copycat recipe will blow your mind! Perfectly cooked shrimp and broccolini are smothered in the most delicious sweet-and-salty sauce EVER! And all for only 350 calories!

Prepare yourself, the shrimp apocalypse is coming.

Specifically, in the form of large, blown-up photos of steamy and tender shrimp that’s smothered in a thick layer of flavorful sauce. It’s the end of the world as we know it 😯 (in terms of greasy and unhealthy Chinese take-out).

I’m not complaining!

Perfection. The epitome of lightened-up Chinese take-out that’s every bit as delicious and tastes like it’s straight out of the wok! I know many “skinny” recipes are just shoulder shruggin’ and “meh” worthy, but this is the reeeeal deal, man.

I want to spend the rest of my life eating Skinny Copycat General Tso’s Shrimp. Who needs higher education when you can major in shrimp eating?

What am I even saying?

Please don’t blame me. It’s super late on a Saturday night and the only thing that’s keeping me up is the big cup of coffee (don’t judge me) and the homemade double chocolate chunk chocolate chip cookie I have in my hand.

Because who needs college parties when you have a blog post to write and day-old coffee to drink? Priorities, my friends, priorities.

Anywho, let’s talk shrimp!

I grew up eating a good amount of Chinese food. The Japanese-side of my family LOVES to eat (it’s an essential quality and if you aren’t a foodie *ahem my sister cough cough cough*, you just don’t fit in) and all of our family gatherings are centered around what we’re eating. It’s to the point where we can be sitting in a restaurant in the midst of our 3rd course and we’ll start discussing what to have for dinner in a few hours. Sometime it gets a bit exhausting, but if that’s the only sometimes-negative-but-not-really-since-I’m-usually-leading-the-conversation trait that my family has, I guess I’m a lucky girl 😉 .

One of our favorite places to eat as a group is a Chinese restaurant about 15 minutes away from my house. It’s served family style, with heaping plates of food put on the middle of a rotating table top. You better believe that things can get a little vicious (think hyenas fighting over the last bone) when there’s only a few bites left of a dish. Now THAT is the real hunger games.

They should make a movie out of us. I bet it would be a huge hit. The preview for it would be me covered in alfredo sauce, draped in a gown of chocolate buttercream with a gyro and Chipotle burrito in each hand. Holding a machete and extra pointy tortilla chip to fight with.

Welcome to my mind.

The inspiration for this dish comes from that restaurant. Chinese food is much more sauce-based than Japanese (and a bit more foreign to me) and I haven’t really experimented too much in the kitchen with cooking it. This recipe is a complete fail-safe though and is guaranteed to impress any Chinese-food enthusiasts you may have staying for lunch or dinner. Extra bonus points for it being lightened up (stir fried, not deep fried!) and with plenty of crispy broccolini that’s also covered in that sweet and salty sauce. It’s lick-the-pan good!

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Cheers and happy eating!