Shrimp with Lobster Sauce: Chinese Takeout Recipe - The Woks of Life (2024)

Shrimp with lobster sauce is a classic takeout style dish that’s a bit of a misnomer. There’s really no lobster in the dish at all.

This fact didn’t stop millions of people from enjoying the dish at many Chinese restaurants over the years, however. The delicious shrimp speak for themselves and the luxurious egg and pork sauce complements everything nicely. The best part? You don’t have to spend a huge amount of money on lobster.

This dish is very easy to make at home. Once you have the ingredients prepared, you’ll have Shrimp andlobster sauce on the table in less than 10 minutes (and that’s a generous estimate).

Is there any lobster in lobster sauce?

In short, no. There is no lobster in Shrimp with Lobster Sauce. So why is it called that?

Was it some fancy name that an early Chinese restaurant entrepreneur invented? Was there lobster in the dish at one time, but later omitted due to the high cost of lobster?

The most likely theory is that it evolved from the sauce used in an old classic Lobster Cantonese recipe, but made with more affordable shrimp instead of lobster.

If you’re wondering, we haven’t yet posted a Lobster Cantonese recipe, since in the last 20 years, its successor the Cantonese-style Ginger Scallion Lobster has become so much more popular.

Lobster Cantonese has all but completely disappeared from Chinese restaurant menus. But don’t fret, we’ll have a Lobster Cantonese recipe on the blog when lobster season kicks in again!

My Years of Cooking Shrimp with Lobster Sauce

On muggy summer weekendnights back in the Catskills resort town I grew up in, I would peel and prepare shrimp to make at least a hundred orders of shrimp with lobster sauce every day!

This was the Chinese restaurant I used to work in during my teen years, and my father (the chef) would have two large woks running at the same time for hours on end.

Usually, at least one of these two woks were cooking this dish. Shrimp and lobster sauce was one of the two finale dishes in the last course of the “Polynesian Luau for Two.” (What’s a Polynesian Luau for Two? And what does Polynesia have to do with Americanized Chinese takeout food? Don’t ask. Because I have no idea.) The other dish was the roast pork fried rice, another classic favorite.

When I realized that Sarah and Kaitlin never had shrimp with lobster sauce before, I decided it was time. They enjoyed it immensely, and I hope you will too!

If you’re looking for a more traditional shrimp dish, take a walk on the wild sideand check out our Scallion Ginger Shrimp recipeandStir Fried Shrimp and Eggsor maybe a more progressive Hunan Steamed Shrimp.

But for now on with the classic!

Shrimp with Lobster Sauce: Recipe Instructions

Peel and devein the shrimp. Boil 2 cups of water in a large wok and stir in the ground pork. Break up any clumps and cook for about 1 minute, until the pork is no longer pink.

Drain the pork in a mesh strainer and give it a quick rinse. This will give you a much clearer, cleaner sauce.

Wash your wok and place over medium high heat. Add the vegetable oil, garlic, ground pork, and shrimp and stir-fry for 10-20 seconds.

Add the Shaoxing wine (or sherry) and stir-fry for another 10 seconds. Add the chicken stock, sesame oil, sugar, salt, and white pepper.

Stir in the peas.

Once the mixture comes to a simmer, stir in the cornstarch slurry a little bit at a time. Let the mixture bubble and thicken. It should be able to coat a spoon, but it shouldn’t have a gloopy consistency.

If it gets too thick, add a little more chicken stock. If it’s too thin, add more slurry. For more tips on how to use cornstarch effectively, see our post on How to use Cornstarch for Chinese cooking.

Spread the slightly beaten egg and scallion across the mixture and let simmer for 5 seconds.

Use your wok spatula to fold the egg into the sauce with a few strokes.

Serve your shrimp with lobster sauce over white rice.