Name: Spanish garlic prawns recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: spanish
Ingredients: 650 g king prawns deveined heads discarded peeled tails intact; 62.50 ml Olive Oil; 50 g unsalted butter cubed room temperature; 4 garlic cloves diced; 1/4 tsp chilli crushed; 1/4 tsp paprika; 1/3 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley chopped; 1/2 lemon juiced large; 2 pinches sea salt; 2 pinches black cracked pepper

by Kaz Last updated on 10/31/2025

Say hello to your new favourite prawn recipe. Loaded with garlic and a hint of chilli, our recipe for Spanish prawns is packed with flavour but is super simple to make, especially if you buy ready-peeled prawns. Make sure you serve with crusty bread to soak up all that rich and buttery sauce.

How to make the best garlic prawns: key tips

We make our traditional garlic prawns in individual cast iron lidded pots, but if you don’t have these, simply melt the butter with the oil in a frying pan until foamy. Add the garlic, chilli and paprika and cook for a couple of minutes or until aromatic. Add your prawns and cook, tossing the pan, for about 3 minutes or until they turn pink. Stir in the lemon juice and parsley. Season and your Spanish prawns are ready to enjoy.

Key ingredients in our Spanish prawn recipe

King prawns are the most commonly caught species in Australia. Generally larger than tiger prawns, a fresh King prawn will have moist, medium-firm flesh and intact feelers. There’s nothing wrong however with buying them frozen and already peeled as this has all been done while at sea when the prawns have just been caught. When buying garlic, buy a head that doesn’t smell of garlic! That means the cloves have been damaged as the garlic should only give off an aroma when chopped.

I love serving this garlicky baked prawns as an entree to a Spanish fiesta along with a tortilla, followed by a festive paella and finishing off with flan - and don’t forget the sangria!

Additional recipe notes by the Australia’s Best Recipes team.

- Australia's Best Recipes Team

Ingredients

650 g king prawns deveined heads discarded peeled tails intact
1/4 cup Woolworths Olive Oil
50 g unsalted butter cubed room temperature
4 garlic cloves diced
1/4 tsp chilli crushed
1/4 tsp paprika
1/3 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley chopped
1/2 lemon juiced large
2 pinches sea salt
2 pinches black cracked pepper

Method

Step 1

Preheat oven to 200C.
Step 2

Line cast iron pots with prawns and squeeze lemon juice over.
Step 3

In a small frying pan, heat the oil and butter, and add garlic.
Step 4

While sauteing the garlic, add chilli, paprika, parsley, salt and pepper.
Step 5

Mix well and allow to simmer for a few minutes.
Step 6

Pour garlic sauce over the prawns and place lids on pots.
Step 7

Place in oven for a maximum of 15 minutes.
Step 8

Serve with crusty bread rolls.

Equipment

1 frying pan

Recipe Notes

from Australia’s Best Recipes team

How many prawns will be in this recipe?

650g of prawns is about 18-20 large prawns.

I don’t have cast iron pots, will this recipe still work?

If you don't have cast iron pots, you could easily make this dish in the pan; just saute the prawns for a few minutes – along with the already-heated sauce including lemon juice – on high until cooked through and transfer to a pre-warmed dish before serving. There will be some sauce left over.