This 20-Minute Shrimp Stir-Fry is Even More Addictive Than Doritos

Meryl Rothstein

Welcome to Never Fail, a weekly column where we wax poetic about the recipes that never, ever let us down.

Every time I eat the Shrimp and Basil Stir-Fry—which is quite often—I think about Doritos. It’s not that this weeknight dinner brings to mind Cool Ranch, but rather that the balance of sweet, salty, and spicy is so perfect, it’s as though the same people who engineered Doritos to be addictive had a hand in this recipe. (They didn’t—it was all Andy Baraghani.)

So if it’s not Frito-Lay mad science that’s responsible for the hit-every-taste bud-you’ve-got thing, then what is? It’s a marinade that’s a mix of sugar, fish sauce, garlic, and chiles, a super concentrated paste that delivers flavor in record time (that record is 10 minutes).

See the video.

And it's as easy as it is delicious. The recipe uses mostly pantry ingredients, so as long as I have the wherewithal to buy shrimp on the way home (or if by some miracle I have some in my freezer), I have what I need to throw it together. It takes about 20 minutes from the moment I walk in the door until I sit down to eat. And it requires close to zero technical skill, so even if I’m simultaneously sending emails and getting lost in a true crime podcast while cooking, it’s still disproportionately good.

All of which makes it an excellent meal for when I’m getting home late from work and I really just didn’t have time to think about dinner—not so unlike a giant bag of Doritos, come to think of it.

Better than Doritos:

Shrimp and Basil Stir-Fry

Andy Baraghani

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit