Prawns Masala Recipe is spicy, hot and tangy. This is my version of Prawns Masala Recipe. Looking forward to make these with different ingredients like fish or chicken. We love to eat this recipe with rice and salad.

Prawns are known as jhinga in India. You get variety of prawns dishes in India like prawns koliwada, prawns biryani etc. We love prawns back home hence I keep making a lot of recipes with prawns.
The ingredients which goes in making this prawns masala recipe could be easily found in your kitchen. Also there is no need of making any advance preparation. Just a word of caution this is very spicy as have used lots of red chilies and garam masala. If you like it less spicy just reduce the amount of chilies and the dish should be fine. I have used a dash of vinegar but you could use lime juice instead.
Prawns Masala goes well with steamed rice, pao or naan. I prefer Prawns Masala to eat with rice then roti or pao. I have made them dry, you could make it semi gravy or with gravy. In-fact you could eat this as a starter also.
If you love prawns check some more recipes on my blog like prawns biryani, prawns fry, prawns curry, south indian prawns curry, butter garlic pepper prawns and goan prawns pulao.
Let’s make step by step Prawns Masala Recipe :
1. Marinate prawns with ginger-garlic paste, vinegar and salt for 10-15 mins.
2. Boil onion and both variety of red chilies in water for 5-7 mins. Allow to cool and peel off the onion skin and chop them.
3. Take 1 tbsp oil in a non stick vessel / pan and saute all the ingredients for the paste. Saute for 2 mins or until they start leaving aroma.
4. Combine fried spices, boiled onion and red chili paste into a grinder. Grind until all blends well add little water if required. The paste should be smooth and thick.
5. Take the same non stick pan add rest of oil. Once oil is hot the grounded paste.
6. Cover the mixture and allow to cook on medium heat. Fry for 3-4 mins or until the paste starts leaving the edges of the pan. Be careful not to burn the mixture.
7. Add turmeric powder and sugar.
8. Time to add the marinated prawns, salt and mint leaves.
9. Mix all nicely and cook uncovered until the mixture gets dry and starts leaving oil around the edges. Sprinkle amchur powder and mix nicely. Switch off the gas.
10. Squeeze some lime juice and serve the Prawns Masala hot with rice or roti.
If you are looking for some more prawn recipes on my blog like prawns biryani, prawns fry, prawns curry,south indian prawns curry, butter garlic pepper prawn, achari prawns and goan prawns pulao.
Prawns Masala Recipe below:
- 3 onion
- 5 dry kashmiri red chilies
- 3 spicy dry red chilies of any type (optional)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1.5 tbsp coriander seed (dhaniya)
- 1 t/s caraway seed (shahi jeera)
- 1 t/s cumin seed (jeera)
- 1 t/s fennel seed (saunf)
- 1 bay leaf
- 2-3 cloves
- 7-8 pepper corn
- 1 star anise
- 6 green cardamom
- 1 black cardamom
- 2 black cardamom
- 2 stone flower (dagdaphool)
- 1 tbsp poppy seed (khus khus)
- 300 gm prawns de-veined and cleaned
- 1.5 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 1 tbsp vinegar or lime juice
- 1 t/s salt
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 t/s turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- few mint leaves
- 1 t/s raw mango powder (amchur)
- salt as per taste
- lime wedges and mint leaves for garnish (optional)
- Marinate prawns with ginger-garlic paste, vinegar and salt for 10-15 mins.
- Boil onion and both variety of red chilies in water for 5-7 mins. Allow to cool and peel off the onion skin and chop them.
- Take 1 tbsp oil in a non stick vessel / pan and saute all the ingredients for the paste. Saute until they start leaving aroma.
- Combine fried spices, boiled onion and red chili paste into a grinder. Grind until all blends well add little water if required. The paste should be smooth and thick.
- Take the same non stick pan add rest of oil. Once oil is hot the grounded paste.
- Cover the mixture and allow to cook on medium heat. Fry for 3-4 mins or until the paste starts leaving the edges of the pan. Be careful not to burn the mixture.
- Add turmeric powder and sugar.
- Time to add the marinated prawns, salt and mint leaves.
- Mix all nicely and cook uncovered until the mixture gets dry and starts leaving oil around the edges. Sprinkle amchur powder and mix nicely. Switch off the gas.
- Squeeze some lime juice and serve the Prawns Masala hot with rice or roti.
2. Make the consistency dry or semi dry as per your preference.
3. Add less chilies if not fond of spicy food.
4. You could use any size of prawn with this recipe.
Sowmiya says
Hi….I have tried all your recipes…it turned out really good…but this prawn masala turned little sweet,which I didn’t like.may I know d reason…?
maria says
Sowmiya sorry to know about this, I am not sure why the prawns masala have turned sweet. Sometimes the onions are sweet also this dish has well balanced flavors. May be you could have checked the taste and altered the spices accordingly. Also another reason would be which dry red chilies have you used??
Andrea Correa says
Yum yum!!!
maria says
Thanks Andrea.
Kavita shende says
Ossam prawns recipe I made it 2 3 times my husband loved it very much he always force me to make this prawns recipe and I also loved to do it very nice recipe
maria says
Thanks Kavita for positive views, glad you and your hubby liked the prawns masala recipe 🙂
riya says
hey.this prawns is really yummy i just loved it. thanks for posting this recipe
maria says
Pleasure is all ours Riya, glad you liked the prawns masala recipe. Thanks for sharing positive feedback.
Sujeeta says
Hello people, I just got married and I don’t knw anything about cooking. My sister in law wants to eat prawns, I loved the way the recipe looks. I m going to try it tomorrow but had a question, do I start with madination and then go for preparation of masala and time it as per the time u mentioned. Also how do I knw prawns cooked well. Any trick apart from tasting.
maria says
Sujeeta all the best in your cooking endeavor surely try the prawns masala recipe. Try sticking to the recipe also prawns barely take 2-3 mins to cook once their color changes that mean they are cooked. don’t overcook as they tend to get rubbery. Hope this help’s you let us know how they turned out.
Ranjitha says
It’s the first time I tried it…. It was yumyyyyyyyy!!!!!!
Thanksssssssssss??
maria says
You are always welcome Ranjitha 🙂 thankyou so much.
pooja says
I tried the recipe. It was yum. But prawn was not cooked well, not sure if there is a different way to cook prawn properly.
Please suggest.
Thanks 🙂
maria says
Pooja quite surprised to know this as prawns takes minimal time to cook and cooks within 2-3 mins. May be the prawns weren’t fresh as don’t see any reason why it wasn’t cooked. How long you cooked the prawns?
Ruhina says
Hi maria just saw ur recipe looking very tasty vl try today itself. Hope so much of garam masala won’t make it too heavy. Can i skip few of them or reduce its quantity.
maria says
You could reduce the garam masala and alter spices if you don’t like too much spice.
Lloyed says
Hey Maria loved ur prawns masala receipe. My son (5 yrs) has started calling me master chef after eating the prawns masala. I love to cook for him, and ur recipes help me do the same. Thank you very much.
maria says
LLoyed thankyou I am pleased to know your son loved the prawns masala 🙂 great now you are a master chef. You are welcome and do try other recipes and share your views would look forward to it.
peter says
thanks maria your recepies really tempting and mouth watering thanks for sharing waiting for mutton (goat meat) recepies as its my favorate
maria says
Thankyou Peter 🙂
Nisha says
I just want to say a big thank you to you 🙂 I tried this recipe and everyone at home simply loved it and so many praises 🙂 all thanks to you 🙂 would love to keep trying all your recipes.
maria says
Nisha you are welcome and a big thankyou for trying the prawns masala recipe. Surely try other recipes and have fun with cooking and getting compliments.
Mel says
hi.. Wanted to try this but I can’t find stone flower and amchur powder here in Malaysia. Cn I do without these?
maria says
Mel stone flower gives a unique flavor but you could skip it. Instead of amchur powder squeeze lime juice towards the end. Hope this helps you and do share your views 🙂
Ashwita says
Interesting.. Gonna try now with chicken. But I don’t have dagadphool n black elaichi. Can I do without it?
maria says
Ashwita you could skip those spices if you don’t have them but the flavor would differ. Surely try with chicken and let me know how was it??
valisa says
Hi maria,
Yesterday i made this recipe along with sol kadhi… nd my dinner was havenly :)…. it was very delicious. Thank u so much for the recipe….
One more thing… my masala is lef (un cooke) as i made more masala for safer side… can i make any other recipe with this leftover uncooked masala???
Plz help
maria says
You are welcome Valisa 🙂 great if you left with more masala then make same way chicken, eggs or paneer. Hope this helps you 🙂
hardik says
It seems so Delicious. I am going to try just in 1 hour from now. thank you maria for the delicious dish .
hardi
maria says
You are welcome Hardik do lemme know how was it?
Ram says
My favourite dish, I dry
maria says
Sure Ram 🙂
Leo G says
my favourite, Nice post
maria says
Thankyou Leo do try them surely.
Celine says
I love to prepare all your non vegetarian receipes. My daughter is getting married this year, so I have taken out all print of your non vegetarian receipes, for her easy cooking. Please also blog Mutton receipes.
Thank You
maria says
Nice to know this Celine 🙂 thanks for sharing your views. We rarely eat mutton back home hence few recipes on mutton. Once my mom visits me would upload some mutton recipes as she eats mutton. All the best wishes for your daughter I know how it is post marriage experiencing already 🙂
maria says
Thanks for your kind words and trying Prawns Masala recipe 🙂