Air fryer frozen shrimp comes out tender and delicious in no time at all! Wanted to make our air fryer fried shrimp but forgot to defrost them? NO problem in your Cosori or cooking Ninja Foodi frozen shrimp either. Throw them in rock hard and cook in just minutes.
Wondering how long to cook frozen shrimp in air fryer? I was too so I took it on one afternoon to get them tender but crispy on the outside. They just one of our many easy air fryer recipes here on The Typical Mom blog. (participant in the Amazon program, affiliate links present)
How to Cook Frozen Shrimp in Air Fryer
We’ve got the perfect temperature and time so your air fryer frozen shrimp comes out fork tender yet a bit crispy on the outside. Any brand will work and come out perfectly, I have 3 different brands we’ve used them all.
If you want to know how to cook frozen meat we have all the answers here. This isn’t the only one. Yes it is true, I air fry frozen foods like all the time. Why? Um because I’m forgetful but somehow my people still expect to eat every single night. I know, go figure right? You’ll be amazed at how well these turn out.
It is highly likely that your family will have no idea that just minutes before they were rock hard right out of the freezer. We won’t tell if you don’t want us to. 😉
If you love extra crispy food and quick recipes, here are some resources to start with:
- My Favorite models are this Cosori or for a dual machine, the Foodi.
- You can find more Ninja Foodi recipes here as well; bookmark them both!
- It is best practice to put food into a hot basket. this is how to preheat air fryer first.
- Here’s a printable free air fryer cooking time chart here for your fridge.
Frozen Raw Shrimp in Air Fryer
Where can you find these? Every grocery store has a section with frozen seafood in it. You’ll find them there. They will likely have a few different varieties. You can get cocktail which are teeny tiny, not those, small medium large and jumbo which is what I prefer.
You do NOT want to choose the precooked variety. If you do they will seem way overcooked to you since, um they were already cooked so you’d be doing it twice almost like they were leftovers. Not good. Instead choose raw with tail on, even shell on is just fine.
- Yes you can make air fryer fried shrimp with light breading. BUT if you forget to defrost these buggers we have a way to make them amazing too.
You really don’t need a lot of coating for them to be delicious. Just simple seasonings or a bit of Old Bay seasoning are fantastic. Try them! If you’re a seafood lover I bet you have a bag of these in your freezer right now and wondering
Ninja Foodi Frozen Shrimp
Like I said, we’ve cooked a lot of frozen foods in our air fryer and Instant Pot. If you too are as forgetful as me, I have tips like how to cook frozen salmon and frozen chicken wings in air fryer too. Perfect if I haven’t defrosted them ahead of time and you can make them all if you have a Foodi. It happens, I can’t be the only one here.
- If you do happen to remember you can make Instant Pot shrimp in just one minute. Seriously. Bookmark that post so you can come back to it another night.
Can you cook frozen shrimp?
YES. You. Can! We will show you the best method to do so right here. You could of course boil them alternatively but anything submerged in boiling water has the nutrients sucked right out of them. I wouldn’t suggest that. You wouldn’t get any crisp to them that way either. Just follow along here…..we will make you a believer with this one…
Here are the items and ingredients that were used to make this one. These are naked with no breading on them which is nice. Lower calories, gluten free choice, and high in protein.
Ingredients
- Electric air fryer
- Bag of frozen raw shrimp – timing is for large or jumbo shrimp, shelled with tails attached
- Parmesan cheese is great
- Olive oil will allow seasonings to stick
- Salt and pepper are basic seasonings
- Minced garlic we love
- Fresh parsley is optional
Then just lightly season it when it’s served, or toss it in with some buttered noodles, kids love that.
Can you cook frozen shrimp with the shell on?
Since they’re frozen you wouldn’t be able to take the shells off in this case and it actually works better with them on. When cooking shrimp in the air fryer basket you want the outsides to cook but more time to heat the insides so they don’t remain raw.
How do you cook frozen shrimp in an air fryer
- In a bowl mix your jumbo shelled shrimp together with olive oil, seasonings you love and some shredded parmesan cheese.
- Preheat air fryer to 350 degrees and pour in without allowing them to overlap.
- you may need to make more than 1 batch if your basket in small
- Set timer to 12 minutes.
- At minute 6 open the drawer and gently shake or flip pieces.
- Cook an additional 4-6 minutes or until they’re light pink in color
How Long to Air Fry Frozen Shrimp
You need 10-12 minutes but that will depend on whether they are small, medium or jumbo sizes. Of course larger will take longer to cook all the way thru. I do have a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. You can print and keep it in your box or binder if you have one to keep your favorites, or just come back time and time again. 😉
How do you know when shrimp is done?
When properly cooked, the exterior should be pink with red tails. The flesh should look slightly opaque and a little white in color. If it is bright white in color, there’s a good chance the shrimp were overcooked.
There’s a fine line between perfect and too well done so you need to watch them carefully. Allow to cool enough to remove shells and enjoy immediately for best results.
Remember this is for formerly fresh, shrimp with no breading. Frozen popcorn shrimp or butterfly shrimp you can find in the freezer section are different. For the most part you can follow instructions on the side of the box for the oven and cook accordingly.
For instance if it says they take 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven I would set air fryer to 400 and cook for a bit shorter, maybe 5 minutes and check. Add a few more minutes until they’re done to your liking and make note of cook times for future use.
SeaPak Frozen Shrimp Air Fryer
This is the most popular brand, and we love it. I would follow the same directions as we shared in our air fryer popcorn shrimp instructions for those. Most are about the same size, if your brand is much larger you might have to increase the timing a minute or two is all.
Ready to get going?? I have a printable recipe card for you at the very bottom so enjoy.
What can you do with peel and eat shrimp?
These are a fun hands on, messy appetizer for a casual dinner parties or weeknight meal. If you want to make this a main dish for your family, just peel the shrimp when done and serve over white rice or with vegetables and some garlic bread. Find more Ninja air fryer recipes here. A few of our favorites are:
- Air fryer corn on the cob and air fryer spam recipe we love
- We have a bunch of other air fryer fish recipes here like frozen salmon in air fryer too.
- Our air fryer cabbage steaks are a great side dish to this
Follow our air fryer fried shrimp linked at the top of this post if you like too. Since they were defrosted we were able to coat with some breading which was yet another delicious idea.
Air Fryer Frozen Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 lb frozen shrimp, large, with tails and shells in tact
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1/4 c parmesan cheese
- fresh parsley, diced, for garnish
Instructions
- In a bowl coat frozen shrimp with olive oil.
- Then add in and mix in parmesan cheese, minced garlic, salt and pepper.
- Put into air fryer basket without overlapping and cook at 350 degrees for 12 minutes shaking basket halfway through, or until they're opaque white and pink in color.
- Remove shells and enjoy.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Costco sells Raw Shrimp, frozen. They also sell pre- cooked with tails frozen. Mostly I purées the Pre-Cooked 2 point bag. Some times I eat the after the have had a chance to thaw out. Some time I want them warm but not rubbery. I have dried out meat! You are correct about the fine line on shrimp becoming rubbery… what would be your recommendation for frozen pre-cooked Costco Shrimp, thanks
@Phil, we’ll, my text was changed automatically, bummer.Change purées to purchase,change point bag to 2 pound bag, change I hate dried out meet,
I don’t shop a lot there but prefer jumbo raw shrimp for almost all my recipe instead of precooked
What about devaining the shrimp.
If yours aren’t already yes you’d want to do that
Great recipe, I definitely needed a good way to cook shrimp from frozen in my air fryer and now I have it! I love the idea of using parmesan in the marinade so it melts to the shrimp as they roast, creating a surface that will crisp while maintaining the tender/juicy shrimp texture!
Yay for success!!
How about raw frozen peeled shrimp?
I would suspect you can cook the same way, but shorten the time down at least half.
Do you cook the same way if you have frozen already cooked shrimp?
Do you cook the same way if you have frozen already cooked shrimp?