How to Cook Air Fryer Frozen Shrimp

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.

How to Cook Frozen Shrimp

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. 😉

Frozen 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

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…

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 wings 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.

Air fryer frozen shrimp

1. Electric air fryer
2. Bag of frozen shrimp – timing is for large or jumbo shrimp, shelled with tails attached
3. Parmesan cheese
4. Olive oil
5. Salt and pepper
6. Minced garlic
7. Fresh parsley is optional

Then just lightly season it when it’s served, or toss it in with some buttered noodles, kids love that.

I think it is necessary to choose shelled when cooking shrimp in the air fryer basket so the outsides don’t get overcooked and the insides remain raw. This also means there’s nothing to do when you prepare shrimp like these ahead of time.

Since they’re frozen you wouldn’t be able to take the shells off anyway.

Here are tips to getting that deep fried taste while air frying your seafood:

• Season the outsides well.
• Make sure you lay shrimp in a single layer so every angle gets hot air and cooks evenly.
• Preheat the air fryer before setting cooking time and placing inside the basket.

If you follow these you will achieve the best, tender, bites ever.

Frozen shrimp in an air fryer

How Long to Air Fry Frozen Shrimp

1. In a bowl mix your jumbo shelled shrimp together with olive oil, seasonings you love and some shredded parmesan cheese.
2. Preheat air fryer to 350 degrees and pour in without allowing them to overlap.
   1. you may need to make more than 1 batch if your basket in small
3. Set timer to 12 minutes.
4. At minute 6 open the drawer and gently shake or flip pieces.
5. Cook an additional 4-6 minutes or until they’re light pink in color

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.

Frozen Breaded Shrimp in the Air Fryer

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.

• Print out our free air fryer cooking times printable here.
  • This will help you figure out how to cook other frozen foods and fresh meats.
  • Then you’ll be able to air fry everything like we do night after night. Yes, we are a bit obsessed.

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:

1. Air fryer corn on the cob and spam recipe we love
2. Here are other low carb air fryer recipes you can enjoy
3. We have a bunch of other air fryer fish recipes here like frozen salmon in air fryer too.
4. 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.

Ninja Foodi Shrimp