Air Fryer Frozen Shrimp (No Thawing!)

These air fryer frozen shrimp are made straight out of the freezer in about ten minutes with only three ingredients—no defrosting necessary! They're so fast and easy and perfect for pairing with rice or vegetables.

Jump to:

• 💗 Why We Love These Shrimp
• 🍤 Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
• 📋 Step-by-Step Instructions
• Seasoning Variations
• 💭 Top Tips
• Serving Ideas
• Frequently asked questions
• More Air Fryer Recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

💗 Why We Love These Shrimp

• They're super fast: This recipe only takes about ten minutes.
• You only need three ingredients: We make these shrimp with frozen shrimp, taco seasoning, and cooking oil. That's it!
• They're versatile: You can change up the seasoning for a different flavor, and you can serve them however you want.
• No defrosting is necessary: We pop these shrimp in the air fryer without any defrosting, so dinner is on the table in no time with no effort.

🍤 Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Frozen Shrimp: We use jumbo peeled and de-veined raw frozen shrimp. You can go for tail-on or tail-off—either works. If your shrimp is cooked, then you can cut the cook time in half (see recipe notes). Most major grocery stores sell bags of frozen shrimp in the frozen food or seafood aisles.
• Taco Seasoning: We use taco seasoning on our shrimp because it's full of flavor, super easy, and a pantry staple. We love Siete Taco Seasoning or Mateo's Southwest Ranch Taco Seasoning (sold at Walmart), but any taco seasoning works well. You can use other seasoning blends in place of taco seasoning if you prefer.
• Cooking oil: We use avocado oil, but you can use whatever you usually prefer.

📋 Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Add frozen shrimp to a large mixing bowl. Then add oil and taco seasoning and mix until the shrimp is evenly coated.

Step 2: Air fry at 400°F for 5 minutes, then shake the basket and cook for another 3-5 minutes, until shrimp is no longer translucent and slightly seared on the outside.

Step 3: Serve! Check out some of our serving ideas below.

Seasoning Variations

We use taco seasoning because it's a pantry staple in our house and tastes great on shrimp, but you can use any seasoning mix. Here are some of our favorites:

• Old Bay
• Blackening Seasoning
• BBQ rub
• All-purpose seasoning
• A custom combo of your favorite spices—we love paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, ground cayenne, salt, and black pepper

💭 Top Tips

• Our taco seasoning contains salt already, so we don't add any. If your seasoning mixture doesn't include salt, then add ½ teaspoon to your shrimp.
• Don't overcook the shrimp. Because every air fryer cooks a little differently, start checking your shrimp periodically after the 5 or 6 minute mark.
• We don't preheat our air fryer prior to putting the shrimp in (quite honestly, I just don't have the time of patience for that, and I don't notice a huge difference).

Serving Ideas

Here are our favorite ways to serve this shrimp:

• On a rice bowl: We love ours with avocado, lime, cilantro, black beans, and pico de gallo. Sometimes we just buy bags of microwavable frozen rice from Trader Joe's to make it easy.
• With veggies: We love carrots, brussels sprouts, and broccoli
• In a taco
• With sautéed fajita veggies
• Over a salad: We love buying pre-packaged bags of salad and throwing this shrimp over the top for a quick lunch or dinner.

More Air Fryer Recipes

Looking for more easy air fryer recipes? Try these:

Print

📖 Recipe