First things first, I need everyone to drop everything they are doing and focus on only this for the next ten minutes, because it is absolutely mandatory that you understand the magic of this shrimp. This is my favorite new recipe, and I have made it twice within one week (and have another bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer to make it again)!
It. Is. Revolutionary. Reasons:
- It no joke takes less than 5 minutes of prep
- It only has a 2 minute cook time (not including time it takes IP to come to pressure)
- It is THE yummiest shrimp I’ve ever had
The prep: you throw a bag of large, shell on frozen shrimp into the Instant Pot. You add water, lemon juice, and Old Bay. Stir it up. Turn on the Instant Pot. Done! That’s all there is to it, and it is quite possibly the easiest recipe I’ve ever made, but it is so. good. I. could. die.
The flavor of the Old Bay and lemon juice cooks into the shrimp, and by the end of the 2 minute high pressure cook time, the shrimp have not only thawed, but are cooked to tender perfection – no overcooked, rubbery shrimp here. Just perfect, moist shrimp with that delicious poppy bite.
I don’t know if your grocery store has this, but my grocery store (Harris Teeter) has something called “EZ Peel Shrimp.” So what that looks like is a shrimp that is sliced down the back and de-veined, but the rest of the peel is left on. Meaning you still get the flavor of the shell cooking into the shrimp and “broth,” but you have none of the peeling and de-veining work.
So if you can find those, USE THEM. If not, use whatevs. As long as they are raw shrimp with the peel left on, it should work just fine.
And the flavor of these, you guys. They are deeply seasoned with the Old Bay, which gives such a savory, spicy punch, and they are bright from the lemon juice.
This is also a great make ahead meal if you like getting things done in advance. And when you throw the shrimp in a tupperware, fill the tupperware up with the cooking liquid so the shrimp continues to marinate in that flavor-bomb goodness.
I’ll change your world, peeps. Especially for those looking for uber easy weeknight meals, because it straight up doesn’t get any easier or better than this!
My little boy is super super sick right now, so I’m going to cut this a little bit short and go cuddle his cute little butt. It’s a PJ and movie day over here. Have a wonderful day filled with (hopefully) piles and piles of this delicious shrimp!
World’s Easiest Instant Pot Frozen Shrimp
- Prep Time: 3 mins
- Cook Time: 2 mins
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 32 oz bag FROZEN, large, peel-on, raw shrimp (I use the EZ Peel kind*)
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup Old Bay seasoning
- 2 lemons
Instructions
- To your Instant Pot, add your frozen shrimp
- To this, pour in your water, juice both the lemons into the pot, and throw the juiced halves in there too. Add your Old Bay. Stir everything to totally combine, breaking up any frozen shrimp that have stuck together as much as you can (if some are really stuck, don’t worry about it)
- Set the Instant Pot to manual high pressure for 2 minutes (1 minute if your shrimp are smaller). When it’s finished, quick release the pressure, and you’re all done!
Notes
UPDATE – There has been lots of variation in people’s success with this after trying. Some people LOVE it and some people are having trouble with the shrimp being overcooked. I think it’s crucial for the shrimp to be large/jumbo, frozen, raw, and peel on for this to work and be super delicious! Let me know if you have any questions.
*My grocery store carries “EZ Peel” frozen shrimp, which are sliced down the back and de-veined, but the rest of the peel is left on. This takes the work out of de-veining but still allows you to cook the shrimp with the shell on, which imparts some yummy flavor. If your grocery store doesn’t have these, you can use regular peel-on shrimp, just make sure they are frozen and raw.
If making this meal ahead of time, add the shrimp to a tupperware and then fill the tupperware up with the cooking liquid so the shrimp marinates in it as it sits.
Total cook time doesn’t account for the time it takes for the Instant Pot to come to pressure. Since the shrimp is frozen, it takes a bit. I’ve never timed it, but my guess would be somewhere between 10-20 minutes?
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 of the shrimp
- Calories: 165
- Sugar: 1 g
- Fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 4 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 30 g
If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries so I can see!
In the mood for more yummy shrimp recipes? Check these out:
Spicy Shrimp Bowls with Parmesan Quinoa and Garlic Kale
Cajun Style Shrimp and Grits – Lightened Up
Barley Fried Rice with Marinated Shrimp
I still happily make this wonderful, easy recipe, with jumbo, frozen EZ Peel shrimp. Today I did something different.
I had some tiny red potatoes that weren’t long for this world, so after the shrimp was cooked and removed from the instant pot, I turned off the Instant Pot, dumped two tablespoons of butter into the “broth” left from the shrimp, added the potatoes, brought it up to pressure again and cooked for four minutes. Keep in mind these were tiny potatoes and the ones that were a little bigger were cut in half. They were delicious.
By the way, I no longer stir the shrimp. I put the shrimp into the Instant Pot, add the Old Bay, lemon juice, lemon peels (cut into 1/4ths), and then the water in that order.
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Thank you for the tip. Works great , I always cook my shrimp like this now. Some additional tips , I put the un peeled shrimp in steamer basket and either save the broth for shrimp flavored dishes or even use basket over top of other creole dishes in the instant pot to get the full shrimp flavor in .
Thomas D Warren recently posted…Easy One Pot Coconut Basil Chicken
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Great feedback – thanks Thomas!
I just made this but I like spicy so I added some red pepper and a half stick of butter and OMG DELICIOUS!!
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Awesome ideas! So glad you loved it!
I just made this for dinner with jumbo shrimp and they were perfect! Thank you for such a great recipe!
Yay! So glad it worked for you, Anne. Thanks for the comment!
Thank you! This recipe is delicious, shrimp cooked to perfection when using shell on frozen e-z peel large to jumbo shrimp. My only changes were to add 1 tablespoon of red chili flakes, 1/2 cup onions and 2 cloves of garlic. Broth of Bays is frozen and used over rice as a side when I need something different. My local store sells 16-20 shrimp per pound at $5.98 per pound, in 2 lb. bags for $11.96. I would not attempt any shrimp smaller than 25 per pound, as it is pretty much preordained to be over cooked.
The shrimp goes into the pot frozen. The pot can’t seal until the water from the recipe and the water from ice in the shrimp reaches boiling and produces steam, finally triggering the pot to seal. The pot begins heating the second you turn it on and usually requires 15 minutes to seal on my pot. That means that the food has been heating and slow cooking for 15 minutes BEFORE the timer starts, which is why smaller shrimp fail in this recipe. Once the timer starts you MUST stay alert so you can immediately do a manual release as soon as the 2 minutes of cook time are completed. Failure to do a manual pressure release and allowing it to release by itself will result in over cooking. Once cooked immediately remove shrimp from the pot and the broth or it will continue to cook the shrimp.
If you are using thawed shrimp this is not the recipe you want. If you are using thawed cleaned shrimp, this recipe will not work. If you are using frozen shrimp smaller than 25 per pound this recipe will in all likelyhood result in over cooked shrimp. 16-20 shrimp per pound means you are cooking a shrimp that is between 3/4 of an ounce to one ounce per shrimp. At 38 count you are getting a shrimp that is substantially smaller than 1/2 ounces each, and doomed to overcooking. Of course this all based solely on my personal experience and I hope it helps.
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Thank you so much for all this feedback and advice, Mike! Super helpful. And I’m so glad this recipe turned out well for you!
I have the costco 2lb peeled raw frozen shrimp, 21-25 per pound. How long would you suggest I cook these? I’m also at 6500′ elevation.
I haven’t personally tested this recipe with peeled shrimp, and lots of commenters have had a super different experience using this recipe with peeled versus unpeeled. Since I haven’t tested it personally, I can’t tell you what cook time to use. But it’s a great question, and my plan is to test the recipe with various cook times using peeled shrimp so I can share that info with you guys in the future! I’m sorry I can’t give you more conclusive, helpful info now!
I ended up doing 0 minutes and it was too much. I think for peeled shrimp I will use the stovetop. I will try this with unpeeled, though, in the future.
Eileen: Be warned…this recipe is AMAZING but I have only gotten it to work with JUMBO or XL shrimp with shells ON. Even at 0 mins on low pressure, all smaller and/or shell-off shrimp are overcooked in my experience. And I’m in Denver (5280 ft elevation). Use those Costco shrimp for something else!
These came out great! I’ve made a lot of steamed shrimp over the years on the stove, but never tried the IP and never started from frozen. I did one pound of Jumbo EZ Peel, 1/2 cup water, juice of one lemon, and 2T Old Bay. Very tasty, and the liquid itself was drinkable!
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I’m so glad it turned out well for you, Davey!! They really are so tasty!
I love that this recipe calls for frozen shrimp (I tend to forget to defrost shrimp). I used 16 oz Kroger brand jumbo shrimp, 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup lime juice and 2 tablespoons Tony Chachere’s.
They came out ever so slightly undercooked so I left them in the pot with the lid sealed just in the Keep Warm setting for 5 minutes and then they turned out GREAT.
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Yesss not having to thaw the shrimp is such a huge plus on this recipe. I’m sorry they came out a little under for you! Good thinking on the keep warm for 5 extra minutes, though!
I only had medium raw shrimp so I set the pot for 1 minute and lap threw in some minced garlic for fun along with your mentioned seasonings – came out FABULOUS! It’s a keeper!
I’m making this right now! Very excited. Will check back in in 2 minutes!
Yay! I hope it turns out delicious for you!!
We make this every couple weeks with Jumbo EZ Peels, which is the size our stores carry. It’s always perfect and so easy! The one change I made was to add the Old Bay to the shrimp first, then stir, then the lemon juice and a 3-second stir again – with the water last. Otherwise the shrimp freeze together when the water hits them, and stirring is fairly impossible. Though to be honest, I don’t know if stirring matters much if at all since it’s pressure cooked.
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So glad this one is a hit for you, Beth! That’s a really good suggestion with the order of adding. Mine freeze together when the water hits them too, and I just power through the stirring. I like your idea better 😂
Can I use Tony Cachere’s creole seasoning instead of Old Bay?
I’ve never used it before, but you could definitely try! I bet it would be yummy – the only thing I’d check is the sodium levels on both. If the sodium is much higher with Tony’s you might need to add less so it won’t be too salty. If it’s about the same, I bet it would turn out great!
What’s the shrimp count in the amount of shrimp you use? I want to use my bag that is 31-40 / 400g / 0.88 lbs. Would I keep the recipe the same?
One cool thing about the Instant Pot is that as long as the size of what you are cooking is the same, you don’t have to increase/decrease for how many pounds you’re making. Meaning if you’re using large shrimp, you can have half a pound or 2 pounds as long as the shrimp themselves are large. So make sure you use jumbo, shell on, frozen shrimp and you should be able to stick with the recipe!
I used just a little less Old Bay in mine second time around. And I added a clove of chopped garlic. This is a recipe I Wish I would have had 20 years ago!! I have often wondered how restaurants get this shrimp so right and now I know!
Is there a way to print this recipe without all the ads showing up? I put it on trader view and It eliminated the ads but left off the actual recipe. I know it’s a simple recipe but I want to make sure I reference it down the road…
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Aw, thank you so much Leslie!! I’m so glad you love this recipe! It’s such an easy, yummy dinner – one of my faves! As for the ads, I know they are kind of annoying, I wish I could delete them all together for the best possible user experience! They are how I make an income off the blog, so unfortunately I have to keep them the way they are. I know the placement can be inconvenient sometimes. If you want, I can write up the recipe and send it to you in an email? Would that be helpful?
I’take a screenshot of recipes online and then put it in a folder so I always have it in my phone when I go shopping or on my tablet when I’m cooking!!
Great idea!
This was absolutely delicious! My entire family loved it and I loved how easy it was.
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Yay! So glad you guys liked it, Monica. It’s such an easy and yummy recipe!
Hi Annie :) Seems that only people trying this recipe with smaller, shell-off raw shrimp are having problems. Maybe you could update the wording of the recipe to STRONGLY recommend only shell-on shrimp, especially now that we can’t just go to the grocery store and buy more shrimp quite as easily? Thanks for considering…and thanks for a great blog!
Or maybe those with smaller peeled shrimp could try zero minutes. (Using an IP Duo Evo Plus, there is no 0 minutes any more, but hitting cancel as soon as the IP comes to pressure is the same thing.)
Sadly, I tried 0 mins and even that was too long!
Hey Gwen! I updated to emphasize the importance of large, frozen, peel-on shrimp! Thanks for the feedback!
Awesome! I am going to try again soon with this type of shrimp! I’ll keep ya posted!
Yes, keep me posted!!
OH MY WORD!!! Finally understand what all the fuss is about! I used 1 lb jumbo frozen shell-on shrimp and cooked for 1 minute and it was DIVINE! Used just a teensy bit less water/Old Bay, but otherwise didn’t change anything else. Made parmesan garlic grits to go alongside (Southern girl here!) and my roommates were over the moon! So perfect! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Shocked at how delicious and succulent this incredibly easy-to-make dish was. Our store only carried jumbo EZ Peels, and huge shrimp can be tough or grainy. What a treat, especially these days, when spending too much time reading/watching the news. Thank you!
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So glad this worked well for you Beth! I’m so glad it could bring you some joy during this crazy time :).
So looking forward to making this for the boys tomorrow. I only have a 12oz bag and we are not supposed to go out. Any suggestion for modifications. Do I halfvtgecwater? Spices? Thanks for the recipe and your time.
Hey Beth! That’s a little less than half the shrimp, so I’d probably just half all the ingredients! Keep the cook time the same, though.
So easy and delicious. I forgot to rate it with stars on my last comment. I will make this again for sure!
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Thanks again, Terry!
This was delicious. I used one pound extra jumbo shrimp and added some crushed fresh garlic. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. Then added a glob of butter to the pot and served it over rice. YUM!
Thank you so much for the comment! So glad that it worked well for you. Yummy ideas with the garlic and butter!
Look yummy! One of my favorite Frozen Shrimp, nice to see your recipe, easy to follow, will cook this for family this weekend. Thanks you!
Thomas recently posted…Top 5 Best Cordless Water Flosser Consumer Reports in 2020 [Reviews + Ultimate Guide]
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I wish I’d just gone to Office Depot and bought a big Peno Em eraser, chopped it up, and replaced it to substitute the expensive jumbo raw shrimp I entrusted to your advice. The shrimp is hard, dry, tasteless and just a little better than pencil eraser. I followed your recipe to a tee. Shame on you.
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I’m sorry it didn’t work well for you, Jill! Did you use frozen shrimp? If it wasn’t frozen, it would be a much shorter cook time. Just thinking of what might have gone wrong!
There is no need to be snarky to someone who has shared a delicious recipe that others have had success with. Has it occurred to you to first look at what you may have done when something goes wrong with shrimp – or anything? If you met in real life would you be so unkind?
Shame on YOU, Jill, for your comment. Everyone else has had good results with this recipe, yet you’re telling Annie shame on HER????? How about trying to see what you might have done differently from the recipe and everyone else, or ASKING NICELY for advice, vs being rude and nasty?
It’s hard to even imagine what about this recipe would have resulted in hard dry tasteless shrimp. They are cooked for a short amount of time in water, lemon and spices. Mine came out great. Sounds like you had bad shrimp, or else cooked them for way too long. Did you cook them for 20 minutes? 12?
Excellent! One pound jumbo UNCOOKED deveined,shell-on shrimp with zucchini and summer squash slices for two minutes. Full of flavor and very tender, served over jasmine rice.
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So glad this recipe was a hit for you, David! Thanks for the comment!
This took so little time and tastes so great I can’t believe it. My husband who doesn’t comment on a lot said “very good”.
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Yay! So glad this recipe was a hit for you! Thanks for the comment :).
I. Just. Died.
So so good, so fast, most importantly so delicious 😋
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Right?! So good. So fast! I’m so glad it worked out well for you, Elena!
Incredibly easy and oh so delicious! Used just 1/2 bag (1 lb) jumbo frozen shrimp to be safe since I’m new to IP cooking. It was perfect! By the time I had the salads made, the shrimp was done. Thanks for sharing,
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Isn’t it SO easy and yummy?! I love this one. I’m so glad it worked out well for you, Barb!
Good evening! Your recipe sounds very easy.
! I want to try it,however, I can’t eat lemons or citrus fruits at all. Do I absolutely need the lemon or can I’m substitute something else? Sparkling cider, perhaps or vinegar?
Hey! It’s so easy and yummy. I would just leave out the lemon if you can’t have it!
I had high hopes on this one, my very first instantpot recipe! I had a pound of frozen, shell off large shrimp,. I followed the directions otherwise minus taking a minute off the cooking time to account for the lack of shells and the potentially smaller shrimp. They still came out shriveled up and rubbery. Really disappointing, as a pound of shrimp is not a cheap loss! If you do this receipe, my recommendation is to not deviate at all from the directions. Clearly it worked for some, but don’t decrease or increase the amount of shrimp, use shell on, etc.
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Thank you for the recipe. I was trying to empty out my freezer and had a bag of wild caught argentininean red shrimp from Kroger, which I think is a cousin to Harris Teeter. I cooked it per your instructions and it turned out great.
One tip for those of you who like bone broth, when using this wild caught shrimp, I will often include the discarded shells in my next batch of bone broth …..lots of collagen
As you have indicated in some of the comments, I think it’s best for people to use only unpeeled shrimp if they are cooking from frozen. If you wish to cook peeled shrimp, there are a lot of other recipes on the Internet that encourage you to thaw it first and then cook it.
One more thing, do you have any suggestions of what to do with the leftover sauce, if you do not serve it with the shrimp?
PS. Jill Mitchell is a crass idiot
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I’m so happy this recipe was a hit for you, Mike! Good suggestion on using the shells. If we don’t eat all the shrimp, I store the leftovers in the sauce, but other than that it usually just gets thrown away. I’d love to find a new way to use it, though! I’ll have to brainstorm!
I suggest freezing it in small portions to add to soup or sauces.
Liked the recipe, although I read it wrong and put a 1/2 cup of Old Bay, and MAN! it was salty. Put it over linquini with pesto.
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Haha, oh no!!!! That was probably so salty. Sorry about that! I hope it was still at least a little yummy!
wife loves shrimp like this always gets it when we eat out figured i’d give it a try had 2 lb. bag of frozen raw shrimp only did 1 lb. added shrimp t o instant pot with 1cp water 1/2 cp lemon juice sprinkled oldbay and garlic powder mixed together in pot set pressurecook 1 minute then did quick release.BEST SHRIMP EVER
I’m so glad you guys loved it, Rodney!! Thanks for the comment!!
Would I need to add more time for 3 pounds jumbo shrimp?
Nope! No extra time for adding more shrimp. That’s one cool thing about the Instant Pot :).
It was definitely easy! I used 1 lb shrimp but kept everything else the same. Shrimp were overcooked, but still tasty. I used tail-on frozen shrimp that were small to medium in size. Do you think that made the difference in cooking time? Still have more shrimp on hand so I’ll definitely try again, but with 1 or even 0 mins at high pressure. Thanks for the recipe!
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Hey Gwen! Mine were pretty large, so I’d say if your shrimp are smaller, dropping it down to 1 minute would be a good decision! I’m not sure they’d get done at 0 minutes from frozen, but maybe!!
I think the size and the fact that yours still had the shell on (versus just the tail as mine did) may make all the difference. Thanks for responding! Will let you know how round 2 goes with 0 mins :)
Did 1 lb medium frozen shrimp with tail on only for 0 mins low pressure and they were still a little overcooked! My theory is that it MUST be large, shell-on frozen shrimp! I will keep trying!
Annie, you have outside yourself! This is the easiest and tastiest shrimp EVER! Miss you but love reading your blog!
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Yay! I’m so glad you liked it. I am slightly obsessed…so good. I miss you TONS!!!!
Definitely making this again and again! My 2lb bag of EZ peel shrimp was mostly a solid mass but broke up a little with the water and lemon juice. After the quick release, I tasted a couple of shrimp and juice…so tasty! I then added half a bag of Trader Joe’s frozen roasted corn and put it in for another minute.
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I’m so glad you liked this shrimp Angela! Isn’t it so easy?! Yummy idea to add the corn.
I have a feeling this will become a frequent “recipe” for me. Forgot to thaw? No problem! LOVE THIS!!
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Yessss exactly. I have SUCH a hard time remembering to thaw meat, but this takes that need out! Not to mention it tastes beyond amazing!