Air Fryer Breaded Shrimp

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Air Fryer Breaded Shrimp. How to air fry breaded shrimp to make the most delicious crispy air fryer fried breaded shrimp that you have ever tasted. It has a wonderful crunchy coating, yet the shrimp is moist and not overcooked or dry.

This air fryer breaded shrimp recipe features fresh shrimp, garlic and herb breadcrumbs as well as lots of parmesan. Perfect if you love shrimp that is full of flavour and can’t resist a parmesan panko style crust. It also features a secret ingredient that stops of the breaded shrimp from being dry when cooked in the air fryer.

You can also easily adapt our air fryer breaded shrimp into a Paleo air fryer breaded shrimp with just one small change.

Air Fryer Breaded Shrimp

This air fryer breaded shrimp post is an update from a breaded shrimp air fryer recipe that we originally shared with you in January of 2017. We hope you enjoy our updated version.

I am trying to think of the first time I ever had breaded shrimp or when I first heard the word shrimp for that matter, and it takes me back to childhood.

The first mention of shrimp must be the movie Forrest Gump. I loved this film when it came out when I was just 12 years old and still watch it regularly now.

It particularly excited me, as a Brit growing up and learning so many facts about the US. It wasn’t until I had watched this movie that I knew where JFK was when he was assassinated, who Martin Luther King was or what shrimp was and how many things you could cook with shrimp.  

Of course, as a Brit, shrimp has always been called prawns for the small variety or king prawns for the classic size that you would compare to an American shrimp.

It started my love affair with all these different ways you could cook shrimp and most importantly I wanted to either eat it breaded or eat it breaded.

My British love affair with the prawn cocktail (as we call them) had ended because breaded with a delicious sauce just sounded so much better.

Fast forward a year and I was sat in a Chinese restaurant eating breaded shrimp AGAIN and thinking if I could have shrimp just one way forever it would be breaded shrimp.

Even all these years later, when I visit a Chinese buffet it is always the breaded shrimp that catches my attention first.

So, when the air fryer entered my world, I wanted to air fry breaded shrimp. Lower in calories, easy to make diet friendly and so addictive too.

And that is how my obsession with air fryer breaded shrimp started.

Can You Fry Breaded Shrimp In An Air Fryer?

Absolutely! Air Fryer breaded shrimp cooks fantastically in the air fryer. You just need to make sure you have a good breading in place, and you are all set.

You can also air fry frozen breaded shrimp, homemade breaded shrimp or use the air fryer to reheat breaded shrimp.

Why Cook Breaded Shrimp In The Air Fryer?

Because it is like magic. Just think of all those calories you consume each time you cook breaded shrimp in your deep fat fryer. Instead by cooking breaded shrimp in the air fryer you are getting the same quality taste, just a much healthier option.

Then if breaded shrimp is your thing, you could eat air fryer breaded shrimp everyday with absolutely ZERO guilt!

Or unlike the oven or grill when you cook breaded shrimp in the air fryer it will have a crunchy coating without feeling flat and boring.

What Ingredients & Gadgets Go Into Air Fryer Breaded Shrimp?

There are 4 main ingredients that go into air fryer breaded shrimp:

• Bob’s Red Mill Oat Flour
• Beaten Eggs
• Shrimp
• Flavoured Breadcrumbs

As well as this we used the Philips Air Fryer XL and then lined the breaded shrimp in the air fryer basket to cook them.

You can fit a lot more breaded shrimp in the air fryer XL compared to other air fryers and we only needed to do two loads from a big bag of precooked shrimp.

You can choose whichever brand of shrimp that you wish. But try to aim for a similar size to the ones we have used.

Because too big and they will be undercooked, and you will run out of breading. Or too little and they will shrivel up and look silly and hardly have any shrimp to bite into.

Flavoured breadcrumbs are important. Because depth of flavour means so much to breaded shrimp, if you don’t have seasoned breadcrumbs your breaded shrimp can be rather bland. Though it only takes a minute or two to season it.

Parmesan is top of my list. I love a little parmesan cheese added to my breadcrumbs. Parmesan works very well as it is not overly melty compared to using cheddar or mozzarella.  

Bobs Red Mill oat flour. This stops the breading on the shrimp from being dry and is much lighter than using classic flour. A must for us and you can buy it on Amazon or get an amazing deal with a Thrive Market Membership.

Air Fryer Breaded Shrimp Tips:

• Set up your bowls – Work your breaded shrimp like a production line as it can help keep you organised and speed you up. Have one bowl for your beaten egg, another with your oat flour and a third with your breadcrumbs. Then you are ready to load in your shrimp.

• Cooked shrimp works best – There is less of a cooking time and because the shrimp is cooked it is much easier to bread.

• Don’t overfill the air fryer – It is very important that you don’t do this, otherwise your breaded shrimp will stick together, and the coating will come off.

• Golden looking shrimp – If you want your air fried breaded shrimp to have a golden glow then add a couple of sprays of extra virgin olive oil after you have placed it in the air fryer basket.

Pair our air fryer breaded shrimp with air fryer fries, air fryer onion rings, air fryer frozen mozzarella sticks or air fryer frozen breaded mushrooms for the ultimate appetizer feast.

Air Fryer Breaded Shrimp Cook Time

The cooking time for air fryer breaded shrimp is super-fast because the shrimp is already cooked and essentially all you are doing is cooking the breading and heating the shrimp thoroughly.

Because of this you only need to cook your shrimp for 5 minutes at 200c/400f.

Paleo Air Fryer Breaded Shrimp?

Want to make our air fryer breaded shrimp Paleo? Then it is super easy to do so.

All you need to do is change the bowl that hosts your breadcrumbs with a different coating.

What I recommend is either gluten free/paleo approved bread that you have made into breadcrumbs.

Then adding in an extra to help crisp the breaded shrimp even more such as our air fryer pork rinds.

Can You Put Cooked Shrimp In Air Fryer?

Yes you can! In this recipe that I am sharing with you today that shows you how to air fry breaded shrimp it is using precooked shrimp.

In fact, cooked shrimp in the air fryer works much better.

I tend to buy my cooked shrimp frozen and then thaw it before making breaded shrimp.

As you don’t want to add frozen shrimp to breadcrumbs as it will just fall apart due to the excess water from the frozen shrimp.

How To Air Fry Breaded Shrimp?

Cooking breaded shrimp in the air fryer is so simple:

• Load the bowls – Create an egg bowl, a breadcrumbs bowl and a flour bowl. Then any excess leftovers can be used in other breaded air fryer recipes.
• Smoother the shrimp – add the shrimp to the oat flour, to the beaten egg and finally in the breadcrumbs. Make sure each shrimp is getting a good coating of each and feels like it is drowning in them.
• Brush of the excess – Finish off by brushing off any excess breadcrumbs before transferring your shrimp to the air fryer to cook.
• Make your dip – I finish off by making a quick homemade dip while the breaded shrimp is cooking and then I am ready to eat them.

More Air Fryer Breaded Recipes

Here at Recipe This we love breaded food in the air fryer. It saves on the calories that you associate with deep fried breaded foods and tastes like it is much naughtier than it is. Here are a few more air fryer breaded recipes beyond our air fryer breaded shrimp recipe for you to try out next.

• Air Fryer Breaded Dill Pickle Chips
• Air Fryer Breaded Chicken
• Air Fryer Breaded Chicken Tenders
• Breaded Air Fryer Pork Chops
• Air Fryer Cordon Bleu

We also have a lot more air fryer recipes for you to check out and find some new ideas for planning your meals. As well as this we have our air fryer archives, which is full to bursting with all our air fryer recipes in one big PDF ebook. You can order it on this link or click on the banner below.

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