Here is a great method for thawing shrimp quickly. It only takes 5 minutes!
Shrimp are often frozen right on the boat after being caught. This is the best way to get them to you fresh and tasty. The only thing that you have to do to start cooking them into your favorite shrimp recipes is to spend a few short minutes defrosting them.
But note that if you’re in a hurry, you totally can cook shrimp from frozen and they turn out amazing. Weeknight dinners are saved! If you still want to thaw them before cooking though, the info is below.
Here’s How To Thaw Shrimp Quickly:
Put the shrimp into a bowl that is twice the size of the amount of shrimp that you have. Here I have 24 medium shrimp (51-60 count) and I’ve used a medium bowl.
Put the bowl in the sink and fill with cold water.
Keep the tap running gently until the shrimp are defrosted. This will take about 5 minutes.
You’ll know the shrimp are fully thawed when they are pliable (thus not frozen in the center) and the color is no longer white but more somewhat translucent. I’m holding a still-frozen shrimp here and you can see that it is whiter and more opaque than the defrosted shrimp in the bowl.
Once the shrimp are defrosted, it’s time to cook them up.
How To Cook Your Defrosted Shrimp
Here are my some of favorite methods. Enjoy!
Print
How To Thaw Shrimp Quickly
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Defrost
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
Here is a great method for defrosting shrimp quickly. It only takes 5 minutes!
Ingredients
- 24 medium shrimp
- Tap water
Instructions
- Put the shrimp into a medium bowl.*
- Fill bowl with tap water.
- Keep tap running gently into the bowl.
- When shrimp are less opaque, less white, and pliable if you try to bend them, they are defrosted. It takes about 5 minutes.
- Drain off water.
Notes
*Note: If using more shrimp or larger shrimp use a bigger bowl. You want the bowl to be twice the size of your pile of shrimp.
This post originally appeared in January 2019 and was revised and republished in July 2022.
Dick Bushman says
I cook them in Italian dressing and Tabasco……Wow what flavor!
Christine Pittman says
That sounds really good! I have a dipping sauce that I make for shrimp that is Italian dressing and sweet chili sauce. I think it probably has some similarity to yours, but sweeter and less spicy.
tshann says
This method of defrosting shrimp SO worked. Thanks!
★★★★★
Christine Pittman says
Great! Glad you liked it.
Brooklyn J says
What a way to waste water.