Crispy Tempura Shrimp

Beautiful fried Shrimp coated in a light, crispy batter are the hallmark characteristics of this Japanese bar food favorite. Our Crispy Tempura Shrimp shows you how to make a simple and tasty batter that is light and crispy that perfectly coats the Shrimp. The dish is lightly fried in hot oil until perfectly crispy. It’s a fantastic appetizer to kick off a meal, or a dish to simply enjoy any time of the day when you’re looking for a delicious treat

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Preparing the Shrimp

Getting Shrimp ready for cooking can be a little bit finicky, especially if you are using whole Shrimp. For our Crispy Tempura Shrimp dish, the Shrimp need to be peeled and deveined. This is a relatively easy process, but it just takes a little bit of time and patience. To remove the shell, simply pull away the shell from the legs outwards, it will come off (usually in pieces), so just keep going until it’s all gone. The head is removed by simply twisting it then pulling it away

We recommend keeping the tail on the Shrimp. This will help keep the shape of the Shrimp when it cooks and gives a nice visual look to the dish. One thing about deep fried food is sometimes it can be a little tricky to tell what it is. By leaving the tail on, this will unmistakably look like a Fried Shrimp!

Homemade Crispy Tempura Shrimp — Follow this recipe to produce an amazing Crispy Tempura Shrimp that you can make at home!

Now, deveining the Shrimp can be tricky. The ‘vein’ is that black line that runs up the back of the Shrimp. This is the intestinal tract of the Shrimp, otherwise known more affectionately as the ‘poop shoot’. You don’t want to be eating it! You can easily remove it by finding one end that is sticking out of the Shrimp where the head was. Squeeze it tightly using the side of a knife and your thumb in one hand and then pulling it out

It’s one of those things that’s best demonstrated in a video instead of writing. So, we created a simple YouTube video here showing you how to easily remove the vein from your Shrimp

How to keep the Shrimp straight when cooking

One of the unique characteristics of Tempura Shrimp is their shape. They’re not curled like most Shrimp dishes, but straight. To achieve this, you will need to use some skewers that can thread the inside of the Shrimp. This will ensure that the Shrimp keeps that unique shape when being cooked

Simply insert the pointy end of the skewer into the tail (from the underside) of the Shrimp and carefully thread it up to the other end. If the Shrimp starts to bunch up, simply pull it through so it’s as straight and uniform as you can get it

The Shrimp is then coated and fried with the skewer in it. So just remember it’s in there before you eat! Carefully remove it once cooked, trying to keep the shape of the Shrimp intact and you’re ready to go! Of course, this is an optional step and won’t impact the flavor of the dish in any way

Keeping Shrimp Straight when Frying — Using skewers you can keep the straight shape on the Shrimp when they are cooked

How to make Tempura Batter

Making a Tempura batter is easy and only requires a small handful of ingredients. Flour, Corn Starch, Egg, and Soda Water are all you need. A Tempura Batter is different to other types of batter and breading that you may be used to. Mainly due to its lightness. The texture of a Tempura Batter is much lighter than other batters (eg Beer Batter), almost like a crepe consistency

The lightness of the batter is what gives Crispy Tempura Shrimp their unique texture and light flavor. It’s probably one of the lightest deep-fried dishes you can eat, which means it won’t weigh you down

To make our Tempura Batter, simply combine the Flour, Corn Starch, Egg, and Soda Water in a bowl and whisk well until smooth. Ensure all the lumps have been removed, which is best done using a whisk. You want that crepe-like consistency, so if it is too thick, simply add a little more Soda Water to get the right consistency

Crispy Tempura Shrimp with Light Batter — A simple, light batter is all you need to achieve a wonderfully Crispy Tempura Shrimp dish

How to cook Crispy Tempura Shrimp

This is the fun part! However, I must warn you that it will be almost impossible to cook the Shrimp without making a little bit of mess. Because the batter is so light, you need to dip the Shrimp in it, then immediately transfer to the hot oil, trying to avoid any batter dripping from it

So, the best way to prepare the dish is to place your bowl of batter right next to the stovetop where your oil is cooking. Bring the Oil up to a high frying temperature (around 320 – 350F is good). Once hot, dip the Shrimp one at a time in the Batter. Ensure a thorough coating and then immediately transfer into the Oil

Carefully place the Shrimp into the Oil so that it avoids any splashing. Also try to avoid overcrowding the pot, as this will reduce the heat of the Oil which may affect the crispiness. I’d stick with about 3 Shrimp at a time to be safe

The Shrimp will cook very quickly, about 1 minute will do the job. Unlike other fried dishes, Crispy Tempura Shrimp doesn’t need to turn golden-brown to indicate that it’s cooked. It’s color will be a very light yellow when cooked. So, we suggest sticking to monitoring how long the Shrimp has been in the Oil to check for doneness

Once cooked, season and serve immediately

Like all fried dishes, it is best to serve the Tempura Shrimp as soon as they are cooked. They’ll be at their tastiest and (most importantly) crispiest immediately out of the fryer. Once cooked, remove them from the Oil with a spider strainer and place them on a raised wire rack to remove any excess oil

Season the Shrimp immediately with Salt. This will allow the Salt to stick to the batter. Then, place your delicious Shrimp on a serving plate ready to go. Because the Shrimp take no time to cook at all, you can batch cook them in the hot oil and still be assured they’ll all be perfect when it’s serving time

Tempura Sauce for Shrimp — Pair the Shrimp with a simple and delicious homemade Tempuras Sauce

Serve with a simple homemade Tempura Sauce

For the perfect bite of food, nothing beats pairing Tempura Shrimp with a Tempura Sauce. It’s a very simple sauce to make. The only challenge is finding one ingredient – Dashi. You can buy Dashi from specialty grocery stores, otherwise it can be replaced with simply Fish Stock

Combine Dashi / Fish Stock, Soy Sauce, Sugar, and Mirin in a saucepan and heat through just enough so that the Sugar melts. Keep it way and serve in a small bowl along with your Shrimp for dipping

Recipe Details

Servings

2 – 4 people

Prep time

20 minutes

Cooking time

2 minutes (batch cook)

Total time

25 minutes