Crispy Popcorn Shrimp Without the Restaurant Price Tag

Q: What Type of Shrimp Should I use for Popcorn Shrimp?

For bite-sized pieces of Popcorn Shrimp, you want to look for the smallest shrimp you can find. Believe it or not, where I am it is very hard to find small raw shrimp! I managed to find 61-70 shrimp at Walmart and that saved the day! The number indicates the range of the number of shrimp used to make a pound. I would not pick shrimp that are larger than this. In Canada, “large” shrimp is 31-40, which is the most common size for shrimp. Even bigger than those would be labeled as “gigantico” (16-20) or “colossal” (8-12). Save the massive shrimp varieties for skewers or pasta! You can use peeled shrimp or shrimp with the tail and shell on. However, I do recommend getting peeled shrimp if you can because this will save you the work (and mess!) of peeling and deveining the shrimp. There’s not really a difference in flavor in getting peeled vs shell-on shrimp. I could only find shrimp with the shell on here. In a perfect world, you’d get fresh shrimp from the sea. However, you may be like me and you don’t have that luxury. I always go for frozen shrimp, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

Q: What Tools Do I need to Make the Best Popcorn Shrimp?

Mixing bowl Pepper mill Measuring spoons Cutting board Chef’s knife Wok Slotted spoon

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Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · shrimp so small and crispy they vanish like popcorn

Watch the full method on YouTube →

Easy & Crispy Popcorn Shrimp Recipe

I have to be honest with you that I wouldn’t particularly pick out a seafood appetizer with the exception of calamari, but after making these exciting little treats, Popcorn Shrimp has become a new favorite crispy snack! The only time I went out of my way to order popcorn shrimp was a couple of years back at Red Lobster. However, I’ve learned that the popcorn shrimp at Popeye’s is a real hit! Well, let me tell you that this easy crunchy popcorn shrimp will definitely be better than Popeye’s! As I mention in my free motivational guide to explore your potential in the kitchen, Make Cooking Fun!!, going out to eat can spark creativity for you to recreate your favorites at home, and this is one of my favorite things to do! If you’ve always wanted to have a blast deep frying but you were too nervous on how to do it, then definitely use this crispy popcorn shrimp to check off deep frying as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge! Get started on your cooking journey for free by signing up to my email newsletter, plus you’ll get all of my latest recipes sent straight to your inbox!

For a demonstration of everything discussed in this post, be sure to watch the video! If you’re not already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already, and don’t forget to hit the bell button to be notified when all of my video recipes are live! Let’s get frying!

Crispy golden popcorn shrimp garnished with green onions, served with red dipping sauce in a white bowl.

Questions You May Have!

What Exactly Is Popcorn shrimp?▼

The “popcorn” part of the name is definitely interest! However, there is no actual popcorn in shrimp. Similar to popcorn chicken, these are just bite-sized breaded and fried shrimps. I suppose that the “popcorn” part of the name comes from the crunchiness of the battered shrimp, and due to the fact that you can just pop them in your mouth and chow down in front of the TV with ease, comparable to eating a bowl of popcorn!

Of course I really love my poultry, but sometimes some popcorn shrimp is just as satisfying. There are many pros to making shrimp, the main reason is that it just cooks so much faster than chicken!

What Type of Shrimp Should I use for Popcorn Shrimp?▼

For bite-sized pieces of Popcorn Shrimp, you want to look for the smallest shrimp you can find. Believe it or not, where I am it is very hard to find small raw shrimp! I managed to find 61-70 shrimp at Walmart and that saved the day!

The number indicates the range of the number of shrimp used to make a pound. I would not pick shrimp that are larger than this. In Canada, “large” shrimp is 31-40, which is the most common size for shrimp. Even bigger than those would be labeled as “gigantico” (16-20) or “colossal” (8-12). Save the massive shrimp varieties for skewers or pasta!

You can use peeled shrimp or shrimp with the tail and shell on. However, I do recommend getting peeled shrimp if you can because this will save you the work (and mess!) of peeling and deveining the shrimp. There’s not really a difference in flavor in getting peeled vs shell-on shrimp. I could only find shrimp with the shell on here.

In a perfect world, you’d get fresh shrimp from the sea. However, you may be like me and you don’t have that luxury. I always go for frozen shrimp, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

Crispy golden popcorn shrimp garnished with parsley on a white plate with a small bowl of red dipping sauce.

How to Peel & De-Vein Shrimp▼

My preferred method of peeling shrimp is to lightly loosen the outer shell before pinching the tail and pulling the shell clean. It is key to practice caution when you pinch the tail: ensure that you do not press too hard, otherwise you’ll rip apart the tail meat of the shrimp. If you are using frozen shrimp, just place the bag or the shrimps themselves in a bowl of cold, running water. Once they are thawed, then proceed with the peeling. Even though stores may sell de-veined shrimp, it is YOUR duty to check because most likely there are a couple of shrimps in the pack that have the disgusting digestive track! Get rid of it! Rinse the shrimp well and eat tasty shrimp!

Golden fried popcorn shrimp garnished with chopped green onions on a white plate.

Flavor Variations for Popcorn Shrimp

This is a simple recipe for Popcorn Shrimp, but you can follow all of the concepts of breading and frying the shrimp and experiment with the flavors! Try out the following spice blends and discover your favorite!

Crispy golden popcorn shrimp garnished with green onions, served with red dipping sauce on a white plate.

What Tools Do I need to Make the Best Popcorn Shrimp?▼

Even More Tips for Super Crunchy Popcorn Shrimp

Ensure that your oil temperature is not too hot (375F and up). This will result in the crust getting dark too quickly, but the inside will be raw.
Once you have added the shrimp to the oil, adjust the heat as necessary to maintain a temperature of around 300F.
Avoid cooking for too long or else the shrimp will turn to bullets and dry out. Try practicing with a tester piece - it will make for an excellent snack, and it will give you a good idea on how long the popcorn shrimp will take to fry. Cut the inside and examine the color, that it is white, and the texture, ensuring that it is juicy!

Tools Needed

Ingredients for This Crispy Popcorn Shrimp Recipe

To see the full list of ingredients with their quantities and to save the recipe for later, be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post or press the “Jump to Recipe” button for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD. You’ll see exactly how much breading mixture you’ll need based on the number of shrimp you’re cooking.

Ingredients for popcorn shrimp laid out on a gray surface: shrimp, flour, panko breadcrumbs, eggs, and seasonings.

Shrimp: I used 61/70 shrimp. The smallest shrimp you can find is recommended. Make sure you peel and devein your shrimp if you’re using shrimp that has the shell and tail on.
All purpose flour: Needed to bread the shrimp.
Panko breadcrumbs: You can use regular breadcrumbs if you want, but I like the crunchiness and airiness of Panko breadcrumbs.
Eggs: Some eggs to help bind the flour and breadcrumbs on the shrimp.
Paprika
Garlic powder
Cayenne Pepper
Salt
Pepper
Vegetable oil: Used for frying. Use any neutral oil like peanut oil or canola oil.
Chives: Freshly chopped for garnish.

How to Make Crunchy Popcorn Shrimp

Breading the Shrimp

In a large bowl or container add flour, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Flour and paprika mixed in a glass bowl with a whisk, eggs in a bowl behind, for breading shrimp.

Flour mixed with paprika, cayenne pepper, and seasonings in a glass bowl for breading shrimp.

Flour mixture with paprika and spices in glass baking dish for breading popcorn shrimp

Flour mixture with paprika and spices in a glass baking dish for breading shrimp

Add eggs to another container/bowl and lightly whisk the eggs. Measure out the panko breadcrumbs to a separate container/bowl and season with a generous pinch of salt.

Whisked eggs in a glass baking dish for coating shrimp during popcorn shrimp preparation.

Seasoned panko breadcrumbs in a glass baking dish for breading popcorn shrimp.

Three glass bowls with breading station ingredients: seasoned flour, beaten eggs, and panko breadcrumbs for popcorn shrimp.

Add the shrimp, 3-4 at a time and toss well with the flour. Then, dip the shrimp in the egg and coat well, let any excess drip and then add to the breadcrumbs. Press lightly and coat well.

Hand dipping breaded shrimp into a white bowl during the coating process for popcorn shrimp.

Hand dipping shrimp in flour coating station with eggs and breadcrumbs in separate glass bowls.

Alternatively, you can add up to half a dozen shrimp at a time to the bowl/container of flour, cover with a lid and then shake well to bread the shrimp much faster. You can do the same for each stage of the breading process, for the egg and the breadcrumbs.

Transfer the breaded shrimp to a clean plate or baking sheet.

Hand coating raw shrimp in breadcrumb mixture in a glass baking dish next to a bowl of beaten egg.

Hand shaking breaded shrimp in flour mixture inside glass bowl for popcorn shrimp recipe.

Breaded shrimp coated in golden flour mixture arranged on parchment paper before frying.

Frying the Shrimp

Pour oil to a wok until it fills around 2 inches of the height of the wok.

Preheat the oil to around 350F.

Carefully, transfer each breaded shrimp to the oil and fry until crispy golden brown outside, make sure to turn the shrimp every 30 seconds ensure even color on each side.

Hand dropping breaded shrimp into hot oil in a wok for deep frying.

Golden popcorn shrimp frying in bubbling oil in a wok with a slotted spoon nearby.

After 2-3 minutes, or when you are happy with the color of the shrimp, transfer each popcorn shrimp to a baking sheet/plate lined with a paper towels.

Golden-brown popcorn shrimp being removed from hot oil with a slotted spoon.

Golden-brown crispy popcorn shrimp served on white paper towels on a white plate.

Serve right away and enjoy the crunch with sweet rich marinara sauce.

Crispy golden popcorn shrimp on a white plate with marinara dipping sauce, hand reaching for a piece.

Golden crispy popcorn shrimp garnished with green onions served with marinara dipping sauce on a white plate.

What to Serve with Popcorn Shrimp

Dipping Sauces

I dipped my Popcorn Shrimp in my homemade Marinara Sauce recipe. However, there are lots of different dips you can enjoy the crunchy popcorn shrimp with! Here are a couple of ideas:

Hand dipping popcorn shrimp in red sauce on a white plate with more shrimp and green garnish.

Meal Ideas

Here are some other appetizers and mains that can help you make a memorable and satisfying meal with your popcorn shrimp!

Golden crispy popcorn shrimp garnished with green onions, served with red cocktail sauce on a white plate.

Popcorn Shrimp Ingredients and Easy Swaps

The popcorn shrimp ingredients here are deliberately plain: 1/2 lb of small shrimp, 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 3 eggs and 1 1/2 cups of panko breadcrumbs. All the seasoning lives in the flour — 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon paprika, plus salt and pepper. A teaspoon onion powder is the natural addition if you want more savoury depth. Spice lovers can push the cayenne up, or take the Cajun route from the flavor variations above and use 2 teaspoons of cajun seasoning in place of the paprika and garlic powder — cajun seasoning already carries paprika, cayenne, garlic and onion, so you are swapping rather than stacking. Panko gives the airiest crust, but regular bread crumbs work and give a finer, tighter coating, and gluten-free breadcrumbs behave much like regular ones here, though they brown a shade faster so watch the colour. On the shrimp itself: the 61/70 count called for is about as small as you will find, and you do need to peel and devein shrimp first if yours came shell-on.

Breading Without the Mess

Set up three stations, each in a separate bowl — seasoned flour, whisked egg, salted panko — and work in small batches of the shrimp rather than all at once, 3 to 4 at a time, so the coating stays dry and the egg does not turn the flour into paste. Stir the flour and spices together properly before you start; unmixed cayenne means one fiery shrimp and eleven plain ones. The faster method the recipe mentions is genuinely worth using: put up to half a dozen shrimp in a lidded container with the flour and shake, then do the same at the egg and breadcrumb stages. If you are breading by hand, keep one hand for the dry bowls and one for the egg and you will finish with fingers instead of batter club.

Cook Times, Draining and Storing

Cook times are short and unforgiving. With the oil at 350 F in a wok filled about 2 inches deep, the shrimp want 2-3 minutes in total, turned every 30 seconds for even colour — much past that and they tighten into rubber. Keep the pan somewhere around 300 F once the shrimp are in, and stay under 375 F or the crust darkens before the middle is cooked. Lift them out with tongs onto a baking sheet lined with paper towels and let the excess oil drain for a minute; that step is most of the difference between crisp and greasy. On calories, the honest position is that this is deep-frying and breading holds oil, so a properly drained batch is meaningfully lighter than one left sitting in its own fat. Leftovers keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a couple of days, though they are unquestionably best straight out of the wok.

Making Popcorn Shrimp in the Oven or Air Fryer

You can bake or air fry these, with the honest caveat that neither gives you the same shattering crust as deep-frying. For the oven, spray the breaded shrimp lightly with oil, spread them on a lined baking sheet and bake hot, turning once, until they are golden brown all over. In an air fryer basket the same light oil spray works, again in a single layer — crowding the air fryer basket steams them instead of crisping them, so run two batches rather than one deep one. Reheating follows the same logic: the microwave turns panko soft, so give leftovers a few minutes in a hot oven or the air fryer instead.

More Dips: Tartar Sauce, Yum Yum Sauce and Bang Bang

Marinara is the house choice and the list above covers the aiolis, but three more are worth keeping in the rotation. Tartar sauce — mayonnaise, chopped pickles or capers, a squeeze of lemon — is the traditional fried-seafood partner and takes two minutes to stir together. Yum yum sauce is the Japanese steakhouse one: mayonnaise with tomato paste, a little sugar, garlic powder and paprika, thinned with water, and it is sweet enough that children reliably go for it. And if you want bang shrimp rather than dipping shrimp, toss the hot popcorn shrimp in mayonnaise loosened with sweet chili sauce and a squeeze of sriracha, then finish with sesame seeds and sliced green onions in place of the chives. Whatever your favorite dipping sauce turns out to be, put lemon wedges on the plate as well — acid does as much for fried shrimp as any sauce does.

More Crispy Sides & Starters!

Other Shrimp Recipes

Mexican Shrimp and Bacon Wrap with Guacamole

Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cooking.with.anadi. Thank you!

Recipe by Anadi Misra

Deliciously Crunchy Popcorn Shrimp Recipe

Crispy, golden popcorn shrimp made right at home with simple ingredients. Perfect as a starter or side dish, this easy deep-fried recipe delivers big crunch and bold flavor every time.

Deep-fried

5.0 · 3 ratings

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15 min

Prep

5 min

Cook

20 min

Total

servings

medium

Level

Ingredients

Tap any quantity to scale

(227 g) shrimp, peeled and deveined(60-70 count size)
(95 g) all purpose flourShop →
(3 g) cayenne pepperShop →
(1 g) paprikaShop →
(3 g) garlic powderShop →
eggs · make your own
(90 g) Panko breadcrumbsShop →
chives(freshly chopped)
salt(to taste)Shop →
pepper(to taste)Shop →
vegetable oil(for frying)Shop →
marinara sauce (for dipping) · make your own

Instructions

1
In a large bowl or container add flour, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix well.
In a large bowl or container add flour, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix well.
2
Add eggs to another container/bowl and lightly whisk the eggs. Measure out the panko breadcrumbs to a separate container/bowl and season with a generous pinch of salt.
Add eggs to another container/bowl and lightly whisk the eggs. Measure out the panko breadcrumbs to a separate container/bowl and season with a generous pinch of salt.
3
Add the shrimp, 3-4 at a time and toss well with the flour. Then, dip the shrimp in the egg and coat well, let any excess drip and then add to the breadcrumbs. Press lightly and coat well.
Add the shrimp, 3-4 at a time and toss well with the flour. Then, dip the shrimp in the egg and coat well, let any excess drip and then add to the breadcrumbs. Press lightly and coat well.
4
You can do the same for each stage of the breading process, for the egg and the breadcrumbs.
You can do the same for each stage of the breading process, for the egg and the breadcrumbs.
5
Transfer the breaded shrimps to a clean plate or baking sheet.
Transfer the breaded shrimps to a clean plate or baking sheet.
6
Pour oil to a wok until it fills around 2 inches of the height of the wok.
Pour oil to a wok until it fills around 2 inches of the height of the wok.
7
Preheat the oil to around 350°F.
Preheat the oil to around 350°F (177°C).
8
Carefully, transfer each breaded shrimp to the oil and fry until crispy golden brown outside, make sure to turn the shrimp every 30 seconds ensure even color on each side.
Carefully, transfer each breaded shrimp to the oil and fry until crispy golden brown outside, make sure to turn the shrimp every 30 seconds ensure even color on each side.
9
After 2-3 minutes, or when you are happy with the color of the shrimp, transfer each popcorn shrimp to a baking sheet/plate lined with a paper towels.
After 2-3 minutes, or when you are happy with the color of the shrimp, transfer each popcorn shrimp to a baking sheet/plate lined with a paper towels.
10
Serve immediately and enjoy!
Serve immediately and enjoy!

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Tested & written in Anadi’s kitchen

Recipe history

April 16, 2026 — Reworked and refreshed for the 2026 relaunch — new photography, restructured and standardized ingredients & instructions.

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This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy

Watch the recipe

Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · shrimp so small and crispy they vanish like popcorn

Watch the full method on YouTube →

Easy & Crispy Popcorn Shrimp Recipe

Questions You May Have!

What Exactly Is Popcorn shrimp?▼

What Type of Shrimp Should I use for Popcorn Shrimp?▼

In a perfect world, you’d get fresh shrimp from the sea. However, you may be like me and you don’t have that luxury. I always go for frozen shrimp, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

How to Peel & De-Vein Shrimp▼