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Short-Order Kitchen

Air Fryer Garlic Butter Shrimp

By Wes Ellis2 min read
A plate of glossy garlic shrimp with sliced garlic, herbs, a lemon wedge and dill.
Recipe card
Servings
4
Prep
10 minutes
Cook
6 minutes
Method
Air fryer
Heat
400°F air fryer
Difficulty
Easy
Jump to ingredients & directions ↓

Part 5 of the thread Air fryer weeknights

THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • Large shrimp, 400°F, about 6 minutes. Usually no flip needed.
  • Make the sauce while the shrimp cook; it takes about a minute.
  • Pull the garlic off the heat at 30 seconds, before it browns.
  • Pull shrimp when they curl into a C. An O means overcooked.
THE RECIPE · AIR FRYER GARLIC BUTTER SHRIMP

Ingredients

Shrimp

Garlic butter

You'll need

  • Air fryer
  • Large bowl
  • Small skillet or saucepan
  • Whisk

Directions

Shrimp

  1. Pat the shrimp dry and toss them in a bowl with the oil, salt, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper.
  2. Heat the air fryer to 400°F and lightly spray the basket.
  3. Cook the shrimp in a single layer for about 6 minutes, until pink, opaque and curled. Work in batches if they don't fit.

Garlic butter

  1. While the shrimp cook, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds, just until fragrant.
  2. Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the lemon juice, salt, garlic powder and red pepper flakes. Stir in parsley if using.

Finish

  1. Move the shrimp straight to a bowl, pour the warm garlic butter over them, and toss.
  2. Serve right away with vegetables, pasta, rice or cauliflower rice.
Notes Leftovers keep 1 to 2 days in the fridge. Reheat quickly in a skillet or microwave; any longer and they turn rubbery. Roughly 200 calories and 25 g protein per serving, give or take.

wesellis.com/blog/air-fryer-garlic-butter-shrimp/

Six minutes of cooking, and one of them is spent melting butter. Shrimp don't need much from you except attention, and this recipe keeps it simple: season, air fry, toss in garlic butter while they're still hot.

Don't cook them twice

Shrimp go from tender to rubbery in about a minute. The common mistake is air frying them to done and then putting them in a hot pan of sauce, which keeps cooking them. Here the sauce comes off the heat before the shrimp go in, so the butter coats instead of cooks.

The visual cue is the shape. A loose C is done. A tight O has gone too far. Large shrimp land right around six minutes at 400°F, but check at five if yours are on the smaller side.

Tip

Dry shrimp brown; wet shrimp steam. Pat them well before seasoning, especially if they were frozen.

Garlic has a short window

Fresh garlic in butter needs about 30 seconds on medium-low. Past that it goes brown and bitter, and there's no fixing it. Have the lemon juice measured before the garlic hits the pan so you can kill the heat the moment it smells good.

Try this

Skip the butter sauce, season with taco spice instead, and you're most of the way to Air Fryer Shrimp Tacos.

These also go well over the vegetables from Shrimp and Asparagus One Pan Meal, or tossed into a Shrimp Stir Fry at the very end.

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