Nothing is better for a cozy, sweet home dinner than perfectly cooked shrimp. It delivers a slightly caramelized, crisp exterior and yet is exceptionally tender and juicy all at the same time.

Unlike chicken or salmon that must be cooked to the correct temperature to ensure their safety, shrimp are so small and quick to cook that it’s hard to undercook them or serve them underdone.

If you don’t cook frozen shrimp frequently and have no idea how to do it nicely, you’ll learn a lot from our post.

How to cook pre cooked frozen shrimp? The very simples steps are:

Defrost your frozen shrimp

Season the seafood

Heat and cook the shrimp

Transfer your food to a dish

This post is less of a recipe but mostly tips and instructions. Cooking shrimp is easy if you just know how.

Contents

What Type of Shrimp Should You Use?

Don’t buy the “previously frozen” shrimp at the grocery store. They often cost more, and you need to use them up right away.

Instead, get a bag of frozen shrimp. Then put it into your freezer, and you’ve got the makings of a quick meal on hand and ready to go.

What kind of shrimp works best? Medium to large shrimp. And make sure they’re already deveined.

It will say ‘deveined’ on the bag. The reason you want them deveined is that you won’t be able to take the veins out yourself while they’re frozen, and it will be hard. If not impossible, do after you cook them as well.

So, deveined shrimp are a must. Other than that, Battersby suggests grabbing peeled shrimp but with the tail on or easy peel.

Either way, you can cook them frozen and then serve. People can easily take the peels off after done cooking.

Note that the shrimp also need to be frozen separately, not in a big clump.

If you shake the bag, you should hear a bunch of frozen shrimp all moving around separately in there.

If 2-3 are frozen together here and there, that’s fine. But no bigger clumps than that. If your frozen shrimp is store-bought, they are usually frozen separately.

If they’ve clumped up in the bag a bit, try banging the bag lightly on the counter. This way, you could dislodge them.

How To Cook Frozen Cooked Shrimp

Learn how to cook pre cooked shrimp on the stove with these easy-to-follow instructions. Get it right the first time and every time.

You can make this recipe with fresh shrimp or frozen raw shrimp. However, you will need to shorten the time and lower the temperature.

It might overcook and dry out the shrimp if you leave them in there for too long.

Thaw Frozen Shrimp

You can thaw frozen shrimp quickly by dipping it in cold water.

How to cook precooked shrimp? First, you’ll need to defrost your shrimp. Here’s how to do it.

Thaw your shrimp overnight in the fridge whenever possible

If your pre-cooked shrimp is frozen, it’s best to take the bag and place it in the fridge. It should thaw overnight and be ready to use in the morning.

Thaw your frozen shrimp in cold water for about 15 minutes

If you don’t have time to thaw shrimp overnight, you can place your shrimp in a bowl of cold water.

Place the bowl in the sink and turn on the faucet so it lets out a small trickle of cool water. Leave the bowl in the sink for about 15 minutes to thaw your shrimp.

Remove the veins

Most frozen cooked shrimp already have their veins removed. However, if the shrimps have a dark vein running along the backs, use a pair of scissors to cut through the back of a shrimp’s shell.

Then, grab the vein with your scissors and gently pull it out of the frozen shrimp.

Cooking Pre Cooked Shrimp On The Stove Top

It takes only a few steps to cook tasty shrimp on the stovetop.

First things first, put thawed shrimp in a mixing bowl and rub them in a seasoning mixture.

Mix well to make sure shrimp is coated well in sea salt, Italian seasoning, paprika, and red pepper flakes.

Shrimp have a mild flavor, so they take on whatever flavor you’re serving them with. Yummy!

Next, turn the stove on and heat the oil or butter over medium-high heat. I usually tilt the pan as the oil warms to coat the bottom of the pan.

Add the shrimp to the hot pan when the butter is melted, or the oil easily moves around the pan.

If they don’t sizzle on contact, warm your pan a little longer next time.

Cook shrimp for 2-3 minutes on each side, flipping only once midway.

Concerning how long to cook pre cooked shrimp, this step will usually take 4 to 6 minutes, depending on the size of your shrimp and how many you have in the pan.

Lastly, transfer to a serving dish. Serve seared shrimp immediately with pasta or rice.

View more: How To Cut Salmon For Sushi

How Can I Tell If The Shrimp Is Done?

How long do you cook pre cooked shrimp?

Keep in mind that shrimp cook very quickly – don’t take your eyes off of them. Otherwise, they can overcook.

Undercooked shrimp look like a broad and flexible “U” shape, while overcooked shrimp form an “O” shape. Perfectly frozen cooked shrimp are pink with bright red tails and look like a “C” in shape and ready to eat!

One minute they’re a bit odd-looking and unappealing, and the next minute it’s hard to keep from eating them directly from the pan. There’s absolutely no guesswork involved.

How To Use Shrimp In Meals?

Shrimp pasta is a nice choice for a quick yet fantastic dinner.

Regarding how to prepare cooked frozen shrimp, you can vary how you serve delicious shrimp or leftover shrimp to always make it a mouth-watering dish, not a tedious presence in your daily meals.

Make shrimp pasta

Shrimp can be a great addition to a basic pasta dish. You can cook your choice of pasta and mix in things like Parmesan cheese, garlic, and dried basil for flavor.

Mix some freshly heated shrimp into your pasta for a nutritious dish. For added nutrition, add some sauteed vegetables to your dish.

Cook shrimp in garlic and butter

Simple garlic and butter can add a mild but tasty flavor to shrimp. Add about a spoonful or so of butter and a couple of cloves of minced garlic to your shrimp.

Mix the shrimp until they have a gook-looking garlic and butter coat, and then enjoy.

Serve your shrimp as a snack.

If you’re having a party, heat some pre-cooked shrimp. Place it in a dish next to cocktail sauce. Your guests can enjoy snacking on shrimp throughout the night.

Add shrimp to salads.

A salad can be great for lunch or dinner. If you want to add a little extra protein, toss in a handful of shrimp.

This supplement will make your salad more filling, cutting back on excessive snacking throughout the day.

Things You Should Avoid When Cooking Precooked Shrimp

When it comes to how to cook pre cooked shrimp aside, there are a few things you should never do when handling pre cooked shrimp or seafood. Bear them in mind to ensure a perfect shrimp dish.

Use Your Oven

You may mistake of the source of the heat in which you use to warm the cooked shrimp. Dry heat is one of the worst ways to prepare pre cooked shrimp or fish. You’ll end up overcooking them.

Add The PreCooked Shrimp To Your Pan First

If you’re whipping up a quick sauteé with veggies or grains, be sure to add pre cooked shrimp at the last minute.

If properly defrosted, the residual heat from the rest of the sauteé will be plenty warm to get your dish to the right temperature.

Defrost The Seafood In Warm Water

Running hot water over your frozen shrimp might lead to some discrepancies when it comes to consistency.

The differences in heat could cause you to have a piece of fish that’s still frozen on one side while the other side is perfectly defrosted.

For best results, stick to cold water and wait for your fish to thaw out properly.

Forget Seasoning Your Seafood

One of the best ways to revive frozen seafood—for both quality and taste—is to toss it with a little bit of salt and pat dry. Just because your seafood is pre-cooked doesn’t mean it’s pre-seasoned.

Related: How To Cook Crab Meat

Buy Varieties Washed In Sodium Solutions

Many professional chefs point out that some products are washed with saline solution and then soaked in additional sodium solutions.

If you come across frozen seafood that’s been washed and stored in saline or sodium solution, be sure to take a peek at the nutrition label.

You’ll often find that the sodium counts are astronomical. Look for varieties of pre-cooked seafood that don’t have an unwanted salty kickback.

Bottom Line

Frozen cooked shrimp helps prevent overcooking, producing a juicier, more tender result than cooking with fresh shrimp.

Is pre cooked shrimp healthy? Yes, not only is pre cooked shrimp healthy, but it also contains rich protein content. A cozy family dinner with nutritious frozen cooked shrimp – there’s nothing out of this world happier than that!

Because shrimp is a familiar presence in almost every world cuisine, you can add it to pretty much anything! Serve shrimp over rice or orzo or with some roasted vegetables on the side.

What’s your favorite way to enjoy scrumptious shrimp?