Crispy Air Fryer Coconut Shrimp makes for a restaurant quality appetizer in the comfort of your own home. Better yet? This dish is much healthier than the traditionally fried version.
Crispy Air Fryer Coconut Shrimp is one of our family favorites. My boys love how the crispy breading pairs with the juicy, plump shrimp on the inside. I love the air fryer because I can rest assured that my kids aren’t eating food that is drenched in oil.
Shrimp Obsessed? For another quick shrimp dish, try this easy 15 minute shrimp & rice.
Tips For Air Fryer Shrimp
- Pat your shrimp dry. Remove any extra liquid from your shrimp to help the breading stick better.
- Use fresh or thawed shrimp. Don’t attempt to dredge and coat frozen shrimp. They simply won’t take to the breading.
- Don’t crowd the basket. To ensure even cooking, lay only a single layer of shrimp in the air fryer basket at a time.
- So many shrimps, so little time. Any size shrimp will work, but we prefer to use large shrimp.
- Keep the tail on. Keep the tail on your shrimp for easier dipping and coating.
- Always preheat your air fryer. Allow your air fryer to fully preheat before you place the shrimp inside.
- Don’t skip the flip. Make sure to flip your shrimp halfway through cooking to make sure they get the love they need to be crispy on both sides.
How to Defrost Frozen Shrimp
Defrost frozen shrimp by setting them in the fridge overnight. If you need to quick defrost, remove frozen shrimp from the bag and place them in a colander in the sink. Run cool water over the shrimp for 7-8 minutes, making sure to separate and toss the shrimp every now and again. Before you begin dredging and coating, make sure there are no residual icey bits left on the shrimp.
How To Make Air Fryer Shrimp
- Prepare the coating.
- Dip a shrimp into a bowl with beaten eggs.
- Then, immediately dip the shrimp into the coating.
- Repeat the above steps and add coated shrimps into the air fryer basket until you get one, even layer.
- Air fry your shrimps to golden brown perfection!
Freezing and Air Frying
If you’re meal-prepping or simply making these coconut shrimps for later, simply follow the coating instructions and place your shrimps on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place the baking sheet directly into the freezer so each individual shrimp freezes evenly. Frozen shrimps will take 3 to 3 ½ minutes extra to air fry on each side.
Storing Your Leftovers
Store your leftover shrimp in an airtight container. It will last for up to three days. To reheat, zap them in the microwave for 30-45 seconds or heat them up in a skillet over medium-heat. If you end up freezing your raw and breaded shrimps, they will last for up to three months in the freezer.
More Air Fryer Recipes
At Momsdish, we love using the air fryer to make healthy (and just as tasty!) versions of our favorite fried foods.
- Air Fryer Chicken Wings – Sometimes chicken wings are the only food that will do the trick. This air fryer version gives them the perfect crisp, while keeping the inside moist and tender.
- Air Fryer Pork Chops – Overcooked, tough pork chops are the worst. This air fryer recipe comes out perfectly juicy each time.
- Air Fryer French Fries – We love french fries. But making the traditional kind is not only messy — it’s super unhealthy. Air fryer fries are just as crispy and nearly guilt-free.
- Air Fryer Baked Potato – On a busy weeknight, a quick air fryer baked potato and salad is a lifesaver.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb raw shrimp with tails attached
- 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
- 2 eggs
- cooking spray
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine all-purpose flour, salt, pepper, coconut flakes and panko bread crumbs. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs.
- Pat dry shrimp and dip them into egg mixture followed by the crumbs mixture. Coat all the sides evenly.
- Spray the preheated air fryer basket with oil. Place coated shrimp in one layer inside the air fryer basket. Note: You can spray shrimp for the coating to gain even color.
- Air fry shrimp at 400 °F for 7 minutes, flip it over and air fry for another 4 minutes or until it's golden brown. Enjoy it with your favorite dipping sauce!
Where’s the sauce recipe?
Hi Rita, this recipe doesn't come with a sauce recipe. I recommend you pair this recipe with your favorite dipping sauce. I hope this makes sense.
I tried this because of the ridiculous amount of 5 star reviews. I can tell you please don’t make this. Instead of you classic flour, egg and breading technique this adds the flour and breading together. It doesn’t work, the breading doesn’t stick. So I went with the traditional method. The flour is raw and the breading will burn. I sprayed the crap out of the shrimp too. If you want coconut shrimp your gonna have to but the bullet and fry it.
Tried this tonight and thought it was good! The breading stuck fine to our shrimp. It tasted like a healthier version of deep fried coconut shrimp, but definitely still something special and not too healthy.
Hi Lisa, Thank you for sharing your feedback!
Hi Jason, I am sorry that you didn't have great outcome with this recipe. If you pat dry the shrimp and dip it into egg wash first, the egg acts like a glue. Did you pat dry the shrimp?
Why isnt there a serving size on nutritional info.
Hey Lynne- this recipe is enough for 4 people. How many shrimp you get in a pound varies depending on their size (large, jumbo, etc.) Often its about 16-20 shrimp in a 1lb bag (but check the bag you bought), so that would be a serving size of 4-5 shrimp. Enjoy!
We made this recipe last night and it came out great, will definitely be making it again. Next time we'll cut the amount of breading by 50%, as that amount would have been sufficient for the pound of colossal (13-15/lb) shrimp we used. We also adjusted the air frying time to 3 minutes on one side, flipped and put back in for another 2 minutes and they were perfectly done. We sprayed them with cooking spray as recommended and they had a nice golden brown color.
Hi Sharalee- I’m so glad you enjoyed this coconut shrimp. Thank you for the detailed feedback!
I’ve made this recipe twice. Once the way it’s written and the other with my adjustments. It’s a good recipe.
You absolutely MUST spray the shrimp with oil. It’s written as note but should be apart of the recipe instructions. If not your flour will be raw . I Secondly toast the coconut. It will add to the color of the final results. Also to avoid coating falling off, freeze the shrimp first. Just add a few more minutes to the cooking time.
Tatiana, those are all amazing tips. Thank you for taking the time to share them. Have a wonderful day!
Really gross. Really really dry. I normally do a beer batter, but wanted to use the air fryer. Will not make again. Panko made it way to dry. I also had to cut the timing in half so that they were not burnt. I give it zero stars.
Hi there- I'm sorry to hear this recipe was unsatisfying for you. If the shrimp are on the smaller side, they probably do need less time- we prefer to use large shrimp for this reason. That being said, I hope you find a coconut shrimp recipe that you do enjoy!
I tried this for my husbands birthday! I did how ever deep fry it instead of air fry cause I had steak in the air fryer. But let me tell you, this recipe was AMAZING! Loved it and will use it from now on! Best coconut shrimp recipe I have tried! Thank You so much for sharing it with us!
Hi Shari, I am so glad you loved the recipe and that your spin on them worked out too! Thank you for your feedback!
This night will mark the 4th time my husband has requested your delicious recipe in the last 8 days. Needless to say, it’s a huge hit! Thank you, Natalya!
Haha, that is so good to hear, thank you for taking the time to share that, definitely made me smile today!!
Omg! My family love Coconut fried shrimp, and I love cooking in my new air fryer so I'm always looking for new and fresh recipes. I followed your directions completely and I have to say They were PERFECT . Thank u
Stephanie, I'm so glad you loved the recipe, thank you for taking the time to comment your feedback! I have tons or air fryer recipes so I hope you enjoy testing them all in your new air fryer 🙂
Too high a temperature and too much ingredients. I ended up throwing out probably a 1/3 a cup of the prepared breading mix. Coconut also doesn’t stick well. 400 for that long burned the coconut and dried out the shrimp. Probably depends on what air fryer you have, so keep an eye on your shrimp!
I felt 360 is the best time for shrimp! My 1lb shrimp was 14 pieces, cooked for 10 min flipped halfway. Was perfectly just cooked.
I also did a light toast of the coconut and panko with oil on a pan to make sure it all had a bit of colour.
Thank you for your feedback, Kim, this will be helpful for others!
Hey Rob, thats a great note. Every air fryer cooks differently, it's a great idea to keep an eye on them. Appreciate you sharing your feedback!
I have an oven style fryer and the shrimp didn’t brown up like the picture, and the coating peeled off when I flipped. I followed the recipe exactly, so wondering what to do differently next time.
Hey Ann, I would suggest coating the basket with oil. Some air fryer baskets need an extra coating of oil.
Is the per serving calories for the whole batch of shrimp or only a couple of shrimp??
Hi Emma, this recipe makes 4 servings so it would not be per batch.
awesome recipe. i cannot eat shelfish so i cut cod into pieces and butterflied to appear like butterflied prawns!
Jeff, that is such a cool idea! I'm glad you enjoyed the recipe and made it work for you!
This one was a non starter for me. Followed directions to a T. The breading was not appealing at all. Your pictures of the shrimp rival that if deep fried. Mine turned out looking like Doo doo. Raw flour, cooked coconut just like the previous post indicates.
Hi David, did you use oil to spray the basket and highly spray the shrimp? I am trying to figure out what is going wrong to make sure you get the same result. We loved this recipe and it was definitely air fryed.
The recipe says to only spray the basket before placing the shrimp. Doesn't say to spray the shrimp too....
I will add it as a note. Thanks for the tip.
This didn't work for me at all! Burnt coconit, raw flour. I adjusted temp and sprayed shrimp with oil, but I won't make this again.
Hey Lori, I am sorry this recipe didn't work out for you. Can you tell me a little more details? If your coconut burned but flour was raw, I am wondering how that could happen. Coconut and flour should cook at the same time. Did you use 1/2 cup of flour? I am want to see what happened to make sure it's helpful to others as well. Thanks
Is there anything I can substitute for the breadcrumbs? Trying to reduce the carbs. Thanks
You can reduce it but it really holds the crust together. You can try this air fryer shrimp: https://momsdish.com/air-frye…
can you use an almond flour instead of all purpose?
Hi Lois - Thanks for reaching out! I've never tried it with almond flour, so I can't say how it would turn out. Let us know how it works - we'd love to update the recipe with a good almond flour tip.
Did these shrimp with Almond flour last night. Came out great. The crust is a little bit more dense (Almond flour is dense) but overall had great flavor. Going to try something a little different with the ratio next time to try and get the coconut to stick better. Cheers!
Hey Dustin, this is an interesting experiment. Let me know what you come up with as an end result. Thanks for sharing!
Not sure what I did wrong.. but this was just not right! Coconut would not stick to the shrimp at all.. absolute disaster!
Sorry about that. If you dip the shrimp into an egg and right away into coconut, you should have trouble.
That's not true.It does not stick well. There is sth wrong.
Hi Gabi - Thanks for reaching out. I'm having a hard time understanding your feedback. Do you mean that the breading didn't stick well for you? If so, make sure to pat the shrimp dry of any excess moisture before breading them. This will help the coating stick. Hope this helps!
Hello, You may want to proof read your comment. I don’t think it’s what you intended to write.
I’m looking forward to making this recipe. Overall, the reviews have been very positive.
Hi, Kathy, which comment exactly?
I can’t find unsweetened coconut in my area it’s a seasonal item I’m told!!
Can I use sweet??
yes... many tecipes call for sweetened
Bob’s red mill which is found in the dry baking section of your grocery store is what I use.
I haven't theirs but I love Bob's Red Mill products. Hope you give it another try, see our Tips section for more suggestions.
Hi Susan, I would like in the bulk section of a grocery store. My worry with the sweet coconut flakes, it will add sweetness to the shrimp. As long as you are ok with that.
If I don’t have Planko can I use regular breadcrumbs?
Hi, It will not be as crispy but you can try using them. Enjoy
I made this today for the first time and they were absolutely delicious, and truly easy to make.
One question though- what would the difference be between the sweetened and unsweetened coconut?
Hey Dee, there is really not much of a difference besides the fact that one has added sugar. I don't like sweet shrimp so I like using unsweetened coconut flakes.
We just made this as the first dish in our air fryer. Ours never got brown like yours in the picture. What could we have done wrong?
Hey Julie, you may need to turn up the temperature, maybe your air fryer runs at a lower temperature. Enjoy
I wonder if coconut flour would work instead of AP...?
Hey Karyn, I haven’t tried this recipe with coconut flour. I think it may work.
Hello
This recipe looks amazing for my new diet. I just have a quick question. Are the nutrition facts for the whole recipe or a portion that I missed?
Hey, so glad you enjoyed them. This recipe makes 4 servings.
Can I substitute egg dip for something else? Someone in the family is allergic to eggs
Thank you
You can use chickpea juice, aquafaba, from the can to act as the egg coating. Worked well for my chicken tenders I made.
Oh rally interesting. Thank you for sharing!
Hey Dina, I am not sure what people use typically. It helps to hold the coating.
I’ve had success with mayonnaise and a little liquid (milk of some kind) to get the right consistency if needed. The coating sticks really well.
Mayonnaise is egg. It's made from egg.
Thanks for sharing your tips!
Can you put the shrimp in frozen?
No you can't put them in frozen but, there are instructions on how to defrost shrimp and when you can bread them.
Hi, I am new to the air fryer - question on the coconut shrimp recipe- pan fry them first in butter and then coat them??
Thank you,
Linda
Hey Linda, no, the air fryer will fully cook them. No need to precook them.
Your instruction 2 says to “pan try”. I think you mean pat dry....
Great catch, thanks for letting me know!
Yummy! My favorite kind of shrimp - now made in the air fryer. I love using my air fryer and these were perfect!
Lisalia, I am glad you found this recipe. Enjoy it!
The air fryer makes them come out so crispy and tasty! Love it!
Yes, I am with you, I love the crispy crust!
Coconut shrimp is my favorite!!! These turned about perfectly crispy and were so stink'n good!
Oh, I am so happy to hear this. Thank you Stephanie.
I love using my air fryer, and this came out fabulous! I can't wait to try it again!
Allyson, thank you! So glad enjoyed it!