Sous vide method of cooking is the easiest way to get tender, sweet and juicy shrimp every single time. Never have over rubbery shrimp or overcooked shrimp again.

Once you have made this sous vide shrimp recipe you might want to make a recipe of Mexican shrimp cocktail or homemade limoncello, another sous vide recipe. Be sure to check out my complete collection of sous vide recipes.
Cooking shrimp is super easy and goes from raw to done in the blink of an eye when cooked in a sous vide water bath.
Using the sous vide to cook your shrimp at a specific temperature you are ensuring that the shrimp will not get overcooked. Controlled perfection is what a sous vide machine will give you.
What temperature to sous vide shrimp
Preheat your Sous Vide to 135 °F / 57 °C
If you are using a metal pot, be sure to put a hot pad under the stock pot to protect your surface. Make sure there is enough water for all the shrimp to be submerged by a few inches.
What size shrimp to use?
These are 26-30 shrimp. That means in terms of size there are twenty six to thirty shrimp per pound. The higher the number, the smaller the shrimp. These shrimp are frozen and they should be thawed under cold running water.
These shrimp are deveined but still have their tails and shells on. The tails and shells give great flavor so I wait until after they are cooked to remove them. You are welcome to remove the shells before you sous vide them.
How to cook shrimp sous vide
- Preheat your Sous Vide to 135 °F / 57 °C
- Place shrimp in a single layer in a vacuum bag or zip top bag. Add a few bay leaves or lemon wedges if you prefer.
- If you have a vacuum sealer, set the vacuum to moist and remove the air and seal.
- Make sure that the shrimp are completely submerged in the water.
- Cook for 15 minutes. The shrimp are now pretty close to perfect!
- Remove the perfectly cooked shrimp and plunge them in an ice bath. This will stop the cooking process and drop the temperature to ensure they are in a safe temperature zone for storage.
- Remove them from the immersion circulator, cut open the bag, pat the shrimp dry with clean paper towel, toss shrimp in a large bowl with kosher salt and pepper.
- Peel the shrimp leaving the tails in place and you are all set to make a sous vide shrimp cocktail!
Can you overcook shrimp with sous vide?
Normally with sous vide you have a window of time to remove the food from the water. With shrimp that window is about 15 minutes.
Cook your shrimp for 15 minutes and remove them from the water bath within 15 minutes. If you totally forget, don't panic. You should be good to go for up to an hour after the cooking time. But don't go over an hour and remove it as soon as possible.
How to serve Sous Vide Shrimp.
Serve your perfectly cooked shrimp with your favorite cocktail sauce and garnish with a lemon squeeze.
👩🍳 Chef Tip
- To keep your bag from floating, add a few heavy butter knives to the bag before closing it up.
- These are non reactive and won't effect your sous vide shrimp.
- If you are not comfortable putting butter knives in with your shrimp, you can place a heavy bowl, plate or serving spoon over the shrimp sous vide bag to keep it submerged.
- I use a vacuum bag but I don't always seal it for making sous vide shrimp. If you don't have a vacuum seal bag you can use a heavy duty zipper-lock bag.
Sous Vide Shrimp
There is more to a recipe than just the recipe card. Frequently Asked Questions within the blog post that you may find helpful. Simply scroll back up to read them!
HELPFUL KITCHEN TOOLS
Ingredients
- 1 lb Shrimp (Deveined, Shells On)
- 3 Slices Lemon
- 2 Bay Leaves
Instructions
- Preheat your Sous Vide to 135 °F / 57 °C
- Place shrimp in a single layer in a vacuum bag or zip top bag. Add a few bay leaves or lemon wedges if you prefer.
- If you have a vacuum sealer, set the vacuum to moist and remove the air and seal.
- Make sure that the shrimp are completely submerged in the water.
- Cook for 15 minutes. The shrimp are now pretty close to perfect!
- Remove the perfectly cooked shrimp and plunge them in an ice bath. This will stop the cooking process and drop the temperature to ensure they are in a safe temperature zone for storage.
- Remove them from the immersion circulator, cut open the bag, pat the shrimp dry with clean paper towel, toss shrimp in a large bowl with kosher salt and pepper.
- Peel the shrimp leaving the tails in place and you are all set to make a sous vide shrimp cocktail!
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclosure
Nutritional facts are estimates and are provided as a courtesy to the reader. Please utilize your own brand nutritional values to double check against our estimates. Nutritional values are calculated via a third party. Changing ingredients, amounts or cooking technique will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
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originally published jan 2018
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