Shrimp Tempura. Homemade shrimp tempura and paired with a delicious dipping sauce. A recipe with a simple batter! Ready in 30 minutes!
My crispy shrimp tempura recipe also doesn't require panko breadcrumbs or egg yolk keeping the ingredients list shorter! In fact, there are only 6 ingredients if you don't count water! This delicious crunchy tempura dish is best served with steamed rice or with udon soup noodles!
You will find this popular dish at your Japanese restaurant or sushi restaurants. It's one of those well-known Japanese dishes that is iconic to Japanese cuisine. Usually, crispy tempura is served in a bento box, rice bowl, sushi roll like a Shrimp Tempura Roll, with noodles like udon noodle soup, ramen or tempura soba noodles. It can also be served as a side dish, appetizer or as a light meal!
History of Tempura
The origins of tempura date back to the 16th century. Furthermore, missionaries of the Portuguese Catholic church brought to Japan a Western style of cooking where they would batter foods with flour and fry it. This was the starting point of tempura in Japan.
In Japan, you'll find many types of tempura from vegetable tempura, like squash, yams, broccoli, onion, and other veggies or other seafood, like eel or squid. The most common is tempura shrimp or in Japanese "Ebi Tempura". Ebi means shrimp in Japanese. If you like juicy shrimps, check out my Tenmusu which are Shrimp Tempura Rice Balls that originate from Japan too!
Tempura is one of those Asian dishes that has become very popular among the Japanese people and in Japan you will find restaurants that specialize in serving good shrimp tempura!
Easy Recipe
I'll be sharing easy steps on how to make this dish! Shrimp Tempura can be one of those intimidating dishes, due to it's complex cooking method. My shrimp tempura is the easiest way - it requires you to whisk your 4-ingredient batter, coat your peeled shrimp to deep fry - that's it! The cooking time is about 2 minutes per batch of fried shrimp, so this comes together quickly.
Many other recipes require you to make small slits into the stomach side of the shrimp to lengthen it. You can if you'd like, but I don't instruct that to make things easy. There's also no messy deep frying where you drizzle the excess batter over the shrimp to create small lumps for texture as it fries, unless you want to. At the end of this cooking process, you will have crunchy shrimp tempura that will be just as delicious made simply!
Ingredients
You will need the following shrimp tempura ingredients:
- Shrimp: Raw Extra Jumbo shrimp is best for this recipe. You can also use colossal shrimp too if you have that available to you. The size of the shrimp is important so there's enough shrimp meat to enjoy! Make sure it's raw shrimp and not the cooked kind. Feel free to use fresh shrimp or frozen shrimp that has been defrosted. I highly recommend deveined easy peel shrimp if that's available to you!
- Avocado oil or any neutral tasting oil: You can also use vegetable oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, peanut oil but please do not use olive oil as it doesn't have a high smoke point and it carries a taste and scent.
Shrimp tempura batter
- Potato starch: One of the key ingredients to making a light batter. It gives the cooked shrimp that golden brown crispy texture. Most Asian grocery stores, Western grocers or online retailers, like Amazon, will carry this ingredient. If you can't find this ingredient, sub with cornstarch or tapioca starch.
- Cake flour: Cake flour contains cornstarch which creates a crispy batter. You may use substitute with all-purpose flour if needed.
- Salt: This is important to help flavor the batter.
- Water: Cold water is required for this traditional wet batter to help make it runny. We want the texture of the batter to be just right! That's why a cold batter is important, so it has the right viscosity. It helps improve the end result by far.
Shrimp Tempura Sauce
- Tsuyu Sauce aka Tsuyu Concentrate Soup Base: This is a sauce to help flavor many dishes in Japanese cooking, like noodles, rice and more. It's made of mirin, soy sauce, sake, bonito flakes, and kombu. It's very savory and slightly sweet.
- Water: To dilute the very salty flavour of the Tsuyu.
How to make Shrimp Tempura
- In a medium bowl, add the potato starch, cake flour and starch and whisk together. Then add the water and whisk until well combined. Rest this bowl in ice water or over ice cubes to keep the batter cold. This is important.
- Wash your shrimp and peel away the shell except for the tail (you can peel away the whole shell if you wish). Devein the shrimp if necessary. Rinse shrimp again and pat dry with a clean paper towel. (Optional: if you want to make authentic Japanese shrimp tempura, lie the shrimp flat on a cutting surface and make vertical cuts across the belly of the shrimp to elongate it).
- Add the shrimp into the cold batter and mix, ensuring they are well coated.
- In a pot or deep fryer filled with oil on medium heat. The oil temperature should be around 340-350ºF or 170-180ºC. If you don't have a thermometer, you can check by placing a wooden chopstick into the hot oil and look for bubbles to form to know when oil is hot enough.
- Once oil is hot enough. Carefully lower battered shrimp one in small batches. Do not overcrowd or it won't be crispy (about 5-6 shrimps per batch). Use your tongs or a slotted spoon to move them around so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Fry shrimp until they are pink and curled, about 2 minutes in total, flipping over halfway. Repeat this process for the remaining shrimp. (Optional: if you want extra crunchy tempura, drizzle about ½-1 tablespoon of excess batter over each shrimp as it fries to create texture).
- Remove fried shrimp from hot oil and transfer to a wire rack or plate with paper towel to remove excess oil (which causes shrimp tempura to become soggy)
- In a small bowl, whisk together your Tsuyu soup concentrate with water. Serve with hot shrimp tempura and enjoy!
Cooking Tips
- Buy easy peeled deveined shrimp. This will make the entire process even faster! A lot of western grocers carry this kind of shrimp.
- Pat dry your shrimp to remove moisture. This will help the batter stick better to the shrimp.
- Whisk the dry ingredients of the batter first before adding water. This is the best way to encourage even distribution of the cake flour, potato starch and salt.
- Use kitchen tweezers to help you pull the shrimp out of the batter. Kitchen tweezers are better than tongs as they are smaller in surface area, so they won’t remove the batter off the shrimp while pinching
- To measure correct temperature of the oil, use a digital thermometer. They're very inexpensive and online retailers like Amazon will sell them. It's a great investment for any home cook!
- Make sure the oil is hot enough before you begin frying. To check this, place a wooden chopstick into the oil and look for bubbles if you don't have a thermometer.
- Fry the shrimp on each side for 2 minutes until it is curled and pink, flipping over halfway. Once you see this, remove from the hot oil immediately.
- Transfer hot shrimp to a cooling rack or a paper-towel lined plate first. This will help remove any excess oil which makes them soggy.
FAQ
How long will this last for?
Tempura in general is best consumed same day. If you have leftover tempura, store it in an airtight container in the fridge and it can last up to 3-4 days, but it will be soggy. To reheat, I suggest reheating in the air fryer or in the preheated oven.
What kind of shrimp should I buy for shrimp tempura?
I would suggest buying raw extra jumbo shrimp or colossal size. It has such a delicious and meaty chew. I also recommend the black tiger breed for best taste. Frozen or fresh work fine.
Any substitutes for potato starch?
You may substitute with tapioca starch or corn starch. But be forewarned, if you substitute with cornstarch, it may not be as crispy.
Where can I buy Tsuyu Soup Concentrate?
This is a sauce that can be found online or at most Asian grocers.
Other recipes you may like!
- Thai Garlic Fried Shrimp
- Chinese Salt and Pepper Shrimp
- Gochujang Honey Shrimp
- Chinese Battered Shrimp
- Korean Shrimp Leek Pancake
- Chili Garlic Shrimp Noodles
- Shrimp Wontons
- Shrimp Bok Choy Noodles
The EASIEST Shrimp Tempura
Ingredients
- 25 shrimp extra jumbo size (black tiger shrimp recommended or feel free to use what you have available to you)
- 2 cups avocado oil or any neutral tasting oil like vegetable oil
Shrimp tempura batter:
- ⅓ cup potato starch
- ⅓ cup cake flour or sub with all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup cold water
Shrimp Tempura Sauce:
- ¼ cup Tsuyu Sauce aka Tsuyu Soup Concentrate, store bought
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, add the potato starch, cake flour and starch and whisk together. Then add the water and whisk until well combined. Rest this bowl in ice water or over ice cubes to keep the batter cold. This is important.
- Wash your shrimp and peel away the shell except for the tail (you can peel away the whole shell if you wish). Devein the shrimp if necessary. Rinse shrimp again and pat dry with a clean paper towel. (Optional: if you want to make authentic Japanese shrimp tempura, lie the shrimp flat on a cutting surface and make vertical cuts across the belly of the shrimp to elongate it).
- Add the shrimp into the cold batter and mix, ensuring they are well coated.
- In a pot or deep fryer filled with oil on medium heat. The oil temperature should be around 340-350ºF or 170-180ºC. If you don't have a thermometer, you can check by placing a wooden chopstick into the hot oil and look for bubbles to form to know when oil is hot enough.
- Once oil is hot enough. Carefully lower battered shrimp one in small batches. Do not overcrowd or it won't be crispy (about 5-6 shrimps per batch). Use your tongs or a slotted spoon to move them around so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Fry shrimp until they are pink and curled, about 2 minutes in total, flipping over halfway. Repeat this process for the remaining shrimp. (Optional: if you want extra crunchy tempura, drizzle about ½-1 tablespoon of excess batter over each shrimp as it fries to create texture).
- Remove fried shrimp from hot oil and transfer to a wire rack or plate with paper towel to remove excess oil (which causes shrimp tempura to become soggy)
- In a small bowl, whisk together your Tsuyu soup concentrate with water. Serve with hot shrimp tempura and enjoy!
Katerina | Once a Foodie
This is so much easier than other tempura recipes I've seen, Christie, thank you! I love the tip for using tweezers too - much cleaner that way!
Tasia ~ two sugar bugs
Thank you for this easy shrimp tempura recipe! The shrimp looks so crispy and irresistable!
Caleb - Never Ending Journeys
This shrimp tempura looks so incredibly tasty! I would love to try this over rice!
Heidi | The Frugal Girls
A dinner that is easy to make and only takes 6 ingredients is always tempting, but those beautiful crispy shrimp make this dish an absolute must try!