How to Boil Shrimp Perfectly Every Time

Seafood is a highly popular food item all over the world. With plenty of fish in the sea, there seems to be no shortage to the amount of seafood you can try. One tasty treat amongst them happens to be shrimp. While not exactly fish, shrimp is still a very popular food item for many people. You can make a number of dishes with shrimp and use them in many ways, with one of them being boiled shrimp. To eat that for lunch, you need to know how to boil shrimp. To get the best out of your boiled shrimp, you need to follow a process that helps them taste great.

How to Boil Shrimp (Step by Step Instructions)

You need to have a specific set of ingredients and use them in a specific order to make the best boiled shrimp for yourself. Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Add 3 Liters of Water

The first thing you need to do is to add three liters of water in a receptacle. The three liters of water is not a standard or a set amount, it’s just the right amount of water for the amount of shrimp being boiled in this recipe. Make sure you have a large enough pan for the boiling since a lot more is going to be added to the water soon.

Step 2: Add Ingredients for Flavor

The next step for boiling shrimp is adding a number of ingredients. The ingredients you will need to add are natural items that you can find at any supermarket. Not only do they add to the flavor of the boiled shrimp that you will be making, but they also aid in the boiling. Here are the things you need to add to the water:

Ingredient	Amount	Reason
Salt	1 tablespoon	Salt increases the boiling point of water. It makes it require more heat in order to boil. As a result, your shrimp will get the taste of the water and the salt will also help the shrimp boil better. Make sure to mix the salt in a little.
Black Peppercorns	½ tablespoon	Black peppercorns are a great thing to add for flavor. They use their slightly bitter taste and mix with the saltiness of the water to give a perfectly balanced taste. Add more peppercorns if you feel like it.
Bay Leaves	3 pieces	One of the best things to use for natural flavoring, bay leaves, happens to be a great thing to add for boiled shrimp. They carry with them a fair amount of fragrance and aroma which bring both flavor and texture to your shrimp.

All three ingredients are great additions to boiled shrimp, something which normally doesn’t bring a lot of flavor on its own. They are also natural ingredients and carry minimal harmful health effects with them.

Step 3: Bring it to a Boil

Bring your solution to a boil. Make sure that you take it off once it has boiled and don’t keep it boiling. Once you have taken it off, it’s time to add some more things to it, including the all-important shrimp.

Step 4: Add 850 grams of Frozen Shrimp

Since the water is already so hot, you need to add frozen shrimp to it to make sure the shrimp don’t get damaged. The amount of shrimp you add is relative to the amount of water you use. Hence, if you want to boil a smaller amount of shrimp, remember to decrease the amount of water as well, along with the other ingredients that you add.

Step 5: Add Lemon Juice

Another natural ingredient you should add for extra flavor happens to be lemon juice. It provides great citrusy flavor to the shrimp and adds some juicy texture to them as well. Moreover, lemon juice brings with it a certain amount of aroma that adds to the existing one provided by the bay leaves to help add to the flavor of the shrimp.

Once you’ve done all this, simply boil it all.

How Long to Boil Shrimp

The first boiling does not take time, since you simply have to bring the water to a boil. However, once you have added the shrimp, you need to take the solution to a boil again and boil it for 1-3 minutes. Make sure you don’t boil the shrimp longer though, since it may lead to damage to the tissues and a loss of flavor and texture.

Take the Shrimp Out and Cool It

Take the shrimp out and cool it with iced water. Once you have done it, you can simply present the shrimp straight away and do not have to process it more. Your boiled shrimp is ready once you do this.

Serving Size and Calories

Boiled shrimp are usually served in pieces instead of being served based on weight. A normal serving of 85 grams is usually made up of a couple of pieces of shrimp, carrying around 84 calories. This makes it a very healthy thing to consume. And now you know how to boil shrimp perfectly.