Easy Baked Panko Shrimp – Make it once & you’ll want more

Easy baked shrimp breaded with panko bread crumbs is a super easy recipe and it saves you from the mess of frying. Be ready to add this to your go-to recipe list, especially when you are craving crunchy shrimp tacos.

Make this once and you can do this every time without ever needing to go back to a recipe. It’s easy to adapt, too. Serve with warm corn tortillas, lettuce leaves, or flour tortillas. The rest is up to you.

This is a great example of a simple way of eating; start with a few ingredients and keep adding more as you like. Here are the main ingredients for this easy baked shrimp: medium shrimp, jalapeño, panko bread crumbs, and lettuce leaves. Super easy and fast to bake, just need to bread the shrimp.

Frozen shrimp, a freezer staple

Start with frozen shrimp, which I recommend as one of the freezer staples to have at all times. We always have a bag of raw shrimp, tails-on, and deveined.

Frozen shrimp in a bag is wonderful for emergency dinners or when you need your family to cook. This is one of my family recipes that even my teenagers can do.

By the way, a pound of shrimp is about 30 pieces of shrimp and it can easily serve 4 people. I can’t help it but I’m always thinking about portion sizes. I’m a dietitian on a budget and I need to give a general idea of how much you need for everyone to be satisfied. The other good reason to know how much it serves is so that you can plan and add this recipe as one of your “default meals”.

If a bag of shrimp ends up been too many servings for you, it’s easy to eat for leftovers. I just throw them in a lunch salad or in a burrito wrap.

Tips to Defrost shrimp

A quick way to defrost is to place shrimp in a cold-water bath. When you need to speed it up, let the cold water run gently for a few minutes. Don’t use warm or hot water. Sometimes changing the cold water a couple of times will also speed up the process. Don’t defrost all day in the sink, it will reach a risky temperature.

Prepare the shrimp with Panko

Once the shrimp is defrosted, take the tails off and if you have shrimp with shell-on, remove the shells. Clean the shrimp under cold water, place it on a plastic cutting board, and dry them well with a paper towel. I gently press the paper towel until I see them all shiny and ready to absorb any flavor.

Gather two separate bowls, one for eggs and one for the panko bread crumbs. Season the egg batter with any spice such as garlic powder, cumin, and salt.

Also, add some spice to the panko bread crumbs to give it more flavor. I like to add chili powder, salt, and don’t be shy to add other spices. I even add a Korean chile flakes that is amazing (see image below) just in case you can find it in your stores.

Here is the product that I like: Mother in Law’s Gochugaru Korean Chile Flakes. But you can also use any chile powder or cayenne pepper.

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Another idea is to add red pepper flakes to the bread crumbs. I would blend them in a small food processor or grind it with a mortar and pestle to crush them and give it a more powder consistency.

Next, lightly grease a baking pan.

Grab the shrimp and place them in the egg batter for a couple of minutes. Then, one at a time into the bread crumb bowl. Place them on the baking pan and it’s time to bake.

Alternatives for panko bread crumbs

Panko is a Japanese bread crumbs that is coarse and gives you more crunch than regular bread crumbs. You can also use regular bread crumbs or make your own bread crumbs if you don’t have panko.

To make your own bread crumbs, toast slices of bread first. Wait for a minute or two after you toast it to allow them to get dry. Then, transfer to a food processor and process until coarse. The last step is to dry it even further by sautéing the crumbs in a pan with some butter until golden brown and crispy.

Add Italian seasoning, oregano, chile powder, salt, and black pepper.

Bake shrimp

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If you have a mini toaster oven give it a try and see if you can save the hassle and time of using your main oven. The main oven takes longer to heat up and it warms the kitchen for a small amount of shrimp.

By the way, the mini toaster oven I have, takes less than 5 minutes to preheat.

I use the mini toaster oven Breville Smart Oven. I have made this recipe over and over again and I know exactly how much it fits in this oven (the bag of 30 shrimp). The preheating time is fast and it will bake crispy shrimp within 20-25 minutes.

This crispy baked shrimp breaded with panko bread crumbs is absolutely amazing and easy to do, and on top of that, there is no need to fry.

Are you ready for some tacos? Serve with tortillas or lettuce leaves. Warm corn tortillas on the stove, on a cast-iron pan or in the microwave wrapped with a moist paper towel. If you are a super foodie prepare homemade corn tortillas. I have a recipe for you if you are interested.

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Yield: 4

Easy Baked Panko Shrimp

Print

Crunchy shrimp for tacos breaded with panko bread crumbs. These were baked in a mini toaster oven.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes 20 seconds

Total Time 45 minutes 20 seconds

Ingredients

• 1 pound (about 30 shrimp) medium or large shrimp, raw, defrosted, peeled, deveined, and cleaned
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon chile powder, chile flakes, or gochugaru (Korean chile flakes)
• Oil or nonstick cooking spray oil
• Lettuce leaves, rinsed, and dried
• 1 jalapeno, rinsed, sliced
• Cilantro leaves, rinsed, and dried
• 1 lime, cut into wedges

Instructions

1. Defrost and clean shrimp under cold water. Dry shrimp with a paper towel.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. For this recipe, we use a mini toaster oven.
3. Beat eggs and add salt, cumin, and black pepper. Place shrimp in this bowl.
4. On another bowl place panko breadcrumbs and stir in chile powder.
5. Spray nonstick cooking oil to the baking pan.
6. Remove one shrimp at a time and press lightly to coat on both sides of panko bread crumbs. Place on the baking pan.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Depending on your oven, we tested this recipe in a mini toaster oven.
8. Serve with lettuce leaves, jalapeño, cilantro, and limes.

Notes

One pound of shrimp is about 28-30 shrimp.

A serving of shrimp for this recipe is 7 shrimp.

If you don't have panko bread crumbs, use regular bread crumbs.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 160Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 96mgSodium: 923mgCarbohydrates: 24gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 8g