Instant Pot Shrimp Scampi Paella Recipe
This easy Instant Pot Paella recipe for is a fun Shrimp Scampi twist on a traditional Spanish-inspired paella. Combing the shrimp, saffron and rice for your new favorite instant pot recipe. With a pressure cooking time of just 5 minutes and using frozen shrimp, this Instant Pot Shrimp Scampi Paella Recipe is fast food only done better at home.
This post was originally written in 2015 and updated in 2023, this is the 6th most popular recipe overall on this site with over 3 million page views.
Who’d have ever thought that you can literally toss together a delicious meal using frozen shrimp and uncooked rice in just 5 minutes? Well, I did! When you start thinking like a pressure cook-er, not a ‘pressure cooker’, but a ‘cook who cooks in a pressure cooker’, then you can easily come up with all sorts of quick and fabulous meals!
My 5 Minute Instant Pot Shrimp Scampi Paella Recipe is the perfect example of how you can take a basic technique (like cooking rice) and layer in flavors (shrimp, saffron and chicken broth) to make a one pot meal once you become comfortable with the fundamentals of pressure cooking in an instant pot.
If you haven’t gotten on the pressure cooking bandwagon, trust me you’ll love it. I have several pressure cookers, ranging in styles and sizes, however I recommend the new electric multi-cookers that feature a pressure cooking option in addition to doing a bunch of other things like slow cooking, yogurt maker, etc.
For those of you whom are new to pressure cooking and are apprehensive because of the old-timer stories of explosions and such, there is absolutely no reason to have any concern with these. They are basically fool-proof with their safety locks, the only key is to always make sure you use enough water and don’t over fill them but still they have safety shut off features to protect you even if you make a mistake. You can’t even open them until they are safely depressurized, unlike the old fashioned stove top units I’ve been using for the past 17 years.
Ray has been kidding me lately, I just got some beautiful wild caught shrimp on sale and he keeps teasing me that he’ll see how I eat them on Instagram.. hopefully saving him a few. And I assured him that I’d make them for us, for dinner, not just for my lunch, duh.
Well, today I had shrimp for lunch. And he found out on Instagram. I guess he knows me very well. But latest I made plenty of extra for his dinner when he gets home from work 🙂
5 Tips for Cooking Shrimp in an Instant Pot
- Use Frozen Shrimp: Since shrimp (and seafood in general) doesn’t require a long cooking time, it’s super important to start with large (16-20 count) FROZEN shrimp and ALWAYS wild caught, if you are aiming to up the health in your meals.
- Bigger is Better: Again the fast cooking time means that larger pieces of seafood/shrimp will take longer to cook, thus bigger sized shrimp is better. For this recipe I recommend 16-20 count frozen shrimp,
- Shell on Shrimp for better flavor: The key to the deep flavors of the rice in this dish is using shrimp with the shells on, it’s just like you made it with a shrimp stock since so much of the shrimp flavor is in the shell, much like how a traditional paella is flavored. Only instead of sticking with traditional paella ingredients, I mixed things up with a butter scampi flavor.
- Raw Shrimp not Precooked Shrimp: Again, we want to make sure that we are not gong to over cook the shrimp so we want to always start out with raw shrimp and not pre-cooked.
- 5 minutes or less: The maximum time cook frozen shrimp under pressure in any recipe is 5 minutes. If you r total recipe requires a longer cooking time, cook it in stages adding the most delicate food (like shrimp) last for no more than 5 minutes.
Shrimp Scampi Instant Pot Paella Ingredients
This list of ingredients might seem long, but most of the items are found in nearly every home kitchen.
- Raw Wild Caught Shrimp shell & tail on, Frozen
- Jasmine Rice
- Butter (or ghee)
- fresh parsely, chopped
- Sea Salt
- Black Pepper
- Crushed Red Pepper Flakes or to taste
- lemon
- saffron
- Water, filtered or chicken broth
- Garlic
Optional Garnishes
- Butter (or ghee)
- grated hard cheese parmesan, romano or asiago
- fresh parsely, chopped
- lemon, juiced
How to make Instant Pot Paella
Combine all ingredients in your pressure cooker, layering the frozen-shell-on-shrimp on the top. Yes. those are indeed RAW shrimp, these in particular in the photo are Wild caught Pink shrimp from Argentina purchased at Aldi.
Secure lid and cook under pressure (high if you have a choice) for 5 minutes. Quickly depressurize (by turning the valve of an electric multi cooker or placing a stove top unit under cool running water)
But don’t worry if the shrimp with the shells on isn’t your style, you can easily remove the shrimp from the rice (since you set it on top) and quickly peel them before serving if desired.
Serve each serving with a garnish of fresh parsley, butter, grated cheese and squeeze of lemon juice.To make it a meal, serve it with a side of steamed green beans.
Instant Pot paella Substitutions
I get asked often about substitutions for this Shrimp Scampi Paella recipe so here are few suggestions:
- You can swap the jasmine rice for short-grain rice, bomba rice, arborio rice, paella rice, long grain rice or basmati rice without any modifications to to cooking time.
- If you absolutely refuse to purchase saffron for this dish, and shockingly this is the number one complaint, you can substitute in a pinch of turmeric to give the dish the signature yellow color. However it will change the flavor slightly, A pinch of smoked paprika is a nice addition if you are omitting saffron as well.
- You can add vegetables such as finely chopped yellow onion, peas, red bell pepper, etc if desired
- If you don’t want to use shrimp or would prefer a mixture of proteins, you can use chorizo, sausage, skinless chicken thighs (cut into 1 inch pieces, mussels, etc in this dish.
How to reheat Instant Pot Paella
When it comes to reheating leftovers of paella or a similarly inspired Spanish rice dish, I prefer to add a tablespoon water then give it a sauté over medium high heat in a pan. You can also microwave it, if desired.
How to store Instant Pot Paella
Like with other leftover, store paella in an airtight container for storage up to 4 days in the refrigerator.
If you like this Instant Pot Paella recipe, try these other Instant Pot Seafood Recipes next:
- Pressure Cooker Smoked Salmon Frittata {Keto, Low-Carb & Gluten-Free}
- Instant Pot Fish Chowder Recipe
- Pressure Cooker Haddock in Creamy Tomato Soup
- Keto Clam Chowder {Pressure Cooker}
- {5 Minute} Pressure Cooker Salmon and Rice Pilaf
Ingredients
- 1 pound Raw Wild Caught Shrimp shell & tail on
- 1 cup Jasmine Rice
- 1/4 cup Butter (or ghee)
- 1/4 cup fresh parsely, chopped
- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 pinch Crushed Red Pepper Flakes or to taste
- 1 medium lemon, juiced
- 1 pinch saffron
- 1 1/2 cups Water, filtered or chicken broth
- 4 cloves Garlic minced or pressed
Optional Garnishes
- Butter (or ghee)
- grated hard cheese parmesan, romano or asiago
- fresh parsely, chopped
- lemon, juiced
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in your pressure cooker, layering the frozen-shell-on-shrimp on the top.
- Secure lid and cook under pressure (high if you have a choice) for 5 minutes.
- Quickly depressurize (by turning the valve of an electric multi cooker or placing a stove top unit under cool running water)
- The paella can be served with the shells on the shrimp or, If desired, gently remove cooked shrimp from the rice and peel. Add peeled shrimp back into the rice and serve. discard the shells.
- Serve each serving with a garnish of fresh parsley, butter, grated cheese and squeeze of lemon juice.
Delicious recipe. My wife loved it. Only used half a lime and a little sugar to taste but the dressing really elevated the dish. Thanks
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I’ve been making this regularly for 2 years now! Love it
Thanks for sharing! I’m so glad you enjoy it!
I used Basmati rice, Chicken Broth, and Cumin in lieu of safron and the flavor was wonderful.
The 5 minutes seemed awfully short. I cook my basmati for 10 minutes and unpot after 10 more and the texture is perfect (InstaPot), and so I started at 10 minutes and it was still hard as a rock. There was plenty of liquid so I put it in for another 10 and let it sit for 10. The rice was still a little hard but the shrimp was perfect.
This is a great Man-It-Up recipe.
Sooo good and so easy with the pressure cooker.
The rice was slightly chewy and very very shrimpy. There wasn’t much else that shone through other than the shrimp flavor. The shrimp was also slightly over cooked. Maybe balmati rice at 4 mins would work better?
Absolutely love this recipe-One question I have is by me to double the recipe do I change anything in the recipe? How much broth do you use? What would the cook time be?
Double all ingredients but keep the cook time the same!!
Yum! I love that I barely even had to cut anything besides the butter and cutting the lemon in half to squeeze with my hands. I added white pepper, chili pepper, turmeric, and onion powder, and since I was feeling extra lazy, I used garlic powder instead of minced garlic. Now to stop myself from eating the whole pot!
Can I use fresh unfrozen shrimp?
Yes, you can use fresh raw shrimp however they MAY overcook slightly. The from frozen shrimp extend the cooking time of the shrimp to match the rice.
I just got an Instant Pot for Mother’s Day and this was the first dish I made! Love it! To add a little more kick, I stirred in some Gochujang (Korean pepper paste) and used fresh cilantro instead of the parsley and this will now be a regularly used recipe!))
Can I make this with peeled shrimp
Just made it and it was fantastic! A hit for sure I did use a packet of sasson and peeled shrimp.Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe it is now one of our favorites for sure!
Sure, as long as they are RAW not cooked.
Any idea if I can make this with only 3/4 cup jasmine rice? That’s all I have!
You’ll need to reduce the liquid to match.
Will I need to adjust the cooking time for brown rice?
Yes. The cooking Time is significantly longer and the shrimp will then be over cooked. This is not a brown rice friendly recipe.
Can I use long grain rice as that all I have
Yes
This is the bomb. It is SO good! I make it all the time. I’ve done cut up fresh chicken and frozen fish fillets (salmon, cod). The rice is so good so I often throw in a bag of frozen caulirice to make more of it without feeling guilty.
Loved this recipe!! Definitely making it again…and again…and again. 😄
I was really surprised at how good this was for such a quick meal. I used the chicken broth option and the only addition was the zest from the lemon (I don’t like wasting it) and a cup of frozen mixed peas and corn. It did not need it, I just wanted to add some vegetables. No saffron, so it was omitted.
Prep took less than 10 minutes. I followed the instructions and released the pressure as soon as the 5 minute high pressure cook time was up. Rice and the shrimp were cooked perfectly.
And definitely put the shredded Parmesan on top before serving.
No excess liquid as others noted. And yes, the shrimp are hot when peeling (just a quick squeeze at the base of the shell/tail to remove), but the extra flavor from the shells is worth the slight hassle.
I will make this again. Thanks!
This looks wonderful – thank you! It looks like you used precooked shrimp, but no mention. It would be important to include that info in the recipe. Cheers!
Nope. They are wild caught Argentinian pink shrimp. Not precooked.
This was very, VERY good! Super easy and smells fabulous while cooking! Will definitely make again. Thank you.
I made this tonight. I used yellow saffron rice instead of the jasmine rice. It turned out amazing. I also used low sodium chicken broth and I didn’t add the salt.
This was yummy!!! Thanks for sharing. Big hit here with husband and kids!
Making it again tonight for company!
I made this last night and it was fabulous. I added extra shrimp because I wanted to use the whole 1.5 lb bag. I didn’t think to adjust for the extra liquid so the rice was a little soupy but the flavor was still really good. I’m not a big fan of parsley but don’t skip it or use dried — the crunch and flavor, along with the last spritz of lemon really made the dish perfect. I’m not sure it would feed 4 adults; I want to try doubling it or increasing it by half just to be sure there’s enough for seconds.
I made this for the family last night.
It waste hot mess.
Unless you enjoy the taste and texture of shells in your rice don’t leave the shells on.
We ended up with burned fingers from trying fish the shrimp out so it can be peeled to eat.
Tying to be authentic, I stirred the shrimp into the rice after cooking. I should have read all the comments first.
Reheating today was even worse as much of the peel was more fully integrated into the rice.
Never again.
Note to author of dish:
Please emphasize to we IP users that the shrimp can be unpeeled IN THE RECIPE instead of the story body-I skimmed the story and went to the recipe and followed the directions.
Such a bummer that you didn’t read my post nor the recipe, both give ya all the details 🙁
This recipe was amazing. I did change it a little. Send 1 cup chicken broth and 1/2 cup Chardonnay. I can’t wait it to make it again.
Ohhhh…I like the way you think. Combined with the lemon, it wasn’t too acidic?
Hi – have made this a few times and its been great. The last time i made it all the shrimp shell bits came off! We were pulling out shells from almost every bite. Would you know why that happened or if we can make it with shells off. I know its tastes better if shells are on usually.
depends on the size of shrimp and were they already deveined?
Is this uncooked rice for the recipe?
Yep
Excellent flavor and easy to pull together
Thank you for this recipe! The taste was delicious. I doubled everything and made sure to do it EXACTLY as written (still consider myself a newbie – got my IP in Dec.). However, I ended up with the “BURN” msg just after it came to pressure & started cooking ?. I used white jasmine rice, my shrimp was frozen, & as I said, I measured everything to a tee. The only thing I can think of to ask is this: you call for 1 cup rice — is that the clear rice cup that came with the IP or an actual standard dry measuring cup of rice? I read all your instructions & quite a lot of the comments, but didn’t see this question asked/addressed. I apologize if I missed it somewhere along the way. It’s been a long time since you posted the recipe & there’s a lot of comments to go through…
I will attempt the recipe again – we loved the flavor, but my rice was crunchy. I tried scooping it out of the IP (away from the charred stuff on the bottom) & added chicken broth to what I rescued, then microwaved with a lid on – hoping to get the rice to absorb the liquid, but no bueno. It was edible – just obviously not what was intended.
Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide. Also for answering what cup you used for the rice.
Have a great day!
1 cup measuring up. What type of pressure cooker are you using?
8 quart duo
So it’s an instant pot brand?
Yes ma’am it is. I’m sorry, I just thought with my “IP” abbreviation above that was a known thing. My fault.
I also used an organic, gluten free brand of jasmine rice (like I said, trying to follow to a tee) to hopefully mimic your recipe as best I could. I just don’t understand what went wrong. I used chicken broth for my liquid.
Thank you for your input.
Any nutritional facts? Calories, carbs, etc?
Recipe was great but shrimp were way over cooked and rubbery. Too bad it had really great flavor 🙁 I used large shrimp 16-20 per lb. not sure if I could reduce cook time to maybe 2-3 minutes and the rice being cooked
Were they shell-on and frozen? and did you use Quick Depressurization? Rice requires 5 minutes any less and the rice would be undercooked.
Wow thank u! I never want to eat rice another way. Some of my shrimp were tough but i only used a half pound so thats my error. Im a huge fan of flavorful rice dishes like this so please do others like this with vegan or vegetarian options!
Still haven’t cooked rice in the IP. Do you rinse your rice first ?
It’s not required.
I’ve tried to double and triple the rice to liquid twice now to feed my fawning and it over heats and the rice burns on the bottom. Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong, please? Do I need to double/triple the butter as well?
Yes. I make 2-3-4x the amount of rice with the same increase in fat & seasonngs. Be sure you are quick depressurization.
I’ve read all the posts and I don’t care what it’s called, it’s AWESOME! I didn’t have saffron or a lemon. Someone suggested a pinch of turmeric and paprika instead so I added those. I also added some bottled lemon juice to the finished dish. I wish I had cheesecloth (on my shopping list, lol) because I really hate peeling them afterwards. I only had 1/2 c. of white rice and I noted that it wasn’t recommended to use brown, so I cut the recipe in 1/2. I was afraid to use less than 1 cup of liquid. When it was done, the rice was cooked but there was some liquid in the pot so I put it on sautee for about 3 mins. It kind of worded out for the best because most packages of shrimp in Canada are 300-350 g, so mine was only 3/4 of a lb. Thanks for sharing!
This is NOT Paella and the name should be changed. Even in Spain this would be called shrimp and rice. Paella is made in a paellera. Period.
TJ are you a professional web-recipe-police-officer or do you just do it for fun 😛 Best of luck to you.
Thank you so much for this recipe. This is one of our favorites, including a picky 2 year old. I usually half the butter and use already peeled shrimp and it’s still great!
I have thawed cooked tail on shrimp. Can I just omit shrimp for cooking rice and add at the end? I know I’ll be missing some flavor…
Sheri – you are welcome to create your own recipe using mine as your inspiration. Please check back and let us know what works or doesn’t.
This was so good! My happy accident was buying easy peel shrimp, so it wasn’t as difficult to remove shells after cooking. My husband wants this recipe on repeat. ?
I made this for the first time last night and also doubled the recipe. Oh My Gosh!! SOOOO good! I can’t believe how easy it was and how delicious it turned out. Thanks you!!
I still have a lot of fluid left in the instant pot. I used 1.5 cups of broth with 1 cup of rice for 5 minutes on high (pressure cook). Any suggestions?
Hey John – what type of rice did you use? I’ve never heard of anyone with excess fluid left after cooking – fluid is lost as steam and most is absorbed into the rice. Was your rice cooked through?
This was my first “meal” in the Instant Pot, and it was a success! The rice was outstanding! I think the next time I make it, I will use shrimp that has had the shells removed for convenience, but other than that, it is a delicious meal with very little effort! Definitely a keeper!
Hi! I’m trying this this week! But did you buy already cooked, frozen shrimp or raw, frozen shrimp? The 1st pic, they already look pink so I wanted to ask since raw shrimp ate brown/grey.
Thank you
Lee
as I stated in the recipe use RAW shrimp. The reason my shrimp in the first picture are pink is because they are PINK SHRIMP but they are definitely raw.
Your shrimp look precooked but your recipe says you don’t want to over cook them. Are they previously cooked shrimp or frozen shrimp. Sorry for the crazy question.
Sorry I didn’t mean to post this before proof reading. I meant did you use raw shrimp or cooked shrimp Thank you
Becky – I used RAW shrimp as I stated in the post and my recipe. The shrimp in the first photo (frozen, pink with shell on) are PINK shrimp that is why they are pink.
Hi! This recipe looks great and has gotten amazing reviews. My shrimp is raw, frozen and caught locally, but the vendor freezes the shrimp as a “brick” in sea water. The shrimp are not individually frozen. Any ideas on how I can use this shrimp for your recipe? Should I defrost it to free the shrimp from its “brick” state and then refreeze them individually? Thanks!
Id let them thaw in the fridge until they can be broken apart and then quickly refreeze
I’m looking forward to making this! I went looking for a new shrimp recipe last night, AFTER I had defrosted the shrimp. Using this as s guideline, I made the rice in my Power Pressure Cooker Plus and sauteed the shrimp on the stovetop until almost cooked, then added it to the pot after releasing the pressure. The hot rice finished cooking the shrimp as I stirred it in. It came out so delicious! I do think it would be better with the shrimp cooked in it, plus save a dirty pan. Nect time, I’ll do it with the still frozen shrimp. Also, I put broccoli in my rice to save another extra pan to wash. Thank you so much for this recipe. Most days, I haven’t thawed the shrimp and am trying to thaw it in water at the last minute!
The shrimp I have is frozen cooked will it still work?
the recipe calls for Raw. If you used cooked shrimp they may be overcooked.
This looks like a great recipe and I can’t wait to try it.
I have a question. Since this is in 2015 and it’s now 2017, do you have a review of the instant pot, that you said took 10% longer to come up to pressure? I’d love to know your thoughts on the newer ones. I have an 8qt. I can’t wait to check out your site more.
I”m more than happy with my GoWise multi cooker, I don’t need to try another instant pot.
I got home really late from work last night and was not in the mood to cook anything but I have myself on a self-imposed no-spending plan right now so stopping for food wasn’t an option. I remembered I had all the ingredients for this recipe, WIN! I doubled it and only had smaller already peeled shrimp so I was a little nervous. NOPE, it was PERFECT!! My shrimp shrunk a little bit, but who cares, they were delicious! The rice was cooked perfectly, how did I not know the magic that is jasmine ride?!?!? I’ve eaten it before, but never thought to buy it for home. Thank you so much for this recipe. I was able to walk in the door, put it all in the pot and go start laundry and come back to a fully cooked, super delicious, and most importantly HEALTHY meal! Total win in my book!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Awesome Jen!!!!!
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Best shrimp I’ve ever had!!!! LOVE!
We loved this recipe! Thank you. Followed directions exactly and it worked perfectly in the Instant Pot. Rice perfectly cooked and shrimp nicely done. Whole family enjoyed it.
Would I need to adjust time for thawed shrimp?
Frozen shrimp and rice cook under pressure at the same time, so using thawed or fresh shrimp will be over cooked.
I loved this recipe! The modification I will have to make next time is to do natural release instead of quick release for the rice to cook more evenly. Of course, all pressure cookers will vary slightly so this might not be true for another person. Thank you for this tasty recipe!
I think I have a silly question. Should the shrimp be cooked and ready to serve or uncooked?
raw
Fabulous meal. Skipped saffron. Family said it was really the best shrimp scampi I ever made. Used jasmin rice. Thank you so much for this recipe.
Can I leave out the butter?
Why would you leave out the butter? You need fat, fat is healthy. Swap in coconut oil if you don’t tolerate dairy.
Thanks! I don’t like butter which I know is weird. Lol. I’ll try the coconut oil instead.
Great recipe thanks. I usually fry up some cooking chorizo and spring onions first before following the rest of the recipe. A also throw in a handful of frozen peas.
It’s a great recipe as it is infinitely variable. I’ve added chicken, rabbit, broad beans, peppers, cilantro.
You caught my attention with “5 minutes”.
This is the best seafood recipe ever. It is a life saver for busy moms.
Thanks for sharing your dish!
I’m so glad you enjoy this recipe!!
Looks and smells delicious but 25 minutes later still waiting for IP to pressurize. Opened to check and no steam at all but rice and shrimp have been cooking and timer has been setting. Have “reset” multie times and checked gasket etc… any ideas? Never had this Halloween before and happen before and have cooked frozen meats
You would need to contact customer service for your instant pot. The things that come to mind are checking the rubber gasket to make sure it’s lined up correctly, is the value turned to pressure and is the steam release lock blocked?
Can I use fresh raw shell on shrimp? Do I need to adjust the time?
They will NOT cook at the same rate of time. You will over cook the shrimp… but if you reduce the time your rice will be undercooked.
Since the instant pot takes longer to come to pressure should I heat up first with sauté feature? Reduce cooking time? Thanks
I do not recommend modifying the recipe for the instant pot. with all pressure cookers there are slight variances while recipes stay the same.
The picture looks like the shrimp are cooked but frozen. How do I adjust this if my frozen shrimp are raw?
They are RAW wild caught, pink, frozen shrimp.
Best IP recipe EVER! I will make again and again. I will definitely double the recipe next time though. Thank you so much.
I only have calrose rice. And no saffron. Is that OK in the Instant Pot? Is there a good substitute for the saffron?
Calrose rice should work fine, the saffron can be omitted there isn’t a true substitution for it.
Hey there! Just got an 8qt duo and loving it! I’d love to try your recipe, but doubled. How would I go about adjusting the cooking time? Thank you!
Oh gosh, I should have read through the replies about the time. I will keep it the same!
I DO have another question, though. Could I throw some asparagus in there as well? If so would I put it on top of rice and shrimp on top of that? How would you layer it? Thank you! Thinking of making this for Valentine’s Day 🙂
Asparagus will get slightly overcooked with 5 minutes of cooking time.
Can you elaborate on the lemon…put the juice in the pot? Put lemon with no juice? both? Thanks!
“1 medium lemon, juiced” — so that means you want the juice from 1 medium lemon for the recipe.
Tasted great, but recipie came out very soupy. Followed instructions exactly. I used brown jasmine rice…could that be why? I also used frozen Shrimp? Is it supposed to come out soupy?
My recipe calls for jasmine rice, not brown rice. It will not come out soupy if you follow my recipe.
Thanks. I enjoyed reading all the comments.
This is one of the best meals I have had in a long time! It was perfect. I only had medium shrimp so I put instant pot on sauté with butter and garlic and spices for about 1 minute. Added the rice and coated with butter to kinda give it a jump start. I added everything else…substituted cilantro for parsley because I LOVE it. ..it was perfectly amazing. My husband is going to get sick of this one.
How long did you cook it with the medium shrimp?
I’ve made this a few times, always perfect. I saute an onion, celery and garlic first, double the rice and stock, and then follow all other instructions exactly. When I’m out of saffron (which happened today), I sub some turmeric and smoked paprika for color. Thanks for a great recipe! 🙂
Excellent. Next time I will buy EZ peel shrimp, peel them and put shells in cheesecloth bag and cook them with recipe. Shrimp are a real pain peel after cooking.
I’ve heard great things about this recipe! I’ve never used saffron before so …do you just sprinkle the little threads in or crush them or…? Thanks!
Just add them, nothing special required 🙂
I live in New Orleans we have fresh shrimp galore. Can Inuse fresh shrimp instead of frozen?
fresh shrimp take less cooking time than frozen & rice. There would be a risk of over cooking the shrimp but you are welcome to try.
I also live on the Gulf coast, yet always have some extra to freeze. Go that way with the fresh frozen, but adjust time since shrimp are so fresh to start with. I cook for 4 min with natural release for 2 min. WONDERFUL recipe
I have a Farber ware pressure cooker, but it does not have Manuel modes. It has preset modes ranging from slow cooker (low) to seared (super high). Rice is generalized as high, but take 14 min to cook. Do you think this would over cook the shrimp?
Came out perfectly on the 14 min setting! So delicious! Will be making this all the time 😉
Just made this and it was very tasty! Had to substitute 1 Tbl. dry parsley since I did not have fresh and it wasn’t worth a trip to the store just for that. However I thought the rice came out a little too sticky for my taste… like risotto. So I tried a 2nd batch with equal parts water and rice (1.5 cups each). This was a little better but still could use less moisture. I guess a lot of liquid comes from the frozen shrimp. Next time I will reduce the water a little more. May also reduce the cook time to 4 minutes and then allow it to sit for a couple of minutes before releasing the pressure. I have better luck with rice in general when I do this.
But aside from just a little too sticky consistency I love this and will make larger batches to freeze.
Mickey – it’s the type of rice you are using that’s causing it. the brand of jasmine I link to works great.
I’m going to make this tonight!!!! One question I have about your pressure cooker. Do you have to have the lid on in order to use the saute function? I’m considering purchasing another cooker and read somewhere that the lid had to be on to saute.
Thank you,
Linda
I’m going to make this tonight!!!! One question I have about your pressure cooker. Do you have to have the lid on in order to use the saute function? I’m considering purchasing another cooker and read somewhere that the lid had to be on to saute.
Thank you,
Linda
PS. NEVER MIND! LOL!!!! It was a post by
a disgruntled customer…so I read the manual and the lid stays off!!!!
Hi. This sounds amazing! However, my wife is allergic to shellfish. Do you think I could make this with chicken? And if so, is there anything else you would change in the recipe? Thanks,
You would want to cut your chicken into shrimp sized pieces – but other than that It should be yummy!
Thank you! I am definitely going to give this a try!
Made this tonight. So good! Used chicken, and added broccoli. My wife says I can make this any time! That’s a huge compliment.
Delicious!! My family said it was the best meal I’ve made!
Wonderful Kim!
My husband said the best rice he’d ever eaten! The shrimp was delicious. I followed the recipe exactly except subbed turmeric for saffron. We talked about how special the meal was. When we want shrimp dinner we know where to get it!!
This wasn’t amazing! Our 4 young kids, my husband and I all loved it! I used Basmati rice since that is what I had on hand! I didn’t have parsley or saffron, so just omitted those! It was excellent! I got home about 8 pm from practices and had frozen shrimp and uncooked rice on the table in 20 minutes! I have the Instant Pot and it cooked perfectly in 6 minutes (of cooking time)!
Oh my gosh!!! I meant this WAS amazing!!! It was restaurant style served at home!
Made this for the second time tonight. Doubled the rice though since last time there were no leftovers. I also added a small bag of frozen peas since I didn’t feel like dirtying another pan for a veggie. Perfect one pot meal when paired with a salad! Thank you!!
Glad you’re enjoying it and are adapting it for your family!!!
Thank you for the fab recipe! Saved 3lb frozen shrimp form the powerless clutches of hurrican Hermine. Intant pot shrimp scampi parlla, green beans and blue/blackberry cobbler in the Slow cooker. Doing refugee classy!
This will be my first real recipe with pressure cooker.(I did sweet potatoes two weeks ago). I haven’t had shrimp in years, is the wild caught with shell on frozen easy to find? Do they only come in large bags-I only have little freezer & small space. Thanks-can’t wait to try this & pass it along to my cousin..it will be her first time with pressure cooker as well 🙂
I forgot to ask…are we notified by email when a reply is made? Thanks ~
I think 🙂 Not sure.
We live in a very rural area and I do not have difficulty finding raw, shell on, wild caught shrimp in a variety of sized bags. Giant Eagle, Kroger and Shop-n-Save all carry them in 1 pound bags.
Could I use frozen UNcooked shrimp with shells on?? That’s what I bought but your photos show cooked frozen shrimp.
Hey Kelley – I used frozen, raw, shell on, pink, wild caught shrimp in the recipe.
the photo of the frozen shrimp are uncooked, i.e. raw, pink shrimp. However yes the shrimp in the final photos are cooked :p
Could I use pre-cooked shell on frozen shrimp?
you are welcome to try any adaptation of my recipes that you wish, but IMHO pressure cooking, pre-cooked shrimp will overcook them.
I’d like to add in some chopped chorizo and mussels and a piece of white fish so it’s a but more, um, paella-ey. I”m thinking I should precook the chorizo before throwing it in, and am pretty sure the fish will be fine with the 5 minute pressure time, but the mussels are a mystery to me.
Does my plan sound good so far, and if so, do you have any suggestions on the mussels?
Super excited to make this! Thank you so much for sharing!
If you’re using thinly sliced chorizo I would not pre-cook and the fish is fine too – just remember the chorizo will make everything pink/red and not yellow like my photo 🙂 as for the mussels, they only need 1 minute under pressure so they might get over cooked.
This was really wonderful! The only hard part was getting the shells off of the very hot shrimp while eating it… but totally worth it! The only problem that I encountered was that my rice scorched to the bottom of my InstantPot. I did a 1.5x the rice and all of the liquids, so the ratios were still correct… any ideas as to why it might have scorched or what I could try to prevent it next time? It did seem to take a while to come up to pressure, but I thought that was likely b/c of the frozen shrimp.
In all, WONDERFUL recipe even with the bit of scorching and I can’t wait to make it again! THANK YOU!
Instant pots are notorious for taking an extended period of time to come up to pressure and having higher than average liquid loss – in my testing 10% longer cook times… hence why I don’t recommend them. Next time add just a little more water, like 1/4 cup.
What if you use yellow rice from the store? Like China doll or whichever. Ya know, with the saffron already prepackaged
I honestly have no idea. Sorry.
We have 9 children,so, buying the “more expensive” spices aren’t really feasible for our family. Thanks, though!
Omitting the saffron is ok.. but keep in mind that it’s really a wash when you consider the added cost of rice mixes compared to plain rice + saffron (a saffron little goes a really long way so, while it’s an added cost you can use it for many meals) it’s all in how you’d prefer to spend your food dollars.
Try a pinch of turmeric. Will add color and a nice flavor.
and as an only child – I’m still trying to wrap my head around 9 kids in a family 🙂 That’s awesome, Momma!!
Could you substitute frozen “riced” cauliflower for the regular rice? We are a low carb family and would need to use something other than the rice.
the recipe would not work the same, since cauliflower rice takes less time than shrimp AND it does not absorb liquid like rice. I would not recommend cooking cauliflower in the pressure cooker, for longer than 1 minute from raw that that still make make it completely mushy and yuck.
Amy – Perhaps you could experiment with rice as a resistant starch ( many people benefit from cycling carbs occasionally AND by cooking/cooling rice most of the starch is eliminated. Check your blood glucose readings to see how your body reacts. Just an idea 🙂
i only have basmati rice…..is that an easy substitution?
The cooking times are the same.
I have frozen shell off tail on shrimp do I need to change the cooking time?
the same time will work 🙂
I only have frozen shrimp that is already shelled. Should I wait until I get another bag w shells on?
The shells just give it a deeper shrimp flavor, it’s up to you.
Looks great but I would prefer linguini instead of rice. Do you have a scampi recipe?
Karyn – we don’t eat much pasta since we are a gluten-free home
This looks delicious! I have a stove top pressure cooker and have never thought to make rice in it. It takes a few minutes to get to pressure; will the rice still be okay, or will it be mushy?
Both electric or stove top pressure cooker work the same.
You can double but definitely not quadruple. Shrimp don’t get cooked. Loved this one! Have made it 3 times after the failed quadruple.
Subbed 1 pinch of tumeric and 2 pinch of paprika for the saffron
If you leave shells on, when does the shrimp get deveined? Or doesn’t it?
Looks wonderful, picture so vibrant I can almost smell it.
You can purchase pre-deveined shrimp if you’d prefer, with the shells still on.
OFF THE CHARTS DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEISH! 5 minutes? Seriously? It was sooo gooooood and so incredibly easy! I was looking for something to fix for out of state company next week. I had my mind set on seafood since we live in the PNW. I tried this on a whim…and I will make this for EVER AND EVER AND EVER! Thank you sooo much!
I used allll fresh ingredients and then.. frozen shrimp as directed. My husband came into the kitchen looking for the pot which he promptly LICKED CLEAN….lolol I told him I was telling!! He said.. “I don’t care!”…lol
This was sooo delicious! It was totally worth the OMG OMG IM EATING A BUG!!! leg-pulling-off portion of the evening. Also, ridiculously easy. I used broth so I omitted the salt and I ran out of saffron so had to omit that as well and it was still so tasty. This one is definitely a keeper. Thank You!
If you want to double this recipe how long do you cook it for? Is it still five minutes or do you double to 10?
the cooking time will remain the same 🙂
Thanks for asking this! I need to double it too!
On the menu for tonight!! Nice to have all the ingredients on hand…might even have saffron. Only thing I’m changing is using brown rice. I know it’s going to be good. Thanks.
You may need to adjust your cooking time for brown rice – I’ve never cooked brown rice but I thought it needed a slightly longer cook time….. (we don’t eat brown rice because of phytic acid and it’s harmful effects to gut health)
The cooking time for brown rice is more than “slightly longer”. I don’t think this would be a good recipe for brown rice, as you would seriously over cook the shrimp. Brown rice needs 22 minutes of cooking time, versus the four minutes cooking time for white rice.
I doubled the recipe and used brown rice. I cooked it for 6 minutes because my shrimp were colossal in size. Then I opened the pot and removed the shrimp. Then finished steaming the rice for a few more minutes.
Those of you who doubled the recipe, did you double the amount of stock/water you used? I read somewhere that if you do 1 1/2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice, then for 2 cups of rice you add 1 and 1/4 additional stock- totaling it to 2 and 3/4. Just curious whether you all just doubled to 3, or shaved off a little!
Delicious recipe!!!!
I’ll just straight double it.
Thank you so much! I plan on doubling it too!!
Why not peel the shrimp before cooking the paella?
I guess you didn’t read the post ;P I explain why I leave the shells on.
Having made this I feel the shrimp juices and flavor infuses into the rice as they defrost and then cook. It’s just a home run for flavor!
I am looking forward to trying this but already know I will make a seafood stock with the shrimp shells beforehand and sub out the water.
By cooking the shrimp with the shells on, in the water, it’s actually creating shrimp stock while cooking without the extra step! But if you’d prefer to add the extra step knock yourself out 🙂
Can I double this recipe? If so do I alter the time?
Lol I should have read comments. Will double.
YES for the ingredients, NO for the time.
Would the cooking time change if I doubled the ingredients? We’re having guests for dinner and this sounds delicious!
No matter how much rice I make, my cook time always remains the same AND you don’t want to over cook your shrimp – so I would say no. cook the same time.
Do you add more water because of the increase in rice?
yes when you double a recipe you double all the ingredients.
I was JUST going to ask this question as I have a family of 6. Thanks for posting!
Had to leave a comment after trying this because it was fantastic. I had to make a couple of subs – cilantro and lime instead of parsley and lemon – just because that’s what I had on hand at the time. But it tasted delicious! A little salty for my taste, will adjust that next time, but I still ate it up! Very quick to make, perfect for weeknight dinner (it took me longer to figure out how to use my new electric pressure cooker than it did to cook it). Definitely recommend this and will share with friends!
This dish was AWESOME!!! It took just a few minutes to put in the pressure cooker (I used an electric one) and it was amazing! I had to make a few substitutions with what I had on had. I used a few more frozen shrimp (24 total), a Tbsp of dried parsley instead of fresh, 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes, veggie stock instead of filtered water and no saffron. I highly recommend it.
never would have thought to cook this in pressure cooker!!!! can’t wait to try it. sounds sooooo good and quick. how could u miss? great post!
Excellent. I would buy EZ Peel and peel them as they are a real pain peel after they’re cooked. If you want the shell’s flavor, put the shells in a cheesecloth bag and cook with recipe.
I pre-peeled mine and am making a 10 minute stock with the peels and some herbs and pepper. Then I’ll use that as the liquid for the rice! I put it all in store-bought seafood stock.
Would it be the same cooking time for brown jasmine rice or should I cook it longer? Thanks!
Brown rice needs longer. I am using an Instant pot and according to their guide, it required 12 minutes for brown rice to cook. 1(cup brown rice).