This pressure cooker shrimp paella made in my Instant Pot Pressure Cooker will knock your socks off. And if you're not wearing socks, It'll make your toes curl. Not only does it have tons of flavor, it comes together so quickly with only a five minute high pressure cook time in the Instant Pot.
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The full recipe with ingredients/instructions is available on the recipe card at the bottom of the post. Important tips/tricks are also included in the blog post.
I'm bizack with another Instant Pot recipe...and I'm super excited to share this one because it's such a quick and easy meal.
Although I love to cook, most weeknights I'm exhausted and I'd rather not stand in front of the stove. I'd rather not dirty up pots and pans. I'd rather order out but then my bank account says "no ma'am."
It's days like that that recipes in my Instant Pot are so important. If you haven't gotten an Instant Pot yet, you're so missing out. It is one of my all time favorite kitchen appliances, outside of my oven.
I go on and on about it in my post of Instant Pot Jamaican Cornmeal Porridge so I won't do that again here. But for those that don't know, it's an electronic pressure cooker that pretty much cuts cooking time in half.
It has a sauté function that makes it great for browning meats and softening onions that are part of meals.
Alrighty, so about this Instant Pot pressure cooker shrimp paella. Well I always keep a bag of raw frozen shrimp in our freezer at home. I love frozen shrimp because the defrost time is so quick and the cook time of shrimp is so fast.
The great thing about this recipe is that you don't even have to defrost the shrimp. It's a literally a throw it in the pot kind of recipe. And if you prep your ingredients ahead of time by chopping the onions, peppers, and garlic...well my friend, you may break the record for the quickest dinner on the table.
Your family will love this Pressure Cooker Shrimp Paella
I remember the first time I made this for my family, my daughter literally was shocked and thought I ordered out and didn't tell her. She couldn't believe how quickly dinner was done. I just told her I was Super Mom. She was indeed impressed.
People don't generally think of cooking shrimp in the pressure cooker. That makes sense because shrimp cooks quickly and if it's not done right it can lead to a rubbery mess.
The key to avoiding this of course is a short cooking time and using jumbo frozen shrimp with shell on. This will ensure your shrimp is perfectly cooked.
The only slight annoyance with this recipe is the taking the shell off after cooking and before serving. Honestly, it's up to you how you handle that part. On days I'm really tired, hubby and daughter are on their own when it comes to taking off the shells. On other days, I remove it for them so I don't hear their whining.
I've include step by step photos of how to cook this meal in the Instant Pot. I remember when I first got my Instant Pot I was lost on how to operate it. After pressing buttons and reading the manual 4 times, I figured it out. Well, as always, Enjoy 🙂
Pin Pressure Cooker Shrimp Paella for Later 🙂
Looking for more Pressure Cooker Recipes? Try these out:
Instant Pot Chicken and Rice (NY Street Cart)
Instant Pot Salmon with Creamy Herb Sauce
Southern Style Pressure Cooker Collard Greens
Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Shrimp Paella
Ingredients
Instructions
- Set Instant Pot to Saute function. Add butter to pot and melt. Add onions and cook until softened. Add garlic and cook for about a minute more. Add paprika, turmeric, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and saffron threads. Stir and cook for about 1 minute. Add red peppers. Add rice and stir. Cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add chicken broth and white wine. Deglaze your pot by stirring to ensure that there is no food stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add shrimp on top. Turn off Instant Pot and cover. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set Instant Pot to Manual Mode and set a 5 minute timer. When done, quick release. Remove shrimp from pot and peel if desired. Serve with Cilantro.
Nutrition
Video
Notes
- Make sure there are no dry bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. This could result in that annoying "burn" signal some pressure cookers give off. Once you add your broth (but before you place frozen shrimp on top), stir with a wooden spoon to ensure there is no food stuck to the bottom.
- This recipe was prepared in a 6qt Instant Pot. Please adjust accordingly for 3qt and 8qt models.
Tried this recipe?
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Notes on Pressure Cooker Shrimp Paella
- Use raw jumbo frozen shrimp with the shell on. This will ensure that your shrimp is not overcooked and your rice cooks perfectly. If you don't have jumbo shrimp or it's not frozen, then you will need to cook the shrimp seperatley.
- Make sure to deglaze your pot after the rice is added. Any food stuck to the bottom of an Instant Pot may cause the "burn signal to appear."
- This recipe can be modified with many different vegetable or meat additions. There are some great modifications on the comments below.
- Rinsed rice...I find this is a must in every rice recipe I make.
Step by Step Photos of Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Shrimp Paella
Adapted from Health Starts in the Kitchen.
R. Stockton says
Quick, easy and awesome. My family loved this.
R. AugustStockton says
Quick, easy and awesome. My family loved this.
Ashley Fitting says
OMG the shrimp was insanely overcooked. Like even my 5 year old was like, wow, these are rubber. :-O Usually when I do shrimp I never do them for longer than 2 minutes in the IP.
Tanya says
Hi Ashley, Thanks for the feedback. Did you use FROZEN Jumbo shell and tail on shrimp like the recipe indicates? If so, your shrimp should be perfect. Not sure what happened on your end but others have had much success with this recipe.
Bill says
Tanya, can I use something else besides "butter"?
Do you have a butter substitute and how much?
thank you
Tanya says
Yes, you can use olive oil in place of butter. I'd use 2-3 Tbsp.
Carol says
Did you devein the shrimp after it was peeled and cooked? That’s such a tiring job. I liked the idea of buying peeled and deveined shrimp and putting it in after the rice was cooked.
Aimee says
I made this yesterday and it's already a new favorite. I didn't have white wine so I used red. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly and the shrimp paella was FABULOUS! Thanks so much for the recipe. (I'd like to figure out changing the rice to brown jasmine.)
Tanya says
I like the idea of using red wine, I always have some around. Thanks for the feedback 🙂
Fork Off says
Rice didn't cook. Burnt to the bottom. Waste of food and time.
Tanya says
I am sorry this didn't work out for you. I have never recieved a burnt sign on this or any other recipe in my instant pot. From my research, I've learned that one of the common reasons that this occurs is because the pot wasn't deglazed before coming to pressure. If this were the reason, make sure you deglaze the pot after sauteing vegtabales. Hope that helps.
Cleone Johnson says
Could you add chicken to this recipe & how would do it?
Tanya says
I haven't made this with chicken but I don't see why not. I'll have to try that soon. If you were to add chicken, I'd make sure it was chopped first to lessen the cook time.
Jamie says
I doubled the recipe. The shrimp was yummy, but the jasmine whole wheat rice was way under cooked. Any advice?
Tanya says
Hi Jamie, Whole wheat rice (brown rice) has a longer cook time than white rice. I haven't tried making this with brown rice. With the longer cook time of brown rice, you would need to add the shrimp later, probably after pressuring cooking.
Beth says
This was so delicious!! I may have added too many red pepper flakes as it was spicy - but not too spicy that we didn't enjoy it:) I messed up and accidentally got frozen, already cooked shrimp. So I just didn't add them to the recipe until after the rice was done cooking. I thawed them according to bag and then just stirred them in with the hot rice when the Instant Pot went to warming mode. Thanks for the great recipe!!
Candace says
Did you cook the rice before adding it or was it added uncooked?
Tanya says
Uncooked rice. Everything will be made inside the pot which makes it a great one pot meal.
Courtney says
This was the first dish I made using an Instant Pot and it came out wonderfully! Flavours were great and so easy to make - will definitely add this to our meal rotation!
Jonathan says
Shrimp didn’t take on very intense flavor, like other reviewers followed the recipe to a T and a significant amount of my rice is burned on the bottom of my insert. Not impressed. On the bright side the rice that wasn’t burned black to the bottom of my insert tasted really good.
Canuckoutlander says
I reduced the chicken broth to just a little more than 3/4 cup and the consistency turned out perfect. Left every thing else as is. What a wonderful dish!
Inyafacein3d says
Excellent!! I did half of the recipe just in case I didn’t like it. The shrimp texture was perfect....:The rice texture for me was perfect as well. Very flavorful as well. I’ll make the full recipe next time.
If I could have this exact recipe but with cauliflower rice, and It taste the same, that would make this dish perfect for me.
Shontel says
What kind of "red peppers" are they? Are they red bell peppers? I am wanting to try and make this weekend.
Tanya says
red bell peppers.