Instant Pot Cajun Shrimp

Cajun Instant Pot shrimp pressure cooked in 0 minutes! This meal is so quick to make as it’s ready in 20 minutes from start to finish. Perfect for busy mid-week dinners, and meal prep.

You guys LOVED my Instant Pot shrimp and broccoli recipe, and it quickly became the most popular recipe on this site! Which made me think that I need to come up with more great shrimp recipes that you can cook in your Instant Pots, so here’s my Instant Pot cajun shrimp recipe that I’ve been testing for the past 2 weeks now and I LOVE this final version. So I hope that you love it as much as I do.

The spices used in this recipe is what makes the shrimp so delicious. You can either use cajun or jerk seasoning, or whatever you have on hand. And I honestly couldn’t decide which one did I like more, as both turned out just incredible!

The shrimp is cooked in a tasty spiced stock, with seasoning, bell peppers, onion, and garlic. Serve over rice, quinoa, or noodles.

How to make cajun shrimp in the Instant Pot

What you’ll need:

• Shrimp. You can either use fresh or frozen, but I highly recommend thawing frozen shrimp before using it.
• Bell peppers. I prefer red and yellow bell peppers as they’re sweeter, while green bell peppers are a bit bitter in taste.
• Cajun seasoning, or jerk seasoning, or your favorite seasoning. If cooking for children, I recommend going with milder seasoning such as smoked paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper.
• Red pepper or chili flakes – optional.
• Oil, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper.
• Vegetable stock (I make my own in the Instant Pot, here’s the recipe).

If using frozen shrimp, I recommend that you thaw it first. Dice the onion finely, mince the garlic, and dice up the bell peppers.

• On the Instant Pot, press on SAUTE and let it heat up for a minute. Add oil to the pot, and saute the onion until it’s soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook until it’s fragrant. Switch off the saute setting and deglaze the pot with a little bit of water.
• Add the diced bell peppers, followed by the shrimp, cajun seasoning, chili flakes, stock, and salt. Give everything a good mix.

• Secure the lid and set the vent to SEALING. Select the PRESSURE COOK/MANUAL setting and set the cooking time for 0 minutes at LOW pressure. The Instant Pot will come to pressure and stop cooking. When the cooking program ends, quickly release the steam.
• Carefully open the lid, and serve warm over rice.

You will end up with lots of sauce, the shrimp will release a lot of liquid and you can either serve it with the rice, or discard it.

You can also thicken the sauce if you like. Remove the shrimp and the bell peppers, and set aside. Press on SAUTE, and add corn starch slurry which is 2 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with 1-2 tablespoons of water. Simmer and whisk until the sauce is thickened. Switch off the SAUTE setting.

Recipe Tips

• It is important that you pressure cook on LOW pressure rather than high pressure not to overcook the shrimp. To choose LOW pressure, press on “pressure cook” a couple of times until the low-pressure setting is set.
• If you use frozen shrimp, the pressure cooker will take longer to come to pressure as the shrimp defrosts and that means that the peppers will be cooked for longer and can result in mushy peppers. I strongly recommend using fresh shrimp or thawing the shrimp before cooking.
• If cooking for children, you might want to use a different seasoning as cajun can be too spicy for them. Use smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper.

If you love cajun seasoning, bell peppers, and shrimp then make sure to check out my Instant Pot rasta pasta (it’s AMAZING!). And for more Instant Pot shrimp recipes, check out Instant Pot Jambalaya, Instant Pot shrimp and broccoli, and Instant Pot hibachi shrimp.

This recipe first appeared on Little Sunny Kitchen on July 15th, 2019, and was updated in April 2020 with new images and more information.