Crispy and delicious homemade Shrimp Tempura! The secret to making a light, crisp coating that doesn’t absorb oil when fried is in the batter and deep-frying technique.
Tempura is one of the most popular and well-known Japanese dishes that is widely enjoyed around the world. At your local Japanese restaurants, you probably see Shrimp Tempura (海老の天ぷら) and Vegetable Tempura, but the Japanese make tempura with various fresh ingredients.
Besides being a standalone dish, Shrimp Tempura is also served over rice bowl (Tendon) or noodle soup (Tempura Soba or Tempura Udon).
What is the Shrimp Tempura?
In Japan, we call Shrimp Tempura Ebi no Tempura (海老の天ぷら) or Ebi Ten (えび天). Ebi means shrimp and ten comes from tempura.
Seafood is often used as ingredients for tempura besides vegetables. And among seafood, shrimp is definitely the most popular one.
Extra Crumbs around Shrimp Tempura
When you order Shrimp Tempura at Japanese restaurants, it’s usually coated with crispy tempura crumbs.
The cooking method is called Hanaage (花揚げ); hana means flower and age means deep-frying. Why flower? When tempura batter is added to the hot oil, it blooms like a flower. Check this video below.
Did you see the chef dip his hand in the oil? Crazy, isn’t it?
However, if you go to tempura specialized restaurants in Japan, the tempura chefs will not serve Tempura with excess batter because they want you to enjoy the flavor of the ingredient, not the excess batter.
You will see Hanaage-style Shrimp Tempura with extra crispy batter on noodle soup dishes or tempura rice bowl dishes.
You Can Serve Shrimp Tempura with Vegetable Tempura.
5 Tips To Make Shrimp Tempura
The majority of Japanese home cooks don’t make the Hanaage-style Tempura as it’s time-consuming and difficult to make. It’s a lot easier to simply coat the shrimp with batter and deep fry.
Here are some helpful tips on making tempura:
- Keep all the ingredients (flour, water, egg) cold.
- Never overmix the batter, and it’s okay if there are some flour lumps in the batter.
- Start deep-frying as soon as you make the tempura batter.
- Keep the oil temperature steady at all times.
- Just half of the oil surface should be covered with ingredients.
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Delicious Shrimp Tempura recipe! The secret to making a light, crisp coating that doesn't absorb oil when fried is in the batter and deep-frying technique.
- 10 prawn (Typically, Black Tiger Prawn is used for shrimp tempura at home; more expensive Japanese Tiger Prawns are used at tempura specialized restaurants in Japan)
- potato starch/cornstarch (for dusting)
- neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc) (for deep frying; vegetable oil : sesame oil = 10 : 1)
- 1 large egg (cold, about 50 g)
- 200 ml iced water
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour) (120 g)
- ¾ cup dashi (click to learn more anout this soup stock) (180 ml; or ¾ cup water + 1 tsp Hondashi)
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp mirin
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 inch daikon radish (5 cm; grated and lightly squeeze to drain)
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Gather Tempura sauce ingredients.
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Combine dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil. Then lower the heat and let it simmer until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.
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To prepare shrimp, follow the instruction on how to straighten the shrimp.
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In a wok or a medium-size pot, heat 1 ½" (3 cm) of the oil to 340-350 ºF (170-180 ºC) and maintain the oil temperature at all times. You can check the temperature with chopsticks or with a thermometer. When you see small bubbles around chopsticks, it’s ready for deep frying. If you want to read more about deep frying tips, please read this post.
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Gather Tempura batter ingredients.
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Sift the flour into a large bowl.
- Add the egg into very cold water.
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Whisk the egg mixture vigorously and discard the foam on the surface.
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Slowly pour the egg mixture into the flour. Mix the batter but do not over mix; it's okay to leave some lumps in the batter. Keep the batter cold all the time. Make batter right before deep frying to avoid activation of wheat gluten.
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Dust potato starch (or cornstarch) over the shrimp. This will help the shrimp adhere to the tempura batter.
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Coat the shrimp in the batter.
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Deep fry the shrimp until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Do not crowd the wok (pot) because the oil temperature will drop quickly. Don't overcook the shrimp; otherwise, the texture will be tough and dry. Transfer the Shrimp Tempura to a wire rack or a plate lined with a paper towel to drain excess oil. Between batches, skim the crumbs in the oil, which will burn and turn the oil darker if left in the wok (pot).
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Grate the daikon and squeeze the liquid out.
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Serve shrimp tempura with warm tempura dipping sauce and grated daikon on the side. Put some grated daikon in the dipping sauce and dip the tempura in the sauce to enjoy.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Other Tempura Recipes
Editor’s Note: Photos and recipe updated in November 2013.
Hi nami,
I just tried this recipe yesterday. It was nice n crunchy right after frying but my only problem was the shrimp tends to get soggy after a while. Do you know what I am doing wrong?
By the way, I tried your chawanmushi recipe. It’s excellent. Exactly like those in the restaurants. My 3 year old daughter is a picky eater but chawanmushi wins every time. She finishes it all!!
Hi Mary! Tempura is meant to be eaten right after being deep fried (the best experience is to eat tempura at the bar in tempura specialized restaurant). It will never been crispy and crunchy like the moment you deep fried after a few minutes. It’s hard to tell what went wrong as I wasn’t in your kitchen, but you can try your best to remove excess oil when you pick up tempura from oil. Extra oil definitely makes it soggier. And if you have a wire rack, please use it instead of paper towel, so it helps moisture to escape from the bottom of tempura. Hope this helps!
I’m so happy to hear that your daughter enjoyed my chawanmushi recipe! Thank you for letting me know! 🙂
THANK YOU MUCH!!!! The tempura was simply PERFECT!!!! Light and crispy.
Hi Terri! Yay! I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for letting me know! 🙂
Hi Nami! I just found your tempura recipe and I would like to give it a try. Would it be okay to use baking soda instead of baking powder? Or will it make a huge difference? Thanks and keep it up with this great blog!
Btw, I also found another tempura recipe that uses a whole egg, not just the yolk. How does using or not using the egg whites affect the finished product? Thanks again!
I used a whole egg for my Vegetable Tempura recipe. To me, the use of egg white doesn’t really make a huge difference as Tempura recipe requires so other important skills to make perfect tempura. Personally I won’t really see the difference, or it’s more like it’s hard to compare as each time I cannot make tempura the exact same way… Sorry I cannot help much. 🙁
https://www.justonecookbook.com/recipes/vegetable-tempura/
Hi Neko! Baking powder and baking soda are both leavening agents, and even though they are not the same chemical we can substitute one for another in recipes.
I googled and found out that triple the amount of baking powder to equal the amount of baking soda. So, you just need 1/3 of baking soda. Hope this helps. 🙂
Hi there! You have a really wonderful site and I love the way you show how easy some of this stuff is (I really feel like I could make them haha). I just have a question about the garnish in this recipe. Now this may sound kinda dumb, but do you want to include the liquid from the daikon? Or is it like you squeeze it out from the grated pieces then put those into your sauce? Just a little confused sorry.
Hi Keegan! Thank you for your kind words! I’m glad to hear step-by-step pictures are helpful. For grated daikon, I squeeze most of liquid, but I won’t squeeze really hard, just enough moist (but not dripping). Hope that helps! Thanks again!
Nami – You should know that I found your website through a google search on shrimp tempura. I was amazed with your step by step picture instructions on preparing the shrimp tempura and subsequently got hooked with your other recipes. I did make shrimp tempura and it was a huge success with my guests. I also appreciate your explanation on why we have to follow certain steps. Helps me to remember what I should do or avoid. Thanks so much for your good work on your blog.
Hi Alana! I’m so happy to hear my instruction was easy to follow – that’s one of my goals when I write my recipes. I’m glad shrimp tempura came out well. Thank you so much for your feedback!
Whoa. That’s some tempura. I have a new found respect for restaurant tempura (done the way in the video). My chopsticks simply aren’t long enough as I hate hot oil on my skin…but I then again I love tempura so I persevere!
Thanks yet again for an informative lesson!
Thank you Kathleen! Tempura requires some skills in order to achieve that crispy texture, not soggy or oily butter. I’ve been practicing for many years but still I feel like I could improve. Practice makes perfect. 🙂
i was just wondering, what type of shrimp best soothes making tempura?
Hi Chris! I usually use black tiger or large shrimp for shrimp tempura. 🙂
Just followed this tempura recipe to the t and it was amazing. Thank you, I can make tempura now.
Hi Patrick! Awesome! I’m so glad to hear your tempura came out well! Thanks so much for your kind feedback! 🙂
sake is not available in the middle east, any replacement?
Hi Romeo! You can skip and replace with water. 🙂 Hope you enjoy this recipe!
for the batter can you not use egg, but just ice water (with ice) and potato starch?
Hi Spencer! You can make the batter without the egg, but please use flour instead of potato starch. 🙂
Hello Nami,
Greetings from Barcelona!
I would like to know whether it could be cooked ahead,because I would like to offer it to guests coming and I don’t have time to do it at the moment and keep it warm to serve it everyone at the same time.
Thanks,
Sílvia.
Hi Silvia! You could cook ahead, but tempura is meant to serve right before it’s eaten… so if your guests eat shrimp tempura for the first time, I recommend serving crispy tempura right out of the deep fryer.
Another option is to keep them warm in the oven until you serve. It’s not best but it’s better than they get cold. I’ve done this before and it is “okay” option. 🙂
Hope that helps!
I have a question about the dashi used in this recipe. I have faced confusion all over the internet about how much hondashi to use when making dashi. In your “how to make dashi” article you reference a much lower ratio of granules to water (I think it was ~1 tsp per 2-3 cups) than you do here. Is it just that this recipe calls for a stronger dashi?
When you make udon what ratio of granules would you use? I used 1 tsp to 1 cup of water when I made dashi for your beef udon and it came out great.
Hi Andy! I don’t use dashi powder so I can’t remember or confirm, but 1 tsp (6 g) for 2-3 cups (480 – 720 ml) was the measurement specified in the package, I believe. Dashi powder always give good taste when you add dashi powder, but flavors start to disappear as time passes (commonly known). So it is understandable that adding more dashi gives more rich dashi taste. 🙂
I made the tempura for dinner but fish not shrimp. Very good batter because yes i agree with you coasting did not overpower the fish. Am excited to do all veggies. Thank you. Love your recipes.
Hi Chit! Wonderful! The batter works for other seafood or meat or veggies too. 🙂 Thank you for trying this recipe! 🙂
What if I didn’t have cornstarch to dust the top of the shrimp?
HI Latasha! You can skip it or use flour. It’s just a tiny trick (and you can totally make it without it). 🙂
Thanks for posting this recipe Nami 😊🙏🏻 Now I can remake that tempura I had my Japan trip in Japan.
Do you think I can also use fish for tempura? Will it be using the same method as shrimp? Thanks Nami!
Hi Ony! Yes, you can use fish for tempura. We usually use white fish. Since it’s smaller/flat pieces, cooking time will be about the same time as shrimp. Enjoy!
As an Issei in his 60s living in America lamenting when our mother used to cook tempura, following your recipes and site brings back memories of my youth. Thank you.
Hi Junji! Thank you so much for your kind feedback! I’m so happy to hear you get to enjoy this dish at home. 🙂
Hi, would this recipe work for nigiri sushi? When I was in Japan I fell in love with shrimp tempura nigiri with mayo but I can’t find it anywhere in the states. I know for the mayo I would need to use kewpie but I’m not sure if I would need to do anything special with the tempura to make it work for nigiri. If you have any advice I’d appreciate it!
Hi Aiden! Hmm.. I never had nigiri sushi with shrimp tempura on top. I think it’s nice to drizzle some tempura sauce along with mayo?
Hi Nami, is it ok if I swap the corn starch for corn flour?
Hi Thadeus! Sorry, they are not the same thing. 🙂
Corn flour is a yellow powder made from finely ground, dried corn, while cornstarch is a fine, white powder made from the starchy part of a corn kernel. Corn flour is used similarly to other flours, whereas cornstarch is mainly used as a thickener.