How To Peel and Devein Shrimp

peeled and devievned shrimp laying on parchement paper.

5 from 2 votes

Learn how to peel and devein shrimp with this easy step-by-step instructional photo guide. Once you learn how to clean shrimp yourself, you won’t have buy already peeled shrimp anymore.

Prep Time10

Total Time10

Course: Appetizer, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 322kcal

Author: Lyuba Brooke

Equipment

Paring knife
bowl
Cold water

Ingredients

1 lb shrimp in shell or any amount of shrimp

Instructions

Peel The Shrimp:

If the head is still attached, pull it off. To do that, get a hold of the shrimp head right where it is attaching to the rest of the body. Use a twisting motion to pull the head off the body.
Start pulling off the shell by the legs, cracking the underside. When you feel a small crack, pull on the legs to the side and pull the shell off the meat. Be assertive, larger shrimp have a tougher shell.
You can choose to pull off the tails of leave them on. Keeping the tails on makes a nice presentation but it’s much easier to eat shrimp without tails.
If you do decide to take off the tail, pinch it with your fingers and slide it off.

Devein Shrimp:

Use a paring knife or another small knife to slice just the top of the skin all along the back. Cut very gently to only cut through the top thin layer of skin to expose the “vein.”
When you see the dark, long string or a fat string, use the tip of the knife to gently pull it out. Use your fingers to gently pull on it to take it out of the shrimp. (Note: some shrimp may not have a large vein or visible one at all. That’s okay, just rinse out the cut with cold water.)
Rinse the shrimp under a gentle steam of cold water and it’s ready to cook or marinate.

Video

Notes

Cooking shrimp: You can cook shrimp on stove-top, in a hot skillet, grill it, fry it, or bake it in the oven. No matter what method you choose, shrimp takes up to 5 minutes to cook. Large shrimp may take a minute or so longer and small shrimp would take less than 5 minutes.
Keeping shell on: use thinner kitchen shears. Cut through the shell on top, from neck to the tail, and cut through the thin top layer of skin. Then, clean out the vein and digestive tract with a gentle stream of cold water.

Nutrition