Prawns in an air fryer
Fresh — the short answer
180°C (356°F) for 16–20 min
- For
- 300–500g in total
- In
- Combination microwave with air fry, single layer, pieces not touching
- Published for
- Panasonic Air Fry Combination Microwave Oven NN-CD88QS
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Part way
- turn the pieces over at about 8 min
- Check
- Curled into a loose C and turned opaque — a tight O means overdone
Fresh prawns get sixteen to twenty minutes at 180°C in the one table that names a state; other tables print four to ten minutes and name none.
Manufacturer figures with no state given — 9 from named machines, listed further down this page.
Questions people ask about prawns — 2 answered further down this page.
Fresh
The quick answer
180°C (356°F) for 16–20 min
Published range for 300–500g on the fixed Air Fry 1 level.
- Assuming
- 300–500g in total
- In
- Combination microwave with air fry
- Published for
- Panasonic Air Fry Combination Microwave Oven NN-CD88QS
- Loaded
- Single layer, pieces not touching
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Result
- Just cooked
Preparation
Season with oil, salt and black pepper, as the chart prints. It gives no amount of oil.
How to load it
Single layer, pieces not touching. The reference condition. Air reaches every surface, and times are the shortest the food will achieve.
While it cooks
At about 8–10 minutes: Turn the pieces over
The chart prints turn over at half of total time.
How to tell it is done
- Curled into a loose C and turned opaque — a tight O means overdone
- Firm but still springy
Where these figures came from — fresh
- Applies to
- Specific to this model
- Why this rating
- Four to five times the drawer-machine figure of four minutes for a similar weight. Prawns are the shortest cook in the catalogue and this is now the widest proportional disagreement in it.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-13
What this does not cover
- Published by the manufacturer for this model. It is evidence about this appliance and is not general advice.
- One drawer machine publishes 4 minutes for 450g of prawns. This is 16–20 minutes for 300–500g. Both are manufacturer figures and AirfryerHQ keeps both.
Sources (1)
Panasonic Air Fry Combination Microwave Oven NN-CD88QS — Operating Instructions (PDF)
Panasonic Marketing Europe GmbH — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom and European Union)
Relied on for: Prawns 300–500g, 16–20 minutes at 180°C on Air Fry 1, seasoned with oil, salt and pepper, turn over at half of total time.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-08-13 from tda.panasonic-europe-service.com
From frozen
Before anything else
From national food-safety authorities, not from us. These take precedence over any cooking time below.
Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)
Food cooked from frozen must reach the same core temperature as the same food cooked fresh — the frozen centre is the last thing to get there.
Target: 70°C in the thickest part.
How to tell, without a thermometer
- No ice or cold spot at the centre when the thickest piece is cut open
- Steaming hot throughout, tested in the middle rather than the edge
If it has not got there: Reduce the temperature by 10–20°C and give it longer. A lower set point lets the centre catch up before the surface passes the point of no return, and it is the single most useful adjustment for cooking from frozen.
Important: If the packaging says the product must be thawed before cooking, follow it. That instruction exists because the manufacturer has tested cooking it from frozen and it did not reach temperature reliably.
The quick answer
260°C (500°F) for 3–4 min
Published range for forty-six prawns weighing 450g between them, from the block headed Frozen Seafood.
- Assuming
- 450g in total, 46 pieces, From frozen
- In
- Multicooker with air fry
- Published for
- Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK
- Preheat
- Yes, before the food goes in
- Result
- Just cooked
Preparation
Frozen. The row prints no preparation. Its instruction is that there is no need to flip.
How to tell it is done
- Curled into a C and opaque pink throughout
- No grey translucency at the thickest part
Where these figures came from — from frozen
- Applies to
- Specific to this model
- Why this rating
- A published row from the manufacturer's grill chart, with the named temperature level converted to degrees using the table in the same manufacturer's instruction booklet. Both documents were read; neither figure is inferred.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-13
What this does not cover
- Published by the manufacturer for this appliance. It is evidence about this machine and is not general advice.
- This is a contact grill plate rather than a perforated basket. Heat reaches the food by conduction from the plate as well as by airflow, which is a different mechanism from air frying and transfers poorly to a basket machine.
Sources (1)
Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK — Inspiration Guide and cooking charts (PDF)
SharkNinja Europe Limited — Manufacturer cooking chart (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: The temperature, time and quantity for prawns.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk
Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 735/0124, published alongside the instruction booklet as a second document.
Chilled
Cooked as fresh: use the fresh figures above. Raw food sold chilled is the fresh state under another name, and the charts those figures come from start from fridge-cold.
Defrosted
Cooked as fresh: use the fresh figures above. Once it is defrosted all the way through it is at fridge temperature and cooks as fresh does; no chart read for this catalogue tells the two apart.
Leftover (reheating)
No time or temperature for this, and not by accident
Leftover (reheating) is a real question for prawns. AirfryerHQ holds no published figure for it: not one of the manufacturer manuals read for this catalogue gives a chart row for this food in this state.
We are not going to produce one by adjusting the fresh figure above. A time arrived at that way would appear on this page looking exactly like a time somebody measured, and you would have no way to tell the difference.
What still governs, figure or no figure
These rules come from national food-safety authorities and apply whether or not anybody has published a cooking time. They are the part of this question we can answer.
Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)
Cool cooked food and get it into the fridge within one to two hours, keep the fridge between 0 and 5°C, and eat leftovers within 48 hours.
How to tell, without a thermometer
- There is no sensory test for this rule, and that is the point: food held too long at the wrong temperature does not necessarily look, smell or taste different
If it has not got there: Throw it away. This is the one rule in this catalogue where the remedy is not 'cook it longer', because cooking does not reverse it.
Important: Cooked rice is the sharpest case: Bacillus cereus toxins form at room temperature and survive reheating. Rice left out for more than an hour goes in the bin.
Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)
Reheat leftovers until steaming hot all the way through, and only reheat them once.
Target: 70°C in the thickest part, or an equivalent from the table below.
How to tell, without a thermometer
- Steam rising from the centre, not just the edges
- The middle is hot to the touch, tested after removing it from the appliance
If it has not got there: Keep going, and break dense food up or spread it out so the heat can reach the middle. If it will not heat through evenly, a microwave to get the centre hot followed by the air fryer to crisp the surface is a better tool for the job than the air fryer alone.
Important: Cooked rice and pasta left at room temperature can develop Bacillus cereus toxins that reheating does not destroy. If cooked rice has been out of the fridge for more than an hour, discard it rather than reheating it.
| Temperature | Held for | Measured at |
|---|---|---|
| 70°C | 2 min | the centre of the food |
| 75°C | 30 sec | the centre of the food |
What we do hold for prawns: fresh, from frozen. Those are a different question, not a starting point for this one.
Manufacturer figures with no state given
Each of these is a published figure for one named machine. The manufacturer does not say whether this is fresh or frozen. So they are kept apart from the figures above, and not used as the answer for any of them.
Cookworks 9L Dual Air Fryer: 180°C for 4 min
A single published figure for a stated 450g. The shortest cook in the catalogue, and the same manual's own Shrimp preset defaults to 8 minutes at the same temperature.
Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK: 260°C for 3–5 min
Published range for twenty-one jumbo prawns weighing 600g between them. The chart's king size prawns row is a different figure and is not held here.
Cookworks 5L Digital Air Fryer KDF-596D: 180°C for 8 min
The Shrimp programme's default of eight minutes at 180°C. Nothing more is printed about it.
Tefal Easy Fry Classic EY501827 4.2L Air Fryer & Grill: 170°C for 4 min
A single published figure of four minutes for twelve prawns, not a range. Recorded as published rather than given an invented spread.
Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer 8.3L Air Fryer & Grill — Drawer 1: 200°C for 8–10 min
The table's own 8–10 minutes in drawer 1 of the Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer, for a quantity it prints as 'up to 500 g to 1 kg'. It does not say what moves the time within that. The manufacturer does not state whether these are fresh or frozen.
Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer 8.3L Air Fryer & Grill — Drawer 2: 200°C for 8–10 min
The table's own 8–10 minutes for up to 400 g in drawer 2 of the Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer. It does not say what moves the time within that. The manufacturer does not state whether these are fresh or frozen.
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex 9L EY9228G1 — Zone 1, with the divider in: 200°C for 8–10 min
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex, zone 1, the larger side, with the divider in: 500–1000 g.
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex 9L EY9228G1 — Zone 2, with the divider in: 200°C for 8–10 min
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex, zone 2, the smaller side, with the divider in: up to 400 g.
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex 9L EY9228G1 — The whole drawer, with the divider out: 160°C for 8–10 min
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex, the whole drawer, with the divider out: 20 prawns. Given as a count where the zones are given by weight, and 40°C cooler.
Questions people ask about prawns
- Are my prawns raw or already cooked, and does it matter?
- It matters a great deal. Grey, translucent prawns are raw and need cooking; pink, opaque ones were cooked before they were packed and only need heating through. Giving cooked prawns a raw prawn's time is the commonest way to make them rubbery. The pack says which you have.A general cooking principle, not a measurement.
- Shell on or shell off?
- Either works. A shell slows the heat a little and protects the flesh, which gives slightly more margin on a food with very little; peeled prawns take seasoning better and cook fastest. Whichever you choose, dry them well first so they do not steam.A general cooking principle, not a measurement.
What usually goes wrong
Rubbery. Prawn muscle sets early and then keeps contracting, and at four to eight minutes the difference between one chart's figure and another's is most of the cooking time. The curl is the doneness signal worth learning: a loose C is done and a tight O is overdone.
Running the appliance safely
The rules for the machine are the same whatever is in it: plug it straight into a wall socket, leave clear space round it, do not overfill it, do not leave it running unattended, and unplug it at black smoke or an electrical smell. They are set out once, each with its source and what to do if it has already happened, and not repeated on every food. Every rule for running an air fryer safely.
Prawns in fast-moving hot air
Prawn muscle sets at a low temperature and then keeps contracting, squeezing out water and turning the texture rubbery. There is no fat and almost no connective tissue to slow that down. The shape helps a little — a prawn curls as it cooks, which is a visible doneness signal most foods do not give you — and the surface browns readily because of the sugars and proteins in the shell and the residual coating.
Where to go from here
The pages that answer the questions this one tends to raise.
- Using a thermometer, and where to put itThe times above are for a piece that is not the one you are holding. A probe measures yours, which is what the safety rule on this page asks for.
- How food actually gets crispyWhy patting it dry, spacing it out and a little oil are all the same instruction — so you can apply it when a page runs out.
- Cooking from frozenUsually cooler and longer than the same food fresh, and never worked out from the fresh figure.
- Reheating leftoversA different question governed by a different rule — steaming hot throughout, and only once.
- Why published timings differIf another chart says something else, this is usually why — and which one to believe.