How many kilos of prawns per person?

When you’re feeding multiple people or hosting dinner guests, you always want to make sure you have enough food for the entire group.

Some things are much harder to calculate than others. When it comes to barbecue, it’s easy to make too much or even more than enough.

But when it comes to shellfish, it’s much more difficult to calculate how much you need.

Shrimp come in many different sizes and are cooked in many different ways, so understanding portion sizes and planning for your audience becomes a bit more of a challenge to get right.

So how many kilos of prawns per person? Typically a serving of shrimp is measured at about 1/4 pound per person. However, it will depend on the serving size people take and how much they eat.

In this guide, we will go into the details of how many kilos of prawns you need per person.

We’ll talk about small groups and large groups, and even different sizes of prawns and how you can plan those details into the mix. We have everything you need for shrimp, so read on.

Consider the size and variety of shrimp

Prawns come in many different sizes and varieties. You can find colossal, jumbo, large, medium, small and even extra small prawns when you go to the supermarket.

If that doesn’t complicate it enough, you can also buy shrimp with or without the tail and possibly even with or without the skin.

Each of these details will make a difference when calculating the amount of shrimp you really need.

Colas really affect weight and portion sizes, especially when cooking or serving in bulk. You will have to take these details into account when planning how many kilos of shrimp you are going to buy.

With that in mind, let’s talk about the different sizes and how that can make a difference.

As a little help, when a shrimp has a size and is classified as something like jumbo, small or any other size, the category is based on weight.

This means that any shrimp of that size falls within a specific weight range. This helps you plan portions and servings.

This is what happens. If you have jumbo shrimp on hand, you may only have about 10 shrimp in a pound.

This could only be enough for 1 or 2 people. For jumbo shrimp, you may need to plan on a pound to a full pound per person you’re serving.

Of course, then you have the other end of the spectrum.

Small or extra small prawns can have 60+ prawns in a single pound and will probably serve 4+ people or even more when you break them down.

Here’s a quick reference chart of the approximate amount of shrimp you can see per pound based on size. 

This is not an exact science, it just gives you a general idea of how many shrimp you can expect to find for every kilo of shrimp you buy.

Technically, shrimp sizes even go to extra-colossal, but this is actually a rare size that you are not likely to find. Prawns that are considered extra colossal will be 10 or less per kilo in most cases.

We also want to point out that some shrimp are actually even smaller than the extra-small ones we have listed here and are sometimes over 150 shrimp per pound. It is rare to find them so small, just as it is rare to find extra colossal ones.

Look for the “U”

A good way to determine how many shrimp you can get is to look for a “U” on the package.

The U is usually accompanied by some sort of number. That U and the number mean you have less than that amount of shrimp in the container, but it should be close to the number as well.

So if that number is smaller, you have larger shrimp, and if it’s larger, you have smaller shrimp.

Not all containers are labeled like this, but most likely all containers will have a count or something similar that tells you approximately how many pieces of shrimp you will have in your container.

heads and tails

When it comes to the size of the prawns, you also have to think about the heads and tails in the mix.

In the table we have shared earlier, this refers to prawns that have been deveined and peeled as well. In this specific case, this means that the shrimp no longer has a skin, head, or tail for the purposes of these measurements.

Of course when you buy prawns most of the larger ones still have tails and most of the smaller ones don’t, but you can buy them either way so be aware of what you’re buying if that makes a difference to you.

Prawn serving sizes

Now we come to the heart of the matter. How can you know what is a suitable serving for people? Understanding what constitutes a serving will help you plan better and know how many kilos of shrimp you need to buy when you are ready.

The guidelines are general recommendations and are not necessarily set in stone. You have to remember that not everyone will eat exactly the serving size.

Some people can eat more and others less. You will also see that the size of the prawns varies, even if you have a general idea of the servings.

In general, the recommendation is that 1 pound of shrimp will feed up to 4 people if served as a main dish. We’re not sure these same measurements apply when using jumbo shrimp, but this is the recommended serving size.

The serving size also depends on whether it is cooked or not. For example, if the shrimp is raw when you buy it, you should expect about 1 pound per person.

However, if it’s cooked, you can plan for more like 1/3 pound per person to plan conservatively.

medium prawns

When you buy medium shrimp you get about 30-35 shrimp per pound in most cases. If you assume that your medium prawn pack is going to have 32 prawns, this would equate to about 8 prawns per person.

This is the basic recommendation, but we would plan for 10 prawns per serving to make sure you have enough.

jumbo prawns

When you put the same theory into practice with jumbo shrimp, adjust the number of shrimp needed to feed each person. The kilo measurements will probably be similar, with about 6-8 ounces per person.

In this case, the jumbo prawns will have a size of between 5 and 7 prawns per person. When you buy a pound of jumbo prawns you typically get 21-25 prawns so this evens out as well.

small prawns

Small shrimp can be quite small. This is the type of shrimp you see in things like popcorn shrimp. One pound can contain between 50 and 60 prawns and can feed 3 or 4 people.

With this thought process, you can most likely plan for about 15 shrimp per guest when using small shrimp.

How many kilos of prawns for a meeting?

Now that you have a base on the number of shrimp in a pound and how many people can serve a pound, let’s plan your gathering.

When planning, you have to find out how many people are going to attend the meeting and what kind of shrimp you are going to use.

Remember that if you buy raw prawns, you will need more kilos, and if you buy cooked, deveined and peeled prawns, you will need fewer kilos.

So let’s start with a small meeting.

Group of 4 people

According to the guides and serving suggestions that we have seen so far, to serve 4 people you only need about half a kilo of prawns. This is based on the theory that a single pound serves about 4 suggested servings.

In our opinion, we would buy more than a pound to have food to spare, but the choice is really up to you.

In this case, a pound is the recommended serving size, but you may decide to buy more, like 1 1/2 or 2 pounds, to make sure you have enough food for everyone.

Remember that some guests may end up eating more than a single serving based on this chart, so it’s better to have more food than not enough.

Group of 10 people

Now let’s look at a bigger party. A party of 10 is quite large, but you can estimate based on the same guidelines we’ve used so far in this guide.

Assuming you buy cooked, deveined and peeled prawns, you can still assume 4 people per kilo and then add a little more to give yourself a bit of margin for servings.

In this case, you have 10 people, so you need about 2.5 pounds of shrimp to cover them according to the table. However, if you want to make sure you have enough shrimp to go around, we recommend buying 3-3.5lbs.

Group of 25 or more

It becomes much more difficult to calculate how many kilos of shrimp you need as you add more people to the party.

The thing is, you don’t want to overspend or end up with a ton of leftover shrimp, but you also don’t want anyone to leave hungry.

The best thing you can do in this case is to calculate as close as possible to 4 people per kilo of prawns. From there, we recommend adding another pound for every 4 people to be safe.

For example, 4 people would traditionally need about 1 pound of shrimp, but in this case, plan on 1.5 pounds for 4 people.

If you calculate this, 25 people are divided into 6 groups of 4, plus one other person. So when you plan on 1.5lbs for 6 this means you need 9lbs of prawns.

You also have one more person to consider, so you might round up to 9.5 or 10 pounds of shrimp in this case. Remember this assumes you follow the guidelines for cooked, deveined and peeled shrimp.

If you buy raw prawns you actually have to plan on a pound to a pound per person as frozen prawns are heavier than cooked due to the weight of the water.

So in that case it would be more like 25 pounds of shrimp. You just have to know the difference when you shop!

How many kilos of prawns per person for a prawn boil?

Buying prawns for a prawn boil is a bit different from what we have shared above, although we still touch on this detail in places. The prawns for a shrimp boil are usually raw prawns with the shell and tail still on.

The amount of shrimp you actually need may depend on the amount of other things you are going to add to the boil. In this case, the prawns are probably not the whole meal, but the main part of the main dish.

As these are raw prawns that still have their shell and head and tail on, we recommend a minimum of a pound per person, but it’s probably safer to plan for around a full pound per person in the prawn boil.

This can certainly be expensive, because with 25 people, you’re planning on around 25 pounds of prawns, so plan ahead.

Related questions

We hope this guide to buying prawns per person, whether at dinner or in a prawn boil, will be a useful resource for you.

The size of the prawns sometimes makes a little difference, but understanding how many people 1 pound serves will answer all your prawn questions.

We invite you to review the following question and answer section for additional information.

What can be served as a garnish for a shrimp boil?

There are many things that go very well with a shrimp boil. You can even serve other things in the boil besides the prawns. Here are some good options to consider as a garnish:

• Cabbage salad
• Potato salad
• Pasta salad
• Macaroni Salad
• Corn
• baked beans
• macaroni and cheese
• Chips
• hushpuppies

Any of these dishes will work, but you can do almost anything you want.

What is the best size of prawns to boil?

Prawn boils usually go with larger prawns. You can choose the size you prefer, but we recommend that you use the large ones or the jumbo ones so that they stand out in the boil. Of course, we do not recommend that they be smaller than the medium ones.

How many people can feed 2 pounds of shrimp?

If you use raw shrimp, this will feed 2-3 people. However, if you use cooked shrimp, you will feed more like 4-6 people with 2 pounds of shrimp.