You Can Make A Really Good Shrimp Po Boy With An Air Fryer.

Bonus air fried pickles below the text.

*Half a pound of large shrimp, peeled and deveined

*1 cup of breadcrumbs, panko recommended

*1/2 cup flour, all purpose or corn both work well

*1 egg

*1 generous sprinkle Creole seasoning blend (Tony Chachere’s, Zatarain’s or Slap Ya Mama are all good)

*8 to 12 inches of french bread

*One half of a Roma tomato, sliced

*Butter lettuce, shredded or in small pieces

*As many dill pickles, sliced into coins, as you like

*Mayonnaise

0. Before we start: This recipe is for one generously portioned sandwich. If you are making several at a time, not all ingredients need to be increased proportionally. You’re always only using a few slices of tomato per sandwich or a few pickle coins, but each sandwich should generously overflow with crispy golden seafood.

1. To start, defrost and thoroughly dry shrimp. Peel and devein if needed.

2. Set up a workspace for breading your shrimp. I use two shallow reusable meal prep trays, but small bowls or eighth pans will work. You’re going to combine the breadcrumbs, flour and Creole seasoning in one pan and crack the egg into the other. If you’re making several sandwiches, you may want to use two eggs. Scramble the egg with a fork, whisk or chopstick in the pan.

   

3. I like putting my breaded shrimp directly into the air fryer basket, so I spray the basket with nonstick cooking spray before I start breading. Using wet hand/dry hand, dip the shrimp first in your bread coating, then into the egg wash, then back into the bread coating a second time. If you are not already comfortable with wet hand/dry hand, don’t be put off if you mistakenly use the wrong hand a few times and get a little messy. It’s not an intuitive habit, even for experienced home cooks.

4. Evenly space the breaded shrimp in the air fryer basket with room around each for air to circulate. Depending on the size of your shrimp and your air fryer, this will vary - mine fits a little over a dozen. The principles of an air fryer and a deep fryer are the same here: you will get better results frying several smaller batches rather than overloading the basket and losing heat circulation. Nothing should touch each other.

   

5. Air fry shrimp until golden brown, about 350 degrees and 10 minutes. Temperatures and cook times will vary depending on your make and model - this is why recipes for air frying are a bit like recipes for the microwave; you are relying on people to have the same points of reference and machines simply vary too much in their wattage, efficiency and capacity. You have to trust your eyes and pull the basket at regular intervals, so an air fryer with a good window helps. Mine is a Cuisinart TOA-28, which I love because I can pull the pan, check doneness, and get back to cooking in about 10 seconds. (Perfect for anxious cooks like me.)

6. While shrimp air fry, assemble sandwich. I like to split the french bread down the middle, generously butter both sides, and slap it butter-side down in a preheated skillet until golden, but this isn’t necessary if you have truly great french bread. Have your mayo, lettuce, tomato and pickle ready to go if you want your po boy “dressed”. It’s perfectly fine without these if you want it plain, or with just a bit of melted butter brushed on, as many restaurants in New Orleans will do.

7. When shrimp are crispy and golden brown, pull from air fryer and pile onto your french bread with tongs. Dress your po boy as you see fit and cut in half with a serrated knife. Shrimp should be generously spilling off the sides. Eat while hot.

Some other thoughts on this recipe:

*Did you like this format? Mellie and I are trying to front load the recipes in the posts above text, but that is kind of tricky to do in practice when recipes often require knowledge and context outside the mechanical actions of executing a dish. Today I want to see if bolding the key information in each step helps or hinders. Please let me know.

*What’s the deal with air fryers? This is something people ask a lot, because the device has been marketed primarily as a novelty for the health conscious. Skeptical shoppers, counterprogrammed to fear single use kitchen gadgets, often regard air fryers as just a smaller oven. Which is true! It is not much more than that, but it turns out there are some use cases where a small oven that heats up instantly and has a more powerful fan relative to its size for air circulation is very useful for a home cook already in possession of a full-sized stovetop.

If I could change one thing about how air fryers are marketed and sold, I would pitch it as a tool for the lazy, not for the healthy. We aren’t trying to make a sandwich that’s good for you here - we may be cutting out some oil, but we are nonetheless eating a big ass hoagie loaded with mayonnaise, breading, and salt. The difference that the air fryer makes is that I would never attempt this at home just for myself if I had to heat up a whole pot of oil. The mess just isn’t worth it for me unless I am feeding a half dozen people.

One final advantage of the air fryer is that you probably can’t deep fry shrimp as well as what’s available in New Orleans. You’re just out of your depth against the professionals for whom deep frying is something between a profession and an art form. I hazily recall an anecdote about Paul Prudhomme rotating through his restaurant’s dozen deep fryers on an hourly basis to keep temperatures and oil cleanliness precise. You just can’t beat the taste of a memory. The end product of this recipe is still very good and hits all the same notes as the real deal. Do try to get shrimp sourced from the Gulf of Mexico, though.

Bonus recipe:

Do the same breading technique as above but on sliced pickle chips. Air fried pickles are the world’s best bar snack and stupid easy. Make a sauce of equal parts mayonnaise, sour cream, ketchup, mustard and Cajun seasoning for dipping. Happy hours at home will never be the same.