Air fryer shrimp po’boys
Cornmeal-crusted Cajun shrimp, crisp from the air fryer, piled into toasted rolls with lettuce, tomato and a tangy remoulade.
- 40 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $4.20 a serving
- 660 calories
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2½ tsp Cajun seasoning, divided
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 1 tsp hot sauce
- 1 dill pickle, finely chopped
- 1 lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup cornmeal
- 4 hoagie rolls
- 2 cups shredded lettuce
- 2 tomatoes, sliced
From your pantry
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
Each serving has about 660 calories, 36 g protein, 70 g carbs and 27 g fat, and costs about $4.20 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No hot sauce? Sriracha works.
- No raw shrimp? Frozen raw shrimp works.
- No hoagie rolls? French bread works.
- No shredded lettuce? Iceberg lettuce or romaine lettuce works.
- No tomatoes? Roma tomatoes work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the mayonnaise, mustard, ½ teaspoon of the Cajun seasoning, the lemon juice, hot sauce and pickle to make the remoulade. Chill it.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
the air fryer to 400°F and the shrimp dry with paper towels.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Beat the egg in a shallow bowl. In a second bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour and the rest of the Cajun seasoning.
Dip each shrimp in the egg, let the extra drip off, then press it into the cornmeal and set it on a plate.
Dolly’s tip: Use one hand for the egg and the other for the cornmeal, or both hands end up breaded.the shrimp with the oil, lay half in the basket in one layer, and air fry 7 to 9 minutes, flipping halfway, until and opaque all the way through.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 8 min
Dolly’s tip: Done shrimp curl into a loose C. A tight O means they went too long, so check the first batch early.Food safety: Shrimp are done when they turn pink and opaque all the way through and curl into a loose C. A tight O means overcooked, not unsafe.
Cook the second batch the same way, then wash your hands and anything the raw shrimp touched.
Timer: 8 min
Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Split the rolls and toast them cut side up in the air fryer for 1 to 2 minutes.
Timer: 1 min 30 sec
Spread the rolls with remoulade and fill them with lettuce, tomato and the hot shrimp.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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