There’s an endless sea of fun recipes to wade through on TikTok, from pesto eggs to sparkling Americanos. For some, their time in the spotlight may be fleeting, but one ridiculously simple seafood recipe that’s all over our For You page shows no signs of fading. In fact, the video has garnered more than 704,000 likes and 9 million views to date. We talked to Jackie Hartlaub, the unofficial air fryer queen of TikTok and home cook behind @lowcarbstateofmind, about her spicy air fryer shrimp recipe to find out why it went gangbusters.

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Hartlaub’s latest viral recipe is just one of many low-carb gems on her TikTok account, which currently has north of 6 million followers. “People really like air fryer recipes and stuff with minimal ingredients,” she says. So much so, that she’s released an e-book starring 65 of her most popular recipes.

Though her air fryer dishes are popular across the board, something about her spicy shrimp resonated with FoodTok. Our guess is that it’s the recipe’s minimal ingredients and quick cook time that did the trick, and that it’s low-carb, protein-packed and keto-friendly to boot. Then again, maybe we’re overthinking things: Hartlaub chalks its success up to how “yummy” the shrimp look.

“Since I got an air fryer, I realized some foods are just made to be cooked in the air fryer—and shrimp is one of those foods,” she says in the video. (In case you’re wondering, she uses the Instant Pot Vortex.) The prep is super minimal: Defrosted shrimp are patted dry, dusted in dry seasonings and drizzled with oil, then popped in the air fryer for 7 minutes. Once they’re cooked, they’re dunked in a chipotle-spiked herb butter bath and ready to devour.

How to Make Spicy Air Fryer Shrimp

Of course, there are endless ways to riff on the spicy shrimp recipe. Hartlaub uses a special herb butter from Minerva Dairy, but you can easily substitute regular salted butter, homemade garlic herb butter or even roasted garlic butter, depending on what you have on hand. As for the crowning glory, Hartlaub uses Dan-O’s Hot Chipotle Seasoning, but don’t panic if you don’t have any in your pantry.

“Dan-O’s is super unique so it’s hard to say [a substitute], but some other good seasonings would be Old Bay, which is good on all seafood, Lawry’s garlic salt…Fire & Smoke [Society] has so many good seasonings too, and they sell them at Walmart,” she says. If you want to keep it as close to the O.G. as possible, use a mix of chipotle powder, salt, onion powder, garlic powder and a little lemon pepper to replicate the seasoning.

If you’re not into shellfish, you could give chicken, salmon or tilapia the same treatment. But Hartlaub recommends sticking to shrimp and serving it with a side of beef. “I love doing surf and turf with the shrimp, so I’ll eat it with a piece of steak and some sort of veggie, normally either asparagus or broccoli.”

Read on for details on how to make spicy air fryer shrimp at home.

Ingredients

• 25 jumbo raw, tail-on shrimp, peeled and deveined

• Paprika

• Oil (we’d use olive oil)

• 1 tablespoon salted or herb butter

• 1 tablespoon Dan-O’s Hot Chipotle Seasoning

Step 1: Defrost the shrimp. Preheat the air fryer to 375°F.

Step 2: Place the shrimp in a medium bowl and pat it dry. Sprinkle a generous amount of paprika over the shrimp and stir to coat. Drizzle the shrimp in oil and stir to coat again.

Step 3: Spread the shrimp in a single layer on the air fryer tray. Cook the shrimp for 7 minutes. While it cooks, melt the butter in a small bowl. Add the chipotle seasoning to the butter and stir to combine.

Step 4: Once cooked, add the shrimp to the butter mixture and toss until they’re evenly coated.

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