6 Po’Boy Recipes With Catfish, Shrimp, and Fried Chicken

In June, 2001, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Rick Bragg wrote in Food & Wine that, “If nothing good happens to you in New Orleans at lunchtime, it’s your own damn fault.” He was referring specifically to the piquant pleasure of a jaunt to a local po’boy shop with a friend, and because he neglected to name the po’boy shop in question, a curt letter to the editor took him to task for his selfishness. It read in part, “Do you think Emeril got where he is today by begging customers not to tell anyone how to find his place?”

New Orleans, the letter writer asserted, is a city fiercely proud of its culture and cuisine, and Bragg was certainly aware. Spotting children playing yard trampoline on some discarded mattresses on his way to his friend’s car, he noted, “Everybody, it seems, has a favorite spot. This just happens to be his. Getting a po’boy means more than a sandwich. It means fried shrimp and oysters and Zapp’s Hotter ‘N Hot potato chips, and a dark Barq’s root beer, or a cold, golden Abita if you are not a Baptist, and that is as close to turning a flip on a raggedy mattress as an old man is going to get.”

A po’boy is, as he said, more than a sandwich, but what is the thing that transmogrifies a po’boy from tasty sandwich into a New Orleans icon?

What is a po’boy?

The late writer Julia Reed — a legendary New Orleans bon vivant — explained it in simple terms in her 2004 Food & Wine guide to the city. “At most places in New Orleans, a fried-oyster and/or shrimp sandwich means that the seafood is served on a halved loaf of French bread and called a po’boy.” 

Reed went on to extol the virtues of a rabbit and Creole mustard po’boy she’d enjoyed at Crabby Jack’s. It remains open to this day, and the current menu touts versions made with fried green tomatoes and shrimp remoulade, as well as slow roasted duck or cochon de lait. These ingredients are, by anyone’s reckoning, not seafood. Though oysters, shrimp, catfish, soft-shell crabs, and the like are frequently found on po’boy menus, you’re just as likely to see roast beef (sometimes in the form of cooked-down and saucy “debris”), fried chicken, alligator, deli meat, tofu, vegetables, or whatever you fancy. That po’boy will frequently arrive hot.

Is there a special kind of bread used in a po’boy?

What makes it a po’boy rather than just a run-of-the-mill sandwich a person could slap together anywhere on the planet is that aforementioned deployment of airy, flaky-crusted French bread, sliced first in half lengthwise, then split into top and bottom, sometimes leaving a little bit unsliced to act as a hinge. There are those who maintain that the Leidenheimer brand of French bread is the ne plus ultra of carb options for a po’boy. These people are correct.

How should I order a po’boy?

A “dressed” po’boy will likely include lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayonnaise, or a shop’s particular toppings. An “undressed” po’boy, as you might surmise, arrives denuded of any of these. This is purely a matter of preference.

Are po’boys fancy?

Nah. And that’s a good thing. Po’boys are one of those foods that are a great leveler. “Po” is indeed short for “poor,” and you might see the name spelled poor boy, po-boy, poboy, or po’boy. Local legends abound as to the sandwich’s origin, and we’ll refrain from adding to the internet chum by asserting that any one of them may be correct. 

Where is the best place in New Orleans to get a po’boy?

Emeril’s son E.J. Lagasse — a talented chef in his own right — wrote in a recent guide to his favorite restaurants in New Orleans, “Our food scene has such a rich heritage. And it’s unique because you have hole-in-the-wall po’boy shops that are up there with the best meal you’ve had all year.” Unlike Rick Bragg, he is more than willing to share his preferred po’boy spots, which are Parkway and Domilise’s where he favors an off-menu special — as did Anthony Bourdain — that’s a combination of fried shrimp and roast beef. Others may swear by Killer PoBoys, Domilise’s Po-Boy & Bar, Guy’s Poboys, Adams Street Grocery, or another, and they’re perfectly entitled to their pleasure.

When you’re not in close proximity to one of these options, try your hand at crafting one with these tried-and-true po’boy recipes. The world is your oyster — or soft-shell crab, if you prefer. Just don’t forget the French bread.