Po'boy: Recipe Makeover

New Orleans turns out one of the world's most exuberant sandwiches and calls it a poor boy: always joking down there, always delicious. An arm's length of crusty French bread piled high with Cajun-battered fried shrimp, lettuce, mayo, and salty pickles can, however, add up to your day's worth of calories and fat, along with today's and tomorrow's salt.

Delightfully crunchy and deliciously messy, this lighter po'boy delivers classic satisfaction. Food is sacred in New Orleans, but this is not heresy; it's a loving, lighter homage. We'll show you how we did it.

Classic
• 1,796 calories per sandwich
• 64 grams total fat
• 4,705 milligrams sodium

Makeover
• 400 calories per sandwich
• 10.4 grams total fat
• 736 milligrams sodium

We cut back on the bread by two-thirds, saving 550 calories and more than 1,000mg sodium per sandwich. The loaves are hollowed out and the insides ground to coat our crispy shrimp.

The shrimp is marinated, breaded, and then seared in a hot, lightly oiled pan to save 300 calories and 34g of fat per sandwich over the deep-fried version.

We skip the salty Cajun seasonings and heavy fixin's and add zest, flavor, and kick with a spicy rémoulade slaw, saving 100 calories and 1,250mg of sodium per sandwich.

Crusty, well-toasted bread; crispy pan-seared shrimp; and crunchy slaw make this sandwich worth every bite.