5 Viral TikTok Seafood Recipes for Every Budget

The food side of TikTok is the place to be for inclusive, innovative, and inspiring recipes. It’s home to sheet pan dinners, one-pot pasta dishes, and shortcuts for gourmet meals. So, if you’re in the market for new seafood recipes to suit your budget, it’s time to pull up the app and get scrolling. You might swipe through a few flukes, but the winners are worth the look. Below, you’ll find five of the trendiest options the platform has to offer.

5 Viral TikTok Seafood Recipes to Try at Home

You can’t talk about trending TikTok recipes without mentioning one of the originals: the baked feta pasta by @grilledcheesesocial. Since it came out, many other creators have posted their versions, with some adding shrimp to turn it into a hearty seafood pasta recipe. Do you want more seafood-focused choices? Try these five!

1. Salmon rice bowl

In 2021, TikTok content creator @emilymariko’s salmon rice bowl video went viral. You couldn’t scroll through your “For You” page for weeks without seeing people eagerly trying it out for themselves. One Delish.com writer described Mariko’s dish as “one of the best looking, healthy lunches” they’d ever seen. Two years later, it’s still the go-to of many busy home cooks who want to give their leftovers a new life.

Mariko’s original version has zero cooking involved and consists of two main ingredients: leftover salmon and rice (topped with an ice cube for added moisture), microwaved until warm. She flavors her bowl with soy sauce, sriracha, and mayo, then wraps each bite with nori. If salmon is out of your budget, feel free to swap it out for canned tuna or mackerel.

2. Cheesy tuna pie lumpia

Filipina food content creator @abigailfmarquez regularly gets 1M+ likes on her TikTok videos. All those kudos are well-deserved: everything she makes looks mouthwatering. In April 2022, she posted a recipe for her version of local fast-food chain Jollibee’s cheesy tuna pie. But instead of a flaky pie crust, she uses lumpia wrappers to encase the molten filling.

Marquez exclaims in the video's caption, “Ito na ata ang best creation ko in life.” The concept is simple yet swak na swak. Anything wrapped in lumpia wrappers and deep-fried until golden is guaranteed to get resounding applause from your guests. The ingredients she used were all budget-friendly staples, too, including canned tuna, boxed melty cheese, and Lady’s Choice Real Mayonnaise. It requires more work than Mariko’s bowl, but it’s worth it.

3. Shrimp fried rice

Sometimes, all you need to make your food video go viral is to serve viewers a classic recipe they’ll never get tired of seeing. That’s what Korean-American chef and restaurateur @chefchrischo did with his take on shrimp fried rice. His video, posted in 2020, has raked in 30M views and 2.7M likes. Never underestimate people’s love for perfectly cooked fried rice.

Cho’s version uses a 1:1 ratio of day-old rice to shrimp, eggs, carrots, and onions. This method ensures that every spoonful has just the right amount of everything. He fries the components in a wok (for that smoky wok hei flavor) with lots of oil, then hits them with a pat of butter, which he calls his “secret ingredient.” Cho uses fresh peeled shrimp, but frozen is an economical option that can be just as good in this recipe.

4. Seafood boil

While this dish and other variations on buttered mixed seafood recipes are perpetually trending, the seafood boil recently blew up thanks to @ashyizzle’s mukbang. In the clip, Ashley dives into a big bowl of seafood – weighing at least four pounds by her estimation. The feast consists of crawfish, shrimp, lobster, and king crab legs, all swimming in Cajun sauce.

Unfortunately, fresh seafood, especially items like lobster and crab, will always be on the higher end. You can cut them from your version or add them in smaller quantities. Bulk up your boil with mussels, clams, and squid – inexpensive but still loaded with that sought-after seafood flavor. Sausages, potatoes, and corn are other traditional and affordable add-ons.

For the sauce, give your seafood boil a Filipino flair with coconut. Take inspiration from ginataang seafood – essentially the local version of this Cajun stew. Use packets of Knorr Ginataang Gulay Recipe Mix to speed up that part of the cooking process. When everything’s ready, bring out the plastic gloves and chow down! P.S. In case you have leftovers, they’ll be perfect in a seafood paella recipe.

5. Spicy salmon crispy rice

Are you looking for a new way to enjoy spicy salmon? You must try @ryancantcook’s recipe for spicy salmon on rice. The dish stays true to its Japanese inspiration by using sushi rice and fresh sashimi-grade fish. But Ryan Alexander gives the staple an indulgent twist by frying the cooked rice until golden brown and crispy. Then, he tops it with a mixture made with Japanese mayo, sriracha, and soy sauce.

If there were ever a time to splurge on a premium salmon, it’s now. Unlike the seafood boil, this dish doesn’t require much, so it will make a difference if you spring for the top-shelf stuff. It works with sashimi-grade tuna, too, if that option proves lighter on your wallet. Head to your wet market suki as soon as they open to get your hands on the best-quality fish, then hurry home to make this. You’ll have no regrets.

Which of these TikTok-trending seafood recipes are you trying out first? You can adjust these to better suit your budget and what’s available to you. Give ‘em a shot – your version might even turn out better than the original!