Viewers lambasted a TikTok influencer after she cooked live crabs in an air fryer.
The cooking video picked up more than 4 million views by Wednesday, ever since Chels — or @ContentwithCee — shared the controversial clip earlier this week.
“Let’s make a crab boil in the airfryer… Soo freaking GOOD!” the caption to the video read.
@contentwithcee Let’s make a crab boil in the airfryer… Soo freaking GOOD! #bluecrab#livecrab#cooktok#fyp ♬ original sound – ShawnWalka
The blue crabs squirmed as Chels seasoned them in a large bowl.
“My air fryer is kind of small, so I could only fit like two or three, so I went ahead and put the two crabs in the bowl. I was scared, so I was like jumping because they were live. Did I mention that?” Chels said.
Chels dropped the crabs into the fryer, which only had a “fish” setting, and cooked them at about 395 to 400 degrees for 15 minutes, she said.
“Now, do not knock it until you try it,” she said. “It was kind of sad watching them kind of — you know. But, these crabs came out so good and juicy; I was not expecting them to come out this good. I ate both of those crabs in like two minutes. I will be air frying my crabs from now on.”
But users across social media weren’t happy with how Chels cooked the live crabs.
“Your air fryer didn’t have a crab setting because it’s an insane thing to do,” one TikTok user wrote.
“For future reference, put them in the freezer so they fall asleep and then cut the apron so it doesn’t feel a thing,” another said.
“Put it in the fridge and the smack the apron on the edge of the counter and it will instantly end the crab. No need to torture it like this,” a third user added.
Other users didn’t see an issue with Chels’s preparation.
“You drop them in boiling water live. What’s the difference?” a user on X wrote.
You drop them in boiling water live. What’s the difference?
— thechanceband (@TheChanceBand) May 6, 2025
“Air fried are more tasty,” another X user wrote.
Air fried are more tasty.
— Zé bitcoio (@ZeBitcoio) May 6, 2025
Even boiling live crabs is a painful and inhumane way to kill them, according to the Cornwall Good Seafood Guide.
First, the animal should be stunned.
One can do this by wrapping the crab in a wet cloth and then putting it in the freezer, or packing ice around it.
This will put the crab into a sleep state called torpor, after which it can be killed by severing the main nervous system and draining the crab of its blood.
A sharp knife would work for this process but could be dangerous to the user if it were to slip during the spiking process.
A Phillips-head screwdriver would work just as well, according to the Hatfield Marine Science Center at Oregon State University.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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