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Crab Rangoon Recipe
What is Crab Rangoon?
It’s an appetizer found in many Chinese restaurants in the United States.
Many people wonder if crab Rangoon is authentic and the answer is no. It is a classic American creation even though they are mostly served in Chinese restaurants.
These dainty appetizers are basically fried wontons filled with cream cheese, with real crab meat in the filling.
They are deep-fried to golden brown and usually served with a pink-color sweet and sour dipping sauce.
I first encountered them at a Chinese buffet restaurant in the Midwest. They have since become one of my favorite appetizers!
How to Make Crab Rangoon?
There are three few key ingredients in the recipe: cream cheese, wonton wrapper and crab meat.
First, you make the filling by mixing cream cheese and crab meat together.
Next, wrap the filling in the middle of a wonton wrapper. Make sure you seal it tight and there is no leakage.
Finally, deep fry until golden brown. It’s that easy!
Tips for the Best Homemade Crab Rangoon
For the best results, please follow the cooking techniques below:
- Use square wonton wrappers to wrap the cream cheese and crab filling. You can get wonton wrappers at Asian supermarkets or food stores. You can also find wonton wrappers in many regular supermarkets now, for example: Whole Foods.
- Use real crab meat for the cream cheese filling. You can use fresh crab meat, frozen crab meat or canned crab meat. If crab is not an option, you can use imitation crab meat sticks. Just cut and shred up the imitation crab meat before using.
- Wrap the cream cheese and crab mixture using wonton wrappers. Do not overfill with too much filling.
- Seal each wonton wrapper tight so there is no leakage. Pinch it up like a little purse and deep fry to golden brown.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Is There Crab in Crab Rangoon?
Yes! You can use either fresh crab, canned crab or artificial crab.
What’s the Difference between Fried Wontons and Crab Rangoon?
Fried wonton is a Chinese appetizer wrapped with wonton wrapper and filled with meat such as ground pork, chicken and/or shrimp.
The latter is a type of wontons with cream cheese and crab as the filling.
Can You Freeze Crab Rangoon?
Yes, once they are assembled and wrapped, you can freeze them in the refrigerator. Thaw to room temperature before deep-frying.
Can I Use Air Fryer for This Recipe?
Yes, you certainly can. Just follow the instructions of your manual for perfectly crispy and authentic crab rangoons better than Chinese takeout.
Can I Bake Crab Rangoon?
Yes, you can use an oven to bake. The color of the wrapper won’t turn golden brown, but they are equally delicious!
Crab Rangoon Calories per Serving?
Crab Rangoon is pretty healthy and each one is only 26 calories, so you can definitely eat lots of them.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
Serve Crab Rangoon with other Chinese recipes. For a Chinese-restaurant style meal at home, I recommend the following recipes.
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Crab Rangoon
Ingredients
- 1 cube Kraft Philadelphia Regular Cream Cheese (room temperature)
- 2 oz. crab meat (finely diced, or 2 sticks imitation crab meat )
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 20 wonton wrappers
- oil (for deep frying)
Instructions
- Mix all the cream cheese, crab meat, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Stir to blend well. Place about 1 tablespoon of the cream cheese filling in the middle of a wonton wrapper.
- Dab some water on the outer edges of the wonton wrapper and fold the two ends of the wrapper together. Fold the other two ends to make a tiny parcel pictured below. Pinch to seal tight and make sure that there is no leakage.
- Heat up a pot of oil for deep-frying and fry the crab rangoon until golden brown. Dish out with a strainer or slotted spoon, draining the excess oil by laying the crab rangoon on a dish lined with paper towels.
- Let the crab rangoon cools down a bit before serving them with sweet and sour sauce.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Best recipe ever taste better than the Chinese/American Crab Rangoon they serve at the mall, I out cooked them my first try thanks again and I saved about 30 bucks
I made crab Rangoon by the way
😊👍
Best
To the person who modified these for a seafood allergy:
Oyster Sauce has OYSTERS.
If your friend is really allergic, you’d know pretty fast.
Or did they not eat the sauce? Risky.
Or do they only gave a crustacean allergy, not mollusks?
OMG Can’t even read the recipe through ALL THOSE ADS!! There are much better recipes for this out there. Powdered Sugar…. come on, Man!
You do realize that lots of savory recipes call for sweetener whether it be honey, sugar etc? It’s not always used to sweeten the food. It can be used to cut down on bitterness or make it less acidic such as when adding a bit of sugar to spaghetti sauce. Crab Rangoon typically has a bit of a sweet taste to it so the use of the confectioners sugar makes sense especially since it’s a very small amount. The ads can be cumbersome, but this is one of the better recipes for Crab Rangoon.
Thank you!
To me, the sugar makes all the difference!
Exactly! They’re actually supposed to have a sweetness to them. It’s always very obvious that a person knows nothing about cooking when they make comments like that. I’m going to make these again soon. They’re so good!
MOST CRAB RANGOON HAS POWDERED SUGAR IN IT
I just made it and it was very good. It needs the sugar believe it or not
They could only have a mollusc allergy, the person who made it also could have forgotten to mention they used vegetarian oyster sauce, which uses oyster mushrooms.
I add in finely chopped green onions and some lemon juice. Yum!
I added green onions also. But that’s the only thing I did different. I am so addicted to these ?
One of my neighbors is allergic to seafood, so I switched these up & created one cream cheese with green onions & the other, an oriental style sausage & cream cheese with carrots, green onions & using oyster sauce along with worsteshire sauce & freshly minced garlic. Your formulation of these Rangoon’s is so spectacular, that it lends itself very well to any type of substitutions. Thank you so much! It will make our Super Bowl Party that much greater than usual!
Hi Tita thanks for trying my crab Rangoon recipe. https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
If using real, raw crab meat, do i need to cook the meat before mixing with the cream cheese, etc? Or will it cook enough in the oil to add it raw?
If they are crab meat, they are already cooked.
What temperature do I bake the crab Rangoon & for how long?
Thank you
Maria
Quick and easy! Thanks for sharing❤️?
Thanks Erlyn.
Your 1st encounter in a chinese buffet in midwest. Do I know you? ?
These would be a great appetizer option! Love them!
Make sure you cook in oil on the “cool side’ as you do not want “nice and brown” dumplings. You’ll have a great crispy dumpling but you’ll lose the delicate flavor of the filling.
This recipe “works” as you are not “loading up” the filling with other stronger flavors (garlic & ginger) that would mask the delicate crab flavor. FYI – the common SNOW CRAB CLUSTER sold in all local grocery stores in So California contains 2 3/4 ounces of crab meat.
This included about a Tbsp of juice from within the crab shells. Added 1/4 tsp Corn Starch to “set” these flavorful crab juices.
Instead of salt, used 1/2 tsp of Pink Baby Brined Shrimp in a jar from the refrigerated section of a Chinese market. In this manner, I get both salt and a little extra flavor “from the sea”,
Thanks for all your wonderful recipes Bee.
Awesome ideas for modifying the recipe. Thank you for sharing. I can’t wait to try this!