Best Crab Rangoon Recipe (Cheese Wonton) | 炸蟹角
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Crab Rangoon, aka, Crab Ragu, Cheese wonton or Chinese cheese puff, is a famous American Chinese appetizer where golden crispy outer wonton shell meets the addictive creamy cheese filling.
I first learned about crab rangoon when I was at a local Chinese takeout restaurant, where I worked as a part-time helper on Fridays during my high school. Growing up in China, prior to working at this restaurant, I had very limited knowledge in American Chinese food because Chinese takeout was rarely on my family’s dining table.
So after I fried a dozen orders of crab rangoons on my first day at job, I was so curious that I had to try one of these cheese-filled wontons. I was instantly hooked and couldn’t stop eating it from the deep fryer basket until the owner started to stare at me…
Although I still haven’t be able to fully appreciate American Chinese dishes, I have remained a fan of this yummy wonton appetizer.
They are a must try for me whenever I get Chinese takeout or eat at a Chinese buffet restaurant (which doesn’t happen too often).
On a side note, if you enjoy crab rangoon a lot, you’ll probably also like this coconut shrimp dish and walnut shrimp which are both Chinese buffet favorites of mine.
On the other hand, if you want to learn more about traditional wonton dishes, here is a Cantonese style shrimp wonton recipe for you to check out.
Authentic Chinese food or not, these delicious cheese wontons are a great finger food for parties and they are very easy to make. You can find wonton wrappers in most of your local supermarkets nowadays. For the filling, you need cream cheese, scallions, and crab meat or imitation crab meat stick (what most of the restaurants use).
To start, cut the imitation crab sticks in halves. Separate the sticks into fine threads.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the imitation crab sticks with other cheese filling ingredients.
Mix into a lumpy paste.
Place teaspoonful of cream cheese filling in middle of a wonton skin. Wet the edges of the wonton wrapper with water.
Fold the wrapper in half to form a triangle. Press all edges to seal.
Optionally, brush some water on the left and right angles of the triangle and fold these two corners inward for better presentation.
Alternatively, fold the two opposing corners without sealing the edges.
Bring the other two corners to the center and seal all edges.
Over medium heat, deep fry the wontons for 1 – 2 minutes on each side or until golden crispy. Drain the excess oil on a paper towel and serve the wontons warm.
At restaurants, crab rangoon is served often with sweet plum sauce, duck sauce, and sweet and sour sauce. Feel free to serve it with your other favorite sauces or you can just serve it straight up.
Ingredients
- 1 pkg. wonton wrapper
- water
- ½ lb imitation crab sticks or lump crab meat
- 1 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened in room temperature
- 3 stalk scallions, finely chopped
- 1 tsp Worchester sauce
- 1 tsp soy sauce or ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp. sugar
Instructions
- Cut the imitation crab sticks in halves. Separate the sticks into fine threads In a large mixing bowl, combine the imitation crab sticks with other cheese filling ingredients. Mix into a lumpy paste.
- Place teaspoonful of cream cheese filling in middle of a wonton skin. Wet the edges of the wonton wrapper with water. Fold the wrapper in half to form a triangle.
- Press all edges to seal. Optionally, brush some water on the left and right angles of the triangle and fold these two corners inward for better presentation.
- Alternatively, fold the two opposing corners without sealing the edges. Bring the other two corners to the center and seal all edges.
- Over medium heat, deep fry the wontons for 1 – 2 minutes on each side or until golden crispy. Drain the excess oil on a paper towel and serve the wontons warm.
- At restaurants, crab rangoon is served often with sweet plum sauce, duck sauce, and sweet and sour sauce. Feel free to serve it with your favorite sauce or you can just serve it straight up.
Enjoy!
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such an easy and yummy recipe thank you!!
These were great. Great and simple recipe. Anyone with their silly changes or complaint over personal preferences… can just post their own dang recipe somewhere… this is YOUR recipe and it is as it should be.
Really tasty. When you say “a teaspoon” of filling in each, do you mean an itty-bitty measuring teaspoon, the spoon I use to stir my tea? The filling seemed so much less than the wrapper. (To be fair, I failed to squeeze the air out when I was crimping them, so they inflated impressively; I was a little afraid some would explode.) But in the end, they had a little film of filling on the inside. Will definitely make again. (Possibly with more filling.)
Thanks for the crab rangoon recipe.
http://www.fooddoz.com
Could use half the scallions ,all I tasted was scallions, ended up adding more cheese and incorporated the crab more by using the food processor so filling is smooth n creamy
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Crab Rangoons are meant to be a savory treat NOT a sweet treat, if you want them to turn out their best, omit the t. of sugar. Crab meat and sugar should never be in the same recipe. If you want to make a sweet treat, omit the crab and onions and just use cream cheese, sugar , and cinnamon. I hate when I go to a restaurant and the crab rangoons are sweet. That is just gross!
Thanks for the suggestion. I agree this should be a savory appetizer. I’d say the amount of sugar in the recipe doesn’t turn it into a sweet dish, it’s more of balancing out the flavor. I’ll try without the 1tsp sugar next time to see if it makes any difference. Thanks.
The Crab Rangoon was yummy!The only thing I left out was the soy because my son is allergic to it .Add a pinch of salt to it.This recipe is a keeper.
hi Sandra, thanks for the feedback and Im glad that you liked the recipe!
I have found most chinese restaurants have a hint of sweetness to their crab rangoon. I’ve been to a couple of fast food places like Panda Express where they are not and I don’t like them at all. I guess it depends on where you go. I like them with a hint of sweetness like the ones they serve at larger sit down chinese restaurants.
Sounds like a personal preference and opinion. You could omit the sugar and go about your day nobody cares about your personal preference. Just being honest. Please don’t be a Karen
Negative. I have lived in the Tri-State area my whole life, been to at least 50 chinese takeout’s in PA,NJ,and NY. Crab Rangoon is always sweet. Only variation ive seen is different folding of the wonton wrappers, and different cream cheese to crab meat ratio.
Love it !!!it came out so great!!! My family loves it!!
thanks for trying out the recipe!
These are delicious!! I have been craving these and this definitely curbed that craving.
thanks Kristeen.
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I don’t eat seafood, but got hooked on a similar food when I lived in Minnesota. I will not name the restaurant, since its fairly well known there, but they generously gave me the recipe so I didn’t have to buy their cookbook for this one recipe. For filling they use cream cheese mixed with garlic salt. I don’t have the ratio handy right now, but if you taste test as you are mixing, just stop adding when it tastes yummy. I’ve since made them at home and they are amazing! I’ve even mixed cream cheese with jam for a filling as a dessert cream cheese wonton. Amazing! Thank you for sharing your recipe, I will try yours just leaving out the crab.
hi Jane, thanks for sharing the recipe from your local restaurant. I’ll try to add some garlic powder next time I make this!
Hi can these be made ahead of time and refrigerated for a day ?
thank you judy
hi Judy, if you’d like to make this dish ahead of the time, it’s better to make them then freeze them in the freezer. That way, the moisture from the cream cheese won’t make the wontons stick to each other. Hope this helps
How much oil? And can you use onion powder if so how much?
Hi, to fry the wonton you need enough oil to at least to make them float. I’d suggest 2 cups the minimum. I don’t use onion powder but feel free to try it out if you feel like it. Hope this helps.
Hi.
1st time I have made this recipe.
I must say they do not taste nothing like what I order at my favorite Chinese restaurant.
I used vegan egg roll for wrapping. That isn’t or wasn’t the issue.
I used imitation crab . That must have been the issue. Measurements were the same as this recipe.
Very dissatisfied and disappointed.
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Hi, can I use canned crab meat instead of imitation sticks? Will it taste the same? Thank you.
hi Roxanne, you can absolutely use the real crab meat and it’ll taste even better! Thanks.
Hi, I was just wondering what is your preferred oil for frying the wontons?
Thank you- Jacque
Hi Jacque, I normally just use vegetable oil for frying. You can probably use most vegetable base oil except olive oil. Hope this helps.
Wonderful Can I translate your recipe in Arabic in my page on Facebook(Human Nutrition تغذية إنسان) and I will write your site as a source
Yes you have my permission to translate the recipe. Thanks in advance for linking to my site.
Great recipe! I will keep and make again. I tried with lump crab this time but with try with the imitation the next. I have lots of filling left but it will not be a problem getting rid of. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Kim, I am glad that enjoyed the recipe. Me too, never had any issue with the leftover filling as I always found a way to use it elsewhere (hint: crab toast) haha. Thanks again for checking out my recipe.
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Hello Yi
, I made this recipe yesterday. Gosh, did you had to post this :-)? It is so delicious, addictive, and very easy to make. I had to contain myself not to eat the filling all by itself. Surely, the filling could also be used as a spread on crackers, bread etc.. Luckly, I still have some filling and wonton wrappers left.
Hi Yi Please don’t missunderstand my “Gosh, did you had to post this?”. It was ment in the best way. Your recipe is just so delicious that I don’t want to think about what happens to the figure if I eat to many to them :-).
Glad that you enjoyed these golden treats 🙂 I also use the stuffing as spread for toast. It’s so delicious!
I made a batch of these and shared them with friends and family. EVERYBODY, including me, LOVED them. So simple yet so yummy. I followed the recipe exactly, but ended up with about twice as many (~40) as the recipe states it yields. (not a problem as far as I’m concerned!) I filled the wantons as much as I could without overfilling (at least 1 teaspoon each), but still ended up with double the Rangoons. These things were loaded with crab! (again, no problem for me or anyone else who had them) Thank you, Yi, for a wonderful recipe!
HI Kevin, thanks for the feedback and I am glad that you enjoyed the recipe. I think one factor that might change the yield is the size of the wrapper. I was able to squeeze in close to one tablespoon of filling when I was making it so that could be way the yield was lower on my recipe. Anyway hope you get to try some of the other recipes on this site 🙂
I don’t eat cream cheese or cottage cheese is there any other cheese I can use for these
HI Shelia, thanks for checking out the recipe. I haven’t tried any other cheese but if you are ok mascarpone then you can use those. Otherwise, I’d say you can try brie or goat cheese but the taste will be very different from the original version of the recipe. Hope this helps.
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Hi Yi
These look so tasty, could these also be made with tinned tuna, or even prawns? and please could you suggest a substitute for fish since my husband doesn’t like fish at all?
Many thanks
Fran
The Netherlands
Hello Fran, thank you for stopping by my blog. yes you can use the canned tuna fish however it will taste a little different as tuna has its own distinct taste. I don’t believe fish sauce is involved in this recipe. Could you please clarify? Thanks.
What’s the best type of oil to use for deep frying???
I like to use canola oil but you can also use vegetable oil or peanut oil. Thanks for visiting.
What is the best type of oil to use for deep frying???
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do you freeze them after you fry them or pre make them and than freeze them ?
I’d suggest after pre-making it.
Sorry for the late reply. As Ka Vang suggested, it’s better to freeze them before you fry.
When it says fry them, is that deep fry or fry in a sauce pan kinda thing? Also, do you have a recipe for the sweet plum or sweet and sour sauce? Thanks!
Hi Kelly, thanks for visiting. In this case, it’s deep fry. I just updated the recipe to make it less confusing. As for the dipping sauce, you can often find duck sauce in the Asian aisle in your local grocery store. Otherwise, try this quick version: combine 2tbsp apricot jam, 1tbsp vinegar, 1tsp water, and some sugar to taste. I hope this helps and don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions.
I made these for the first time last night for a band practice. Everyone loved them. I made a double batch, and out of all the crab ran goons I made, only a handful remain ….which we will be eating for breakfast this morning. Mwahahaha. Thank you very much for sharing this recipe. Simply delicious.
I make these by your recipe, use chives instead of scallions. I add some garlic to the mix (or pour some of the liquid from the jar of garlic). The easiest way to get them into the wontons is to use a frosting decorating bag and a large metal tip. Use one egg to paint a triangle edge and then seal. I freeze a lot of them and they are so awesome! So happy to have this recipe, We now make this a few times a year and have plenty in the freezer when we want them.
do you freeze them after you fry them or pre make them and freeze them
Hi Shirl, I normally freeze them without frying. When you want to serve them just fry for one additional minute. Hope this answers your question.
FYI, Yi: I’ve been meaning to post this….. I did make a double batch exactly per your recipe and froze most of them (Couldn’t help eating several)… They froze beautifully! Just take out whatever you want and put them in a 350 degree pre heated oven for about ten minutes and they turn out great!
Hi Nancy, thanks for your feedback! I am glad to hear that the they froze nicely 🙂
I would love a recipe for Chinese vegetable soup and won ton soup please!!!
Hello Tracey, I’ll be posting more vegetarian dishes (including soups) this year so please stay tuned. In the meantime, I do have a Chinese seaweed egg drop soup that you might be interested in. Thanks.
I want to make these but I was wondering if you have a sweet and sour sauce recipe to dip them in…
Hello Nancy, thanks for checking out my recipe. The sweet and sour sauce dipping sauce I know is basically the sweeter version of the duck sauce. If you have duck sauce readily available you can just add a little more sugar to it. If you don’t have duck sauce, you can also make your own. The quick version I use is to combine 2tbsp apricot jam, 1tbsp vinegar, 1tsp water, and some sugar to taste. I hope this helps and don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions.
This sounds almost exactly like my recipie but we use A-1 steak sauce not Soy. I will try it with the soy. My family loves these.
I have to say thank you so much for such an excellent and easy recipe to follow. I made these a few weeks back and they were even better than from any restaurant I have been to so far. I am always sadden as the restaurant ones I have tried do not have a lot of crab in them. I am not a fan of the imitation crab meat and had leftover (believe it or not) crab legs from our dinner the night before. I ended up having to improvise as I did not have Worchester sauce, so I used Ponzi sauce instead and sweet vadalia onion as I did not have scallions. Amazing to say the least. I am making them again today for my family. This time I have purchased prepackaged fresh crab claw meat, so we will see, if I am not impressed with this prepackaged crab, I will just have to serve crab legs more often to my family to have leftovers haha. Thank you again so very much!
Hello Cheryl, first of all, thank you for checking out the crab rangoon recipe. I am so glad that it came out good! I’ve use prepackaged crab meat before and it makes these treats such much better!! Next time I’ll try to harvest my own crab meat! Please let me know how your last batch came out! Thanks again for visiting my blog!
Another poster asked whether these freeze well but there was no response. I’d like to know the same thing. When I make egg rolls, I make a huge batch, fry them up in batches and freeze them. When we want some, I take out as many as we want and bake them in a 350 degree oven and they turn out beautifully crispy. Just wondering if these rangoons will react the same. Or….will the filling cause them to be soggy after reheating?
Hello Nancy, thanks for stopping by! I must have missed the previous comment asking about the same question. I actually freeze my without frying first. They freeze fairly well as long as you put them in a sealed ziploc or a tightly sealed plastic box. I have not frozen them after frying. Judging by how well the egg rolls freeze post-frying, i think these cheese wonton will do fine. I wouldn’t wait too long to freeze them after frying though. As you said, the cream cheese filling might dampen the wonton shell if left out for too long.
Please let me know how it turned out if you chose to freeze after frying.
Thanks again for visiting!
Made these to go with Christmas dinner this year. They came out perfect!! Everyone loved them. Even my picky Uncle says they where the best crab rangoon’s he had ever had. Will be useing this recipe for now on.
Hello Elean, first of all thank you for the feedback! I am so glad that you and your family enjoyed this recipe and will be using this in the future. Feel free to share it with others! Thanks again!
Hello! I am looking to make 300-400 of these for a Wedding. About how many does this Recipe make.. That way I know how many I need to times it by to get the number I need.
Hi Angel, thanks for visiting my blog. That’s a lot of wontons you are making I hope you get some help from other! Each pack of cream cheese (8oz) makes about 20 to 25 wontons depending on how much stuffing you put in there. so you’ll probably be looking at 16 to 20 packs of cream cheese. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks!
Has anyone tried to bake these instead of frying? I dislike the smell left after frying food plus baking would be healthier.
hi Joy, i’ve baked these before – not as good deep-fried but I totally understand the oil smell issue and trust me I never liked it either…to bake these, generously spray or brush the wonton with oil, bake at 475 for a few minutes until grown brown. Flip the the wonton once in between so both sides are nice and crispy. I hope this helps.
Hi Yi!
I have been craving crab rangoons and I am so glad that your recipe was the first one I found to make them! These are so delicious. I hope you don’t mind I also posted this recipe on my site to show my experiance making them. It’s on http://www.loveforflavor.com/#!crab-rangoon/c1v3c exactly in case you want to check it out. Of course I liked the recipe back to you. Thanks again for posting this recipe!
Angelika
Hello Angelika, thank you for featuring my crab rangoons! I am thrilled to see your beautiful site. I can’t wait to check out your recipes now!
Thank you for this recipe! I found this on pinterest and made them today for the superbowl! SO GOOD! I have tried making them before and I never liked any of them, until today. Thanks again 🙂
hi Alexandra, thanks for your feedback I am glad that you liked these crab rangoon. I hope you enjoyed the game just as much as the rangoon 🙂
I love crab rangoons- I use to make them with my dad all of the time. I dont add extra salt to my recipe because I think the cream cheese is salty enough on their own. Thanks!
hi Celena, thanks for sharing your feedback. I’ll try the salt-less version next time I make it.
I had left over egg roll wrappers that I divided into 4 squares from each sheet, worked perfect
Didn’t have whorchestire sauce, so I left it out. Also I bought imitation crab chunks. When mixing with cream cheese, it broke down the crab perfectly! This is amazing. If you let the filling sit for a few, the flavors really develop.
hi Sarah, thanks for checking in to share your thoughts. I also use imitation crab meat to make my cheese wontons and they taste absolutely wonderful!
Hi, can the wanton be prepared a day in advance and store in the freezer? Thanks for sharing your great recipe.
Bernie.
Hi Bernie, thanks for dropping by. Yes you can absolutely make these cheese wontons ahead of the time. The frozen ones will take a little later to fry but they are just as delicious 🙂
I know my sons are so going to love this, will give this a try when I have time in my hand and am feeling hard working:D I hate frying stuff although they are tasty!
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I would love to make these for a party next week. Do they freeze well?
I love love love crab rangoon and yours look delicious! Yum!
I can totally eat a plate full of these! 🙂
I just finished my first batch of these and I want to share my “mistakes” and tips. While none of these are deal breakers, they were noticeable enough to irk me a bit.
1. Don’t use the chunk style Krab meat – even if it’s on sale 🙂 It’s a lot more work chopping it up and the texture was off without the stringiness.
2. Don’t be afraid of the wonton wrapper. Press the edges firmly to get a good seal or mess will ensue when frying.
3. You’d think using a wet finger would work for the edges but I got too little or too much water so I switched to a small brush.
4. I used a tabletop deep fryer and a chopstick to flip them. If they roll back over when flipping just hold it flipped for few seconds until the filling settles and it will stay.
5. I used cooking soy by mistake and it wasn’t salty enough. Table soy was better.
6. Cream cheese with chives seems like a step saver but the cheese don’t have nearly enough chives for flavor. Use the 3 stalks regardless.
7. If the rangoons are too puffy or are exploding there was too much air trapped with the filling. Squeeze it out before sealing.
8. The mixture is sticky and I made a mess of filling the wontons. A dollar store pastry bag with a large or no tip fixed that. A plastic sandwich baggy with a corner snipped off works as well.
My apologies for the lengthy dissertation and many thanks to Yi for sharing. I will endeavor not to divulge your name when the Buffet Cartel shows up at my door. 🙂
Hi Grebbler, thanks for sharing these great tips. You’ve definitely mastered this dish!
I have not heard of crab ragoons!!! though the idea of fried wonton with oozing cheese is so appealing 🙂
I love making crab rangoon! Great step-by-step =)
your pic by pic instructions is so helpful it gave me an idea of what to make this week. I certainly love this and never thought of how easy it is to make them.
Happy Monday!
malou
I made some for the first time the other day!!! They were so good!!! But every time I make them I learn to perfect them. I followed a recipe that I found online but while mixing and making them I discovered that you really don’t have to use a lot of different things. I only used like a little sour cream, cream cheese, onions, crab meat and a little bit of soy. Turned out great.
Hi good rangoons, thanks for stopping by my blog. I agree the filling doesn’t really need complicated ingredients. The combination of cream cheese and crab meat is probably delicious enough.
No problem!!! You are so right!! I do use the soy, green onions as well. But what I referring to is other recipes that calls for far to many ingredients. Yours look simple and good. Some even tell you to saute your soy and onions before mixing.
Oh I’m going to try your version soon. I only make this when I have leftover wontons but appearance is not enough according to my kids (and it’s only leftover so not that many…). I love that you used imitation crab. Great idea!
These look so tasty! I have a major weakness for fried foods, although I’ve curbed my habit in the past couple of years. But I will have to try these for sure!
Hard not to be get hooked with these adorable wontons, I also like having a generous amount of green onions in it.
Omgoodness Looks delish.Cant wait to try.Thankyou
Yi, I love the combination of the crispy wonton with the creamy crab and cream cheese filling…yum!
Thanks for this awesome recipe and have a wonderful week 🙂
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Timely post for me! I’ve never made these before, but having been thinking about it. This is a dish I’ve certainly eaten before, and I agree with you – it’s wonderful. Very nice job, excellent instructions. Thanks for this.
Hi Yi! I have been seeing lots of recipes involving wonton skin last weekend (from Pinerest), Can’t wait to buy a pack and experiment. We are lactose sensitive, other than cheese what ingredients do you suggest would go well with the rest of the items?
Hi Jeno, have you heard of tofutti? It is a brand of cream cheese made from soy milk! I even heard this soy cream cheese actually tastes very good. Hope you’ll get to try this recipe!
That certainly looks addictive