How to Make Crab Rangoon

Crab rangoon is a simple and quick food, and is ubiquitous in Chinese-American cuisine. A mixture made with crab or imitation crab and cream cheese is folded into little packets. Traditionally, these packets are then fried in hot oil and served hot.

Servings: 35-45

Things You Should Know

Make your crab rangoon filling with cream cheese, crab meat, green onion, and garlic.
Spoon the filling onto wontons.
There are 4 different ways you can fold your wontons: the triangle fold, boat fold, purse fold, or star fold.

Ingredients

8 ounces (250 milliliters) cream cheese, softened
6 ounces (180 milliliters) can crab meat, drained, or imitation crab meat
1-2 green onions, chopped
1/2 teaspoons (2.5 milliliters) minced garlic
35-45 wonton wrappers
Vegetable oil for frying

Part 1

Part 1 of 6:

Making the Filling

1
Beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer to beat the cream cheese, using medium speed, until it reaches a light, fluffy consistency.
2
Mix in the crab meat, green onion, and garlic. Add these three ingredients to the bowl. Stir the ingredients into the cream cheese using a spoon, only mixing them well enough to evenly spread each one throughout the cream cheese.

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3
Lay several wontons out on a surface. To make things easier, you should only work with a few wontons at a time, but you should continue filling the wrappers until all of the filling is gone.
4
Wet the edges of the wonton wrapper. In order for the wrapper to stick together, they need to be slightly moist. Do not soak the entire wrapper, though. Instead, just wet the tip of your finger with a little water and gently rub your wet finger along the edges of the wrapper.
5
Spoon a little of the mixture onto each wrapper. Put anywhere from 1 tsp to 1 Tbsp (5 to 15 ml) of filling onto each wrapper, depending on how large the wonton wrappers are. The wrappers should be well filled, but you should also have enough empty wrapper to fold and seal it up.

Part 2

Part 2 of 6:

Triangle Fold

1
Fold the wonton wrapper in half. Fold one corner over the middle of the wrapper until it meets the corner diagonally opposite from it. Press the corners together.
2
Seal the edges. There should be two open edges of the wrapper. Gently press along these edges with your finger to seal them.

Part 3

Part 3 of 6:

Boat Fold

1
Fold the wonton wrapper into the triangle shape. Bring one corner over to the corner diagonally opposite from it. Press the corners together to seal, and press the sides together to seal, as well.
2
Bring the other two opposite corners together. Fold the two corners at the base of the triangle together, over the filling, and seal them together. You may need to wet the corners again to accomplish this. The end result should be what appears to be a little pocket or "boat" of filling.

Part 4

Part 4 of 6:

Purse Fold

1
Bring to adjacent corners together. Fold two corners that are next to each other up so that they meet in the center of the wrapper, which should also be the center of the filling blob. Press the corners to seal together, and press along the edges that have met together.
2
Fold a third corner up to the same point. Press the corner into the other two joined corners and press the side of the wrapper together where the edge of the new fold meets the edge of the previous fold.
3
Fold the final corner up to the same point. Press and seal the corner into the other corners before pressing and sealing together the remaining open sides. You should be left with a completely sealed pouch.

Part 5

Part 5 of 6:

Star Fold

1
Bring two adjacent sides together over the filling. Working from the middle of each side rather than the corner, bring two sides that are next to each other up and over the center of the wrapper and the center of the filling. Press the middle of both sides together.
2
Fold the remaining two sides to the same point. Again working from the middle of each edge, bring the sides up and over the filling to the center point of the wrapper, where the other two sides have already been sealed. Press the center of each edge into this point, sealing all four sides together. You should be left with a shape that looks like an "X" with slightly open corners.

Part 6

Part 6 of 6:

Frying

1
Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot.^{[1]
X
Research source} A deep fryer works well, but a stockpot, large wok, or Dutch oven works equally well. You should fill the pot with at least 3 to 4 inches (7.6 to 10 cm) of oil. Heat the oil over medium to medium-high heat until it reaches a temperature between 350 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit (177 and 191 degrees Celsius).
- You can check the temperature of the oil by using a candy thermometer. If you use a thermometer that can be attached to the side of the pot, you can monitor the temperature of the oil throughout the entire cooking process.
2
Drop several crab rangoon into the oil. Only add about six to seven rangoon to the oil at once. If you are not used to deep frying foods, you may even want to start out with three or four at once. You need to make sure that you leave plenty of room to prevent the rangoon from sticking together or frying incompletely. You also need plenty of room to be able to fish them out of the oil.
3
Cook the rangoon for roughly 5 to 7 minutes. The crab rangoon should turn golden brown and should be floating at the surface. Use a deep fryer scoop or ladle with draining holes to fish each rangoon out. In the absence of this tool, use metal tongs.
4
Place the crab rangoon on paper towels. Placing them on paper towels will drain off excess oil.
5
Serve hot. Wait a few minutes after pulling the rangoon out of the oil to prevent them from being scalding hot, but serve them shortly thereafter.

Community Q&A

Question

How long do I cook them if they're frozen?

Community Answer

Let them thaw fully, then cook as normal.
Question

When cooking from frozen, what is the wait time for them to be done? Or do I thaw before frying?

Community Answer

The best way is to allow it time to thaw before cooking or at least give it an hour or more to where it's partially thawed.