Super Easy Crab Puffs Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are crab puffs made of? ›

Crab puffs, aka crab rangoons, are a staple at most casual Chinese restaurants. They are made of crispy wonton wrappers stuffed with juicy crab meat and cream cheese.

The filling is made with a combination of cream cheese, crab meat or imitation crab meat, scallions or onion, garlic, and other flavorings. A small amount of the filling is wrapped in each wonton wrapper.

The recipe is very simple: Heat some oil, unroll the krab, toss the krab strips in starch, then fry them. That's all it takes to make a crispy cracker reminiscent of the crab-flavored snacks I buy in big tins at the Asian market.

Also known as Crab Puffs, Crab Pillows, and Cheese Wontons, these are essentially fried wontons stuffed with cream cheese and imitation crab (or sometimes real crab).

Light and airy cream puffs, filled with thick pastry cream, fluffy whipped cream, or velvety crème légère (pastry cream lightened with whipped cream), are a classic dessert. Composed of just two versatile elements—pâte à choux and the filling of your choice—they're also cinch to whip up.

Can you eat imitation crab raw? Yes. It is pre-cooked, so you are able to eat it straight from the package. Many people use it as part of a larger recipe though, adding it to cream of crab soup, crab Rangoon or crab salad.

If you plan to boil or steam your crab legs, your first option is to use the water to impart extra flavor. Don't be shy about adding salt, pepper, lemon juice and lemon rinds, or the classic Old Bay seasoning to your pot before boiling or steaming your crab legs.

Imitation Crab Salad Recipe a flavorful combination of imitation crab meat sticks, pickles, corn and a light garlicky mayo-yogurt dressing. Perfect for sandwiches. This Creamy Crab Salad is filled with imitation crab in a creamy and tangy sauce that's perfect on a toasted roll or served by itself.

One of the biggest clues in the makeup of crab rangoon that this dish is American over Asian in origin is the cream cheese. Cream cheese was a staple in 1940s and 50s America but this is not an ingredient you'll have found in China or Burma or Polynesia.

I love Panda Express' Crab Rangoons and they're so easy to make! Oddly enough, they don't use crab or imitation crab in their original recipe. Feel free to add some though, it's delicious! My local Panda Express offers 3 for $2.35.

Why is it called Rangoon? ›

Cream cheese was popular in American households in the 1940s, but it wasn't used in China: The majority of the country is lactose intolerant, and its cuisine is virtually dairy-free. To confuse the dish's identity even further, Vic named it crab rangoon after the former name of the city of Yangon in Myanmar.

If you are eating Dungeness or snow crab legs, tools like scissors and a wooden mallet may be all you need to crack through the shells. King crabs have a harder outer shell, so you may need a crab cracker and gloves or a dish towel to break through the spiny shell.

A crab mallet is best used to crack open a crab's claws. Crab mallets have long handles with small solid heads. Crab mallets are designed to be lightweight because they need to crack open the shell without smashing it into little bits.

Crisp and bubbly with a molten center of oozy, tangy cream cheese, scallions and crab. Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site.

Crab sticks, krab sticks, snow legs, imitation crab (meat), or seafood sticks are a type of seafood made of starch and finely pulverized white fish (surimi) that has been shaped and cured to resemble the leg meat of snow crab or Japanese spider crab. It is a product that uses fish meat to imitate shellfish meat.

Crab cake filling: I go light on the filler, using juuuust enough to bind the crab cakes together. You'll need an egg, mayonnaise, chopped fresh herbs (I like parsley, dill, and tarragon!), Dijon mustard, Old Bay seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, lemon zest, Kosher salt, and black pepper.

Imitation crab is a highly processed food made by combining minced fish with starch, egg whites, sugar, salt, and additives to mimic the flavor, color, and texture of real crab meat. While it's significantly less expensive than real crab, it's also less nutritious.