Chesapeake Bay-Style Crab Rangoons - by Farideh Sadeghin
Spoiler alert: there are two kinds of crab in these rangoons.
Well…I guess TECHNICALLY only one? Because imitation crab isn’t really crab at all, but pulverized white fish made to resemble crab, although sometimes imitation crab does contain crab extract for flavoring.
Regardless, Jon Kung has a new cookbook out (get yourself copy!) and he came by and we made crab rangoons.
For those who may not be familiar with Jon, he’s a Detroit-based chef and content creator and defines himself as “third-culture,” meaning that while his parents are immigrants and he grew up in Hong Kong, Canada, and the US, he never really felt accepted as American or Chinese. Jon uses food and cooking as a way of expressing himself and his complicated identity, something that resonates with many people (I know it does with me), and it’s led him into a wildly successful career in food content creation.
I was so excited to have him over to cook and film with me, and tbqh, had a bit of imposter syndrome in doing so, which I know is ridiculous, but I know that many of you out there can also relate and have likely felt these really real feelings at some stage in your life as well.
I mean, I’m literally shooting in my apartment ALONE. On my iPhone. There is nobody else here and I don’t even have a second camera setup. I’m scrappy as hell. I shoot and edit everything myself.
Having someone like JON KUNG, with his 500k+ YouTube subscribers and 260k+ IG followers and ONE POINT SEVEN MILLION tik tok followers come to my apartment was kind of intimidating.
But shit, we had some fun.
Jon is great and we spent most of our time fucking around // chit chatting, and before we knew it, we were like, WHOOPS I guess we should cook.
Jon has FIVE different rangoon recipes in his book (4 savory, 1 dessert) and we decided to riff off the more traditional version.
Crab rangoons, if you’ve never had them, originated at Trader Vic’s restaurant in San Francisco in the 1950s and are crispy, fried wontons filled with cream cheese, imitation crab, and seasonings. Eating them hot will almost guarantee a burned mouth the moment that you bite into it and the hot af cream cheese immediately bursts out. And it’s the best.
While crab rangoons have gained immense popularity at American Chinese restaurants, they are, however beloved, in no way, shape, or form “authentically Chinese,” per se. Not only does Jon have a more “traditional” crab rangoon recipe in his book, there are also recipes for buffalo chicken rangoons, chicken tikka masala rangoons, bbq pork rangoons, and glam trash cake rangoons (which are filled with hot dogs, ding dongs, and strawberry calpico, in addition to the standard cream cheese).
In talking about this video with Jon and Jon learning (read: me bragging) that I was from MD, we settled on making crab rangoons with a MD twist: OLD BAY (in it’s original form AND hot sauce).
And damn did these come out GOOD.
Plus, as we were making the filling, I was like, “THIS WOULD BE A GREAT DIP,” so obviously we deep-fried some of the wontons and ate some of the filling as-is, in dip form, and it was absolutely glorious.
In conclusion, these Chesapeake Bay-Style crab rangoons are a delight, as is Jon, as is his book! So watch the video, follow Jon on all his social channels, and get his book! The recipe below is direct from his book for crab rangoons; if you want to make them MD-style, add some Old Bay and Old Bay hot sauce and swap out half of the imitation crab for blue crab. And don’t forget to shake on some extra hot sauce to serve.
Crab Rangoons
Makes 30
Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
INGREDIENTS
8 ounces imitation crab (aka crab stick, crab surimi, or krab), diced
1 (8-ounce) block cream cheese, at room temperature
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons chicken powder or MSG
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
30 square wonton wrappers
neutral oil, for frying
DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, mix the crab, cream cheese, scallions, garlic powder, soy sauce, chicken powder, and Worcestershire with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are evenly blended and there are no lumps of cream cheese.
Set a small bowl of water on your work surface. Place the wonton wrappers on a cutting board and use a small spoon to add about 2 teaspoons of the filling to the center of each wrapper.
This is the simplest way to fold, rangoon-style: Dip a finger into the water and moisten the edges of the wrapper, then bring each corner to the center, pressing the seams together so it makes a square shape with the seams forming four lines that radiate from the center. Repeat with the remaining wrappers.
Fill a wok or pot with neutral oil to a depth of at least 3 inches. Heat the oil over medium-high heat to 350°F. Add the dumplings to the hot oil in batches—you don’t want to overcrowd the dumplings or they won’t fry properly. Fry until the wrappers are deep golden brown, about 3 minutes, using tongs or a slotted spoon to turn the dumplings occasionally so all sides become browned. Use a slotted spoon or spider to transfer the fried dumplings to a paper towel–lined plate or baking sheet to drain while you fry the next batch. Serve hot.
Reprinted with permission from Kung Food: Chinese American Recipes from a Third-Culture Kitchen by Jon Kung © 2023. Photographs © 2023 by Johnny Miller. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
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