This week, I’m not writing about a sandwich, but we are still making something that’s wrapped up or bounded by baked dough. I’m creating what is a play on one of my favorite appetizers that I often order from Chinese restaurants, which I stuffed inside of store-bought puff pastry to create a flaky and light pocket full of tasty goodness.
I’m pretty sure that Pop-Tarts are a registered trademark, so I’m calling my version of this treat Crab Rangoon Puff Pockets. They’re sort of like savory crab-filled Pop-Tarts with an extra flaky exterior. I’m also sharing an easy duck sauce recipe that you can whip up, which works as a great dipping sauce for these pockets of crab and cream cheese-filled puffy goodness.
Keep scrolling and reading, and let’s get into it.
What is crab rangoon?
If you’ve never perused a menu at a Chinese restaurant, you might not know what crab rangoon is. Crab rangoon is an appetizer that you can find at American Chinese restaurants, some Thai restaurants, and Asian-fusion restaurants as well. Rangoons typically are crab and cream cheese-filled wonton wrappers that are fried in hot oil until the exterior is nice and crispy with a hot, creamy interior and served with some sweet and sour dipping sauce. Sometimes there’s real crab inside, but often, you may get imitation crab instead.
The cream cheese is doing most of the heavy lifting alongside the crispy and crunchy exterior. You likely won’t even notice that they only add a tiny bit of crab. When we make our own, we can add as much or as little crab as we want.
The history of crab rangoon dates back to 1955 in Beverly Hills or 1956 in San Francisco because they have nothing at all to do with true Chinese food. Crab rangoon is one of those dishes that was concocted to seem exotic and still please the American palate in the mid-20th century. Because crab rangoons can be successfully created with imitation crab and cream cheese, restaurateurs learned that this could be a fairly inexpensive appetizer that can be sold for 4 or 5 times what it costs the restaurant to make. Crab rangoons can be cheap, but I think they’re still delicious.
If you want to make real deep-fried crab rangoon or learn about the process, J. Kenji López-Alt wrote a crab rangoon recipe and blog post for Serious Eats back in 2011.
Now that we know what crab rangoon is, we can turn it into what I’m calling puff pockets. First, crab rangoon typically needs a dipping sauce. And I have an easy recipe that you can make at home.
Duck sauce
Duck sauce is a sweet and sour dipping sauce that you can find at American Chinese restaurants or even the Asian aisle of large grocery stores. The sauce itself contains 0% duck, but it probably got its name because it was served alongside Chinese duck entrees like Peking duck. Nowadays, duck sauce is typically added to your delivery or takeout bag in small packets that are similar to ketchup packets you’ll get when you order French fries.
The base component of duck sauce is typically a fruit jam like apricot, plum, or pineapple. The jam is where the sweetness comes in, and some sort of vinegar, like rice vinegar, will bring the tart or “sour” flavors that turn this into a sweet and sour sauce that really works great with fried foods.
You can just buy your favorite duck sauce, or you might have some packets leftover that you can use, but my recipe only requires a few minutes of effort for a dipping sauce that will have a bit more flavor than store-bought versions.
Easy homemade duck sauce
This sweet and sour sauce is great to use as a dipping sauce for egg rolls, crab rangoon, or even French fries.
Get RecipePuff pastry
Commercially available puff pastry is awesome. I have used store-bought puff pastry in at least one “sandwich” that I’ve written about, but it’s just a great thing to keep in your freezer for lunchtime or snacking emergencies. You can find sheets of puff pastry in the freezer section at the grocery store, and you need to be prepared that they will need to be thawed before using.
You can also make puff pastry at home; it’s like making croissants. But puff pastry is one of those things, like the crispy fried onions that you use at Thanksgiving, that is much easier for corporations to produce in a factory than for you to make in your own kitchen. It’s super convenient, as long as you remember that you will need to account for at least 30 minutes to thaw before using.
For this crab rangoon puff pocket recipe, we’ll have a lot of filling, so if you want to turn it all into puff pockets, you will need 2 packages of puff pastry, which usually contain 2 sheets each. I unfold them and cut down the folded seam, and then cut each third in half to create a top and bottom piece of puff pastry sheet.
Docking the dough
Crab rangoon filling
Crab rangoon filling is typically just three ingredients. Cream cheese, crab meat (of some sort), and green onion. Most crab rangoon recipes online seem to be based on 8 ounces of cream cheese since that is a typical amount that you can buy at the store. In my experience, crabmeat might be sold in cans of 6 ounces or containers of 8 ounces, so most recipes will also use that amount. My recipe is no different.
Basically, you’re looking at almost an equal amount of cream cheese to crab, and then the thinly sliced green onion amount is just added to give the filling a bit of texture and flavor.
Mix the crab rangoon filling together and keep it chilled until it’s time to use. I used a cookie scoop to keep my puff pockets filled consistently, but it’s not required. You can just use a spoon if you don’t have a scoop. Try not to overfill, though, or you might make a mess when the cream cheese bursts out of the puff pocket.
Crab vs krab
Krab with a k is typically referred to as imitation crab, and it contains no actual crab. It is seafood, though, with added ingredients that might change the flavor and texture to be more like crab meat. Imitation crab is typically red-dyed fish that has been ground up and formed into sticks or slabs that you can break up to imitate real crab. I assume that a lot of crab rangoon that you order from your local Chinese restaurant is actually using imitation crab, but that would obviously be different from location to location.
I only made my crab rangoon puff pockets with real crab, but you can save a lot of money by using imitation crab, and J. Kenji López-Alt seems to think that imitation crab is just as good as real crab in this sort of application.
So you can use whichever version of crab or krab that you would like. Experiment with it and let me know what you find out. I used the above “special crabmeat,” which was about 15 dollars for the whole 1/2 pound container, versus $5.50 for double that amount of imitation crab meat I could buy that same day.
So if price is an issue, definitely go with imitation crab.
Puff pocket baking process
The baking process for these crab rangoon puff pockets is easy.
Twenty minutes at 425°F (220 °C) will get the puff pastry fully cooked and browned on top, and the cream cheese and crab filling will be lava-fied. I rotate the pan halfway through the cooking process to make sure things cook evenly, but it’s definitely not required if you have a fairly consistent oven.
The same egg wash that you use as “glue” to help keep the dough pieces pinched together works well when painted on the top of the puff pockets to help with browning and allow some fun toppings to adhere to the exterior. You do not have to put egg wash on the outside, but it does help the puff pockets to look much prettier, as do the optional toppings like sesame seeds, black pepper, or parmesan cheese.
Oven-baked crab rangoon
If you’ve made a few crab rangoon puff pockets like I did and you still have some crab rangoon filling left over, you can also stuff it into wonton wrappers and bake them in the oven. That’s what I did, and I was left with a bunch of crispy, but not fully fried crab rangoon that still had good crunch and creamy filling.
It’s not quite the same as fried rangoon, but it doesn’t require a ton of clean-up that deep frying does. These turned out really good, and my wife and I enjoyed a few of these just last night.
Here’s my easy recipe for oven-baked crab rangoon. All you need is the same crab rangoon mix that is created in my puff pocket recipe, some wonton wrappers, and an oven, and you’re all set.
Oven-baked crab rangoon
This crab rangoon recipe creates a soft pocket of crab and cream cheese tucked into a crispy and crunchy exterior without all the hassle and cleanup required of deep frying.
Get RecipeCrab rangoon puff pockets photos and recipe
I made a few of the crab rangoon puff pockets in the process of testing this recipe. The rangoon filling is super easy to make and will sit in the fridge for a few days, so you can whip up two or three nights of fresh-baked puff pockets if you want.
This is just a fun snack or meal that is pretty easy to make, and it’s also something that you could scale down just a bit to make them appetizers for a party or gathering if you wanted. Just make sure not to overstuff the pockets with filling, and make sure to dock the dough, and also make sure you poke consistent holes in the top of the dough so that you do not see an explosion or crab rangoon blowout.
Scroll through to see a few photos and to get the final recipe just down below.
Crab rangoon puff pockets
You've had crab rangoon, but you've probably never had it stuffed inside a flaky pastry before. It's creamy, it's crabby, and rich. This is crab rangoon that you can eat like a Pop-Tart.
Ingredients:
Crab rangoon filling- 6 to 8 ounces crab meat (or imitation crab/krab)
- 8 ounce block of cream cheese, softened
- 5 or 6 scallion whites, thinly sliced
- 2 packages of puff pastry, thawed (see notes)
- crab rangoon filling (from above)
- 1 whole large egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- sesame seeds or black pepper and grated parmesan (topping)
Directions:
Crab rangoon filling: add cream cheese, crab, and the thinly sliced whites of scallions to a large bowl and stir to combine well. This is your crab rangoon filling, and you can store it in the refrigerator until time to use or for no more than 4 or 5 days.
Puff pocket filling: lay out 1 sheet at a time and cut the sheet twice to form 3 equal-sized rectangles. Then I cut each rectangle in half, forming 6 equally sized sheets.
Using a fork, dock or poke each small rectangle many times, covering the surface of the dough. This helps keep the pastry from puffing up too much. It will still puff up, but it will be better if you dock it thoroughly.
Whisk 1 large egg in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of water. This will be your egg wash, which will be "glue" to hold the pastry pieces together, and it will also be painted on the top of each puff pocket to help toppings stick and to create a nice brown and slightly shiny exterior.
Filling and closing the puff pockets: add a tablespoon or 1.5 tablespoons of crab rangoon filling right in the middle of a dough rectangle. Mash the filling down a little, but don't let it get too close to the edges of the pastry. With a pastry brush or spoon, paint some egg wash all around the outside edges of the pastry.
Place a second dough rectangle on top of the dough and filling, and then using a fork, go all around the edge of the pastry pocket and mash the two dough rectangles together.
Paint the top of each puff pocket with more egg wash. Then, with a fork, poke some air holes in the top of the pocket (where the filling is) and then top each egg-washed pastry with sesame seeds or black pepper and parmesan (or a combination of all) to create a more interesting top.
Place each formed puff pocket on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C), and when they are all ready, you can bake them for 20 minutes, turning the pans 180 degrees at the halfway point so that they bake evenly.
Notes:
Puff pastry: these sheets are typically sold frozen. The ones that I use are 9.75 inches by 10.5 inches, which I cut into 3 equal-width strips that I then cut into half, forming 6 fairly equal rectangles. Each rectangle is either the top or the bottom of a puff pocket, meaning I can get 3 puff pockets out of each sheet of puff pastry.
The pastry you buy might be a different shape, so you might have to adjust this recipe to fit your situation.
Check back soon
Next week, we’ll be headed to Texas for a guy named Hank’s favorite sandwich. Come back and check it out.
