Crab is a great ingredient to use in wonton recipes, whether you combine it with cream cheese for a ‘crab Rangoon’ style wonton, or with soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, and other flavorful Chinese ingredients.
You can use canned crab, fresh crab, or even imitation crab, as long as you drain it well before mixing it with the other ingredients in your crab wonton recipe.
Types of Wontons with Crab
The most popular type of wonton is perhaps the least authentic, and this is the crunchy, deep-fried kind you get at Chinese restaurants. Wontons in China are steamed or boiled, not deep-fried, but this type of wonton is too good not to mention!
Steamed crab wontons are also very good, and for these you will need a steamer basket. The wontons are steamed over boiling water and they will be lovely and soft. Serve steamed wontons with a tasty dipping sauce – either something you have made yourself or just a little oyster sauce or soy sauce.
Wonton soup is also great, and most chefs prefer to simmer the wontons in water until they are done (until they rise to the top of the liquid) and then carefully transfer them into the soup, although you could cook the wontons in the soup if you prefer.
How to Make Crab Wontons
To make basic crab rangoon wontons, drain some lump crabmeat and mix it with cream cheese. Put a teaspoon of this filling in the center of a wonton wrapper, then wet the edges of the wonton wrapper and seal it.
It is important to press out any air, else the wontons will open while they are cooking and the filling will leak out.
You can then fry, steam or simmer your wontons, depending on the result you like. If you want them to be crunchy you can fry them or even try baking them. If you want to bake them, then spritz some spray-oil on the wontons before you put them in the oven.
Baked wontons take about 10 minutes at 400 degrees F, but yours might take less or more time, so cook them until they are crunchy and golden brown.
How to Serve Them
Healthy baked or crunchy fried crab wontons are lovely served hot, and you can team them with a nice dipping sauce. They make a great appetizer or snack.
Wonton soup is nice for lunch or supper, or you can serve it as an entree if the portions are large enough. Steamed wontons are nice as an appetizer.
