Comfort Food Convo with Erica - Crab Rangoon

Let me tell you about my friend Erica. She is beautiful and fun with a caring heart. Whether I’m looking to go to the hottest restaurant or just hang and drink wine, she is the person I call. So, it only seemed natural that she was one of the first people I interviewed for Comfort Food Convo.

Ok, let’s get to her comfort food story. One of the go-to foods her family would order when she was a kid were fried wontons from their local Chinese restaurant. But one day Erica’s family decided to switch to crab rangoon and as she said, “she never looked back.” If the restaurant she is at has crab rangoon on the menu, she is ordering it. Crab rangoon is the comfort food Erica turns to if she has had a difficult day or if she wants to treat herself. And who can blame her. Who doesn’t love cream cheese, crab meat in a fried wonton? I mean come on.

Because Erica is from Maryland and they are known for all things crab, I wanted to come up with a recipe that is inspired by her home state. I decided to use Maryland crab, which is a bit pricey, so feel free to use another type of crab meat. I also went with another Maryland staple – Old Bay. If you live in the DMV area, Old Bay is everywhere and a perfect partner for any seafood recipe – including these rangoon.

As a side note, this recipe makes about 50 rangoon, so feel free to cut the recipe in half to make a normal human amount. This recipe would be great as an appetizer for Thanksgiving, especially if you have the entire neighborhood over. Since I had so many left over, I decided to freeze them. I’ll be sure to update this post after I try the frozen ones.

Ok, let’s get cooking!

Maryland-Style Crab Rangoon

• 17oz crab meat

• 8oz softened chive and onion cream cheese

• 8oz softened regular cream cheese

• One spring onion chopped (more if you’d prefer)

• Juice of half a lemon

• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce

• 1 tablespoon of Old Bay (as Erica said, these rangoons are “Old Bay forward,” so feel free to play with the amount)

• 50 wonton wrappers

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Once mixed thoroughly, spoon the crab mixture into the center of the wontons and pinch the corners together. Fit as many as you can on a cookie sheet and bake for about 12-15 minutes. Then enjoy!

Step-by-Step Photo Guide

Gather ingredients and preheat oven to 425 degrees (I forgot to include the lemon in the photo, FYI)

Combine all ingredients

Place the crab mixture into the center of the wonton wrappers and then pinch the corners together

Bake for 12-15 minutes and then you are ready to eat!