Crab Rangoon Potato Nests
Creamy crab rangoon filling tucked inside crispy potato nests made with shredded hash browns. These Crab Rangoon Potato nests are an amazing appetizer that can fulfil the craving of crab rangoons without having to deep fry in your kitchen. And they have the added bonus of potato! Crispy potato makes everything better!
If you are looking for an easy app to throw into the oven next gameday, you can stop looking now! A simple mixture of some store bought ingredients come together to create crispy snacky perfection.
How did I come up with this recipe?
I had been playing around with something new to do with crab rangoon filling for months and haven’t really had any good ideas. Then I was cooking some hash browns the other day and realized little potato nests would be a perfect home for some rangoon goodness. I am very familiar with the process of making little potato nests in mini muffin tins, because I did it a lot during my tater tot cookbook era, so I was able to get started right away.
Let’s make the potato nests
The key to this is making sure the potatoes are DRY. I like to salt them, then lay them out on some paper towels for a while. The salt draws out excess moisture. Finally you can squeeze the potatoes with the towels around them to drain out the excess liquids. Then add them to the muffin tins and bake on high heat.
Cook them about 75% of the way before adding the filling.
Making the crab rangoon filling
While the potatoes are baking, make the filling. I add some traditional crab rangoon ingredients, and some non traditional crab rangoon ingredients! My favorite non traditional add is roasted jalapenos.
Ingredients for the crab rangoon filling
- cream cheese
- imitation crab
- scallions
- roasted jalapenos
- soy sauce
- sesame oil
- Worcestershire sauce
- garlic powder
Fill the potato nests with the crab rangoon filling
Add a big spoonful of the crab rangoon filling to each potato nest. Load it up good!
The potatoes cooked for about a half hour before adding the filling, then about 15 minutes after adding the filling.
So good! The crispy potatoes replace the wonton wrapper perfectly and these have a fantastic mix of crunchy and creamy. I like jalapenos in my rangoons, so they have a nice kick too!
Make these for your next get together and watch them disappear fast!
Variations on the Crab Rangoon Potato Nests
You could make these with real crab if you wanted. Fake crab is more common in crab rangoon. It’s made from white fish and is usually a sustainable product. It’s also a lot cheaper than real crab!
You could skip the roasted jalapenos as well to make this a little easier. You could instead do pickled jalapenos or candied jalapenos, or omit them all together.
Instead of hash browns, this also works great by pressing about 3 defrosted tater tots into each spot on the mini muffin tin.
If you love crab rangoons, check out my crab rangoon mac and cheese, or potato stuffed crab rangoons.
Crab Rangoon Potato Nests
Equipment
Ingredients
- 20 oz shredded potatoes
- olive oil
- avocado oil spray can or other
- salt
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 4 oz imitation crab shredded
- 3 scallions chopped, plus more for garnish
- 3 roasted jalapenos chopped
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tabespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Place the potatoes on paper towels or a clean kitchen towel and season with a pinch of salt. Allow to sit for 15 minutes so the salt can bring some moisture out of the potatoes. Roll the paper towels around the potatoes and squeeze the excess liquid out. Pat dry with new towels and put the potatoes into a bowl. Drizzle with some olive oil and stir to combine.
- Preheat oven to 400. Spray a muffin tin with a high heat nonstick oil spray.(I use avocado oil)
- Split the potatoes between 24 mini muffin spots. Press down and form a cup with an indent in the center. Repeat with all the potatoes.
- Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.
- While the potatoes are in the oven, mix all the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Stir to combine and mash so the crab does not have large lumps.
- Remove the potatoes from the oven and fill them with the filling. Return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- top with the scallions and serve.