Chicken Dumplings

Dumplings are a favorite in our household. Omer and I can have them multiple times a week and never get bored. The beauty about dumplings is the possibilities are endless with fillings. The different textures resulting from the various cooking methods yield a unique experience every time. You can steam, boil, pan fry, or deep fry dumplings. I have two recipes up, this one is for chicken- you can check out my veggie one here.

As always, with my recipes I add the disclaimer to use my ingredients as a base. You can add or remove any ingredient, the best part of cooking is experimenting the possibilities! See below for my recipe.

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Chicken Dumplings

1 cup ground chicken breast- run it through the food processer for a fine ground

1 cup finely chopped white cabbage or nappa cabbage (salt the cabbage to draw out moisture, make sure you rinse and squeeze out extra moisture before combining with other ingredients)

1 cup grated carrots (I used a fine grater, you can coarse grate them too)

1 red bell pepper finely chopped

1 T grated ginger         

3-4 green onion (scallions) finely chopped

1 egg (optional) sometimes I add it, sometimes I don’t, I’ve never seen a difference

1 T corn starch

2 T soy sauce

2 T Hoisin sauce

1 T chili garlic sauce

½ t toasted sesame oil

½ t ground pepper

Wonton wrappers (square or round it depends on the shape you want your dumplings to be) 



Making pleats for halfmoon shaped dumpling 

Combine all the ingredients and set aside. A chilled mixture is easier to work with. If you have circle wonton wrappers you can make purses or even the classic half moon pleated shapes. Practice makes perfect, so if you can't get the pleates right you can fold them in half and flatten the bottom.

Lay your wonton wrapper flat, and moisten all the edges with water. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center and fold your wonton to your desired shape. Make sure the edges are sealed to prevent the filling from coming out during the cooking process.

Use water to seal the edges

For square wonton wrappers, you would fold up all the edges to make a pyramid. And for purses you can bring up all the corners and sinch them at the top.  



Its your choice for how you want to cook your dumplings. Here are the various methods:

Boil:  Place your dumplings in a pot full of boiling water- boil under tender and cooked about 10 minutes

Steam: I usually line a bamboo steamer with greased parchment paper to prevent sticking. Steam on high heat for about 20 minutes

Pan fry: For a crispy bottom there are 2 methods

               Method 1: Fry already steamed dumplings in a shallow pan with 1 tablespoon of oil until bottoms

                                are light brown and crispy

               Method 2: Pan fry dumplings in a pan with 1tablespoon of oil, once the bottoms are light

                                brown and crispy, add 1 cup of water or chicken broth, cover and cook for 10 min.

                                Remove lid and cook out the liquid.

Deep fry: Deep fry in a neautral, flavorless oil (canola, peanut, vegetable) on medium heat until light brown

                 and crispy, remove from oil and

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I steamed my dumplings on this particular day.