I love dumplings of all kinds but potstickers hold a special place in my heart because they’re the dumpling I grew up eating. I have many fond memories of my family sitting around our round jade green laminate kitchen table, a giant plate of potstickers in the middle, all of us stuffing our faces.
Nowadays I probably eat gyoza more – which are technically the Japanese version of potstickers – but since I’m not the greatest at making gyoza, the dumplings I make at home the most are potstickers. If you haven’t had potstickers before, maybe you just haven’t heard them called potstickers. Essentially they’re just Chinese dumplings, pan-fried; fried dumplings are literally called pot stick in Chinese. I mean, I love boiled and steamed dumplings too, but there’s just something about that combination of crispy pan-fried dumpling skin, juicy meaty insides, and the tender noodle-y un-fried dumpling tops.
Dumplings are really, really easy to make at home, as long as you have a source for dumpling skins. Luckily, there are tons of Asian grocery stores around that sell pre-made dumpling skins. Or, it’s pretty straight forward to make your own. Once you have that out of the way, it’s just a question of mixing together meat, vegetables, and seasonings. Pop the filling into the dumpling wrappers, squish/fold them together and you’re gold. You could have a giant dumpling making party, make hundreds of them, and freeze them for future dumpling cravings.
These particular potstickers are filled with pork and napa cabbage. It’s a pretty classic combo flavored with garlic, ginger, soy, shaoxing, and toasted sesame oil. I added some crunchy wood ear mushrooms in there for some textural interest, but they’re optional. From there it’s a quick fry and steam cooking method and you’ve got a plate of potstickers just begging to be dipped into soy and chili oil.
Happy dumpling-ing!
PS – If you need more dumpling recipes check out these and these!
Homemade Chinese Dumpling Potsticker Recipe
makes about 40-50 dumplings, depending on size
- 1 lb finely minced napa tossed with 2 teaspoons salt, then drained and squeezed
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
- 1/4 cup sliced wood ear mushrooms, rehydrated, optional
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons ginger, minced
- 2 teaspoons light soy
- 2 teaspoons shaoxing
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- dumpling wrappers, as needed
To salt the napa, toss the minced napa with salt and let sit for 10-15 minutes. The napa should be very wilted. Rinse and then squeeze out as much water as possible.
In a large bowl, mix together the napa, pork, green onions, mushrooms and garlic. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, ginger, soy, shaoxing, toasted sesame oil, sugar, and salt. Mix throughly into the meat mixture.
Wrap the potstickers: place 1 tablespoon of filling in the middle of the wrapper. Lightly moisten the edges of the wrapper with water, fold over into a half moon shape and pinch the edges to seal. You can also pleat/fold the dumplings: start by folding the dumpling skin in half and pinching. From the middle, fold over/ pleat one side of the dumpling skin and push against the back skin to secure. Repeat until you reach the edge the pleat the other side.
To cook: in a nonstick pan, over medium heat, heat up a touch of oil. When hot, lay the potstickers in the pan, in one layer. Cook, until slightly browned, then add 2-4 tablespoons of water and cover and cook for 3-4 minutes. When the water has cooked off, lift off the lid and continue cooking until the bottoms are brown and crisp. Enjoy hot, with soy sauce and chili oil!
To freeze: space out uncooked potstickers in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze until solid. Transfer to freezer bags. Cook from frozen adding a couple of minutes to the covered cooking time.
Note: You can buy potsticker wrappers at your local Asian grocery store, they’re round and might be labeled gyoza or dumpling wrappers.
Do you have any tips for flipping the cooked gyozas over in 1 connected piece? (like your cover photo) I always try but they always make a mess and won’t stick together!
hi lia!
i use a plate and hold it over the pan and then flip. i’m going to be doing a in-depth post on how to cook dumplings so i’ll probably go into more detail there, but i just kinda flip them out, like how you turn out an upside down cake. hope that helps a bit? :)
Hi Stephanie,
I love potstickers, but just never thought of making my own — I guess I thought they’d be super complicated. Excited to try these and I will look for dumpling skins, but love the option to make my own!
yay! i hope you try it out :) and if you don’t, frozen store bought potstickers are almost just as good :)
Thank you for this recipe! Your potstickers look amazing. This may be a dumb question but how do you achieve that spiderweb-like crust?
hi!
i’m going to be doing a how to cook frozen dumplings post soon with detailed instructions, but essentially it’s a cornstarch water slurry you add when you are steaming the dumplings. after you lift off the lid, you let the slurry cook down into a lacy crispy “cake” of sorts. most people call them dumpling wings :)
Do you cook the ground pork before mixing the filling?
hi mia,
no, it’s raw when you put it in the wrappers :)