Young Cooking

My mom and I used to make these at home. We used to always make them using store bought wonton wrappers. After eating them in countless Chinese Restaurants, I noticed that the wrapper is always thicker than the store bought ones. So this time I made a homemade wonton wrapper, and it was a great success. The dipping sauce is a copy-cat version of PF Chang’s Pot Sticker Dipping Sauce. All of the flavors came together very nicely. This recipe makes approximately 30 pot stickers.

Dipping Sauce: My husband is a big fan of the dipping sauce at PF Chang’s. So we came up with our own version of it. Note: I’m not a big fan of mustard, so we left it out - but the traditional PF Chang’s version definitely has it. This amount of dipping sauce serves one recipe of the pot stickers.

1. Slice the green onions, and mix the rest of the ingredients together in a small bowl using a fork.
2. Set aside, and remix before serving.

Meat Filling: This recipe for the pork based filling is the one that my mom and I have always made. It is simple and very flavorful.  There are two parts to the filling. The wet ingredients and the base. The base consists of the following:

1. Put the base meat mixture in a bowl and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients:

   1 teaspoon	chili paste
   1 tablespoon	corn starch
   1 1/2 tablespoon	chopped garlic
   2 teaspoons	smashed ginger
   1/3 cup	soy sauce
   2 teaspoons	brown sugar

3. Mix together the wet mixture with the base. Start with a fork, but I usually end up using my hand to ensure it is well incorporated.
4. Now the meat mixture is done! Set aside (in refrigerator).

Wonton Wrapper: The homemade version is very easy, but if you are pressed for time the store bought ones will work just fine.

1. In a small bowl mix together the salt, water, and egg.
2. In the bowl of the mixer, add the flour. Use the dough hook attachment on your mixer.
3. Slowly add the wet mixture until a ball forms. Let the mixer knead the dough for up to 5 minutes. Add more water if necessary.
4. Once the ball has formed, cover and let rest for up to an hour.

Construction & Cooking:

1. Setup the steamer. We don’t have an official steamer, so we setup this homemade one. It starts with a sauce pot with water, on top of that goes the metal colander, and the lid to cover the pot stickers. It is also important to rub the colander with oil, to ensure no “pot sticking”.
   
2. On a floured surface roll out the dough into a thin (1/4″) sheet.
3. Add the meat filling in a matrix about 2″ apart.
4. Cut between the filling creating a square wrapper for each spoonful of filling.
5. Fold the dough over the filling forming a triangle shape.
6. Press the filling together forming each pot sticker, pinch the edges as you go.
   
7. Steam the pot stickers in the home made steamer for 4 - 5 minutes. If you are unsure if they are cooked all the way, take one out and slice it in half and check.
8. Put 1 - 2 teaspoons of oil in a skillet on medium-high heat. Sautee the pot stickers until they get some good color (this part just adds nice texture to the exterior).
9. Serve with a big  bowl of the dipping sauce!

I took the traditional recipe that I have been making for years, and added the new dipping sauce recipe and the home made wonton wrappers. I am very pleased with the results and I definitely recommend giving this one a try.

If you can’t eat 30 pot stickers at a time, you can freeze them and go through the same steam and pan fry technique and they are just as good for up to 3 months!