Skip to main content

← The recipe book

[[ Pork · Meat · Dinner · Dumplings ]]

Pork Potstickers (Pan-Fried Dumplings)

Hand-folded dumplings filled with seasoned pork, cabbage and ginger, cooked until the bottoms are golden and crisp while the tops stay soft and juicy. The filling is savoury with a gentle warmth from white pepper and sesame. Good for a weekend lunch or a casual dinner when you have time to enjoy the process.

Time: 1 h 30 min
Effort: Medium
Steps: 10

5 of the steps have a timer you can start with one tap.

Pork Potstickers (Pan-Fried Dumplings), photographed at home

Ingredients

4 to feed

300 g plain flour
165 ml just-boiled water
13 g salt
500 g pork mince
150 g wombok (napa cabbage)
3 cloves fresh garlic
15 g fresh ginger
90 ml soy sauce
25 ml sesame oil
15 ml Shaoxing rice wine
2 g white pepper
3 whole spring onions
60 ml cold water or unsalted chicken stock
30 ml rice vinegar
5 g fresh ginger for dipping sauce
1 whole chilli oil or fresh chilli
15 ml neutral oil

How it goes

PrepPrepare the cabbage · Prep the aromatics and sauce · Make the dough · Mix the filling · Roll the wrappers · Fill and fold the dumplings
CookFry the dumpling bases · Steam the dumplings · Crisp the skirt
ServeServe the dumplings

Method

Prepare the cabbage
Finely shred 150g wombok. Toss with 6g salt and leave for 15 minutes to draw out water by osmosis. Squeeze hard in both hands (or twist in a clean tea towel) until it stops dripping — it should compress to roughly half its volume.
Prep the aromatics and sauce
Mince 3 garlic cloves, grate 15g fresh ginger, and slice 3 spring onions. Whisk the dipping sauce: combine 60g soy sauce, 30g rice vinegar, 10g sesame oil, 5g freshly grated ginger, and chilli oil or fresh chilli to taste. Set aside.
Make the dough
Combine 300g plain flour and 3g salt in a bowl. Gradually pour in 165g just-boiled water, stirring with chopsticks until shaggy lumps form. Once cool enough to handle, knead for 5 minutes until smooth, soft, and slightly tacky (not sticky). Wrap tightly or cover with a damp cloth and rest at least 30 minutes at room temperature.
Mix the filling
Combine 500g pork mince, 4g salt, 30g soy sauce, 15g sesame oil, 15g Shaoxing wine, 2g white pepper, minced garlic, and grated ginger in a bowl. Stir vigorously in one direction for 2 minutes until the mixture turns tacky and pastes to the side of the bowl. Stir in 60g cold water or stock in two additions, again in one direction, until fully absorbed and glossy. Finally fold in the squeezed cabbage and spring onions gently — just to distribute.
Roll the wrappers
Divide the rested dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each into a log and cut into 9 pieces (~12g each). Keep unused pieces under a damp cloth. Press each piece cut-side down into a disc, then roll to ~8.5 cm diameter, rotating a quarter-turn between passes and keeping edges thinner than the centre. Work in batches of 8–10 — roll, fill, fold, then roll the next batch. Fresh skins are tacky and self-seal; skins left out dry and need water to stick.
Fill and fold the dumplings
Cup a wrapper in your palm, place ~15g filling (one heaped teaspoon) in the centre, and dab a little water around the rim if the edge has dried. Fold in half, pinch firmly at the top centre, then make 3–4 pleats working from centre outward on the front face, pressing each into the flat back. Set flat-bottomed on the floured tray, then gently tap the base flat so it sits like a little canoe.
Fry the dumpling bases
Heat 15g oil in the non-stick pan over medium-high until shimmering. Arrange dumplings flat-side down in a single snug layer with small gaps between (work in 2–3 batches, don't crowd). Fry undisturbed for 2–3 minutes until the bases are deep golden and lift cleanly.
Steam the dumplings
While the first batch fries, stir the slurry (100ml water + 5g flour) so it's cloudy and homogeneous. Once the bases are golden, re-stir the slurry and pour it in (it'll spit — stand back). Immediately put the lid on. Steam for 6–7 minutes until nearly all liquid is gone and the wrappers turn translucent.
Crisp the skirt
Lift the lid and let residual water flash off. Cook uncovered for a further 2–3 minutes until the slurry sets into a thin golden crisp lattice and the base is crackly. Check one dumpling: filling should read ≥71°C (160°F) on an instant-read thermometer. Slide or invert onto a plate, crispy-side up.
Serve the dumplings
Serve immediately, crispy-side up, with the prepared dipping sauce. A good potsticker needs very little sauce.