15 BEST CHINESE DUMPLING RECIPES (2024)

FAQs

What is the most popular Chinese dumpling? ›

Jiaozi (pronounced "jow-zee") are perhaps the most common type of Chinese dumpling. Crescent-shaped and formed with an opaque wrapper made from wheat dough, jiaozi are usually filled with ground pork, cabbage, and scallions, and served with a dipping sauce made of soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil.

Don't Overwork the Dumpling Dough

First, mix the dumpling ingredients just until the dough comes together. You'll whisk together the dry ingredients, then add melted butter and heavy cream. Stir everything together until the wet and dry ingredients are combined and you don't see any more dry flour.

Wrapped in dough, the jiaozi is usually prepared with a meat filling such as pork, beef, mutton or shrimp, and mixed with vegetables like chive, celery, fennel, or cabbage and even herbs such cilantro. Jiaozi are usually steamed or boiled.

Common dumpling meat fillings include chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, and fish which are usually mixed with chopped vegetables. Popular vegetable fillings include napa cabbage, scallion (spring onions), celery, leek, spinach, mushroom, carrot, garlic chives, and edible black fungus.

Potstickers are always dumplings, but not all dumplings are potstickers. The biggest difference between these two are how they are cooked, but the cooking method has also changed the kinds of ingredients and preparation of both potstickers and dumplings over time. Potstickers are dumplings that are also pan-fried.

These dumplings start with all-purpose flour, which creates structure and holds the other ingredients together. Baking powder is a leavening agent, which means it releases gas that makes the dough expand. It's responsible for the dumplings' light and fluffy texture.

What are dumplings made of? The dumpling dough is made of three main ingredients: flour, water and salt. But which flour you use depends on which dumpling you want to make.

To be regarded as potstickers, the dumpling must be stuffed, steamed, and then fried. The main difference is the filling, not the cooking technique. As a general rule, most people use very thin wrappers for potstickers, which is different than that used for a dumpling (via Foodsguy).

Tangy, spicy chile-garlic sauce is a staple condiment that contains not much more than red chiles, garlic, rice vinegar, and salt. Sort of a chunky version of sriracha, it's often used by itself as a dipping sauce. The brand you're most likely to encounter is Huy Fong, which is Vietnamese.

In a nutshell, potstickers and wontons are types of dumplings. Potstickers are steam-fried, while wontons are boiled or deep-fried. When it comes to dough ingredients, potstickers or traditional dumplings generally use wheat flour and water. On the other hand, wontons use flour, egg, and water.

What are the most popular dumplings? ›

Dumplings are either boiled, steamed, or fried, but there's a couple of different ways to further differentiate these techniques: Boiled dumplings can be cooked in water or directly in the soup or stew in which they will be served.

Ground pork is the most common dumpling filling base across China. We have several pork dumpling recipes, each with a different vegetable complement. This was the very first dumpling recipe we ever published on the blog, and still one of our most popular.

Xiaolongbao are often referred to as a kind of "dumpling", but should not be confused with Chinese jiaozi or wonton. In some parts of China and overseas, xiaolongbao may specifically refer to a kind of soup dumpling, the tangbao (Chinese: 汤包) of Jiangnan cuisine, which are strongly associated with Shanghai and Wuxi.