Chicken Wontons

I know, I know, traditional Chinese wontons should be made of minced (ground) pork. My mother always makes wontons with minced (ground) pork and prawns (shrimp). However, I wanted to try with chicken. Why? It’s not that we don’t dig on swine, it’s just because we don’t eat much pork these days.

The filling consists of minced (ground) chicken thighs, shiitake mushrooms, spring (green) onions, water chestnuts, Chinese leaf (napa cabbage) and seasonings. In essence, they are closer to jiaozi than the classic wonton.

Prawn Dumplings

An excellent way of judging how good a dim sum restaurant is to try their har gow. You know… those translucent prawn (shrimp) dumplings that everyone is so fond of. If you’ve even been to yum cha, there’s no doubt that you’ve tried them. The quality of the har gow, is a pivotal point on whether the other dim sum items are going to be good or not. It takes many many years for a dim sum chef to master these dumplings, and if those are good, the other items are going to be excellent!

Pork & Cabbage Jiaozi

Jiaozi, gyoza, potstickers or in Cantonese, gow gee are all the same thing. They're an East Asian dumpling with a filling of minced (ground) meat and/or vegetables, which is encased in a thin, chewy skin.

The version I have made is with minced (ground) pork with Chinese leaf (napa cabbage). I have also made the recipe with chicken thighs, where I’ve home-minced (ground) it in a food processor. The resulting jiaozi are pretty good, and I often use them in a Szechuan noodle soup.