I never realized how quick and easy it was to make chicken dumplings from scratch at home. With all my spare time sitting at home I took a stab at making dumplings from scratch. Homemade dumplings are healthy and easy to make and perfect as a light meal or appetizer. You can use this recipe for chicken dumplings or you can change up the meat to anything you prefer. A lot of people use pork or prawns for filling as well.
It’s very crucial that the chicken dumpling filling is moist and juicy, so you want to choose boneless and skinless chicken thighs instead of chicken breast. Chicken thighs is fattier, which makes it perfect as a filling. The other key ingredient is mushrooms or if you prefer you can also use Chinese cabbage.
If you are making the dumpling wrappers from scratch, be sure to roll the dough very thin. You are aiming for around the thickness of a lasagne sheet. If you cant seem to get it that thin, thicker dumpling wrappers can still be fine and are often better for potstickers.
Correctly crimping the dumplings is an art form and I struggled to get even folds at first but after a few failed attempts, a break and a couple of instructional YouTube videos I got the hang of it. It became quite therapeutic and before I knew it I had a table full of chicken dumplings.
Quick and Easy Chicken Dumpling Recipe
Equipment
- Skillet
- Rolling Pin
- Mixing bowl
- Damp cloth
- Strainer
- Large pot
Ingredients
Dumpling Wrapper Ingredients:
- 250 g Plain white flour
- ½ Cup Tap water
Chicken Dumpling Filling Ingredients:
- 1 kg Chicken thigh meat ground
- 500 g finely chopped mushrooms
- 3 Cloves finely diced garlic
- 1 finely diced green chilli
- 3 Stalks Diced spring onion
- 1 Finely diced shallot
- 1 inch grated fresh ginger
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp mirin
Instructions
Making the dumpling wrapper
- Combine the all-purpose flour, water and knead until the dough isn’t sticky and the surface becomes smooth. Cover it with a damp cloth and rest for 30 minutes.
Making the filling
- Mix ground chicken thighs, mushrooms, garlic, green chilli, spring onion, shallots, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, and mirin in a bowl.
Assembling the dumpling
- Add about a teaspoon of filling into the center fo the dumpling wrapper and pleat or fold the dumpling.
- Heat up a pot of water and bring it to boil. Drop the dumplings gently into the water, boil for a few minutes until the dumplings float to the top. Use a strainer to scoop them out and transfer to a plate. Repeat the same until all dumplings are boiled.
- Heat up a skillet with some oil. Arrange about 8 dumplings on the skillet and pan-fry the dumplings until the bottom turns light brown, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Turn it over and pan-fry the other sides of the dumplings. Add more oil and repeat the same process above until all dumplings are turn golden brown and become crispy.
- Serve the dumplings warm with the dipping sauce.
- If you have any extra uncooked dumplings feel free to freeze them for cooking on another day.
If you enjoyed this dumpling recipe you should check out my cream cheese wonton recipe, or my prawn dumplings recipe.