Chinese Chicken Dumplings with Sesame Soy Sauce

Chicken dumplings on a serving tray with sesame soy dipping sauce.

Chinese Chicken Dumplings with Sesame Soy Sauce

With their perfectly crisp outer shell and warm flavorful filling, these dumplings are without a doubt one of the best meals around. When paired with the slightly salty, nutty, and tangy sesame soy sauce, it’s a match made in heaven!

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Asian, Chinese

Prep Time 1 30

Cook Time 12

Total Time 1 42

Servings dumplings

Calories 93kcal

Author Alana Lieberman

Cost $15

Equipment

Ingredients

For the Dough:

6 cups all purpose flour
1 ¾ cup + 2 tablespoon hot water
1 teaspoon salt

For the Dumpling Filling:

10 oz shredded green cabbage
½ cup sliced water chestnuts minced
2 teaspoon salt
16 oz ground chicken
4 tablespoon scallions chopped
2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic minced
3 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar

For the Sesame Soy Sauce:

¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 scallion greens only, sliced
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon sweet chili sauce optional
a sprinkle of sesame seeds

Instructions

For the Dough:

Combine the flour, water, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. With the dough hook attachment, knead the dough together until it forms a smooth ball, around 2-3 minutes.
Remove the ball from the bowl, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and let it rest for 30 minutes.
If you do not have a stand mixer or a dough hook attachment, you can knead the dough by hand until it becomes smooth, just make sure to flour your surface well to prevent it from sticking.

For the Dumpling Filling:

Combine the shredded cabbage and water chestnuts in a colander with 2 teaspoons of salt and place it over a bowl. Leave it to stand for about 30 minutes to allow the salt to extract the moisture from the cabbage and water chestnuts.
After 30 minutes, dump the cabbage and water chestnuts over a towel or double lined paper towels, then wrap them and wring out the excess water.
When there is very little water remaining, add the cabbage and water chestnuts to a bowl with the ground chicken, scallions, ginger, garlic, low sodium soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, and sugar. Mix to combine.

Putting It All Together:

Split the dough in half. Roll one half of the dough on a floured surface until it is thin, about 1/16th of an inch thick. Cut the dough into rounds (mine were 3 ½ inches in diameter).
Fill each round with 1-2 teaspoons of the chicken filling and fold them according to the tutorial linked below.
Continue with the rest of the dough from the first half. Then, repeat again with the other half of the dough.
Over medium heat, add a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil to a high sided skillet. When the oil is hot, add the dumplings. Brown on one side for about 3 minutes.
Then, carefully add ¼ cup of water and cover to steam the dumplings for about 6 minutes on low heat. (The oil will splatter a bit, so be very careful during this step)
Uncover the pan, increase the heat to medium, and cook another 3 or so minutes until the bottoms are crisp. You may need to cook the dumplings in batches, depending on the size of your skillet. The dumplings do puff up a little as you cook them.
If you prefer to boil the dumplings instead, add them to a large pot of boiling salted water. Once the dumplings float to the surface, cook them for 5 minutes then remove them from the water. You may need to do this in batches, as well.

For the Sesame Soy Sauce:

Combine all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. The sauce will build more flavor the longer it sits. Dip the cooked dumplings in the bowl of sauce and enjoy!

Notes

I like to make my own dumpling dough, but if you’re short on time, you can definitely buy store bought and just use this recipe for the filling and sauce. Because the store bought wrappers are usually a bit drier than the homemade ones, dip your finger in warm water and run it along the outside of the dough to seal it together.
Water chestnuts have very little inherent flavor, but provide a nice crunchy texture. They can be found in the Asian foods aisle of the grocery store.
You can swap out the ground chicken with ground turkey or ground pork. However, ground chicken has a more mild flavor, so the substitutions may alter the overall taste of the dumplings.
Make sure to use TOASTED sesame oil and LOW SODIUM soy sauce. The toasted sesame oil has a lot more flavor than plain sesame oil and the low sodium soy sauce is a lot less salty, so it’s easier to control the salt level.
The sweet chili sauce in the sesame soy sauce is completely optional. You can omit it if you don’t like spice. I do recommend it, though, because it does not offer a ton of spice, but it does add a touch of extra flavor and sweetness to balance out the tanginess of the vinegar.
Check out this informative article from Red House Spice for a tutorial on the many ways you can fold dumplings. Additionally, these dumplings would be excellent in wonton soup, just cut your dough a bit smaller and fill it a little less to make bite-sized chicken wontons instead.

Nutrition