Pan Fried Dumplings
The best and easiest way to cook amazingly crisp potstickers! After this, you’ll never want take-out dumplings ever again. Promise!
Dumplings are just everything.
They’re small enough so that you can eat about 24 of these without feeling too guilty, yet they also make for a completely acceptable dinner.
Plus, you can freeze these as needed so you can get your potsticker fix whenever, wherever.
And this recipe here is for homemade dumplings that tastes just like your favorite take-out joint.
Except you can get that really amazing golden brown crunchy crispness instead of all that sogginess from waiting for delivery.
I kid you not – this pan-fried method is life-changing – you’ll never want to prepare dumplings any other way!
Pan Fried Dumplings
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 zucchini, shredded
- 1 carrot, peeled and shredded
- 1 cup shredded Napa cabbage
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 40 won ton wrappers
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, or more, as needed
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine pork, zucchini, carrot, cabbage, eggs, garlic, green onions, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, mirin and sugar; season with salt and pepper, to taste.*
- To assemble the dumplings, place wrappers on a work surface. Spoon 1 tablespoon of the pork mixture into the center of each wrapper. Using your finger, rub the edges of the wrappers with water. Fold the dough over the filling to create a half-moon shape, pinching the edges to seal.*
- Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, add dumplings in a single layer and cook until bottoms begin to brown, about 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup water, cover and cook for 3 minutes; uncover and cook until the liquid has evaporated completely and the bottoms are crisp and golden brown, about 2 more minutes. Repeat with remaining dumplings, adding more vegetable oil as needed.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Best dumplings ever
This recipe is great, but here are some slight modifications that you might enjoy:
1. I added small pieces of mushroom and prawns to five it some more texture when you bite in.
2. I didn’t add the carrots and the garlic (its a personal preference thing), and it turned out great.
3. You could consider using butter to fry the dumplings for that extra buttery taste.
4. Heres a youtube video on how to fold the dumpling skin ‘professionally’: https://youtu.be/YAcMQWqVln0
Cheers! Thanks for the recipe!!
Loved these pot stickers and the clear instructions and video. If I use these in a soup, how long do you have to boil them?
Hi Arpita!
I make wonton soup often, and a rule of thumb is to drop them into the simmering broth and wait for them to float to the top. Once the wontons have all popped to the surface, they are done! Only takes a few minutes. I’ll also remove one from the broth and cut it in half, to make sure it is cooked through.
Lovely recipe! Once they’re frozen, what are the changes to cooking times for pan frying? Thank you (I did look through to see if you’d already answered this question , my apologies if it’s repetitive.
Made these last night and they were SO good. Only cooked the ones we planned to eat and froze the rest. I’m also looking for instructions for how to cook the frozen ones.
Hi! Made these and loved them. They cooked perfectly as described when they were fresh, but we just tried to cook the ones we froze today and they stuck to the pan terribly. Lost a lot of the wrapper on one side. Any suggestions to prevent this?
Did you use a nonstick pan?
Hi.
I don’t se the part where water is added in the video and I’m confused as to whether both sides are fried first and then water is added or …?
I’ve only tried the ones where they are crispy on one side and soft on the other side.
Regards Vivian
Vivian, the water is added, then covered and steamed – this is where only one side is crispy. 🙂
Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, add dumplings in a single layer and cook until bottoms begin to brown, about 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup water, cover and cook for 3 minutes; uncover and cook until the liquid has evaporated completely and the bottoms are crisp and golden brown, about 2 more minutes.
What can I use instead of pork? Does regular grounded meat work?
Ground chicken would be a great substitute.
Made this recipe tonight and it was fantastic! I love all of your recipes as they always turn out amazing. Great job 🙂
Thank you Lauren!
Made the filling and filled the dumplings in the afternoon today and then got busy and couldn’t fry and steam them so I put them in the refrigerator for about 6 hours…it’s now 11:00 at night and I finally remembered them. I am going to stick them in the freezer now and cook them at another time. Do you think that they will be ok to eat? I am concerned since the pork wasn’t cooked.
I must mention that I ran out of wonton wrappers so I cooked up the extra meat and wrapped it in egg roll wrappers and air fried them for 1o minutes and they were delicious…hoping to enjoy the rest of the meat as dumplings because the filling is quite delicious! Thanks for your imput and for the delicious recipe!
As I am not an expert on food safety, I cannot really say with certainty – sorry! Methods for optimal food storage and shelf life should be based on good judgment and what you are personally comfortable with. Hope that helps, Kathi!
I made the Pot Stickers last night and the meat mixture was really moist. After a few minutes I had standing liquid in the bowl. The tasted great but did I do something wrong. I love your site.
Not at all – that’s a bit of leftover juices from the filling!
The recipe calls for 1 zucchini. What would be the measured amount of zucchini, since mine are all huge. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
There is about 2/3 cup shredded zucchini in one average-sized zucchini. Hope that helps!
Hello! I’ve been putting in store bought frozen dumplings into a ramen recipe (from this site!) and it is wonderful! Do you think These could be throw into soup or would they fall apart?
What an amazing idea! It should be fine but honestly, it’s hard to say with certainty as I have never tried it myself.
These sound really yummy! gonna give this recipe ago thanks for sharing.
Simon
Hi! I’m having a terrible time hunting down Napa cabbage in our area. Is there anything else I could use and would a regular green cabbage be horrible? Thank you so much for your awesome website!
Yes, green cabbage should work just fine!
What’s the difference between potstickers and dumplings?
You can read all about the differences here. Hope that helps!
The recipe calls for half cup water but the video doesn’t show any water being added as far as I can see?
Some steps can be skipped in the videos.
I’m concerned about not cooking the pork or whatever meat is used prior to this cooking method. How does it cook?
This cooks in the skillet.
I loved these. They are quite a bit of work . I will definitely let the zucchini drain. After I mixed it all up it was so soupy. So I put it in a colder and let it drain. I saved the excess juice and pored over before serving. I also used fork tines to seal the edges. Use a fair amount of oil and med/low heat. First pan full stuck badly…I cooked and ate them anyway…they are so good. And now that I’ve got all the kinks worked out I’ll make these regula6rly.
Hi! Your picture shows them on a baking sheet, but the recipe says to fry them. I’d imagine it’s possible to bake them, but can you recommend how to do this? would you add some water or sesame oil so they don’t dry out? I’m planning on making some for a party, but frying them all would take too long
These can be baked at 425 degrees F, lightly sprayed with nonstick spray (or Pam), for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
To bake them, what temperature and how long? Thanks!!
These can be baked at 425 degrees F, lightly sprayed with nonstick spray (or Pam), for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Never thought about pan frying these before, they look so yummy and I think pan frying gives it that crispy golden outside that cant really be achieve with any other cooking method. Great work (:
Thanks for a great recipe!! How many pot stickers is the per serving nutritional info based on?
The nutritional information listed is for a single dumpling. But of course, the numbers will vary if more than 40 dumplings are made.
I made these this afternoon and served them for supper with a side of Chicken Lo Mein. Chungah, these little morsels are ever so tasty and so much fun to make also. I had 2 cookie sheets full of pretty little pinched pockets. My husband just keep saying “I love these”.
Your website is one of my favourite recipe sites.
Thank you for sharing Chungah.
Darlene
Nova Scotia
Canada
I don’t eat eggs if possible-long story-if I omit them do I need to substitute another ingredient? Thank you.
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment.
Rick, I am trying to see if I can forgo the eggs, too. Did you ever find if it would work? I noticed that in another one of her potstickers recipes she did not use eggs… I’m perplexed… https://damndelicious.net/2014/03/01/potstickers/
This was so much fun to make! (1st time making dumplings) I quickly learned to put a small amount because the wrapper would not seal properly! We enjoyed these two straight nights in a row! Thank you!
Just tried these and they were delicious. I did freeze half of them as described and then made them a couple of days later and they tasted exactly like the fresh ones! My only warning is to not overload the skillet with dumplings and to make sure that they really aren’t touching each other, otherwise they get stuck together and can be difficult to separate without tearing the dough. I made a simple peanut/soy sauce to dip in and they were fantastic!
Hi,
While these were super delicious, they stuck to the pan..badly…despite following your directions 100%. Any ideas how to manage this? I hate it when they stick because then the dumplings rip apart and the filling come out:-(
Shae, what kind of pan are you using?
I used my le Creuset dutch oven.
PS- I’m obsessed with your blog. It has revolutionized dinner in my home:-)
Can ground chicken be used to substitute for the pork? Would it have to be pre cooked before combining ingredients? Thanks! Can’t wait to try this recipe!
Chicken would be a great substitute. And no – the filling in the dumplings does not have to be cooked prior to wrapping.
just picked up the ingredients i needed to make these along with thai shrimp noodles. my family is in for a treat tonight! can’t wait
I love dumplings, but I have only tried cooking the Indian kind.
These look so good, will surely make them this weekend!
I love potstickers sooooo much but have never made them homemade. This recipe looks fantastic!
I love dumplings! I order them every time we go out for Asian food. I’m looking forward to trying these at home.
Dumplings are just one of my favorite things ever!
I can’t wait to try these! Potstickers are my one of my husband’s favorite things, and I’m always looking for a great recipe for them. If the dumplings are frozen, do they need to be thawed before being cooked?
Nope! 🙂
Any ideas for a dipping sauce?
Is there a good substitute for mirin?
There are many dipping sauce recipes available online but I prefer to drizzle them with a little bit of soy sauce and sesame seeds – quick, easy and simple! You can also check out this article discussing possible substitutes for mirin.
Hi Chungah – I have been trying many of your great recipes for the past 18 months. My husband passed away after a lengthy illness and we were able to keep him at home with medical support. When the end came, I was not interested in making or eating much and your easy, wonderfully spiced recipes inspired me eat healthy and try new recipes. Thanks so much for that, it helped me a lot!! One question about the dumplings. Do you thaw to cook if they have been frozen? I love getting your emails and hope you keep up the great work! Canada love you too!! Anne
Nope – no need to thaw! 🙂
Yum – thank you.
Hello,
I would like to know why you don’t list nutritional information? I would love to make a lot of your delicious looking food, including the pan fried dumplings, but really n3ed to see the info.
Thanks, Pam
Nutritional information is provided only for select and new recipes at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, it is best that you use free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”) to obtain such information.
Boring comment Pam, Chunga is a Cook not an nutritionist. Thank you Chunga for al your great recipes.
Any suggestion for a nice vinegary dipping sauce to join those lovely dumplings? Thanks!
There are many dipping sauce recipes available online but I prefer to drizzle them with a little bit of soy sauce and sesame seeds – quick, easy and simple! 🙂
Wow!! I’ve always felt intimidated with making dumplings at home. After reading your recipe, I think I could tackle them!! Thank you!
Is it possible to make a vegetarian version? Just omit the pork? Substitute something else?
Yes, you can substitute a vegetarian-friendly option for the pork.
Really!
I did a version with mushrooms and they were loved by vegetarians I. Did them for.
Did you cook mushrooms first?
How do you normally serve these? Do you make a dipping sauce? It looks like there might be something drizzled over them in the pictures. Thanks!
I drizzled with soy sauce.
Your pictures show sesame seeds. Are the dumplings sprinkled with the seeds after they’re cooked?
Yes, the sesame seeds are used simply as a garnish.
How is it that your dumplings look crispy all around when you just brown the bottoms?
Do you have to flip them around while they’re steaming?
You can choose to flip them or not – it’s up to you!
I’m wondering about the danger of adding water to hot oil. Did I misread this?
Nope – the directions are correct as written.
Wow these look so good. Now I’m hungry for Chinese food.
You ALWAYS have the BEST recipes! Thank you!
I second that… Chungah are an incredible cook.. Thank you!
Your recipes are amazing! Do you have a good recipe for a dipping sauce for these?
I actually just drizzle with soy sauce and garnish with sesame seeds – quick, easy and simple! 🙂
How do you cook these from frozen? Do they need to be thawed first?
Could these dumplings be steam cooked? Thanks
Yes, absolutely.
I don’t see the directions. . . . .
The directions are listed below the ingredients.