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.