Transcription
All of the recent Tik Tok dumpling recipes tell me two things. One, people want a lot more dumplings in their lives. And two, they think making them is much harder than it is. The truth is, if you can make a sandwich, you can make a world-class dumpling.
In this video, I'm going to show you guys my well-tested recipe for Sichuan style chili wanttons. These are tender, silky, juicy, and easy to make dumplings that are tossed in a numbing, spicy, sweet chili oil. And honestly, they're as good as anything that I've ever had at a proper Sichuan restaurant in the US.
To get started, we need to make the spicy Sichuan chili oil. For that, into a medium bowl, I'm going to combine 10 g of goaru chili flakes, 10 g of crushed red pepper, or what I would call just regular old chili flakes or maybe Italian style chili flakes, 15 g of sesame seeds, 20 g of minced garlic, and then 2 g of Sichuan peppercorns that I've ground up pretty coarsely. If you can't find Sichuan peppercorns at any stores near your house, I'll throw a link in the description to a place where you can get it pretty affordably online. Or if you're just not going to get it at all, you could sub in 2 g of ground black pepper. It's not going to give you the same numbing quality that Sichuan peppercorns have, but it'll still bring some kind of heat and it's better than nothing.
All right, I'll just give that a quick toss to get everything roughly combined. And then I'm going to set this aside for a second. And then I'm going to get a little pot going over medium-high heat. Then I'll add in 400 g of neutral oil. I'm using peanut oil here. And then I'm going to add in 10 more g of goaru flakes. Gouaro is just a Korean style chili powder. It's got this nice coarse grind to it which is really nice. And I'm using it over a Chinese style chili powder just because the majority of the Chinese chili powders that I've used are insanely hot. And it's actually pretty difficult to make a chili oil that has enough chili flavor without also making it insanely spicy. Go is amazing because it has plenty of fruity chili flavor, but it kind of has a mild heat. And then we can use the chili flakes that I threw in the bowl earlier to kind of throttle up the spiciness. I also like it because it makes an oil that is crimson red, so it's really beautiful. And finally, the coarseness of the flakes means that you can fry them for a little bit longer and it makes them harder to burn. So, you just are able to extract more chili flavor.
After about 3 to 4 minutes, this oil should be up in the 350 territory, which is the sweet spot. Sometimes I use a thermometer to double check my work here, but I don't think that's really necessary. You kind of just want to bring it up to the point where the chili flakes are sizzling. Things are starting to smell good and the oil is taking on this deep reddish chili color. I know it's good to go when the chili flakes have taken on a little bit of this brownish red color. From there, they're going to start to get I wouldn't say burnt, but it's going to start tasting roasted and it's going to take over that subtle fruiness. So, we don't really want to go much further from this.
So, from here, I'm going to turn off this heat. Then, I'm going to grab the stuff that we mixed up earlier and a little strainer and I'm going to pour this infused oil over that. Oh, baby. Look at that. That is really beautiful. And I can't describe to you how amazing this smells. Woo man, the garlic is blooming. We've got another fresh hit of goaro in there to bring even more red color and more of that fruity chili flavor. And then the traditional crushed red pepper or like Italian style chili flakes are going to be doing all the heavy lifting in terms of spiciness. What I love about this especially is that the hot oil kind of cooks that raw garlic and rounds off its harsh edge and just mellows it out a little bit while infusing the entire thing with garlic flavor. So, not only is it chili oil, it's garlic oil and it tastes really, really sick.
So, from here, I'm just going to let this cool down for about 10 minutes or so so that when I add in the wet ingredients, they don't splatter up basically. Keep in mind that this oil is 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and if we were to add moisture into it, it would just bubble up and boil instantly, and that can be a little bit dangerous. Also, I think it's a good idea to just let the oil cool down so that when we add in the honey, the vinegar, and the soy sauce, they don't get cooked tasting. I want to kind of maintain their freshness and their sharpness, and I think it's just best to do that when the oil is not as hot.
10 minutes later, this oil is cooled down to, let's call it, hot cup of coffee temperature. So, it's still warm, but it's not so hot that when we add in moisture, it's going to instantly boil it. So, from here, I'm going to add in 15 grams of Chinese black vinegar, which if you don't have, you could sub in straight up balsamic or rice vinegar would also do in a pinch. Then, I'll add in 30 g of soy sauce, 2 g of MSG. If you don't have that, I would say sub in 3 g of salt. It's not going to do the same thing, but it is going to make it a little bit more savory. Then, I'm going to throw this on a scale just because the next thing is a little bit tricky to measure out. And I'm going to add in 50 g of honey. That might seem like a pretty excessive amount of honey for a chili oil, but when I first started developing this recipe, I went to a couple of Sichuan places here in St. Louis, had their chili wontons, and I was pretty shocked at how sweet the oil was. I thought about it though, and I was like, "This actually makes a lot of sense because the sweetness really ups your perception of the fruity chili flavor." So, it just makes it taste more like chilies without necessarily adding more chilies, which would make it excessively spicy. And the sweetness also just helps balance out the excessive soy sauce and the saltiness inside the dumpling.
Okay, so once I've got this stirred together, this is pretty much good to go. And you'll notice that we made a lot of it here. This is probably about 50% more than you're going to need to serve alongside all the dumplings that we're going to make. But this is an insanely flavorful condiment that is super versatile and it's just really good to have extra in your fridge. It doesn't really take any more work to make a two times batch than a one times. This is really good for rice bowls, rice noodle dishes, or Asian soups. basically anywhere you want to add a little bit of punchiness, a little bit of spiciness, and just extra flavor.
So, from here, I'm just going to set this chili oil aside to hang out while we make the dumpling filling. For that, I've got one lb of ground pork, which is about 8020, more or less. If you don't eat ground pork, a good sub would be ground chicken thigh because it has roughly the same amount of fat and it's pretty flavorful. But don't sub in ground chicken breast because obviously it's very lean and it's going to make a dried dumpling or ground beef probably wouldn't be a good sub either because it makes a dumpling that kind of just tastes like a meatball and that's not what we're going for.
Okay, the first thing into this dumpling filling is going to be 10 g of grated ginger which I just hit on my microplane skin on of course because I don't really think it's necessary to peel ginger. Then I'm going to add in 10 grams of minced garlic and 25 gram of very finely minced scallions like a brunw size really finely minced. Next I'll add in 10 g of salt, 5 g of sugar, 3 to 5 g of white pepper. Black pepper is also fine here. Then 10 g of soy sauce, 10 g of sesame oil, and finally I'll crack in one large egg. Holy Get in there, dude. It's like an alien. One large egg plus whatever hell spawn this is hanging on the lid here. Jesus. There we go.
Next, I'm just going to jump in and squish everything to get it nicely combined. Then I'm going to take this a step further and start aggressively whipping this meat to develop what's called meiosin protein. Now, that's just a protein that's in meat that is activated when you agitate it. It starts to link up with other meosin proteins and it makes meat sticky basically. And this is important for dumplings for two reasons. The first is that it gives it a really nice springy bite that's almost sausage-like. And the second one, which I think is a little bit more important, is if you make the meat extra sticky like this, it actually helps it stick to the dumpling wrapper a lot better. One of my biggest pet peeves is when the wrapping and the filling are not fused and then you take a bite and the filling falls out and you've got a really sad little soggy wrapper sitting on the side and then a little meatball. That's just not fun. Giving it a little bit of extra whip like this for like 3 or 4 minutes significantly increases the quality of the dumpling because the filling and the wrapper are going to be unified.
Okay. And after about 3 to 4 minutes of giving this elbow grease, you can see the meat looks whipped. There's a little bit less differentiation between the meat itself and the pork fat, and it's quite sticky. That's exactly what we're looking for.
And once the meat's all properly whipped up like this, I'm going to take a quick second to thank NordVPN for sponsoring this vid. I think at this point in history, most people understand the benefits of having a VPN installed on their computer. Mainly, it hides your physical location when you're on the internet, and it can help you gain access to streaming content that's not available in your area. In fact, the number one way that I've traditionally used NordVPN is to watch Formula 1 races when I'm traveling, which is pretty frequently. But NordVPN can do a lot more for you other than just keep you up to date on whether or not Ferrari will ever win another race again. In fact, I think it's absolutely necessary if you're the type of person who works remotely or spends a lot of time in their computer on public Wi-Fi, like in coffee shops or airports. In this case, NordVPN acts like a well-trained bouncer that fights on your behalf and keeps all of your internet activity private from the hackers who might be on the same Wi-Fi network as you. Personally, I just like the peace of mind that I get from running a tool like NordVPN because it really keeps an eye out on what I'm doing and it helps me from getting fished or scammed or maybe clicking on a fake website that leads me down a rabbit hole to buy a fake jet ski that doesn't even exist. Or maybe someone steals my credit card information and then they buy a real jet ski with my money that I don't get, but they do. That would be a bummer. And NordVPN helps me avoid that entire nightmare. All I'm saying is that the internet is a pretty freaky place and you probably want to figure out how to protect yourself while you're on it. Right now, if you want to try NordVPN, it is risk-free because they have a 30-day money back guarantee. Also, if you click my link down in the description, you'll get four additional months of protection for zero extra cost. Thank you, NordVPN, for helping me watch Formula 1 while I'm traveling and for making the internet a safer place.
Back to the vid. Once I've got my dumpling farst all mixed up, it's time to fold it up into cute little dumpers. For that, I've got a sheet tray with a piece of parchment on it here. I've got my scale, which is not 100% necessary, but I'll explain why I've got it here in a second. And then, of course, I've got some wonton wrappers. There's nothing really fancy about these. These are just standard tissue wheat wonton wrappers. Of course, I picked these up in the refrigerator section of the international grocery store, but if you don't have access to one of those, there's actually a pretty decent chance that you'll find these in the freezer section at a regular grocery store. So, just keep your eyes peeled for that. If you can't find them, unfortunately, you probably want to make a different recipe. Or you could look at my shoe recipe from a couple years ago because there is a wonton wrapper recipe from scratch in that video. So, check that out.
So, I've got some of my dumpling wrappers set up on a plate here with a damp piece of paper towel over top just to keep them from drying out because they dry out pretty quickly and a dry dumpling wrapper will crack when you go to fold it over some of the filling. Speaking of filling, I've got my scale here teared out and I'm going to measure about 15 g worth. Measuring this out probably seems excessive to most people and you certainly don't have to do it. You could just eyeball it and get in the ballpark of the correct number of dumplings. Since I'm making it on camera, I want it to be as perfect as possible. By the way, this makes about 33 to 36 dumplings, give or take.
Okay, once I've got my filling measured out, I'm going to grab one of my wonton skins and lay that down. Filling goes right in the middle like that. Then I've got a little cup of water here and I'm going to take two fingers, dip it in, and then come around the perimeter. This is just going to keep it moist and allow it to actually stick to itself. From here, I'm going to fold this over and seal the top so that it's more or less a triangle shape. I'm going to press that down to make sure it's as sealed as possible. Then I'm going to lift the triangle off the board and squeeze down the sides, pinching those shut, all the while trying to squeeze as much air out of these dumplings as possible. Aside from the dumpling filling not being well attached to the inside of the wrapper, my other major pet peeve is air pockets. For obvious reasons, the pork juice kind of renders inside the pocket here and then when you bite into it, everything runs out and it's just not a very great dumpling experience.
Okay. Once I've got this folded into a nice triangle like this, I'm going to give it six folds. So, I'm going to start on the corner. Fold it up maybe about a half inch or so and then press down as hard as I can to make sure it's nice and sealed. Then I'm going to go another, let's call it a half inch, pinch nice and firm just to make sure that this thing is getting completely closed cuz we don't want the boiling water going in. And then I'm going to repeat this across the top four more times again for let's say six folds in total. This process is very forgiving though. All you really want to do is take the dumpling wrapper, fill it with the meat, and pinch it shut. There's like a bunch of ways you can do this. This is just the way that I found that looks kind of good and eats really nice. Once it's folded up, it kind of looks a little bit like a guoza. I'm actually going to go ahead and pinch all six of these folds and bring it together into a bit more of like a square in shape. Yeah. Now it's like a Italian beggar's purse meets a Japanese guoza. For me, this brings the best textural experience because the top has quite a bit of dumpling pressed together here. So, you're going to get a really doughy, chewy bite, and then the bottom is very meat heavy. So, it has this heterogeneous texture where some bites are dough heavy and some bites are meat heavy. And I like that the best.
If pinching these into a pretty little pocket like I just did feels uncomfortable for you because you've never touched a wonton wrapper in your life, there is an easier way to do it, which is to fold it into a triangle with all the air pushed out the sides and then basically just close the arms on either side across itself like this, so that the dumpling is kind of giving itself a little bit of a hug. The thing that I don't love about this as much is that the folds on top of this style do a really good job of capturing the chili oil because there's a little bit of texture here. This is smoother, so the chili oil kind of runs right off. And you don't get as much of that wonton wrapper concentrated in one place, so you don't get that nice bite that I was talking about, but it's certainly easier to make. And you will see quite a few Sichuan places doing it like this just because they can bust out like a thousand a day because it takes less time.
From here, I'm going to shape 35 more of these dumplings. This is actually a really good social food to make. Like invite over a friend, have one person measure out the meat because that part gets a little bit sticky. And if you're going back between meat and wrapper, you can get a little bit messy and it gets a little bit annoying. And then once that person's done measuring the meat, they can jump in and help you fold the wontons. So, at this point, I'm just going to have my friend Xander come in, short for Alexander, and we're going to bust the rest of these out. And once I've got somewhere in the ballpark of 33 to 36 folded little dumpers like this, I'm going to pop on a lid. In this case, I've got a specific sheet tray lid, which is very convenient. A damp towel would also work totally fine. Then I'm going to throw this tray into the fridge for about 30 to 60 minutes. This is a pretty important step that I probably wouldn't skip. This time in the fridge is going to allow the starch in the wrapper to be hydrated a little bit by the moisture in the filling and it's going to bring the two together. They're going to kind of French kiss while they're in there and they're just going to be a lot more bonded and the final result is going to be a lot more unified. If you're in a rush to eat dumplings though, you certainly could throw these straight up into a pot of hot water. Just know that there's going to be a higher percentage chance that there's some separation between the wrapper and the filling.
And after a quick stint in the refrigerator, these dumpers are nice and hydrated and they're ready to cook off. As you can see, I've got about four quarts of water up to a boil here. And I'm going to add in two four-finger pinches of salt to get it nicely seasoned. Then I'm going to take three dumplings at a time with a little spider here and very carefully add them into the water just because this water isn't super deep and the dumplings definitely can get stuck to the bottom. So, you want to let them set just a tiny bit before you release them into the water. Then, I'm going to take three more and again, just kind of gingerly stir them around in the hot water. Let them get set for about 10 seconds or so and then release. Once all my dumplings are in here, I'm actually going to turn the heat down to low so that instead of giving these a hard boil, I can give them a little bit more of a poach. I find when the water is closer to 190F, we get a wrapper that isn't as mushy or overcooked and it's a little bit more tender, a little bit more silky. And more importantly, the filling doesn't get cooked super fast, so it doesn't like contract and squeeze out all of its juices. It's a little bit more plump, it's a little bit more tender, and just nicer overall.
And after about 4 minutes in total, and you can see that the wrapper is really well wrapped around the filling. It's not like gassed up or loose or anything like that. It's looking really good. So, from here, I'm just going to dab these off on a paper towel to get rid of excessive moisture. And then I'm going to throw them into a warm little bowl for my single portion here. And if you're wondering why I'm just cooking one at a time, it's just to show you guys the process as clearly as possible. But you definitely can cook up to maybe 15 or 16 of these dumplings at a time if you're having a dumpling party. And if you're thinking, "Hey man, this is a lot of dumplings. Actually, way more than I would ever eat." I actually made this batch size with that in mind. This is pretty labor intensive if we're being honest. And you really don't want to do this every single time. So, what I'm thinking here is that you make 36 dumplings, you spend an hour making them, and then you freeze half of them. The way to do that is to just throw this sheet tray in the freezer, and once they're solid, throw the dumplings into a freezer bag. That way, at some point in the future, if you want to have a dumpling party, they're going to be available, and you're going to be stoked that you put in the work.
As you can see, we've got our dumplings in our bowl here. So, now it's time to plate these up. Now, to finish these things, I'm going to take the chili oil that we made earlier, and I'm going to add in about 2 oz of my starchy dumpling water, about 50 or 60 g worth. There we go. Then, I'll just come back and give that a quick whisk to kind of emulsify it. This is a really sick move that you actually see a lot of Sichuan places do to give the chili oil its ultimate viscosity. The thing about putting oil directly on hot starch is that a lot of the time it just kind of runs off. Adding this hot water and whisking it in like that makes this in kind of a vinaigrette situation. It gets the oil broken down into little droplets and it's just a little bit more emulsified and it has a viscosity that just bathes the dumpling and it kind of runs off the sides in a really pleasant way that you just can't get if you were to just go straight oil on top.
So now I'm going to bathe each dumpling in one strong spoonful. Making sure to get the gochugaru and the garlic and the sesame seeds from the bottom of the bowl. And then maybe just like one more spoonful on top. That looks divine. It just does. Just look at this. You can make this at home right now. It feels like it should be against the rules.
So now I'm just going to swirl this up in the chili oil and take a bite. Oh my gosh, she's dripping, dude. And she smells so good. Let's do it. Ooh, man. First of all, the dumpling wrapper is silky and tender, and it has like a like a supple quality to it. It's very sensual. And then the filling, it's aromatic from the ginger and garlic. It's juicy. It's got a nice bite to it. And most importantly, it's perfectly fused with the wrapper itself. So, it gives you this singular textural experience from start to finish that is just enjoyable. And then there's the chili oil, of course. It's fruity. It's spicy, but not too spicy. It's a little buzzy from the Sichuan. And it's sweet in a really, really good way that balances out that Chinese vinegar and all the saltiness from the soy sauce. I know I say this all the time, you guys, but I really mean it. I think you should make this recipe. It's really freaking good. If you don't make the dumplings, at least make the chili oil. That is a singular dish in and of itself that's really, really special and extremely functional.
If you guys want to make this recipe, I'll throw the short version down in the description along with a link to the long version over at brianlagertstrom.com, which is my blog. As always, guys, thank you so much for your time and attention. Thank you for sticking around to the end of the video, and I'll see you next time.