My aunt Qua is known for her juicy fried dumplings so much so that there are lines of people upset because she no longer sells them.  Luckily for me and for our readers, she decided to teach us how to make this deceptively simple dish.  The fried dumplings are juicy and sweet while the deep frying gives them a nice crunch.  Covered in fried sweet onions and dipped in a unique soy vinaigrette, these dumplings will be gone in seconds.  These are the best fried dumplings I have ever tasted and I’m excited to share the recipe in today’s post.

There are three cooking methods to cook the dumplings. You decide based on your preference.

a.  Deep frying (the preferred method)

b.  Pan frying.  We used this method for this demonstration as the hotel did not have all the equipment we needed.

c.  Boiling

This recipe is rated easy and makes approximately 50 dumplings.

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground pork

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

50 round wonton wrapper

1 1/2 teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder

2 large yellow onions or sweet onions for approximately 3 cups of diced onions

1 1/2 tablespoons of vinegar

1/4 cup of light soy sauce

vegetable oil to deep fry

sugar

water

Directions:

In a large pot, put 3 cups of diced onions in 3 cups of water to boil for 15 minutes.  

Strain and run with cold water.  Let the water drain out and use a towel to press any excess water from the onions.  The onions should be dry so the water won’t dilute the filling and make the dumplings soggy.

In a large bowl, add ¼ teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of ground pepper, 1 ½ teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder, and 5 teaspoons of sugar.  Add the dried onions and mix the mixture by hand for the best result.

Using a round wonton skin, add approximately 1 tablespoon (leveled) of the filling to the skin and spread the filling out evenly.  

Fold the wonton skin in half and press down on the edges to seal the dumplings.

At this point, you can either boil, pan fry or deep fry.  For the best result, deep fry the dumpling at 300F until the dumpling floats to the top.  This is the same for boiling the dumpling.

For pan frying, fill the oil up to about an inch or so up the side of the pan.  Heat the pan to 300F.  You can test the heat with a piece of onion.  The oil is ready when you place the onion in the oil and it bubbles along the edges without turning the onion golden brown right away.

Add the dumpling to the pan and have a lid handy.  Carefully add 1 tablespoon of water to the pan and close the lid right away to prevent the oil splatter.  This is a trick to get crispy and moist fried dumplings.  This is the reason why deep frying is better because the more oil you  have, the less it will splatter when you add the water.

Cook 1 side of the dumpling until it is golden brown (approximately 3-4 minutes) and flip to  cook the other side for another 3 to 4 minutes.  Each batch of fried dumplings should be cooked with 1 tablespoon of water.

Thinly slice 1 small onion and fry the onion until it turns golden brown.

Sauce:

In a sauce pan, heat up ¼ cup of soy sauce, ¼ cup of water, 1 ½ tablespoon of vinegar, ¼ cup of sugar plus 1 tablespoon of sugar.  Stir to mix and add 1 diced Thai chili.  Once the sauce boils, turn off the heat and let it cool.

Top the fried dumplings with fried onions and dip in the sauce.

For more recipes, visit our EAT page or Recipe Index.

Contributor: Qua Tran

Author: Chau Hoang