Since I was really young Potstickers have been one of my favorite foods. I remember helping my mom fold them up and set them onto a giant platter. We usually boiled ours up in a brothy soup with small rice cake discs. Our Potsticker recipe today is a pan-fried version and is sort of a mixed bag of Asian ingredients, but the dipping sauce is very Korean.
How to make Potstickers
- Place all filling ingredients into a bowl and mix together until well combined. Set aside.
- Brush perimeter of a wonton wrapper with the beaten egg and fill center with 1 heaping tablespoon of pork filling.
- Open your dominant hand, palm side up, and hold fingers together.
- Place the filled and open wonton wrapper onto your fingers and fold the wrapper in half, only sealing the corner of one side.
- Using your other hand, push small pleats onto one side of the wrapper, pressing and sealing with the hand holding the pot sticker.
- Continue to pleat and seal until the entire potsticker is sealed.
- Set aside and repeat until all filling and wrappers have been used.
- Heat a large, heavy bottom skillet over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons oil.
- Add 5 to 6 pot stickers to skillet, so the crimped side is up, and pan-fry for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add about 3 tablespoons water to the pan and cover for 2 to 4 minute or until the wonton wrappers have softened and steamed and the filling has finished cooking through.
- Remove from heat and repeat until all potstickers have been cooked. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
- For yangnyeom ganjang: Place all ingredients into a small bowl and whisk together. Serve with potstickers.
Check out the video below where we show you how to pleat a potsticker.
Our Potsticker Sauce
We serve our potstickers with a traditional Korean-style sauce called yangnyeom ganjang. It’s typically made with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil minced garlic, sliced green onion, toasted sesame seeds, and Korean chile powder. This dipping sauce is great for both pan-fried and steamed potstickers.
FAQs
Potstickers are a type of dumpling. Usually filled with pork and cabbage, or cabbage and vegetables like carrots for a vegetarian version. Potstickers are generally folded into a pleated crescent shape. They are pan fried and steamed, which create nice crispy exterior and a juicy interior. They are usually served with a soy based dipping sauce.
Yes, they freeze very well! Just line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment then place uncooked potstickers onto the baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart (they shouldn’t touch one another). Then pop them into the freezer for a couple of hours. Once they are completely frozen you can transfer them into a resealable bag. They will keep for 3 to 4 months.
Yes! To steam: Fill a pot with a couple inches of water and top with a bamboo steamer (or a metal steamer basket). Line steamer base or basket with a single layer of lettuce leaves (such as savoy lettuce). Place potstickers over lettuce about 1 inch apart and cover with lid. Place pot over medium-high heat and steam for about 10 minutes or until filling has cooked through.
Generally no, but you can find a really great recipe for gluten-free wonton wrappers here.
A chef who was boiling dumplings forgot about the them, and all of the water cooked off and it left the dumplings stuck to the bottom of the pot, and created a nice crispy bottom. They became really popular, and became known as potstickers.
If you are serving potstickers as an appetizer, just make sure you have the sauce and you are all set! If you are serving them as a main, we like to serve them with a really simple green salad, or with a side of rice.
We like to make a traditional Korean-style sauce called yangnyeom ganjang, which is made with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil minced garlic, sliced green onion, toasted sesame seeds, and Korean chile powder.
Tips and Tricks for Success
- It’s important that all the air is pressed out of the filled wrapper before tightly sealing the sides together to prevent the potstickers from bursting when they’re cooked.
- Be careful not to overstuff the wrappers with filling which can also make the potstickers burst while cooking them.
- It’s helpful to remove the skillet from the heat before adding the water, then quickly covering before returning the skillet to the stovetop. This will help to prevent any of the oil in the skillet from spattering up and possibly catching on fire from the stovetop flames (particularly if using a gas stovetop).
Variations
My favorite thing about potstickers is that the filling variations are endless! You can add or take away whatever you want depending on your flavor preference.
- You can replace the pork in this recipe for ground chicken, ground turkey or even ground beef.
- If you’re looking for a vegetarian option, you can replace the meat with diced and sauteed mushrooms. I like using shiitake mushrooms.
- You can swap in spinach leaves or kale for the bok choy.
- Feel free to also omit the water chestnuts for an overall softer texture.
This is one of my favorite recipes to make ahead and freeze and I almost always have a bag of potstickers in my freezer ready to go! If you love potstickers and dumplings as much as I do, you might also like our Chicken Potstickers, or our Ginger Chicken Potstickers, our Pork and Shrimp Dumplings, Shrimp Shumai, or our Shanghai Soup Dumplings. Enjoy! xx, Jenny
Check out our Potstickers Google Web Story.
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Potstickers
INGREDIENTS
pork filling
- 12 ounces ground pork
- 1 baby bok choy, diced
- 6 water chestnuts, diced
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
assembly
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 30 round wonton wrappers
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
yangnyeom ganjang
- ⅓ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons gochujaru (Korean chili powder)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 green onion, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place all filling ingredients into a bowl and mix together until well combined. Set aside.
- Brush perimeter of a wonton wrapper with the beaten egg and fill center with 1 heaping tablespoon of pork filling.
- Open your dominant hand, palm side up, and hold fingers together.
- Place the filled and open wonton wrapper onto your fingers and fold the wrapper in half, only sealing the corner of one side.
- Using your other hand, push small pleats onto one side of the wrapper, pressing and sealing with the hand holding the potsticker.
- Set aside and repeat until all filling and wrappers have been used.
- Heat a large, heavy bottom skillet over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons oil.
- Add 5 to 6 pot stickers to skillet, so the crimped side is up, and pan-fry for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add about 3 tablespoons water to the pan and cover for 2 to 4 minute or until the wonton wrappers have softened and steamed and the filling has finished cooking through.
- Remove from heat and repeat until all potstickers have been cooked. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
- Choganjang: Place all ingredients into a small bowl and whisk together. Serve with potstickers.
NOTES
- Makes: 40 Potstickers (10 servings)
- Freeze Ahead: Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment then place uncooked potstickers onto the baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart (they shouldn’t touch one another). Then pop them into the freezer for a couple of hours. Once they are completely frozen you can transfer them into a resealable bag. They will keep for 3 to 4 months.
- To Steam: Fill a pot with a couple inches of water and top with a bamboo steamer (or a metal steamer basket). Line steamer base or basket with a single layer of lettuce leaves (such as savoy lettuce). Place potstickers over lettuce about 1 inch apart and cover with lid. Place pot over medium-high heat and steam for about 10 minutes or until filling has cooked through.
- Tip: It’s helpful to remove the skillet from the heat before adding the water, then quickly covering before returning the skillet to the stovetop. This will help to prevent any of the oil in the skillet from spattering up and possibly catching on fire from the stovetop flames (particularly if using a gas stovetop).
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What would you recommend instead of egg for assembly, for those with egg sensitivity? Thanks!
You can just use a little water!
These are awesome and better then the restaurants, love, love, love the dipping sauce, wonderful recipe
Yay! So happy you enjoyed them!
Recipe is great as is. I like to use chicken stock instead of water and after steaming, uncover and let in cook down to super sticky caramelized bottom! Sooooo good!
These were really good! I subbed ground turkey for the pork and it worked well. Will make again!
so happy to hear that!
What can I do with leftover filling?
Hi! I like to cook it into a fried rice if there’s any leftover
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This is my go to recipe. Thank you!
These were great thanks
I’ve made these a couple of times and I love them!
Made these a couple of nights ago, much easier than I thought. Thanks!
My girlfriend loves these so much! She gets so excited when I make these!
I think I could eat about 100 of these potstickers! They’re very tasty! Reminds me of the ones from my favorite takeout spot. Thanks!
I made these for dinner last week, then had to make a triple batch this week so I could freeze a bunch of them. They’re incredible! Do you think I can boil them in some broth for a dumpling soup or are these just meant to be panfried?
Hi Sarah! These definitely work in a soup too :)
My entire family loved these! I couldn’t get the cute crimping down, so I just made half circles, lol. So good!!
Hands down the best potstickers I’ve had! So easy and delicious! Love the dipping sauce!
This is by far my favorite pot sticker recipe to make! It’s our go-to!
My go to potsticker recipe. Always get raves
We LOVE this recipe and have come back to it time after time. we even have a long standing tradition to make these with my sister and brother in law every time they are visiting from across the country. The sauce is the real hero and we won’t make them without it!
I’m having trouble finding the wonton wrappers…any suggestions on where to buy them?
Thanks!
They’re in most grocery stores, but sometimes they can be tricky to locate within the store. If you’re in a Vons/Safeway, Albertsons/Jewel-Osco type grocery store you can usually find them in the refrigerated section (close to the tofu) OR you can find them at Asian markets!
I made these tonight and they were very, very good. I will be making again. The only thing I would do different is cut the salt down. Even though I used low sodium soy sauce it was still a bit too salty – next time I will use maybe 1/2 or 3/4 tsp instead of 1 tsp. Thanks for the recipe!
Your dumplings look and sound delicious. The hubs and I love pot stickers and will give them a try.
Just tried this on my blog… OUTSTANDING.
Aw yay…yours look great!!
These are so yummy!
Do you think you could use rice paper to make pot stickers? I’m not able to eat gluten so therefore the wonton wrappers would not work for me. Just wondering?