One of my favorite things to eat at a Chinese restaurant are pot-stickers. I have loved pot-stickers since I was in nursing school in the early 1980's. Three friends and I used to go for lunch to a Chinese restaurant where we were introduced to pot-stickers. They sold them by the dozen on huge, round, wooden lazy Susan's with little glass bowls of the most delicious sauce. I cannot tell you how many pot-stickers I ate before becoming an RN. We never told anyone else where we disappeared to at lunch time. If the secret got out, the place would be mobbed, and we couldn't get our order in time to eat and get back to campus. I know, selfish.

I don't order pot-stickers often now because they take longer than everything else to cook. I hate for the meal to be held up by a slow appetizer. I never thought Michael was much of a pot-sticker fan anyway. I changed my mind tonight. I had a hankering for pot-stickers, and since we had take-home Chinese last night, I couldn't order from the local joint again. So I decided to make them myself for the first time. I had all the ingredients on hand for other Superbowl recipes so I stole what I needed. I was going to follow a recipe on the Internet, but I could find one that I liked. I found several that I liked parts of so, as usual, I took my cues from them, but forged ahead on my own. The result was simply delicious. Michael ate a big plateful with a side of pot-sticker sauce and Chinese hot mustard. I ate mine with pot-sticker sauce swimming in hot pepper oil. There isn't enough antacid in the world to fix that! But, it was oh-so-worth-it.

Place a heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of the wonton wrapper.

Fold the wrapper over the filling and press the edges tightly closed.

Form the pleats to complete the wonton assembly. (See video at end of post)

Continue assembling the pot-stickers until you run out of filling or wrappers.

Place the finished pot-stickers on a plate.

Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Make sure the oil is heated to the point that the wonton sizzles when placed in the pan. Cook the pot-stickers in the oil until lightly golden brown then turn them over. Stay right by the pan because this happens very fast.

Use your pastry brush to coat the tops of the pot-stickers with the hot oil from the pan. Turn the pot-stickers over and cook the other side until golden brown.

When both sides are browned, remove the pot-stickers from the pan. Keep cooking in small batches until all are done.

Return the pot-stickers to the pan in a single layer. I was able to get all mine back in the pan at the same time. You are going to steam the pot-stickers now. If your frying pan has a lid, grab it now. Mine did not so I grabbed a piece of foil large enough to loosely cover the pan. Pour in enough chicken stock to come about ¼ of the way up the sides of the pot-stickers. Cook covered, on medium heat until steamed through and the pork is thoroughly cooked. Add more chicken stock as needed. You probably won't need the entire two cups.

When the pot-stickers are cooked through, remove from the pan and serve with sliced scallion, hot pepper oil, and the sauce. Yum. Takes me back to nursing school and my pot-sticker friends.

Here's a little video I made of the assembly process for the pot-stickers. If you sew, you can do this. It is just like pleating a skirt.

Asian Style Potstickers

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Ingredients

For the filling:
¾ lb country pork sausage not Italian sausage
¼ cup sliced scallions
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 teaspoon red chili paste
1 TBS brown sugar
2 TBS soy sauce
½ teaspoon Chinese hot mustard
½ teaspoon salt
For the pot-stickers:
1 slightly beaten egg with 1 TBS water added
Round wonton wrappers
Vegetable oil for frying
2 cups chicken stock for steaming
For the dipping sauce:
½ cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon hot chili oil
Garnishes:
Sliced scallions
Hot pepper oil
Chinese hot mustard

Instructions

DIRECTIONS:
Combine all three ingredients for the sauce and set aside in a small bowl. You can get creative with the sauce if you like by adding ginger, fish sauce, etc.
Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a medium bowl. Set aside. Open the package of wonton wrappers and remove four or five. Place the others back in the bag to prevent them drying out. Using a pastry brush, apply the egg/water mixture to the outer edge of the wonton wrapper.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!