Chicken and Ginger Gyoza

A friend lent me their wagamama cookbook and though the gyoza appealed, I thought the likelihood of me getting my hands on gyoza skins was so small I didn’t note the recipe. When I went to the asian superstore, however, I found some in the freezer section. So I looked around the net, improvised and guessed the filling.

I made the above gyoza for a buffet (I made over 40 in total!!) and I fried them to appeal to the masses. You can just as easily steam them or part-fry, part steam them by adding some water in a wok. Although they’re called gyoza (sometimes Beijing dumplings I’ve read) we seem to have got into the habit of calling them potstickers as we usually have them in the more healthy steamed way.

I love the flavour of these, and I get to use my swish Cuisinart mini food processor (Christmas present) to zap the chicken.

The following recipe makes about 20 -25 depending on how much you stuff them.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast – blitzed
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tablespoon rice wine
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• white pepper to taste
• 1/4 onion very finely sliced
• 1 cup of finely sliced cabbage (any works, but chinese cabbage is best)
• 2 tablespoons beansprouts, sliced in thirds
• 1 cm of minced ginger
• 1 clove minced garlic

How to Make It

It’s a case of whizzing the chicken to a pulp, then mixing all the above ingredients together. And it should end up looking like this:

You then put about a teaspoon or so of filling into the centre of each gyoza, wet all round the edges and press round. Apparently very experienced people can do this with one hand. It took me some time… TOP TIP: use an enormous plate to put them on and cover it with cling film (I learnt after the picture below) or they tend to stick to things, including each other.

You then cook in the desired fashion. Fry until they go golden brown, steam through (may take about 10 minutes? Check by cutting one open), or fry initially in a wok then add water and cover for 10 minutes or so. There is such a small amount of chicken in each that these short cooking times cause no worry.

I’ve tried various dipping sauces, many turning out overwhelmingly strong. A lovely dipping sauce to go with the gyoza is:

Dipping Sauce

• 3 tablespoons light soy
• 1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ginger minced

Leave in a fridge for the flavours to mingle beforehand.

These disappear instantly when offered around, so make plenty! If you have any insights about gyoza, please let me know, I’d love to try variations on this.

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