Chicken and Shiitake Dumplings

Weekends are my time for trying new and adventurous ideas. With no time constraints, (or at least more time than the work week provides) I am able to take on labor intensive and complex recipes. This weekend I took on the challenge of making home-made Chinese dumplings. Seeing how I had never attempted this before, I was a little apprehensive, but with a reliable recipe from Fine Cooking and Thy Tran, a husband who will eat mostly anything, and faith in my own abilities, I was ready to test my limits and go outside my comfort zone.


The first task to accomplish was making my dough. I started off by pouring a cup and a half of all purpose flour on the counter top. After forming a deep well in the middle, I added ½ a cup of cold water. Slowly and carefully, I began to mix in the flour from the walls of my well until the mixture formed a ball of dough. At this point, it was time to begin kneading. I did this for several minutes until the dough was elastic. I cut the dough in half and into two logs, dusted with flour and covered for 30 minutes.

While the dough was resting, I made my dumpling filling. With endless options, I decided to go with a chicken and Shiitake filling. This recipe included roasted chicken, Shiitake mushrooms, spinach, scallions, fresh ginger, soy sauce and fresh black pepper. I started off with shredding the chicken into a medium size bowl. Next I cleaned the Shiitake mushrooms, removed the stems and finely chopped the mushroom caps, before adding to the chicken. I quickly wilted down 6 oz of spinach in a skillet with a little water and just a touch of sugar. After squeezing out the excess moisture, I chopped the spinach and added it to the bowl. Next was the fresh ginger – my favorite ingredient of the whole dish. Never use a substitute for fresh ginger. The quality and flavor cannot be replicated and in all honesty it is not too difficult to do yourself. After removing the skin from the ginger root, I grated about 2 tablespoons worth of ginger and added that to the bowl. Lastly, I mixed in a bit of soy sauce and freshly cracked black pepper before stirring all together. Voila – the filling was done!

With the filling complete, I was able to focus my attention entirely on the shaping of the dumplings. If you have not attempted this before, be aware that this is a long and tedious process for a first timer, but entirely worth the effort in the end. I started by cutting my dough into 36 even pieces. I covered the pieces I was not using with a bit of flour and under a clean kitchen cloth to avoid over drying. With a rolling pin, I began to gently roll each piece of dough into a 3 inch circle. It is important to be as delicate as possible with the dough to avoid a tear and to make your life easier when you begin the filling and folding. Once all the dough is rolled out, the fun begins! Start with scooping about a teaspoon or so of filling onto each individual piece. You want to be careful not to overfill the dumpling or else it will be very difficult to close and you could end up tearing the dough, complicating the cooking process. Once you have added the filling, you will want to seal it closed by pinching and folding one side of the dumpling against the other. This will created a pleated look along the top, with the bulk of the dumpling on the bottom. Continue with this process until all of the dumplings have been formed.

After all of those steps are complete, it is finally time to cook the dumplings. I chose to pan-fry my dumplings in order to create a little crunch. To do so, heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large skillet. Once the oil is hot, add the dumplings and cook for a few minutes, until the undersides are crisp and brown. Pour in ½ a cup of water, cover the pan and boil for a few more minutes. This allows the entire dumpling, filling and top, to cook through until silky and smooth. Once cooked, remove the lid but allow to cook for about 2 more minutes so that the dumplings can dry and crisp up. Finally, remove the dumplings from the pan and begin plating!

Before serving, I quickly whipped up one of Thy Tran’s soy dipping sauces. The recipe called for 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon of sugar, ½ teaspoon of sesame oil and 1 chopped scallion. I combined all ingredients and stirred together.

The dumplings were great! I was pleased with the overall texture and the flavor of the filling was exactly what I was hoping for. Although this was a time intensive process, the results were well worth it - my husband has already requested them as appetizers for football weekends! I am glad I took on this challenge and was able to learn a new and fun technique. I know that I will make these over and over again, but for now only on the weekends!