Potstickers with a Crispy Skirt (2024)

Potstickers have no soul when they don’t wear golden brown crispy skirts.

One of the major accomplishments of Mr He and I during this holiday was, we spent a whole afternoon and made 500 potstickers! Yoo~hoo~

Wait a second, do you know the difference between dumplings (餃子 /jiǎozi/) and Potstickers (锅贴 guō tiē)? They have always been the same thing to me. After reading about 10 articles in both English and Chinese, I got an answer which wasn’t super clear: Potsticker is actually one kind of dumplings. The unique characteristic is a potsticker wrapper is usually much thinner than a dumpling wrapper. Well, I’m not fully satisfied with this answer. But at least we know that I have been correct, there’s not much difference between these two ultimately delicious foods.

My favorite dumpling filling has always been pork, celery, firm tofu, mushroom, and kimchi or pickled radish. I’m addicted to it because that’s my mom’s family recipe. I have been growing up eating these homemade dumplings once every week. My mom always stir-fries the fillings until fully cooked before she wraps the dumplings. In this way you can taste the filling and adjust the seasoning before you start wrapping. I have a Tiktok video teaches you how to make my mom’s family traditional dumpling. And recent one shows you how to make kimchi potstickers with a whole shrimp on the top.

• How to make kimchi (Detailed Recipe)

My Kimchi Dumpling/Potsticker recipe:

• 200g grounded meat (I used pork, you can use beef, chicken, lamb…)
• 200g firm tofu (substitute with 200 grounded meat if you don’t want tofu)
• 300g chopped kimchi (Remember to use a dark color cutting board. Kimchi color can be hard to clean)
• 400g chopped celery
• 2 tbsp find chopped green onions
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp cooking wine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 50 dumpling wrappers

Note: I made my own kimchi for these dumplings. Different brands of kimchi should contain different amount of salt. After you mix every ingredient, except dumpling wrappers, thoroughly in a large bowl, put about 1 tbsp of the filling in a small bowl to microwave for 2 minutes until fully cooked. Taste the filling and adjust the amount of salt to your taste.

2 magical tricks for both homemade potstickers and store bought ones!

This recipe teaches you two simple methods to make the snowflake-like potsticker crust. You can use these methods to cook both fresh homemade dumplings or frozen ones from a grocery store.

What are you waiting for? We only need 15 minutes to knit some beautiful lace skirts for our postickers!

Equipment

• A nonstick frying pan with lid

INGREDIENTS

For the slurry:

• 1 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp cooking oil (vegetable oil, corn oil, or sunflower seed oil)
• 8 tbsp cold water

For frying:

• 16 frozen potstickers
• 1 tbsp cooking oil (Spray twice if you are going to use an oil sprayer.)

INSTRUCTIONS

Method 1: Flat Skirt Potstickers

1. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for the slurry until well combined (no lumps can be seen). Set aside.

2. Pour 1 tablespoon of cooking oil into a nonstick fry pan. Or spray twice if you use an oil spray.

3. Add the potstickers.

4. Turn on medium heat. Pan fry over medium heat for 4 minutes until the bottoms turn golden. Like this:

5. Stir the slurry with a spoon. Pour in the slurry around the edge of the fry pan.

6. Cover the lid.

7. Keep using medium heat to pan fry for about 6 minutes, until most of the water evaporates.

8. Once most of the water has evaporated, open the lid.

9. Keep using medium heat to pan fry for about 2 more minutes, until the crust turns crispy and golden brown.

10. Turn off the heat. Cover the fry pan with a plate.

11. Flip the fry pan to transfer the dumplings onto the plate.

12. Serve with dipping sauce.

Method 2: Standing Skirt Potstickers

1. Preheat a nonstick fry pan over medium heat for 1 minute.

2. Pour in 1 tablespoon of slurry. Do not spread the slurry. We want it to stay as a tongue shape.

3. Cook the slurry over medium heat for about 30 seconds, let the water evaporate a bit.

4. Put dumplings on one end of the slurry.

5. Pan fry over medium heat for about 5 more minutes until the slurry turns into a crispy golden brown crust.

NOTES

• For method 2, make sure the dumplings have been fully cooked beforehand. You can either use steamed ones, air fried ones, deep fried ones, or pan fried ones. Otherwise, the short cooking time in method 2 won’t be able to fully cook them.
• Every family has their favorite dipping sauce. Mr He and I like 1/3 cup of rice vinegar + 1 tsp soysauce +a pinch of sugar + 1 tsp of chili oil.