Chinese Chicken and Chive Pan-Fried Dumplings Recipe
These small dumplings with chicken and chives are a Chinese snack perfect for gatherings with friends. First they’re pan-fried until golden, then a bit of water is added and they’re covered, so the bottom stays crispy while the top becomes soft. In China, such dumplings are often eaten on holidays because they symbolize abundance – at your place they can simply symbolize an empty pan after just a few minutes.
Guōtiē are popular street dumplings served from the north to the south of China, often eaten as a quick lunch or an evening snack. Their hallmark is the combination of pan‑frying and steaming in one pan, which creates the famous contrast between the crispy bottom and the tender top.
These dumplings combine a crispy bottom with a soft, juicy top and aromatic chicken–ginger filling, using an easy pan-frying and steaming method you can recreate at home without a bamboo steamer.
Why this version works
- Ready-made dumpling wrappers guarantee thin, evenly rolled dough and shorten prep time.
- Longer mixing of the filling creates a sticky, cohesive mixture that stays juicy.
- The fry–steam–refry method builds contrast: a crispy bottom and a soft, tender top.
- A single test dumpling lets you adjust seasoning and steaming time before cooking the whole batch.
Chef's tips
Don’t overfill the wrappers – too much filling makes them hard to seal and more likely to burst. Make sure the edges are well moistened and pressed together. If you’re new to pleating, simply press the edges flat; they will still taste great. Adjust the amount of water depending on your pan size so it almost evaporates by the end of cooking.
How to serve
Serve as a shared appetizer with small bowls of dipping sauce, chili oil and sliced spring onions. They also work well alongside a simple Asian-style salad or miso soup for a light meal.
Watch out for
- Don’t pack the dumplings too tightly in the pan, or they’ll steam instead of browning and the bottoms will stay pale.
- When adding water to the pan, do it quickly and cover immediately to avoid oil splattering.
- If the dumpling edges are hard or undercooked after frying, steam the next batch for 1–2 minutes longer.
Substitutions
- You can replace the ground chicken with ground turkey for a milder flavour.
- Instead of gyoza wrappers, use thin round wonton wrappers and work a bit faster when sealing.
- In the dipping sauce, you can swap rice vinegar for mild apple cider vinegar diluted with water.
Ingredients
- ground chicken can be from breast or thighs - 300 g
- spring onion greens or regular chives - 30 g
- fresh ginger about 2 teaspoons, finely grated - 10 g
- garlic finely chopped - 2 cloves
- soy sauce - 2 tablespoons
- sesame oil you can omit it or replace with rapeseed oil - 1 teaspoon
- ground white pepper you can use black pepper - 0.25 teaspoons
- sugar - 0.5 teaspoons
- ready-made round gyoza/jiaozi dumpling wrappers if unavailable, use thinly rolled pierogi dough - 30 pieces
- oil - 3 tablespoons
- water for pan-steaming - 120 ml
- rice vinegar for the dipping sauce; can be replaced with apple cider vinegar - 2 tablespoons
- extra soy sauce for dipping - 2 tablespoons
Preparation
- Wash the spring onion or scallions and chop very finely. Thinly peel the ginger and grate it on a fine grater so it releases its juice. Peel the garlic and chop it finely or press it so there are no large chunks in the filling.
- Put the ground chicken into a bowl, add the spring onion, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and white pepper. Mix for 2–3 minutes, until the mixture becomes sticky, uniform and starts to “stretch” when you lift it with a spoon.
- Cover the bowl with the filling and place it in the fridge for at least 10 minutes so the flavours meld and the meat firms up slightly. In the meantime, prepare a station for shaping and cover the wrappers with a damp cloth so the edges stay soft.
- Place a few wrappers on the board. Put about 1 level teaspoon of filling in the centre of each – the wrapper should close easily without pushing the filling out to the sides, otherwise the dumpling may burst while frying.
- Lightly moisten the edges of the wrapper with a finger dipped in water. Fold it in half into a half‑moon shape and seal the edges carefully, pressing firmly along the whole length; you can make 2–3 pleats on one side, but the most important thing is that there are no pale gaps showing through.
- Place the finished dumplings flat side down on a plate dusted with flour or starch, making sure they don’t touch. If you’re shaping for longer, cover them loosely with a slightly damp cloth so the edges don’t dry out and turn hard.
- Heat 1–1.5 tablespoons of oil in a large non‑stick frying pan with a lid over medium heat. Arrange the dumplings flat side down in a single layer with gaps between them and fry for 2–3 minutes, until the bottom is evenly golden and clearly crispy (lift one gently to check).
- When the bottoms are browned, pour in about 60 ml of water so it comes 3–4 mm up the sides and immediately cover the pan. Reduce the heat to medium‑low and steam for 5–6 minutes, until most of the water has evaporated and the tops of the dumplings are soft and slightly translucent.
- Remove the lid and fry for another 1–2 minutes over medium heat, until you hear a dry sizzling sound and the bottoms are deeply golden and very crispy. Transfer the dumplings to a plate crispy side up and repeat with the remaining batch, adding fresh oil and water.
- In a small bowl, mix rice vinegar with extra soy sauce to make a simple tangy‑salty dipping sauce. Serve the dumplings immediately, hot, sprinkled with chopped spring onion.
Storage
No storage information available for this dish.
Once you get into the rhythm of folding, making these dumplings becomes almost meditative. They disappear from the plate very quickly, so consider making a double batch and freezing some for later.
