Pork and Chives Chinese Dumpling Recipe (水饺)

Chinese Dumplings are some of the most popular foods ever eaten across Asian countries. Whether it is during holidays like Chinese New Years or even just as a regular meal, people all around love this food. And this recipe which has been passed down from my family will show you how to make the most perfect Chinese dumpling ever. Super juicy, tender, and extra flavorful, this will instantly become your go-to dish from here on out.

If you didn’t know, dumplings are some of the most important and popular foods in any Chinese cuisines. They come in many different forms and shapes but at the end of the day, they are all delicious.

Most Asian countries tend to have their own type of dumplings like Japan has the “Gyoza” or Korea has “Mandu”, but in Chinese countries we have Chinese dumplings or (水饺) in Chinese.

Growing up in a Chinese family, I had the luxury of eating some of the best Chinese Dumplings ever. My parents usually will make Chinese dumplings from scratch once a month as a family bonding time experience when the entire family gets together to make this delicious food. And don’t even mention Chinese New Years where we travel back to Taiwan and make hundreds of dumplings for my entire family and relatives to eat.

During all this time, I have gained tons of experience in making amazing Chinese Dumplings. And I want to take this time to share it with you all so that all of you will be able to make some delicious Chinese Dumplings as well.

Types Of Dumpling Fillings

Now when your talking about dumplings, just know that there are many types of fillings you can use for them.

Some of the common ones include:

• Pork and Nappa Cabbage
• Pork, Scallop and Shrimp
• Pork, Chinese Leek and Shrimp
• Beef and Green Onion
• Pork, Corn and Cabbage
• Pork and Mushroom
• and thousands other varieties out there.

But for this recipe, we are going to make one of the most common Chinese Dumplings hailing from the region of ShanDong in China.

In this recipe, we are going to be making a Pork and Chives Chinese Dumpling / 水饺.

It is really delicious and super filling. I guarantee you will absolutely love making this dumpling dish.

Homemade Or Store Bought Wrappers For Chinese Dumplings?

In all honesty, both of these things can work really well for making Chinese Dumplings.

If you are low on time and want to make these dumplings quick, then I would suggest you to buy the frozen wrappers at any Chinese Supermarket. However if you have time to spare and want to make your own homemade wrappers, then you can certainly do so as well.

The only downside about buying store bought wrappers is that often times they can be pretty expensive. And usually the packs of frozen wrappers don’t have too many wrappers in them.

Here is an example of what a store bought dumpling wrapper package looks like:

Now if you are interested in making your own homemade dumpling wrapper, I do have a guide for that. You can check out my post here on “How To Make Homemade Dumpling Wrapper“.

But in the end, it is totally up to you. Both methods will work totally fine in making these dumplings.

Ingredients To Make Pork and Chives Chinese Dumplings

Making these Pork and Chives Chinese Dumpling / 水饺 uses quite a few ingredients. However most of them if not all are really easy to find and pretty cheap as well.

The ingredients you’ll need are:

• 1/2 Pound Ground Pork
• 3 Pound Chives
• 4 Stalks Green Onion
• 1 Tablespoon Ginger
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon White Pepper
• 2 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
• 2 Tablespoon Shaoxing Wine
• 2 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
• 50 to 60 Dumpling Wrappers

How To Make The Filling For The Chinese Dumplings

To make the filling for the Pork and Chives Chinese Dumpling / 水饺 is actually a pretty easy step.

You’ll basically just grab a mixing bowl and toss in every ingredient you are using aside from the dumpling wrappers. Then you just mix everything up until you get a nicely mixed mixture.

Optional Step

However I have another way I do things which I think is actually better.

This method was something my mother has taught me and has made the dumpling filling taste so much better.

Basically before you mix all the ingredients, you want to add some extra flavor to the ground pork.

So on a cutting board, get your ground pork and add in the ginger and green onions. Then use a knife and chop into the ingredients so that the juices from the ginger and green onions infuses with the ground pork.

Do this for about 5 minutes so that enough of the juices from the ginger and green onion gets infused together.

After this, you can go back to mixing all of the ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

Making The Dumplings

This is probably the simplest step of the entire dumpling process.

You basically grab your dumpling wrapper and scoop out about a tablespoon size of pork and chive mixture and place it onto the middle of the dumpling wrapper.

Then you just seal the wrapper together in the shape of a dumpling and that is basically it!

Here is a picture of the process:

As you can see from the photo, it is a pretty simple step to do.

Although there are many different ways on how you can seal or fold up a dumpling, I find that this method is the simplest.

Basically you just keep on making your dumplings until you have finished using up your entire ingredients.

Tip before you make all your dumplings: To see if your dumpling turned out good or not, boil some water and cook one of your dumplings. Then taste test it to see if the mixture needs more salt or soy sauce or any other ingredients. If all is good, then continue making the rest of your dumplings.

Cooking Your Dumplings

You have two choices here, you can either cook them by boiling them in water or you can fry them.

I will show you how to do both of these methods here in this section.

Boiling Your Dumplings

If you want to boil your Pork and Chives Chinese Dumpling / 水饺, then grab a large pot and fill it with water. Then you want to boil the water. After the water is boiling, just throw in your dumplings so that they can cook.

If you are using freshly made dumplings, then they will usually be done when the dumplings start floating to the surface. They’ll also look kind of translucent which is a good sign.

If you are using frozen dumplings, then you will need a little bit longer time in cooking them.

That is how you cook your dumplings by boiling them in water.

And this is how they look when you are ready to serve them!

Pan Frying Dumplings

The other method you can do is to pan fry them.

Which you can also call pot stickers.

To pan fry the dumplings, you’ll want to first grab a pan and pour in some oil over medium heat. Then add in the dumplings in a circular fashion around the pan and let them fry for a few minutes.

After a few minutes of frying, then you’ll want to pour in a thin layer of water into the pan.

Then cover the pan with a lid and let it cook until the water has all evaporated.

You’ll want to check on the dumplings from time to time. If they still look a bit raw and no more water is left, then feel free to add in a little bit more water.

Once all the water has evaporated, then they are ready to eat.

This is how they should look if you have pan fried them correctly.

How To Store/Keep The Dumplings

Typically once you make the Pork and Chives Chinese Dumpling / 水饺, you’ll want to cook them immediately. However if you are wanting to save them for the future, then you can certainly do that as well.

If you are wanting to freeze them for the future, simply place the prepared dumplings onto a pan and cover it with some plastic wrap. Then put it into the freezer to freeze overnight.

Once they are frozen, you can simply remove the pan and place them inside a tightly sealed ziploc bag for future use.

Did you try making my Pork and Chives Chinese Dumpling / 水饺? If so, how were they? I would love to hear all about it down in the comment section below or you can connect with my on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.