Chicken Dumplings (Gyoza) Recipe

Yesterday's chicken dumplings came out even better, then I expected, so, as promised, here's the recipe.

This is not exactly healthy food, but it is a lighter version of a classic, beef-and-pork dumplings.

What will you need:

- A pack of a pre-cut dumplings dough from any Asian supermarket. Usually, they offer the whole range of different pre-cut dough and it is impossible to say what sort is the best. They differ from store to store. But generally you want to buy round cuts, made of wheat, not too thin, not too thick. It is possible you would have to try a few sorts to find one that work the best for you. Normally "gyoza" cut is good. This is how it looks (usually they sell two-packs, but I cut off one, because it's enough to feed 4 people):

- For a filling I used boneless chicken legs, the lower parts - very lean meat. I grounded them in the processor, added salt, some grounded coriander, but you surely can use spices of your choice. Then I added some finely chopped lettuce in the meat. Approximately 1:1 by volume. Added some water and mixed rigorously.

Technique

Take a dough circle, put a tea-spoon of filling on it and close it pirogi-style, like this:

If you have trouble sticking the sides of the circles together you can moist them a little with tab water. You can even moist a cutting board and put the dough circles on it for a moment; then take them off one by one, put the filling on the wet side and it will stick nicely!

Cook in the salted boiling water (or broth) for 5-6 min. This is how they should look when cooked:

Serve hot with (ether one) mayonnaise, sour cream, butter and black pepper, soy sauce, hot Asian sauce. You can freeze the dumplings and cook them any time you need a quick hot meal (frozen dumplings will cook longer, wait till they float and get pruny).

Bon appetite!