Healthy Chicken Potstickers

Part of the joys of cooking is having the ability to try new foods and recipes. Sometimes it is beneficial to branch out with new types of cuisines. One of my favorites is Asian. If you have ever been to restaurants for Asian food then you know that traditional dishes can be pricey and often times full of unnecessary sodium. I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t always have to be that way. You can create delicious and healthy Asian meals at home for half the cost. Below, you will find a step-by-step guide for a recipe I created on how to prepare delicious Chicken Potstickers.

Background: Chinese dumplings are commonly eaten in East Asia and are most popular during Chinese New Year. They typically consist of ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough then sealed with the edges pressed or crimped together.

Chicken Potstickers

Recipe for Potstickers

2 tbsp Ginger minced

¼ – ½ cup of red onion minced

3-4 green onions – 1/8” chop

1 lb ground chicken

4-5 garlic cloves minced

1 egg

One package of Gyoza/Potsticker wrappers

Recipe for Sauce

½ cup Soy Sauce

¼ cup Rice Vinegar

1 tbsp garlic minced

1 tbsp ginger minced

1 green onion chopped

Sugar to taste

2-3 more green onions for garnish

Step 1: Prep your ingredients. It’s easier to chop and mince everything all at once. Start by peeling and mincing your garlic, about 8 cloves altogether. Next, peel and mince fresh ginger. Then, chop the green onions, about 6 of them. Lastly, mince about half a red onion. After you have done all this you can portion it out. In all honesty you don’t have to break out a measuring cup or spoon just guess when portioning.

Step 2: Get a gallon sized Ziploc bag and put in ¾ of the garlic and ginger you minced. Then, add in all the red onion and ¾ of the chopped green onion. Add the pound of ground chicken into the bag and mix everything together. You can put the remaining green onion, garlic, and ginger into a medium bowl.

Step 3: Prepare your kitchen counter if you want to. I don’t like putting anything directly on the counter even if it is clean. You need a lot of space so I line my countertop with saran wrap. Lay out the potsticker wrappers on the counter. Take an egg and whisk it in a small bowl. After it is stirred completely paint the outside edge of each potsitcker wrapper. This recipe will make about 35 potstickers.

Step 4: Take a spoon and put about a spoonful (teaspoon, don’t overfill like I did in my photos) of the chicken mixture in the center of each wrapper. Fold the wrapper over and pinch the middle, then work your fingers from the bottom to the middle pinching each side shut. Don’t allow any holes in the wrapper or the mixture will come out.

Step 5: Once you have completed step 4 with all the chicken filling you are ready to make the sauce. Add the soy sauce and rice vinegar to the same bowl you put the other ingredients in.  Then, slowly add in sugar while tasting to make sure that it has the flavoring you like. You can add some pepper if you want, but no salt as soy sauce is salty enough already.

Step 6: Time to cook your potstickers. I do it the healthy way with no oil. Put a sautee pan on medium high and allow it to heat up – nonstick is best if you have one. Then add in each potsticker one by one, as you put them in the pan bend them to make a cresent shape. Once you have added all the potsitckers add in a ½ cup of water and put a lid on the pan. Allow the potstickers to cook for about 4-6 minutes and once the water has evaporated they should be done.

Step 7: Put your cooked potstickers on a plate and cover them with the sauce. You can garnish the potstickers for presentation with green onion. Pro Tip: If you put the onion in ice water it will curl up like the one in my photo!

Step 8: Eat them!!

Best part about this meal? It is easy to double or triple the recipe and they freeze well. Not to mention they can be cooked right out of the freezer without defrosting!

Eating out every now and again can be a nice treat; however, it is just as rewarding to create delicious and impressive dishes at home for a lower cost both money and health wise. Potstickers are easy enough to make in your own kitchen and really wow guests for dinner parties. With less sodium than typical restaurant servings, they are both tasty and better for you. Stepping out of your comfort zone is sometimes necessary, just like I did when creating this recipe and trying new foods and recipes can be beneficial for everyone. Try your hand at making this traditional Chinese dish; the recipe is sure to stick with you.

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Check back next week for an exciting new recipe!