Beijing Style Pot Stickers

Place the ground chicken and the ground pork in a mixing bowl. Prepare the chopped cabbage, shiitake and chives.

Add the vegetables to the ground meat and mix well.

Pour in the soy sauce and the sesame oil.

Mix well. I usually mix the filling by hand. You'll want to boil a couple of clumps of the filling to make sure that it is well seasoned before you make your dumplings.

I've experimented with 2 different dumpling doughs. They're quite similar, but the spicy version has a clearer description.

Spicy Dumpling Dough

Dumpling dough is actually super simple. Flour and water, maybe some salt. The tough part is working with the dough when it's done. But if you take your time and enjoy the experience, you'll be amazed how fast your inner dumpling master will emerge. In this recipe I add a little blast of Himalayan chili for a little bit of heat.

Basic Dumpling Dough

Just a simple dough that I use mostly for pot stickers.

Roll the wrappers out. For this method, you want a more oblong wrapper shape than you normally would.

Roll the wrapper in a tube. Fold the tips over and pinch the sides to seal.

Heat some oil in a large nonstick pan until shimmering.

Place dumplings in the hot oil. Fry until lightly browned. This batch is folded with pleats in the more common way.

Carefully pour in a little water. Your pan shouldn't be too hot at this point, but keep in mind that adding water to very hot oil can be disastrous. Cover the pan and steam the dumplings for about 5 minutes.

Remove the lid and continue cooking until the water is evaporated.