Name: Gyoza
Total time: 55 minutes
Yield: 50 dumplings
Ingredients: 1 packet 50 gyoza wrappers; ⅛ head of cabbage; 1 teaspoon salt; 400 g lean ground pork or chicken; ½ bunch garlic chives, finely chopped; 4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water and finely chopped; 1 tablespoon grated ginger; 2 teaspoons soy sauce; 2 teaspoons sesame oil, plus 2 teaspoons extra, for cooking; Pinch of salt; 2 tablespoons soy sauce; 2 tablespoons rice vinegar; La-Yu (Japanese chili oil), optional

Total Time
55 minutes

While gyoza are a mainstay at Japanese restaurants, these Japanese dumplings are easy and fun to make at home. I have fond memories of making homemade gyoza with my mum; it’s lovely to invite friends and family to help make these pan-fried potstickers. (Give kids a defined task, like pleating the edge of the wrapper.)

To make this gyoza recipe, you’ll first salt the shaved cabbage to soften it and remove excess moisture. White cabbage is most common, but you can use any kind, including Savoy or Napa cabbage. Look for thin dumpling wrappers in your grocery store’s refrigerated or freezer section (egg roll and wonton wrappers tend to be thicker), and be sure to use dry hands when assembling so that they don’t stick together before you’re ready to seal. For the gyoza filling you can use ground pork or ground chicken—and if you can’t find garlic chives, standard chives or even green onions will do.

This dumpling recipe uses a two-part cooking technique. You’ll fry the gyoza until the bottoms are golden brown to achieve that trademark crispiness, then add about a cup of water to the pan to ensure tender wrappers and cooked-through filling. For the dipping sauce, a drop of chili oil takes things up a notch.

After assembly you can freeze the gyoza to cook later and serve as an appetizer. Arrange dumplings in a single layer on a parchment-lined pan, stash them until frozen, and then toss them into an airtight storage bag. Your future self will thank you.

Editor's note: This recipe was originally published in 'Sachie's Kitchen' and first appeared on Epicurious in September 2015.

Ingredients

50 dumplings

1 packet 50 gyoza wrappers

Gyoza filling:

⅛ head of cabbage

1 teaspoon salt

400 g lean ground pork or chicken

½ bunch garlic chives, finely chopped

4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water and finely chopped

1 tablespoon grated ginger

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons sesame oil, plus 2 teaspoons extra, for cooking

Pinch of salt

Dipping sauce:

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

La-Yu (Japanese chili oil), optional

Preparation

Step 1
Dice cabbage finely and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Give it a bit of a massage. Leave for 10–15 minutes and then squeeze with your hands to remove any moisture.
Step 2
With your hands thoroughly mix together cabbage, ground meat, chives, mushrooms, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, and pinch of salt.
Step 3
Dry your hands completely (or wrappers will stick). Place a gyoza wrapper on one hand and put 1 teaspoon filling in center of wrapper.
Step 4
Brush edge of half the wrapper with cold water. Make a semi-circle by folding the wrapper in half. Pinch open sides of wrapper together with your fingers and seal the top.
Step 5
Place a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add 2 teaspoons sesame oil and arrange 20–25 gyoza in pan. Add 200ml water to cover bottom of pan, cover with lid and cook on medium-high heat for 6–7 minutes or until translucent, cooked and no liquid is left in pan. Take off lid and cook for another 30–60 seconds for the bottoms to go crunchy. Cook remaining gyoza or freeze them.
Step 6
Mix together soy sauce, vinegar and chili oil, if using. Serve gyoza hot with dipping sauce.

Cover of the cookbook Sachie's Kitchen featuring a split image with the author in one half and wontons in the other.

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Reviews (7)

Perfect Dish!!! And Very Tasty!!!
- Stella Gramby
- 6/1/2022
As others have said, delicious and easy as written, pretty sure it would be adaptable to other flavors. I will definitely make these again.
- mcash4
- New Jersey
- 2/19/2018
Thumbs up! Had friends over who helped out with making the individual dumplings - The result was simply delicious! I followed the recipe as is with all fresh ingredients. YUM!
- athanos
- Sydney, AU
- 10/23/2016
I have been making these for about 35 years and one day, a few years ago, I added Bacon Spam to my ground pork. These were such a huge hit that I have made them this way since. Not exactly low sodium. I do think the salted cabbage is great. I do this with eggplant and cucumber too. For some veggies, I use a Japanese pickle press for this. : )
- i_fortuna
- Texas
- 2/20/2016
see my previous review, this is regarding freezing them. It works fantastic. I made the full recipe, half of the formed gyoza I put in a single layer in a freezer bag. I took them out the night before, they were completely thawed next evening. They cooked up exactly the same as fresh, same amount of time, same brown, same taste (maybe even better - more time to meld). Next time I make these I think I'll double the recipe given how easy they freeze.
- laholladay
- 12/14/2015
I used chives because there were no garlic chives, and low sodium soy (so I did add about a teaspoon of kosher salt) otherwise followed the recipe for the filling. Be sure to cook off a piece to taste for seasoning. I couldn’t find gyoza wrappers so I used eggroll wrappers. I used a 3.5” ring mold and was able to cut 2 circles from each wrapper. I watched a couple of videos on forming the gyoza and it went really well, the key is not overfilling. I reversed the order of browning and steaming based on the videos I saw. So first, heat the oil in skillet then put in the gyoza to get their bottoms browned, then pour in the water and quickly cover with lid. Cook for 20 minutes. They came out with crispy brown bottoms, tender skins, and pork cooked thru but still juicy. Next time, I will try to make my own gyoza wrappers, just for fun, but the eggroll wrappers worked fine. I ended up with 40 dumplings, I froze 20 so we’ll see how that goes, and cooked the other 20. The dipping sauce, so simple and so perfect – I did add the hot chili oil and also a few drops of sesame oil. We had as a main dish with a salad with ginger-sesame dressing from this site (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/ginger-sesame-dressing-238744). I will DEFINITELY make this again, and again, and again.
- laholladay
- Howell, MI
- 12/7/2015
Great recipe, I love the idea of salting the cabbage first, I had not tried that before. Very very tasty, very very easy to make.
- dee1andonly
- Perth Western Australia
- 9/20/2015