Recipe: Chicken Parm Potstickers
Last year, after a very stressful event in my career, I treated myself to a solo trip to New York. It was on this trip that my perspective on dumplings changed. And now, I am going to change yours.
But first, a brief history of my interactions with dumplings: As a kid growing up Chinese-American, dumplings in my mind were of two extremes—either incredibly tedious for my mom to make at home on only very special occasions or incredibly tediously made in superhuman volumes at the dim sum restaurant but still only worth ordering if they were priced super cheap. When I was in college, I started venturing into making very plainly folded wontons for my then-person-I-was-seeing, now-spouse; my housemates remarked about how I must have cared very much for the person I was cooking for, to go through the trouble. Much more recently, I became determined to master pleating dumplings to look like the cute dumpling emoji; to my surprise I was able to pick it up very quickly and even teach my kitchen-inept spouse, so now homemade dumplings are totally nbd but I still like to take credit for producing a special, time-consuming meal every time I make them.
Throughout all this time, my focus was so much more on the way the dumplings looked and the act of folding them, than on the filling. Many a cheap Chinese takeout order had indicated to me that dumplings, especially potstickers, were always filled with a nondescript pork mixture, and thus this is what I emulated in mine at home. But then in New York, I encountered something that caused me to completely rethink my approach to dumplings: Chicken Parm Potstickers. With marinara dipping sauce. You know, like that classic Italian-American dish of breaded chicken slathered in tomato sauce and melted mozzarella cheese...but in adorable dumpling form! Somehow, in all that time of thinking about and pleating those dainty parcels of food, I never noticed how dumplings are the absolute perfect vessel for literally any flavor combination to be delivered in one- to two-bite packages to my mouth, and the mouths of my loved ones. Maybe right now you are thinking “duh!” or maybe you are having a revelation of your own. It doesn’t matter as long as you are now aware that you can put ANYTHING in a dumpling.
And since then, I have. But when Lucini Italia asked me to share a recipe featuring their handcrafted, organic tomato sauces, I was excited for the chance to develop my own version of the chicken parm dumpling—a loving homage to the ones I had last year, but also better. This recipe is for chicken parm potstickers with crispy crunchy bottoms (reminiscent of the breaded chicken of its source), filled with the umami of two kinds of cheese, the herbaceousness of basil, and a garden-fresh tomato tang from Lucini Italia’s Tuscan artisan sauce. Lucini Italia’s Rustic Tomato Basil sauce is perfect for this because it’s not too sweet (there is no added sugar) and it has the perfect-sized tomato chunks. They work with only one organic farm in Tuscany that grows and harvests in small fields to ensure the right ripeness of all the tomatoes going in the jar and their cooked-once technique prevents them from getting overly processed or altered, so the texture feels very homemade and you’ll be able to include a little tomato in every dumpling bite.
There are some things I never make from scratch at home. Tomato sauce is one of them even though it’s something we go through a lot of at my house (because we love Italian food!). So, something that tastes gourmet but isn’t crazy expensive is always a great find. Another thing I never make from scratch is dumpling wrappers. (Ready-made ones can be found at Asian grocery stores and I have even seen them in large chain supermarkets.)
Remember that I was able to teach my spouse, whom I can barely rely on to boil pasta, how to pleat dumplings in the style shown in these photos. And now that I have the hang of it, it goes very fast. Here is a visual step-by-step for how I pleat dumplings. You can find more instructions in my Instagram highlights!
Ingredients for the dumplings
20–24 round potsticker wrappers
1/2 lb ground chicken
1/2 cup low moisture skim mozzarella, grated
1/4 cup parmesan or romano, grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/3 cup Lucini Italia Rustic Tomato Basil sauce
salt to taste*
water, for sealing
flour, for storing
Ingredients for cooking
water
cooking oil (such as vegetable, grapeseed, or flaxseed)
Ingredients for the crunchy bottoms
1/4 cup water
4 tsp flour
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp cooking oil
*Note: 2 pinches of salt are recommended if you are using parmesan but I prefer the saltier romano cheese and didn’t need to add as much salt.
Procedure
Add all the dumpling filling ingredients to a large bowl and mix gently to combine.
Prepare a tray or some flat plates by dusting a small amount of flour on them. Fill a small bowl with water. Remove one dumpling wrapper from the package but keep the rest covered in the packaging or under a damp paper towel to prevent them from drying out.
Add about a tablespoon of the dumpling filling in the middle of the wrapper. Wet a rim of water along the outer edge of the wrapper’s surface to help seal the dough. Seal the dumpling in your preferred style. Place the dumpling on the prepared tray. Repeat until all the filling is lovingly stuffed inside the wrappers.
Next, prepare the mixture for the crunchy bottoms by mixing all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.
You will need your most reliable nonstick pan with a lid—they don’t call them potstickers for nothing! Turning your stove on to medium, heat enough oil to see a thin coat covering the surface. Carefully place some of your dumplings in the pan, making sure not to overcrowd them. Allow the bottoms of the dumplings to brown for 1 minute.
Add about 1/4 cup water into the pan and immediately cover with the lid to allow them to steam. Be very careful with this step as water hitting the oil in the pan will certainly cause splatter. Keep the lid on for 2–2.5 minutes until you no longer hear loud sizzling inside. Remove the lid and allow the remaining water to evaporate (if any).
Reduce the heat to medium-low. Gently pour the crunchy bottoms mixture into the pan and swirl so it is distributed evenly. Cover the pan with the lid and turn the heat back up to medium. Cook for 2–2.5 minutes and remove the lid. Cook until the lattice on the bottom of the pan turns golden brown throughout. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to rest for a couple of minutes, or until you see the edges of the lattice curl up away from the inside of the pan. Carefully remove the cooked dumplings with a spatula. Wipe down the pan with a damp paper towel and repeat with the remaining uncooked dumplings.
Garnish your dumplings with some additional fresh basil leaves and serve with lots of extra Lucini Italia Rustic Tomato Basil sauce for dipping!
Thank you so much to Lucini Italia for sponsoring this recipe!