Skip the Freezer Section and Make This Easy Homemade Gyoza Recipe

Author & Photographer: Erica Hogan

I learned how to make gyoza from my mother. While folding the dough around the filling on homemade dumplings may be intimidating, my mother showed me that gyoza, like many other dishes, can actually be very forgiving. She taught me that all you need to know how to cook is to understand what tastes good, and understand the effects of heat on food. This is especially true of gyoza. A recipe is not really necessary. Just about anything can go in the wrappers, and the proportion of ingredients in the filling is largely up to personal preference. As long as you let the dumpling skins brown, you can ensure that the filling will be cooked through. In my family, we combine whatever type of ground meat and vegetables we have available and season with some soy sauce, sake, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper. This doesn’t always produce super traditional dumplings, but they always turn out well after they’re pan-fried in sesame oil or simply steamed or boiled, and served with ponzu.  

Gyoza is my family’s lazy dinner; we make massive batches of uncooked dumplings all at once on quiet Sundays, freeze them, and cook them throughout the week. Making the dumplings themselves can take a bit of time, especially if you are unused to folding the wrappers, but the rest of the process is pretty simple.

Below is my own recipe for gyoza, with very traditional flavors. Gyoza, however, is very adaptable, so feel free to sub out any of the vegetables in this recipe, or use a different type of ground meat if pork isn’t your thing. I think gyoza are best when they’re pan-fried in sesame oil, but any other cooking oil will do. Gyoza can also be steamed or boiled for a healthier preparation. For those who want to reduce the amount of meat they eat, the proportion of meat to vegetables can be reduced. However, unless the filling is about half ground meat, the dumplings will be difficult (but not impossible) to fill, as the meat serves as a binder. 

Yield: About 50 dumplings

Ingredients:

  • 50 circular dumpling wrappers (have extra around, depending on how much you stuff your wrappers, you may make more/fewer dumplings)

  • 1.5 pounds of ground pork

  • 3 teaspoons grated garlic

  • 3 teaspoons grated ginger

  • 6 stalks of green onion

  • 1/3 napa cabbage

  • ½ onion

  • 1 egg

  • 2 tablespoons sake

  • 3 teaspoons soy sauce

  • 1 teaspoon Salt

  • 2 teaspoons pepper

  • sesame oil 

  • ponzu

Instructions:

To make the filling:

  1. Finely dice green onion, napa cabbage, and onion.

  2. In a large bowl, mix the ground pork, grated ginger and garlic, soy sauce, sake, egg, salt and pepper until uniformly incorporated. Feel free to use your hands. 

  3. Add chopped vegetables to the meat mix, then mix again until uniformly combined.

To fold the dumplings:

  1. Gently stretch each dumpling wrapper before filling, to thin out the dough. Be careful not to tear the wrapper, although wrappers with small tears are still useable.

  2. Place around 1 tablespoon of filling in a quenelle-like shape in the center of each wrapper. The exact amount will depend on the size of the wrapper you use. Feel free to add or take out filling as you fold your dumpling.

  3. Wet the circumference of the dumpling wrapper.

  4. Fold the wrapper in half around the filling. Lightly press to secure.

  5. Hold the dumpling along the edge of the wrapper using your thumbs and index fingers. Form a “z” shape using the edge of the dumpling wrapper, and pinch down the “z” to secure the fold.

  6. Continue to fold along the edge of the dumpling wrapper, until the entire dumpling is sealed. Space each fold around 1cm apart.

To cook the dumplings:

  1. Heat about 1 tablespoon sesame oil in a pan over medium heat. There should not be so much oil that there is a thick layer in the pan. Rather, the oil should just coat the pan.

  2. When the pan is hot enough that a drop of water sizzles when it hits the pan, add the dumplings into the pan. Lay them down on the side.

  3. When the bottom of each dumpling is browned, flip to brown the other side.

  4. When both sides have browned, add a ¼ cup of water to the pan then quickly put on the lid. Hold the lid over the pan as you add the water to avoid injury/keep the steam under the lid.

  5. After around 30 seconds, remove the lid. The parts of the dumpling skins that aren’t browned should be translucent.

  6. Remove from pan and serve with ponzu.

Melanie Wang1 Comment