Potstickers, a type of Chinese dumpling, are delicious as both appetizers and a main entree. Hubby and I fell in love with the big bags of Ling Ling potstickers which can be purchased in the frozen foods section of our Costco, but limited space, a desire to cook things from scratch, and a recent Alton Brown episode sparked my interest to try and make my own. While I started out looking to make Alton Brown's version, I found that he used pork, while what I had on hand was beef, so I combined a few other recipes I found on-line to suit my tastes, and came up with the recipe outlined below:

Ingredients:
Filling:
  • 1 lb ground beef (I like to use the lower fat beef)
  • 6-8 green onions, chopped (I just used a small bundle of them from the store)
  • 2 tsp minced garlic (I use so much garlic, that I've started cheating and buying pre-minced jars of the stuff)
  • 4-6 Tbs soy sauce (depending on how salty you'd like it)
  • 1 tsp. ground pepper
  • 4 Tbs freshly ground ginger (ok, so I didn't have any on hand and used a little over 1 Tbs of the powdered stuff)
  • 1/2 tsp. chili powder
Also:
  • 4 dozen wonton wrappers
  • Sesame oil (or canola oil) for frying
  • Chicken broth/stock (or plain old water) for steaming
Method:
  • Mix all of the filling ingredients together.
  • Drop about 3/4 - 1 Tbs of the filling into the center of a wrapper.
  • Moisten two connecting edges of the wrapper with water.
  • Fold the wrapper over diagonally, and press around the edges to seal, trying to get out as much air as you can.
  • If desired, make a couple of small pinches around the edges on each side to crimp or pleat them so they look like small "coin purses".
  • Repeat until you use all of the filling or wrappers. If you have extra filling, you can cook it up like small meatballs for a nibble to see how it tastes.
  • Once the potstickers are ready, it's time to cook! Heat a large pan over medium heat until hot, and then add about 2 Tbs of oil just to coat the bottom of the pan.
  • Place a single layer of potstickers down in the pan, and allow to cook for about a minute until the bottoms brown. At this point, they should be good and stuck to the pan.
  • Add about 1/4 of a cup of the chicken broth / water to the pan, and quickly cover. Allow to steam for about two minutes.
  • Remove the lid, and carefully remove to a drying rack. The dough may be a bit loose on the potstickers at this point, but once some of the steam is released and they begin to cool, the dough should shrink back down.
  • Wipe or deglaze the pan with water if needed to clean, and continue with the method above to cook how ever many more you would like to eat. Extras may frozen, uncooked, for later consumption. To freeze, place in a single layer on a large plate or sheet pan, allow to freeze for a couple of hours, and then store in a zippy bag.