Homemade Japanese Gyoza stuffed with juicy pork, cabbage, scallions, shiitake mushrooms, ginger, garlic and oyster sauce. Pan fried crispy bottoms then steamed to perfection for an irresistible flavor packed dumpling!

Delicious flavor packed dumplings with crispy bottoms are like little pillows of pork goodness and slightly addictive. These are one of our favorite things to eat.. honestly the plate of food was devoured in minutes. You can serve these as an appetizer or dinner, we served these alongside our steak tataki seeing as Valentines Day is coming up we made a delicious Asian style date night meal. https://thecommunalfeast.com/2021/02/steak-tataki/

Japanese gyoza may look intimidating to make but really they are so simple to make and with Valentines Day coming up it’s a fun dinner activity to make with your partner. The filling takes minutes to make and were not professional dumpling makers so it definitely takes practice and patience to make those perfect pleating’s which we recommend giving it a shot.. I mean a get a good laugh at my husbands pile compared to mine but hey you can simply fold them in half and as long as they’re sealed they will taste great no matter what! This is also a fun activity for the kids to get them involved in the kitchen. The filling makes quite a bit of dumplings so you can easily feed everyone or if your just two you can freeze a batch for a quick weeknight dinner later on.

You can find gyoza wrappers or dumpling wrappers at your local oriental supermarket for us we found them at T&T. You want to buy the round wrappers that are thin not the wonton wrappers which are thicker. The think wrappers cook nicely when making gyoza they steam better and quicker.

To prepare the dumplings, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place 2 teaspoons of filling in the middle of each wrapper then dip your finger in a small bowl of water and moisten the outer edges of your wrapper essentially running your wet finger along the edge. You can fold the dumpling in half or you can pleat them similar to the photos you see here and ensure they are well sealed. There are lots of video tutorials online you can also check out.

For those perfectly crisp bottoms you’ll need to pan fry the gyoza in a tablespoon of oil until the bottoms become crisp and golden. You can also brush the bottom of your gyoza with oil and dip in sesame seeds and then pan fry your gyoza’s for some added crispiness. Once the bottoms are fried and crispy you’ll need to add 1 tablespoon of water to the hot pan and cover immediately with a lid to steam your dumplings. Once the water has evaporated and your dumplings are steamed -about 2-3 minutes you can remove the lid and let the bottoms get crispy again.

We made a simple ponzu dipping sauce o go with our gyoza by combining ponzu with garlic chili, sesame oil, fresh ginger and garlic.

Enjoy!

Print Recipe

JAPENESE PORK GYOZA

Homemade Japanese Gyoza stuffed with juicy pork, cabbage, scallions, shiitake mushrooms, ginger, garlic and oyster sauce. Pan fried crispy bottoms then steamed to perfection for an irresistible flavor packed dumpling!

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time6 minutes mins

Total Time21 minutes mins

Course: Valentines Day

Cuisine: Japanese

Servings: 4

Author: the communal feast

Ingredients

• 2 cups napa cabbage roughly chopped into large pieces
• 1 ½ lbs ground pork
• 3 cloves of garlic
• ½ tablespoon fresh minced ginger
• 3 scallions torn into smaller pieces
• ½ cup shiitake mushrooms
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• Dipping sauce:
• 3 tablespoons ponzu sauce if you don’t have ponzu you can mix together soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, lime juice
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons garlic chili paste
• 1 teaspoon fresh minced ginger
• 1 garlic cloves sliced into thin slices
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon togarashi spice -optional

Instructions

1. Blanche the napa cabbage in boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain cabbage in a colander and place in ice cold water. Squeeze excess water from cabbage with your hands and place on a paper towel.

2. To a food processor, add the pork, cabbage, garlic, ginger, scallions, shiitakes, salt & pepper. Pulse the mixture until the filling is well combined. Add the filling to a bowl and stir in oyster sauce.

3. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, have your filling and gyoza wrappers ready to assemble and a finger bowl of water. Place 2 teaspoons of filling in the middle of each wrapper, then dip your finger in the water and run your finger along the outer edger of your wrapper. You can either fold the dumpling in half or pleat them. Make sure they are well-sealed. Place on your baking sheet until you finish assembling your gyoza.

4. Heat a tablespoon of cooking oil in a nonstick or cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Place the gyoza’s in the pan, careful not to overcrowd your pan and fry until the bottoms become crispy and golden about 3 minutes.

5. Next add 1 tablespoon of water to the hot pan and cover immediately to steam the dumplings. Steam the gyoza for about 2-3 minutes until the water has evaporated. Remove the lid and continue to cook the gyoza until the bottoms get crispy again.

6. Meanwhile prepare the dipping sauce by combining the ingredients together.

7. To serve you can drizzle a small amount of sauce over the gyoza or serve alongside and garnish with fresh chopped scallions and chives.

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