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Christine Gallary
Christine GallaryFood Editor-at-Large
Christine graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France, and she has worked at Cook's Illustrated and CHOW.com. She lives in San Francisco and loves teaching cooking classes. Follow her latest culinary escapades on Instagram.
updated Feb 3, 2020
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I am a firm believer in the power of dumplings and soup. Not only is the combination tasty and comforting, but a little upfront effort also yields prepped emergency meals to stash in my freezer — and who doesn’t want that? These easy wontons are full of juicy, savory ground pork and swim in a 15-minute gingery broth that starts with boxed chicken broth. Best of all, the ingredients are all easy-to-find, and the wontons use a simple but pretty wrapping technique.
Fill the Wontons with Your Favorite Protein
Wontons most often contain ground pork (and sometimes shrimp), which has lots of flavor and fat, but you can sub your favorite ground meat here instead. (If you opt for poultry such as chicken or turkey, stick to dark meat for the best texture). And unlike meatballs or meatloaf, where you want to handle the ground meat as little as possible, you’ll do a fair amount of mixing as you put together the filling. Sticky and paste-like is the goal, making the filling easier to wrap up but also giving the wontons a dense (not crumbly) texture.
Freeze Extra Wontons for Easy Weeknight Dinners
This recipe makes about 32 wontons so that you can use up as much of the package of wonton wrappers as possible. The beauty is that you can just cook the amount you want to eat now, and freeze the rest. Freeze the wrapped wontons on a baking sheet until frozen solid, then pop into a freezer bag. When the wonton soup craving strikes, boil straight from the freezer. The broth is also freezer-friendly, so make the full batch, then transfer what you don’t eat right away into jars or containers before freezing. Now you have homemade wonton soup at your fingertips!
Making Wonton Soup a Meal
Wonton soup already has protein from the filling and starch from the wrappers, so to make it a full meal, I like to load it up with veggies. I often blanch bok choy in the broth for a few minutes, or stir in some baby spinach at the end. Whatever greens are calling out to you will work! For an extra-filling meal, cook up some Asian noodles for a satisfying wonton noodle soup.
Wonton Soup
Prep time 1 hour
Cook time 30 minutes
Makes about 32 wontons
Serves 4 to 6
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
For the wontons:
- 1 pound
ground pork
- 1/3 cup
thinly sliced scallions, plus more for serving
- 1 1/2 tablespoons
soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon
Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
- 1 tablespoon
toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon
minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon
kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon
granulated sugar
- About 35
(about 3-inch-wide) square wonton wrappers
For the broth:
- 1 tablespoon
toasted sesame oil
- 6
(1/4-inch-thick) slices fresh ginger
- 2 cloves
garlic, minced
- 2
(32-ounce) boxes low-sodium chicken broth (8 cups)
- 3 tablespoons
soy sauce, plus more as needed
Instructions
Make the wontons: Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Place a small bowl of water on a work surface.
Place the pork, scallions, soy sauce, wine or sherry, sesame oil, ginger, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Using your hands, mix and knead the dough vigorously until sticky and paste-like.
Place 6 wrappers on a work surface. Place a scant tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and press down slightly. Dip a finger in the water and trace around the edges of a wrapper. Fold in half to form a triangle and press to seal, pushing out any pockets of air. Pull the two bottom corners over the center until they meet, then dab with a little water so they stick together and the wonton resembles a nurse’s cap. Place on the baking sheet and repeat with the remaining wrappers.
Make the broth: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the ginger and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Carefully add the broth and soy sauce (it may sputter) and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and season with more soy sauce or salt as needed.
When the broth is ready, add as many wontons as you’d like to cook to the water and gently boil until cooked through, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the wontons to bowls. Ladle hot broth over the wontons (about 1 cup broth for every 6 wontons). Sprinkle with more scallions and serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
Make ahead: The uncooked wontons can be loosely covered in plastic wrap and refrigerated if cooking the same day. Otherwise, freeze until solid, then transfer to a plastic zip-top bag and freeze for up to 2 months. Cook from frozen, adding 2 minutes to the cooking time. The broth can also be frozen for up to 2 months.
Storage: Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Filed in:
asian
chinese
Dairy-Free
dinner
easy
Freezer Friendly
