This recipe in a COMBINATION of two things I’ve been wanting to do for a while: try my hand at homemade dumplings and use up some leftover rotisserie chicken I had in my freezer. I love eating dumplings and they’re so beautiful – forming them was just like one of my craft projects. They’re also great because you can make a ton at once and freeze them for future meals. Now that I have the technique down, I’ll be doing this much more often!

The details:

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Thought process:

I used this recipe from Vrunka on Food52 for instruction on potsticker RATIOS, sauce, folding, and cooking. For the filling I knew I wanted to use rotisserie chicken (more on that below). For additions, I’ve had potstickers out at restaurants with tiny carrots and onions in them, which I think provide a nice contrast and some nutrition.

Rotisserie chicken – I don’t buy rotisserie chicken a ton, but when I do it’s for a specific purpose: dishes that call for cooked chicken where the chicken is not the end point of the dish (eg, chicken enchiladas, this recipe). While rotisserie chickens are not technically cheaper than raw whole chickens, they are very close in price and have the advantage of being perfectly pre-cooked. I also recently used the bones of my rotisserie chicken to make chicken stock, reducing food and financial waste.

Below, the recipe:

Rotisserie Chicken Potstickers
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• 1 carrot, very finely diced
• ¼ red onion, very finely diced
• 2 Tbsp ginger, grated
• 5 cloves garlic, grated
• 1 serrano pepper, minced
• 6 Tbsp vegetable oil, divided
• 1.5 pounds meat from a rotisserie chicken
• 1.5 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1.5 cups cilantro, minced
• 2 eggs
• 4 Tbsp sesame oil
• 4 Tbsp tamari soy sauce
• 4 tsp corn starch
• 120 pot sticker wrappers (in the produce section)

1. Heat 2 Tbsp vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and cook carrots until completely softened, ~10 min.
2. Add onion and cook another 5 min until softened. Season with the salt and pepper.
3. Finely grind the chicken in a food processor then transfer to a large bowl
4. Add carrots and onions, ginger, garlic, serrano pepper, and cilantro and toss to combine.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, sesame oil, soy sauce, corn starch, and 2 Tbsp vegetable oil.
6. Slowly add the sauce to the meat while mixing just until everything comes together. It may only take ~2/3 of the sauce.
7. Make sure your wrappers are completely defrosted before starting. Have a small dish of water nearby.
8. Put one wrapper at a time one a clean working surface and place a scant teaspoon of filling in the middle. Using your fingers, dampen the edge of the wrapper and fold it into a half-moon. Push the edges together tightly, decoratively crimping as you go. You can freeze them at this point.
9. Heat a large non-stick skillet on med-hi and add 2 Tbsp veg oil.
10. Place about 20 or so pot stickers in a tight circle, flat side-down. Allow them to sizzle in the pan for about 1 minute then add about a half cup of water. Cover immediately, as it will splatter.
11. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until you can see the moisture inside the dumplings boiling, about 10 minutes.
12. Remove lid and increase heat to medium high. Allow the water to boil off and the bottoms to brown, about 5 minutes.
13. Gently unstick the stickers with a spatula.

Rating:

3/5 stars.

I served these with white rice, steamed spinach, and pickled cucumbers. I absolutely loved making the filling, forming the potstickers, and cooking them, and I’m super excited to try it again soon. Unfortunately, these were unable to overcome the major handicap in my recipe design – I started with precooked rotisserie chicken, when usually you are supposed to start dumplings with raw meat. As a result, the chicken was pretty dry despite my best efforts. Lesson learned that there’s a reason why some recipes don’t exist!