Tasty, moist pork filling wrapped with slippery wonton skin, served in hot chicken soup, this pork wonton soup is a perfect treat on cold winter days.
As the winter draws near, the cold days always evoke memories of my childhood growing up in North-western China. Today’s recipe, Pork wonton soup (猪肉馄饨), was a special treat which I very much enjoyed in a tiny state-run restaurant near my primary school.
Prepare a tasty filling
The perfect pork wonton filling should be flavoursome and moist. Scallions and ginger are two essential ingredients for almost all types of meat-based Chinese dumplings. Chop them very small as this will help to combine them with the minced pork.
Add some good quality light soy sauce for an “umami” taste (Xian Wei, 鲜味) together with some ground Sichuan pepper (or Chinese five-spice powder) for a subtle tangy flavour.
Hand minced meat is preferred
Although ready-to-use minced meat is widely available nowadays, many Chinese home cooks still prefer mincing with a cleaver as they believe the hand-minced meat is more tender and retains more moisture. It’s a noisy, labour intensive job but the final result makes you feel it’s all worth it.
Make shop-bought mince moist
To achieve a similar texture using shop-bought minced pork, please remember a very important step: add some stock (or water) little by little to the mince while swirling constantly in the same direction. When all the liquid is completely absorbed, the mince will be very moist and sticky. Then you are ready to assemble the wontons.
Use frozen wonton wrappers
I always keep frozen wonton wrappers in my freezer. They come in handy whenever I crave dumplings but haven’t got enough time to prepare the wrappers from scratch. I leave frozen wrappers in the fridge to thaw overnight and gently separate each wrapper right before assembling the wontons.
Use chicken stock as soup
I like using home-made chicken stock as soup for this pork wonton dish. Just add a little salt, ground white pepper and a dash of sesame oil, then garnish with some chopped coriander leaves. If you enjoy spicy food as I do, some Chinese chilli oil will give the dish an extra kick.
Pork wonton soup (猪肉馄饨)
Ingredients
For the wontons
- 40 ready-to-use wonton wrappers
- 250 g pork mince, 9oz
- 2 stalk scallions, finely chopped
- 2 slices ginger, minced
- 2 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 pinch ground Sichuan pepper, or Chinese five-spice powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 4 tbsp chicken stock
For the soup
- 800 ml chicken stock, 3 cups
- 1 pinch white pepper
- Salt, to taste
- ½ tsp sesame oil
- Coriander, chopped
- Chinese chilli oil, optional
Instructions
Mix the filling
- Mix pork mince, scallions, ginger, soy sauce, Sichuan pepper and salt.
- Swirl constantly in the same direction while pouring in 4 tablespoons of chicken stock little by little until no liquid can be seen.
Wrap the wontons
- Wet two neighbouring sides of the wonton wrapper with your fingertip. Place some pork mixture in the middle.
- Fold the wrapper into a triangle. Seal the edge. Then draw two corners together and press to seal (please refer to the video below). Repeat to finish all the wrappers.
Cook the wonton
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. Gently slide in wontons. Move them around with the back of a spoon to avoid sticking. Cover with lid.
- When the water starts boiling again uncover and leave to cook for a further 2 minutes or so.
Assemble the dish
- Drain and place wontons in serving bowls. Pour in hot chicken stock. Season with white pepper and salt if needed.
- Garnish with coriander. Add some homemade chilli oil if you’d like to spice it up.
Make in advance
- Freeze the wontons right after assembling. Cook them the normal way without defrosting.
Thank you for reading my post! Want to discover more dumpling dishes? Check out my Ultimate Dumpling Guide where you can find many tips, recipes and tutorial videos.
Wonton soup I’ve had never has coriander in it. It might have scallions and slivers of pork, but I’ve never seen coriander.
It’s very common to use either coriander or scallion (or both) in wonton soup in China. Since it’s such a big country with diverse food culture, people from different regions often have different ways to serve a particular dish.
Hey Wei,
I recently found your website and have been hooked ever9 since – this week I’m making steamed chicken with shiitake, but I already can’t wait to try the next recipe so I’ll be making these bad boys to freeze for next week. My local Asian supermarket sells normal wonton wrappers and wonton wrappers for deep-frying, is there any difference or should I be able to use either for this recipe?
Many thanks,
Sasha
Hi Sasha! I’ve never tried “deep-frying” wonton wrappers. To be on the safe side, buy the regular ones. Happy cooking!
hi. do you recommend a particular brand of wonton wrappers and do you prefer round or square ones?
Hi Tina! I don’t have any particular brand to recommend. Wonton (Hun Tun, 馄饨) wrappers should be square. The round wrappers are for dumplings 🥟 (Jiaozi, 饺子). Happy cooking!
Totally delicious! I made this this evening and it was easier than I expected. The wontons had a perfect texture and flavor, and the simple broth set them off really nicely. I got a slightly higher yield than noted in the recipe, but my scallions were huge and I had about an ounce more pork than was called for. A little filling goes a long way with these. I froze half the batch of assembled wontons and we’ll have them tomorrow.
I really appreciated the thorough instructions on all the different phases of mixing and assembly. I’m curious, though — why is it important to only stir the filling one direction while adding the liquid?
Hi Kalia! Very happy to know you’ve enjoyed my recipe.Stirring that way makes the minced meat more sticky and springy. You would use the same method to make meat balls.
Wei, this looks amazing! Once again, you make it look so easy. We’ll have to try this recipe soon! 🙂
Thanks Heddi! Look forward to your feedback. Have a great week ahead!