There's a special place in my heart for dumplings. Whether they're fried, boiled, steamed, or served up in a soup, there's a marvelous synergy that happens when you take a savory filling and stuff it into what is essentially an oversized noodle. In Japan, nothing typifies dumplings more than Gyōza (餃子). Whether you're walking down a restaurant lined alley, or through an upscale grocery store, in Japan, you're never far away from the hunger-inducing smell of these pork and garlic chive dumplings.
Originating in China where they're known as Jiaozi (饺子), gyoza along with other imports such as Ramen, Shumai, Karé Ràisu (Japanese Curry), and Hambaagu have found their way into the eclectic pantheon of Japanese cuisine and there are thousands of restaurants that specialize in these delectable dumplings.
With so many gyoza shops, most places try to diversify their menu by adding different fillings from scallops and shrimp to cheese and corn. While I'm generally a fan of the classic, with pork, cabbage and garlic chives, there is one exception. When I was visiting Japan a number of years ago, I happened upon a gyoza stall in a Ginza department store that was selling gyoza filled with kurobuta (berkshire pork) and aōjiso (green shiso). This wasn't some novelty flavor cooked up to sell more dumplings, it was genuinely good!
Shiso is a subspecies of Perilla and joins Basil as a member of the mint family. You may be used to seeing the large saw-toothed leaf garnishing a platter of sushi, but it's a fantastic herb that has a unique green flavor and a subtle menthol bite. This makes it the perfect accent for the rich porky filling and provides a visually pleasing glow through the semi-translucent wrapper.
Unike most dumplings, gyoza are both steamed and fried. This gives them a Jekyl and Hyde texture that captures the best of both worlds. The sublime combination of a crispy bottom with a tender noodle-like wrapper is achieved by frying, steaming, and then frying gyoza again. It might sound complicated, but there are no kitchen acrobatics required here. Just start the pot stickers off on a hot pan with a little oil, hit it with some water and steam, then, as the water burns off, the bottom fries up golden brown and crisp. I also have an easy way to make any gyoza "winged" by using a flour and water solution.
Speaking of "pot sticking", there's a good reason why gyoza are known as potstickers in English. If you don't use a non-stick pan (or a well seasoned cat iron pan), you're practically guaranteed to have the best part of the wrappers permanently bonded to your pan. So for the sake of your dumplings (and your pan), please be sure to use a non-stick pan.
If you're vegetarian, or just don't eat pork, you can also add shiso when making my vegan gyoza. If you can't find shiso in your area, or want to roll old school, these dumplings are pretty darned delicious without it.
I've included a basic sauce recipe below, but if you want something a little different I also have a Miso Gyoza Sauce recipe as well as a spicy dipping sauce on the same page.
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients
For Filling
- 200 grams cabbage (¼ small head)
- 200 grams ground pork
- 30 grams scallions (minced)
- 30 grams garlic chives (minced)
- 15 grams fresh ginger (~½-inch length, grated)
- 1 tablespoon potato starch
- 1 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sake
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
For Gyoza
- 40 gyoza wrappers (a.k.a. potsticker wrappers)
- 40 leaves green shiso (stems trimmed)
- vegetable oil (for frying)
For Sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- chili oil (optional)
Instructions
- Put the cabbage in a pot and add enough water to cover it. Cover the pot with a lid and bring to a boil. Boil the cabbage until it is starting to wilt (about 2-3 minutes). Drain the cabbage in a colander while you prepare the other ingredients.
- In a bowl, add the ground pork, scallions, garlic chives, ginger, potato starch, sesame oil, soy sauce, sake, salt and white pepper.
- When the cabbage has cooled enough to handle, shake off any excess water that has collected between the leaves, but do not squeeze the leaves (the water content of the cabbage is the secret to juicy gyoza!). Remove the core and discard. Chop the cabbage into ¼-inch pieces and add it in with the pork.
- Put some gloves on and knead the pork and cabbage together until it forms a relatively uniform paste. Gyoza makers in Japan say that gathering up the meat and throwing it back into the bowl makes the filling more tender, but I haven't seen any evidence to support this claim.
- Prepare a bowl of water to wet your fingers with as well as a tray lined with parchment paper to hold your wrapped gyoza.
- To fold the gyoza, put a wrapper in the palm of your left hand (assuming you're right handed).
- Place a shiso leaf in the middle of the wrapper. If your leaves are too large, you may need to trim them down so so they fit in the center of your wrapper without going all the way to the edges.
- Add a little less than a tablespoon of filling into the cent of the leaf.
- Wet the fingers of your right hand and moisten the entire rim of the wrapper like you would an envelope. You need to get enough water onto the rim to make the wrapper stick, but not so much that you make it mushy.
- Fold the wrapper over and then use your thumb and forefinger to pleat the edge from the left to the right.
- As you pleat, use your left thumb to press the completed pleats down to seal the dumpling.
- When you're done, put the dumpling in the palm of your hand and make sure it stands up with the pleats facing up. If it's not stable, tweak the shape a little so that it's able to stand with the pleats facing up.
- Place the dumpling on the prepared tray and repeat until you are out of filling.
- To fry the dumplings, prepare a small bowl with 3 tablespoons of water. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy bottomed 10 to 12 inch non-stick pan over medium high heat until hot. Line up the dumplings in rows and let them fry until the bottoms take on just a hint of color. The pan should fit 10-12 dumplings at a time.
- Hold a lid with the side closest to you touching the pan like an open clam shell (the opening should be facing away from you). Reach around and quickly pour in the 3 tablespoons of water and shut the lid as fast as possible. As you might imagine pouring water on to hot oil will result in a lot of spattering. Be careful and quick to avoid making a mess.
- Let the dumplings steam until there is no water left in the pan (this should take about 2 minutes). Because of variations in pots and their lids it's possible you might run out of water more quickly. If this happens, add a bit more water and continue steaming.
- When the water is gone, remove the lid and fry the gyoza until they are golden brown on the bottom.
- Serve the gyoza browned side up so they don't get soggy. For the dipping sauce, just mix equal parts soy sauce and rice vinegar and add some chili oil to taste.
- These gyoza can be frozen on the parchment lined trays. Once they're frozen you can put them in a tupperware or freezer bag. When you cook them, the process is the same, but you will need to use more water and let them steam longer (about 5-6 minutes) to make sure they're cooked through.
Tereza says
Wonderful recipe of shiso gyoza. Fave at home in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks Tereza, I'm happy to hear you've been enjoying this!
YLK says
Under "INGREDIENTS" (above), the item that says "200 grams ground", is that "ground pork" ?
Marc Matsumoto says
I'm sorry about that, I'm not sure what happened there. Yes it's ground pork and it's fixed now.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Nikki, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! Great idea subbing in basil!
Nikki Q says
Love it 🙂 I ended up using basil in place of shiso and a dash of white wine that was on hand. Would make again!
Anne says
naruhodo! thus the picture of Hokkaido on the package...and the note of 馬鈴薯100％ which I blew past. interesting that they tout a specific variety of potato, and not "jagaimo..."--maybe a branding thing...
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Anne, potato starch=katakuriko, so good choice:-) There was a time when katakuriko was made from katakuri (a starchy tuber), but these days it's made from potato.
Anne says
thanks for the tip on the starch. I had been wondering how to get that nice...laminated (?) effect. I used katakuri-ko since that's what I had, and it worked fine, for the filling...will have to compare the results.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Mariko, I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Mariko Clark says
Another amazing recipe. You never let me down. Thank you so much! - Mariko
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Khancock, I'm not familiar with koots and unfortunately I don't get to eat out much. Can you perhaps send me a photo or tell me a bit more about it and I might be able to give you some tips.
KHANCOCK says
HEY! You should come up with a recipe like the shiso onigiri that they serve at koots so that I can make them here in New Mexcio!! I have no clue what else was is them!! If you haven't had one then you must try one immediately when in TOKYO.
Archit B. says
Marc, thanks a lot for this recipe. Made it last night. BEST GYOZA EVER!!!
Yogicfoodie says
SO sorry for the redundant question. Obviously I didn't read the recipe til the end.
They are awesome~~ It was a fun cooking project for my almost 5 yrs old daughter.
Papooses are munching now~ ^^
Marc Matsumoto says
Yep, just place them on a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet without touching each other and then freeze them. Once they're frozen you can stack them or put them in ziploc bags. When you cook them, use them straight out of the freezer and follow the same steps. Keep in mind, they'll take a bit longer to steam.
Yogicfoodie says
Hi Marc, can I make there ahead and freeze them? Thanks!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Simply Salve, if you are in Riyadh, I'm pretty sure I've bought round gyoza wrappers at Tamimi before. As for wonton wrappers they will work just fine, but you'll need to get a little creative about wrapping as they are square instead of round. I wouldn't recommend spring roll wrappers because they will have a different texture.
simply salve says
Hi Marc! here in saudi arabia, we dont have any available gyoza wrappers, can I use wonton wrappers instead? I also have here the vietnamese spring roll wrapper can i use it instead? I really missed eating these. Thanks
Marc Matsumoto says
Yep, it's still the standard gyoza without the shiso leaf. Hope you enjoy!
JP@Filipino Food Recipes says
I had my electronics technical training in Choshi, Chibaken few years ago and gyoza is one of the dishes I like most while living there for 1 year and six months. I'm now in Philippines and just today I crave for gyoza and landed in to your recipe. All the ingredients and wrapper are available here in Philippines except for the shiso leaf. I'll do the cooking by tomorrow, I will follow your recipe without the leaf and believe it will still taste very good. Thanks for the recipe.
Marc Matsumoto says
When you use freshly made wrappers, they usually have a ton of potato starch coating them to keep them from sticking. When you add the water to steam the gyoza, the starch dissolves in the water and then thickens the water into a gravy. Eventually as the water evaporates, this gravy turns into a thick crust. While my technique above produces really crispy bottoms (even if your wrappers aren't coated in a lot of starch), if you want this stuck-toghether shell you should be able to achieve it by dusting your wrapped gyoza in some potato starch before frying them, and then pouring the water directly over them to wash some of the starch into the water. Or you could try to mix some starch into the water before you add it, but I'm not sure what the ratio should be.
Shawn Mcclain says
I love making gyoza but when I lived in Japan they made gyoza with super crispy bottoms like the photo below. How do they do this.? Can you help
phu says
I hadn't boiled gyoza in a long time; I did it for a while in college and everyone else hated it, they said the wrapper texture was "slimy." I do like them pan-fried, but boiling is so much easier, and I do like the texture quite a lot.
Right now I'm also lucky enough to have parmesan direct from Italy thanks to a friend who spends a month or two a year there with his wife's family. That stuff definitely added nicely to the meat mixture.
Marc Matsumoto says
Great idea! Sounds delicious. I like these boiled too, they're great in soups.
phu says
I haven't seen shiso in Minnesota, but the leaf idea is really cool, so I figured I'd just make a pork meatball mixture (without breadcrumbs but with cabbage) and use basil leaves. It was a HUGE hit; I served Alfredo as a dipping sauce.
While using up the end of the mix and wrappers, I got lazy and folded them like tortellini, then just boiled them. Turned out great that way, too.
Thanks for taking the time to keep this blog, it's brilliant!
sanchezm says
ok, consider it done 🙂
Marc Matsumoto says
Glad to hear they still carry them. You can either let them grow bigger, or just mix the sprouts into the meat mixture.
sanchezm says
Hi Marc, i found shiso sprouts in Lulu Supermarket although the leaves are wee small. Thanks for your suggestions!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Shiela, I’ve bought shiso sprouts in Riyadh before at Lulu. I think they were mislableed "Watercress Sprouts” though so unless you know what you’re looking for it might be a little difficult to find them. For the sake, I usually I bring freeze dried sake lee’s from Japan which has 0% alcohol content but all the flavor of sake. If you’re not going to be in Japan anytime soon, just leave the sake out. As for the gyoza wrappers, Tamimi carries wonton wrappers which have a different shape (they’re square) but they can still be used to make these, just fold the wrappers in half to make a triangle. I hope that helps. —
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sanchezm says
hi marc,
i live in riyadh, ksa and we dont have some of the ingredients. what do i substitute for: shiso leaves, sake and gyoza wrappers?
thank you.
Marc Matsumoto says
Glad to hear my posts could help inspire you. I've only been in Japan for about 3 years myself, but feel free to send me a note if you ever have questions about specific ingredients.
mobiuschic42 says
I've lived in Japan for two years and while I love to cook, I've been a bit intimidated by the sea of unfamiliar ingredients at the supermarket. I've mostly stuck to cobbled-together versions of American dishes that I have to search for ingredients and make substitutions. However, your blog is really inspiring me to try using more native Japanese vegetables and sauces. The presentation is friendly and I trust that I can understand how to cook the dishes. Thank you so much!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Beth, the flavor of shiso is quite different from mint so it's definitely going to taste different. There's really no herb that I can think of that has a similar flavor, but if I had to pick the closest one I'd say basil is a little closer than mint would be.
bmorte says
Mark, can a regular mint leaf be a substitute for the shiso?
BTW, I look forward to your recipes. I love them and make many of them with fabulous results! Thank you!