What’s a good food for the summer time?! You are looking for something fun and easy to eat? Something portable and bite-sized?
It’s mandu time! : )
Mandu are Korean dumplings, and I’m very happy to share my chicken mandu recipe with you today. Mandu is usually made with pork or beef, or a mixture of pork or beef, but I wanted to make something healthier, with chicken. I did a number of experiments and this recipe was the best for its simplicity and taste.
This recipe makes 28 to 30 mandu, so you can eat some right away and then freeze the rest. The great thing about making a lot of mandu at once is that you always have some on hand in the freezer. You can steam them, fry them, make soup with them, add them to instant ramyeon, there are so many things you can do with mandu and everyone loves them. When you have your homemade mandu in the freezer, you will feel very comfortable. You will never be hungry!
Enjoy the recipe and I hope you make a lot of delicious mandu for you and your family!
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 30 large mandu skins (about 4 ½ inch diameter) or 40 regular size skins (or homemade mandu skins)
- 1 pound of meat from chicken thighs (or chicken breasts), with the fat trimmed, pat dried and cut into chunks
- 4 ounces onion (about ½ cup), cut into chunks
- 4 large garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon plus ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon potato starch (or corn starch, or wheat flour)
- 1 small zucchini (5 to 6 ounces), cut into thin matchsticks
- 1 tablespoon toasted toasted sesame oil
Directions
Make filling:
- Combine the zucchini matchsticks and ½ teaspoon salt in a bowl. Mix well and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Combine the chicken, onion, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, ground black pepper, milk, and potato starch in the food processor. Blend 1 minute until smooth and well mixed. Put the filling into a bowl.
- When the zucchini is withered and wet, gently squeeze out the excess water with both hands and add it to the filling in the bowl.
- Add the sesame oil to the filling and mix well with a spoon.
Shape dumplings:
- Set out a small bowl of water.
- Lay a dumpling skin flat on your palm. Dip your index finger in the water and wet the edges of the skin so that it will seal easily.
- Spoon a heaping tablespoon of the filling into the center and fold the skin over the filling.
- Press the edges to seal, and make 8 to 10 small pleats to give the dumpling a pretty appearance and seal it more tightly.
- Place it on a plastic-lined platter. Repeat with the remaining filling and dumpling skins. You will make about 28-30 dumplings.
Freeze dumplings:
- Place the dumplings on a large platter lined with plastic wrap (I use my pizza pans for this). There should be a little gap between the dumplings so that they don’t stick to each other.
- Freeze for several hours or overnight, until frozen solid.
- Place each dumpling into a plastic bag or container, and then put them back to the freezer. You can freeze them for up to 3 months.
Steam dumplings:
- Bring some water to a boil in a steamer. Line the steamer basket with parchment paper or lettuce leaves. Add some dumplings and cover.
- Steam for 10 minutes over medium high heat. Remove from the heat.
Serve, or use in dosirak:
- Take the dumplings out of the steamer and serve with the seasoning sauce. If you’re making a dosirak, let them cool for a few minutes before packing them in with the other items in the lunch box. Be sure to accompany with the seasoning sauce.
- Pick up a dumpling with your chopsticks, dip it into the sauce and enjoy!
Seasoning sauce:
- Combine 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 teaspoons white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar), a pinch of gochu-garu (Korean hot pepper flakes) and mix well and transfer it to a small bowl or pack it with a dosirak by putting it in a small container and covering it tightly.
Posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2020. Last updated on August 11, 2021.
Recipe type: chicken, lunchbox, main dish, mandu, snack
Tagged as chicken dumplings, dosirak, dumpling in lunchbox, dumplings, 만두 도시락, 만두 만드는법, how to make Korean dumplings, 찐만두, korean dumplings, Korean lunchbox, Maangchi dosirak, mandu, steamed dumplings
