Easy Wonton Recipes with Pork

Wontons are great when served as a snack or appetizer and if you have only ever eaten meat ones in a Chinese restaurant or had them from a takeout, you really are in store for a treat when you make your own easy wonton recipes with pork. Any home cook will be able to manage this recipe without too much effort although, like with most dishes, the more you make these, the easier the process will seem to become.

Different Cooking Methods for Easy Wonton Recipes with Pork

Deep-fry them for crispy, crunchy snacks, or steam or simmer them for a softer result. You could even poach them in your favorite broth for a wonderfully warming lunch or supper. Yes wontons really are that versatile and you can choose whether you want them for an appetizer or the main dish, choosing whether you make a few crispy ones to kick off your dinner in style, adding an oriental accent to the meal, or prepare a homemade wonton soup full of delicious homemade wontons.

Another possibility is potstickers, those soft wontons with a crispy side that are made in a pan. Any of these would make a wonderful appetizer or entree. Nothing beats wontons sometimes, and there are easy wonton recipes with pork for every palate.

Meat and shrimp are the two most common fillings for these bite-size delights. Have a look at our recipes or learn some new facts.

Invest in a Bamboo Steamer

This is just the thing for steaming your little dumplings. Simply line the base with lettuce or cabbage leaves, add your filled easy wonton recipes with pork and steam them over boiling water until done. This versatile bamboo steamer is incredibly easy to use.

It’s not just easy wonton recipes with pork you can steam in the bamboo steamer basket. You can also steam thinly sliced vegetables (even potatoes) and the great thing is you don’t need to add oil or fat, so you are cutting down on calories. Steaming food means you will get the best flavor and texture, so try steaming seafood or even dessert.

This bamboo steamer has 3 tiers so you can steam various dishes at once (put the densest item on the bottom). The lid is also bamboo. Choose from lots of bamboo steamer recipes. For a bamboo steamer Target is one place to shop, but this one is durable and has good reviews. Also, ordering from Amazon is safe and easy. When you have a bamboo steamer how to use it is very easy and you can find lots of recipes for bamboo steamers to try out.

Concord 3 Piece 8 Inch Bamboo Steamer, on Amazon

What are Wontons Anyway?

These are Chinese dumplings. They can be deep-fried which makes them crispy, steamed or simmered which makes them soft, or cooked in another way.

These are made by spreading a wrapper flat in the palm of your hand, adding a small amount of filling in the middle, and sealing the wrappers into the desired shape by compressing the edges of the wrapper together with your fingers.

How to Seal Easy Wonton Recipes with Pork

Moistening the wrapper’s inner edges means you get a better adhesion and you can do this by dipping a fingertip into water and running it across the dry dough to dissolve the extra flour. As part of the sealing process, air is pressed out of the interior, so the little dumpling does not open (and leak out the filling) when it is cooked. Making these is something which is so simple it will soon become second nature to you.

Types of Dumplings

The word wan tan (you can spell it any way because the Chinese word is an image not Western letters) is Chinese for “swallowing clouds” which is a nice description of these tasty little treats, and a colorful way of describing easy wonton recipes with pork.

In Cantonese cuisine, shrimp and ground meat ones are usually served with thin noodles to make won ton noodles. Sometimes the dumplings are served with red vinegar.

Authentic Wonton Soup

The soup is made from boiling shrimp shells, meat bones and dried flounder, which results in a unique taste. MSG (monosodium glutamate) might be added to enhance the flavor. Hong Kong ones were introduced to the area after World War II, first as street food and then later on in indoor eateries.

Sichuan Shape

In the Sichuan province of China, semi-pentagonal won tan are known as chao shou which means crossed hands. This is because after initially folding the wrapper into a right triangle, each end of the triangle are pressed against the middle of opposite sides, so the little treats look like crossed arms or hands. These are often served in a sesame paste and chili oil sauce as a dish called “red oil won tan”.

Shanghai Shape

In Shanghai and Jiangnan, the filling is often made with minced pork and bok choy, and served in chicken soup. Saying that, Shanghai cuisine makes a clear distinction between small wontons and big ones.

Small ones are casually wrapped by closing the palm on a wrapper with a dab of pork filling as if you were crumpling a sheet of paper. These are often enjoyed with breakfast or brunch. The big dumplings are carefully wrapped (often so they look like a big tortellini) and a single bowl can be lunch or dinner.

Ningbo Varieties

In Ningbo there are two kinds of wonton – steamed ones and the soup. Both are filled with meat and shrimp and this is the type found in Chinese restaurants in the United States.

Wonderful Chinese Soup

Wonton soup is popular in the US, and so are deep-fried pork and shrimp dumplings (and other flavors). In fact many people would say they are one of the most delicious appetizers ever. And nobody ever gets bored of easy wonton recipes with pork.

Non-traditional wonton soup in Canada features pork-filled wan tons and spaghetti noodles, as well as vegetables and BBQ pork in a clear chicken broth.

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