Fried wontons are crunchy morsels of meat wrapped in signature yellow dumpling skins, and then deep fried to perfection. Wontons have various fillings - mine are always with equal parts meat + shrimps for its texture and natural sweetness.
I get into a dumpling frenzy when I am in the mood, and usually end up making too much for the 2 of us to finish. These wontons can be deep fried, boiled or steamed - and what's great is that you can freeze up a batch, dump it in the freezer and pop them in soups or deep fried whenever you are ready to eat them! No defrosting required whuuuuut!?
For a slightly different type of dumpling, check out my Chicken & Chives Potstickers recipe!
INGREDIENTS
Wonton wrappers
100g minced chicken
100g shrimps (about 5-6 medium shrimps)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
1-2 teaspoon cornflour (add more if the mixture is too wet)
1 egg yolk
Chopped spring onion
Chopped chili padi
Salt & white pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
1. Mix all your filing ingredients together. Make sure not to over-mix or the filling will lose it's texture.
2. With dry and clean hands, place 1 generous teaspoon of filling onto your dumpling wrapper. Do not overfill or it will break open when cooking.
3. Dab your pointer finger with some water, and line the edges of the wrapper with water for closing.
4. If this is your first time, fold over to a semi-circle and pinch the edges until it is closed. Make sure to push out all air pockets and close the edges so it does not break apart when cooking.
5. If you are confident, fold the edges neatly to form a pleated pattern. You can see both variations below. There is no difference in taste, so do whichever you are comfortable with!
6. Prepare for deep frying. Heat up oil in a small pot over medium to low heat. Test the oil if it's hot enough but dropping a tiny drop of water. It should gentle sizzle when you do this.
7. Gently drop the dumplings one-by-one into the hot oil. Do not overcrowd or it will not get crispy.
8. Turn the wontons occasionally until golden brown. When they start to cook, you will notice that they will float to the top. Cook for about 2-3 mins or until wonton is completely golden brown and crispy!
9. Remove cooked wonton and let the oil soak up on a plate that's been lined with a kitchen towel.
10. Serve hot as an appetizer or a side, with some mayo or sweet chili sauce. We had ours for lunch with a bowl of Vegetarian Beehoon!
ALY'S COOKING TIPS
When mixing your dumpling filling, do not over-mix until the meat mixture becomes too pastey. This will create a weird texture for the finished product - I like mine to still be a little chunky with identifiable chunks of meat and shrimps in every bite.
If you notice that your filing mixture is too wet, add a little bit more of cornflour and spring onion.
If you have leftovers, continue to fold your dumplings and lay them in a single layer on a sheet pan or small tray. Put the tray in the freezer until the dumplings freeze up. You can then keep these frozen dumplings in a container or ziplock bag for future use. No defrosting needed - just fry them up or dump then in soup!
When frying, do not overcrowd the dumplings or it will not become crispy, but rather soggy. It only takes a couple of minutes to cook, so be patient ok!
Don't fuss with the folding. If you don't know how to pleat it, simply fold it in half as pictured. It tastes the same, I promise - and looks kinda cute too don't you think?