Thai Pork Wontons with Spicy Chili Dipping Sauce

I mentioned in my El Dorado Mexico Travel Post that our first meal at the resort was at a Asian Fusion restaurant. I myself even was wondering why on earth were we eating our first meal at a 5 star resort in Mexico in a restaurant that served sushi when we could be enjoying Enchiladas. But we were starving and it was the closest restaurant to the Front Desk. I also mentioned that Randy had a Pork Curry dish for lunch that I still dream about. There was something about that dish that was just AMAZING. The sauce, the textures, everything. So when I was tossing around ideas for Thailand week, the thing that kept popping in my head was doing something with a Thai Curry sauce and Pork. Thus, the Thai Pork Wontons were born. Is it that dish? Hell no. It’s something else entirely and honestly, now I’m dreaming about these for different reasons.

I’m going to skip all the fluff about this dish and the background because honestly this is one of my more advanced recipes and I want you to feel confident and good about pulling this off. A lot of folks I believe are intimidated about making their own wontons, potstickers, shumai, gyoza or whatever else you want to call these. Is it easier to just go out and buy a bag of them from the freezer section and call it a day? Well, yeah it is. But the payoff of making your own is really high up there. Additionally, this is a fun recipe to get the family in on and let the kids help make their own dumplings. It’s really not as hard as you may think.

So the wonton filling mixture itself is going to be raw going into the wonton wrappers. With that being the case, you want all of your ingredients to be cut small so they cook faster. You want to mince your ground pork so the heat cooks it quickly. I found that once you lay out your ground meat mixture, which you can feel free to use other ground varieties of protein like beef or chicken, if you cut consistently through it, it will do the job effectively.

Also, you want to chiffonade your cabbage. Chiffonade means to shred or finely cut leaf vegetables by using a knife and not a grater. Put all of your ingredients into a bowl and mix either using your hands or a spoon. It holds together better if you refrigerate it for 30 minutes or so.

I got these wonton wrappers at my local farmer’s market, but you find them in most grocery stores. Most will keep them in the refrigerated section but I’ve also found them in the produce area by the salad dressings and other specialty produce products.

To assemble the wontons, have your work space clean and sprinkled with a little bit of all purpose flour, a 1/4 cup will do. Also, have a small cup of clean room temperature water near by. The one thing about wontons is that you have to work fast.

Carefully lay the wonton wrapper down and put about a tablespoon of the pork filling inside. Then using your finger, dip it into water and run your finger around the edge of the wonton wrapper. Once dampened, fold the wrapper in half and pinch the edges.

I’m going be honest, these were some big boys. They almost looked like an Asian Empanada, which I am not mad at at all considering empanadas are one of my desert island foods. If you get smaller wrappers, then considering shrinking down your tablespoon to a teaspoon. These wrappers and mixture made about 25 big wontons so if you go smaller, you can get even more.

If you aren’t going to cook all these at once, place them on a sheet tray lined with parchment, lay them flat, wrap them tightly with plastic wrap and then freeze. They will hold up for at least a month. Otherwise, you can cook these right away. I pan seared mine with about 2 tbsp of canola oil, flipped them and then covered them with a lid to continue cooking them internally.

We also tested these in an air fryer and they came out puffy and closer to an actual empanada dough. Randy actually preferred them this way. You can also steam these or microwave them.

Now, about this sauce. You can opt to do spicy or you can omit the spice and just do a sauce with a little sass. Honestly, these work with soy sauce too. But why do soy when you can go Thai? I picked up a Thai Chili dipping sauce from the Asian section of my grocery store and just doctored it up. While exploring our Trader Joe’s Grocery Store, I spotted this Yuzu Hot Sauce. I knew I wanted to use it for something and when the Wonton idea came along, I knew it would be perfect. It adds the perfect kick of citrus and heat to the sauce. If you are not a fan of heat, just add lime juice instead to add the citrus kick without the heat.

These are perfect for a fun interactive dinner, a socially distant gathering, tailgating or watching season 2 of The Mandolorian when it drops on October 30th (not sponsored). Serve them with stir fried vegetables to bulk up your meal, over some rice or even an Asian Salad. Randy really enjoyed these and honestly so did I. They definitely won’t take me back to Mexico but they will put me one step closer to Thailand.

Thai Pork Wontons with Spicy Chili Dipping Sauce

Serves 6

• 1 lb ground chicken, minced
• 1 cup green cabbage, chiffonade
• 1 Tbsp Ginger, finely minced
• 1 cup Scallions, chopped
• 2 Tbsp fresh Cilantro, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• sprinkle black pepper
• 1/3 cup Thai Red Curry Sauce
• 1 package of wonton wrappers

Spicy Chili Dipping Sauce

• 1/2 cup Thai Chili Sauce
• 4 drops Yuzu Hot Sauce
• Juice of 1/2 lime if not using hot sauce
• 1 1/4 tsp honey