Pot Sticker

A small Asian dumpling that is stuffed with a variety of ingredients such as meats or fish, vegetables and seasonings, that are wrapped and pan cooked before serving. Typical ingredients that could be mixed together and placed into the Pot Sticker may include ground pork or shellfish such as shrimp or crab, cabbage, mushrooms, green peppers, ginger, cloves, rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, and a few other seasonings. The mixture is then either lightly cooked or wrapped in a thin sheet of dough referred to as a wonton wrapper. The dough is sealed along all open edges and prepared for cooking. The Pot Stickers are pan fried on one side for several minutes in a skillet containing a small amount of peanut oil. After they have cooked sufficiently a chicken broth or fish broth is added to the skillet and it is covered to allow the pot stickers to steam cook in the broth for 10 minutes or so. When finished cooking, the Pot Stickers are traditionally served as an appetizer or a main dish accompanied with a dipping sauce.

Pot Stickers are often included in Chinese meals referred to as Dim Sum, which contain a variety of small servings of different Asian foods. The reference to this food as a Pot Sticker may have derived from the fact that while the dumpling is being browned, it often sticks to the bottom of the pot or skillet being used for the cooking, thus the name Pot Sticker.