Deliciously tender and juicy pork and cabbage dumplings with a golden brown crispy bottom are the best treat for an empty stomach. These pork dumplings are made with pork, shrimp, cabbage, green onions, garlic, and ginger for the most satisfying bite!
There is nothing more comforting than a giant mouthful of pork and cabbage dumplings. The juicy, tender pork, shrimp, and cabbage combined with rich aromatics and seasonings create the perfect bite every time.
When I was in elementary school, my mom would always leave a plate of delicious crispy pan-fried pork dumplings on the table when I came home from school. These juicy pork and shrimp dumplings paired with a delicious soy garlic dumpling sauce were always the highlight of my day.
These pork and shrimp dumplings take me back to those simpler times and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! If you loved this pork and cabbage dumplings recipe, check out my homemade dumpling wrapper recipe, crispy skirt dumplings, chocolate dumplings, and turkey dumplings.
Table of Contents
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- You will get deliciously tender and juicy pork and shrimp dumplings made with rich aromatics and seasonings for the perfect mouthful.
- You can easily double or triple this pork potstickers recipe and freeze them for meal prep or eat at a later time!
- I will show you step-by-step with photos and a reel on our Instagram page on how to perfectly pleat these pork and cabbage dumplings.
🍽 Kitchen Equipment
You will only need two simple kitchen equipment for this pork and cabbage dumplings recipe.
- Mixing Bowl: You will need a large mixing bowl to mix together all of the filling ingredients.
- 12 Inch Skillet + lid: Having a large enough skillet with a matching lid is important. You want to have enough space to fit the pork potstickers without having them touch each other. And with a proper fitting lid so that you don't lose steam while you are cooking the pork and shrimp dumpling.
🛒 Ingredients
You can find all of these ingredients for these pork dumplings at your local grocery store, Asian grocery store, or online.
- Ground Pork: make sure to get ground pork that has a higher fat content for this recipe. The higher the fat content the more tender and juicier the filling.
- Shrimp: the shrimp adds sweetness, and depth that breaks up the rich fatty pork flavor. You can either pulverize the shrimp into a paste for a cohesive flavor or roughly chop them for larger chunks of shrimp.
- Garlic: minced garlic adds a rich aromatic flavor
- Ginger: minced ginger also adds a slightly peppery and sweet aromatic flavor
- Napa cabbage: balances out the protein in the filling creating a well-balanced and healthy pork and cabbage dumpling.
- Green Onion: brightens up the flavors of the pork and shrimp.
- Tapioca Starch: tapioca starch acts as a tenderizing agent for the pork and allows the meat to come out more tender and springy when cooked.
- Soy Sauce: Use a light flavored soy sauce to prevent the pork potstickers from being overly salty. I like to use Lee Kum Kee's Premium soy sauce since it has the perfect balance of saltiness.
- Toasted Sesame Oil: sesame oil brings a nutty aromatic flavor to the pork and shrimp dumpling. A little goes a long way. You can buy toasted sesame oil online or at your local Asian grocery store.
- Sugar: balances out the saltiness of the soy sauce and adds a gentle sweetness.
- Salt: seasons the filling and brings out the flavors of the other ingredients.
- White Pepper: white pepper is a more subtle pepper than black pepper giving the pork dumpling a light aromatic flavor.
✨ Substitutions and Additions
There is a multitude of ways where you can create your very own dumpling adventure with this pork dumplings recipe. I’ve listed some suggestions below.
Substitutions
- Meat: you can alter the protein by using ground beef, ground chicken, ground turkey, etc. Alternatively, you do not have to use shrimp as well.
- Black pepper: if you do not have white pepper, you can alternatively use black pepper instead.
Additions
- Vegetables: if you want more vegetables in your filling, you can add finely chopped veggies as well such as bok choy, spinach, cilantro, carrots, etc.
📝 How to Make Pork and Cabbage Dumplings
This recipe for pork and shrimp dumplings is very easy to follow and make. You can alternatively, double or triple the recipe and freeze them for later too!
Make the Pork and Shrimp Filling
- Lightly sauté the vegetables. Heat vegetable oil on a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the minced garlic, minced ginger, diced cabbage, and minced scallions. While stirring constantly, cook for about 2 minutes until softened. Set aside to cool.
- Prepare the shrimp. Wash, peel, and devein the shrimp. Then cut into small 1 cm pieces.
- Make the pork into a paste. Place the ground pork in a large bowl. Add the tapioca starch and water. Using chopsticks or a wooden spoon, stir the ingredients together for several minutes. After about a minute, the meat should become more paste-like.
- Mix together. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, salt, and white pepper until combined. Add the cooled vegetables, pork, and shrimp. Using a spatula or your hand, mix until combined.
Assemble
- Add filling. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of your round dumpling wrapper. Avoid overfilling.
- For store-bought wrappers, make sure to wet the edges of the dumpling wrapper with water before you begin pleating.
- For homemade wrappers, you do not have to wet the edges of the wrapper.
- Pleat dumpling. Fold the dumpling in half like a taco and pinch together in the center leaving the sides not pinched. Start pleating to the left of the center pinch and seal it to the right. Continue gathering dough and sealing pleats until you reach the end, about 4 pleats. Repeat on the right side sealing the pleats to the left with another 4 pleats to form a "V" shape.
- Repeat. Repeat with the remaining dumplings and place dumplings on a lightly floured baking tray covered with a towel or plastic wrap until ready to be cooked so they do not dry out.
Cook the Pork Dumplings
- Pan fry the dumplings. Add 3 tablespoon of vegetable oil to a medium nonstick pan and heat over medium-high heat. Add a single layer of dumplings to fill your pan. Make sure there is room between the dumplings so they don’t stick. Sear on the flat side for 2-3 minutes until the side is toasted and golden brown.
- Steam the dumplings. Next, with the lid in one hand, add ¼ cup of water or enough to cover the bottom of the pan, and immediately cover the pan to steam the dumplings for about 6 minutes. Be careful! The water will react with the oil and splatter. So work quickly.
- Cook off remaining water before removing. Remove the lid and cook off the remaining water for an additional 1-2 minutes.
- Serve. Transfer to a plate and enjoy!
⭐️ Tips for the Best Pork and Cabbage Dumplings
- Juicy tender pork filling. There are two secrets to achieving this. Using high-fat content ground pork and stirring the ground pork with tapioca starch and water.
- Homemade dough is always better than store-bought. Homemade dough creates a fresher dumpling that holds in the flavors of the filling better than a thin store-bought wrapper. Homemade dough is also made with only 3 pantry essential ingredients and is incredibly simple to make at home. You can find my homemade dumpling dough recipe here.
- Pleat tightly! Make sure to pinch the tops of the dumplings tightly so there aren’t any holes that can leak out the filling. Any holes could lead to your pork potstickers exploding.
- Make sure the lid properly fits the pan. This will ensure the tops of the dumplings steam and cook properly.
- Cook off the remaining water before removing the dumplings. This is important! The pork and cabbage dumplings will stick to the pan if there is any water left. Once you cook the remaining water off the dumplings should lift easily from the pan.
🥡 Storage Instructions
You can store these cooked pork and shrimp dumplings in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Alternatively, you can freeze the uncooked pork dumplings as well. Simply lay them out on a flour-coated or parchment-lined tray and freeze them for at least 4-5 hours or until frozen. Then you can place them in an airtight container or freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months. This will prevent them from sticking together when you freeze them. To reheat simply pan fry them from frozen you do not need to thaw them.
💬 Frequently Asked Q’s & A’s
This recipe for pork dumplings is made with pork, shrimp, garlic, ginger, napa cabbage, and green onions.
You can serve these pork dumplings by themselves, with a dipping sauce, with homemade chili oil, with a side of steamed veggies like bok choy or broccoli, or in a soup!
You can freeze the uncooked pork potstickers by laying them out on a flour-coated or parchment-lined tray and freeze them for at least 4-5 hours or until frozen. Then you can place them in an airtight container or freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months. This will prevent the pork and cabbage dumplings from sticking together when you freeze them. To reheat simply pan fry them from frozen you do not need to thaw them.
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👩🏻🍳 Recipe
Pork and Cabbage Dumplings
Equipment
Ingredients
Dumpling Wrappers
- Homemade dumpling wrappers or
- 1 pack store-bought dumpling wrappers
Pork and Cabbage Filling
- 2 tablespoons garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon ginger minced
- 1 ½ cup napa cabbage finely chopped
- ¼ cup green onions minced
- ½ pound shrimp peeled and de-veined chopped
- 1 lb ground pork 20% fat
- 2 teaspoons tapioca starch
- 3 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
Instructions
Make the Pork and Shrimp Filling
- Lightly sauté the vegetables. Heat vegetable oil on a large pan over medium high heat. Add the minced garlic, minced ginger, diced cabbage and minced scallions. While stirring constantly, cook for about 2 minutes until softened. Set aside to cool.
- Prepare the shrimp. Wash, peel and devein the shrimp. Then cut into small 1 cm pieces.
- Make the pork into a paste. Place the ground pork in a large bowl. Add the tapioca starch and water. Using chopsticks or a wooden spoon, stir the ingredients together for several minutes. After about a minute, the meat should become more paste-like.
- Mix together. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, salt, white pepper until combined. Add the cooled vegetables, pork and shrimp. Using a spatula or your hand, mix until combined.
Assemble
- Add filling. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of your round dumpling wrapper. Try to avoid adding too much filling. You will know if you overfilled if you cannot close your dumpling.
- For store bought wrappers, make sure to wet the edges of the dumpling wrapper with water before you begin pleating.
- For homemade wrappers, you do not have to wet the edges of the dumpling wrapper.
- Pleat dumpling. Fold the dumpling in half like a taco and pinch together in the center leaving the sides not pinched. Start pleating to the left of the center pinch and seal it to the right. Continue gathering dough and sealing pleats until you reach the end, about 4 pleats. Repeat on the right side sealing the pleats to the left with another 4 pleats to form a "V" shape.
- Repeat. Repeat with the remaining dumplings and place dumplings on a lightly floured baking tray covered with a towel or plastic wrap until ready to be cooked so they do not dry out.
Cook the Pork Dumplings
- Pan fry the dumplings. Add 3 tablespoon of vegetable oil to a medium nonstick pan and heat over medium-high heat. Add a single layer of dumplings to fill your pan. Make sure there is room between the dumplings so they don’t stick. Sear on the flat side for 2-3 minutes until the side is toasted and golden brown.
- Steam the dumplings. Next, with the lid in one hand, add ¼ cup of water or enough to cover the bottom of the pan, and immediately cover the pan to steam the dumplings for about 6 minutes. Be careful! The water will react with the oil and splatter. So work quickly.
- Cook off the remaining water before removing the dumplings. Remove the lid and cook off the remaining water for an additional 1-2 minutes. If you try to remove the dumplings too early the bottoms of the dumplings may stick to the pan.
- Serve. Transfer to a plate and enjoy!
Notes
- Juicy tender pork filling. There are two secrets to achieving this. Using high-fat content ground pork and stirring the ground pork with tapioca starch and water.
- Homemade dough is always > store-bought. Homemade dough creates a fresher dumpling that holds in the flavors of the filling better than a thin store-bought wrapper. Homemade dough is also made with only 3 pantry essential ingredients and is incredibly simple to make at home. You can find my homemade dumpling dough recipe here.
- Pleat tightly! Make sure to pinch the tops of the dumplings tightly so there aren’t any holes that can leak out the filling. Any holes could lead to your pork potstickers exploding.
- Make sure the lid properly fits the pan. This will ensure the tops of the dumplings steam and cook properly.
- Cook off the remaining water before removing the dumplings. This is important! The pork and cabbage dumplings will stick to the pan if there is any water left. Once you cook the remaining water off the dumplings should lift easily from the pan.
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