I don’t know why it took me so long to make this as it combines the only two things I ever want when I’m sick: chicken noodle and wonton soup. The thing is, when you’re sick, you absolutely do not want to cook anything. (Also sometimes when we’re well, to be completely honest. Shh, don’t tell anyone.) And so for a couple nights, we picked up a decent chicken noodle soup in the neighborhood, but when we tired of that, ordered wonton soup instead. It’s usually a disappointment. Sometimes it seems like a quart of bland broth with three floating pockets in it, not the most filling meal. Plus, it’s off the menu for anyone who doesn’t eat pork or shrimp. But this one was not; it was chicken wontons in chicken broth and it was exceptional, the happiest mashup of the two wonderful things.
Had the delivery not come an hour later, forcing me to — gasp! — scramble some food together for the kids anyway, I probably would have never made this. But as I was enjoying my soup, I realized that this would be so ridiculously easy to hack, it might even be done before it arrived next time.
I did make it as soup here, but I also need to tell you that my favorite way to eat wontons when we’re not sniffling and sneezing is Sichuan-style, in chili oil with soy and garlic. Slippery, hot, salty and savory at once, there’s almost no going back after trying them once. This recipe from Fuschia Dunlop seems as straightforward as possible; I’d start with the sauce here if making them for the first time.
* Traditionally, I begin each year on Smitten Kitchen with a soup or stew. Here are a few from previous years: Chicken Chili (2016) My Ultimate Chicken Noodle Soup (2015), Chicken Pho (2014) Carrot Soup with Tahini and Crispy Chickpeas (2013) Carrot Soup with Miso and Sesame (2012), Mushroom and Farro Soup (2011), Black Bean Soup with Toasted Cumin Seed Crema (2010) and Balthazar’s Cream of Mushroom Soup (2007)
Previously
One year ago: Chicken Chili
Two years ago: My Ultimate Chicken Noodle Soup
Three years ago: Parmesan Broth with Kale and White Beans
Four years ago: Carrot Soup with Tahini and Crisped Chickpeas
Five years ago: Carrot Soup with Miso and Sesame
Six years ago: Chard and White Bean Stew
Seven years ago: Southwestern Pulled Brisket
Eight years ago: Potato and Artichoke Tortilla
Nine years ago: Viennese Cucumber Salad and Lemon Bars
Ten! years ago: Really Simple Homemade Pizza
And for the other side of the world:
Six Months Ago: Peaches and Cream Bunny Cake
1.5 Years Ago: Green Beans with Almond Pesto
2.5 Years Ago: Blue and Red Berry Ricotta Galettes
3.5 Years Ago: Slow and Low Dry-Rub Oven Chicken
4.5 Years Ago: Flag Cake
Chicken Wonton Soup
As will happen, my 12-ounce package of wonton wrappers contained 50 but 1 pound of meat made 58 wontons. What’s a recipe writer to do? Do we buy extra wonton wrappers (you can freeze the rest)? Do we write a recipe for 3/4 pound of ground meat, not exactly standard package size? I went with the latter as even with 6 wontons per bowl of soup, you’ll have extra. (You can freeze these too until needed.)
I include ingredients to “doctor up” storebought stock with ginger, garlic and scallions but I need to be completely honest here: you can probably skip it too. The wontons have the real flavor here, and a little dash of soy, toasted sesame oil and fistful of scallions go a long way at the end to making this an easy weeknight soup, yes, even with that wonton folding.
- 3/4 pound ground chicken
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
- 3 tablespoons minced garlic chives, regular chives or scallions
- Ground white pepper, to taste
- 50 wonton wrappers (about 12 ounces), thawed if frozen, thinnest ones you can find
- Cornstarch, to prevent sticking
- 8 cups prepared chicken stock or broth, storebought or homemade
- A 3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
- 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 bundle scallions, to be used here and to finish
- Soy sauce or salt, to taste
- 3 ounces baby spinach leaves (a few handfuls)
- Toasted sesame oil and soy sauce, to taste
Wontons
Broth
To finish
Form your wontons: Place a few wontons wrappers on your counter. Cover the remaining ones with a piece of plastic wrap. Place 1 heaped teaspoon (from a measuring spoon set) in the center. Use your fingers dipped in water to dampen the edges. Fold one corner diagonally across to the other, pressing air out as you seal it shut. Then, bring the two corners on the wide side of the triangle down below it and use a dab of water to seal them shut. You’re not trying to pull the corners across the belly, but pointing downward. Lightly sprinkle a big plate with cornstarch and place form wontons on it. Repeat with remaining wontons. I found that after I’d made a couple and got the hang of it, I could lay out 6 at a time and get each batch of 6 done in 2 minutes, meaning that this process took me about 20 minutes total.
Fix up your stock (optional): While you’re forming wontons, should you want to enhance your stock (see note up top first), chop the white and light green parts of your scallions into 1/2- to 1-inch segments. Cut dark green tops into thin slivers and save for garnish later. Place stock in 3 to 4-quart pot with sliced ginger, the white and light green scallions you’ve just chopped, garlic and soy sauce or salt, as needed, to season. Simmer them together for 20 minutes while you make the wontons, then strain out the ginger, scallions and garlic.
Cook the wontons: Once your wontons are formed, you can cook them right in the simmering broth or you can do so in simmering water — the latter is better so that the cornstarch on the wrappers doesn’t make the soup cloudy. Boil wontons for 3 minutes to cook them inside; this is really all it takes, but if you’re nervous, cut one in half to make sure.
To finish soup: Add spinach to simmering broth and let cook for one minute, until softened. Add cooked wontons to broth and let them warm through again for 30 seconds. Ladle wontons and soup into bowls. I used about 1 1/4 cups broth and 6 wontons per serving. Drizzle each dish with a little toasted sesame oil, a bit of soy sauce (if desired) and scatter with reserved dark green scallion tops. Dig in.
Do ahead: Wontons can be formed and refrigerated for a day, or frozen for a month or longer.
I love homemade wontons! I usually make them with a mix of ground pork and shrimp but will give these a try. I prefer the extra thin wrappers, more delicate and slippery than their chewier counterparts.
Poor little bird’s wing got clipped! Honestly, there is nothing worse than seeing your child in any sort of pain. Happy to hear she’s pretty much recovered – hopefully you’ll be fine soon again. It would probably take me months.
It’s so true about wontons always being filled with pork or shrimp. Twenty (!) years ago, Ollie’s on the UWS did a vegetarian wonton. I have never seen once since, and it looks like it doesn’t exist anymore.
I still haven’t recovered from Ollie’s changing their otherworldly vegetarian dumpling recipe in, like, 2002 or 2003. Geez, I sound like An Old.
Used this as a jumping off point. Used chicken better than bullion rather than chicken broth and still made for a good broth, added some chopped bok choy the last 2-3 minutes of cooking the broth, and used Trader Joe’s frozen shrimp gyoza instead of making the wontons. Yummy and easy! I pan fried the gyoza, put 4 in each bowl and then spooned soup over them but I think I could’ve just cooked them in the soup and saved myself a pan.
I have little substantive to say here, but I wanted to give a shoutout to the absolute PROFUSION of scallions in your bowl. Woman after my own heart: carpet that stock with little green circles of love. Best wishes for a new year filled with healthy wontoning!
Yum! What would you suggest to vegetarian-ize this recipe?
Not quite sure here, but it sounds like everyone would like a vegetarian wonton soup next. On it!
Would love to see a veg version! For something super easy and lazy, could try replacing the chicken broth with veg stock and the chicken with crumbled tofu, but a tofu/mushroom/vegetable combo would probably be tastier.
Yes!!! Would love a vegetarian one!
Yes please! Maybe some mushrooms and scallions and some roasted Brussels?
Oh YESSSS. Mushrooms and Brussels sprouts are super good together!
Hot Thai Kitchen does a glorious mushroom wonton soup. Check out Pailin on YouTube or http://www.hot-thai-kitchen.com Between HTK and SK I am cooking something yummy all the time!
As luck would have it, I just saw this recipe for bok choy wontons. Haven’t tried them, but it could be a good option
http://www.chowhound.com/recipes/spicy-miso-soup-with-bok-choy-wontons-29388
Yes, please!
This isn’t really a wonton, but filling the wrappers up with a mix of scrambled egg and grated/dried zucchini with seasoning is pretty good.
Yeah!
Yes yes yes! Please and thank you!
I love this edamame dumpling recipe from Sara forte for a veggie option: https://www.loveandlemons.com/edamame-dumplings/
Hi there! The way we make any kind of dumpling vegetarian in my family (we’re Chinese!) is to use firm crumbled tofu OR glass noodles to pump up the volume. I’d also recommend putting in some shredded cabbage (normal cabbage or siu choy can work as well as rehyrated and finely diced shiitake mushrooms and finely shredded carrots. Rehydrated wood ear mushrooms are always a good bet, too. Season it generously, and the perk of not using raw meat is that you can just take a little bite to see whether or not it’s something you think will work well.
I’d also add the ‘broth’ from the rehydrated mushrooms to your vegetable stock – any sort of mushroom broth really kicks up the flavour. I always like a bit of kelp in my broth too.
I’m not vegetarian, but I can definitely say that vegetarian dumplings can be just as good. :) Hope that helps you fiddle with a recipe until Deb figures out her own!
Thank you for your comment and recommendation. And hopefully Deb comes up with options too ! I can’t wait to try this chicken version myself, but our 8 year old vegetarian son will be sad to miss out.
My boyfriend is a vegetarian, and has never been able to enjoy wonton soup (which is one of my favorite things ever). Do you have any suggestions on what to put inside the wontons to make them vegetarian? Another caveat- he also does not like mushrooms. Your recipes are wonderful and I can usually find simple ways to tweak them to fit his dietary restrictions, but this one is beyond me! Thank you!
And I think because you start the year with a soup or a stew, I now do too. This year’s was your mushroom-farro soup, using up the last of the beef and chicken stock in the fridge, and the end of the Christmas roast.
This is my jam… extra wonton wrappers: slice them up and fry them up and use them as a topping :) also extra delicious atop equally comforting congee
Would you freeze the extra wontons cooked, raw or either? I can’t wait to make this!
I’m freezing them uncooked because I don’t want to cook them twice and for them to end up overcooked. Overcooked chicken = the worst.
To this end, I by accident left the wontons in the pot for closer to 5 minutes in stead of your recommended 3. MISTAKE! MISTAKE! I should have used a timer (3 minutes goes by quickly!) Everything was still delicious but the chicken in the wontons were overcooked. Oopsy.
I live in France and we can’t buy wonton wrappers near to where I live. Do you know if it’s possible to make them at home? Thank you.
I haven’t tried it but I hear it’s really easy to make them; the trick would be getting the dough thin enough. (Here’s a recipe that’s well-rated.)
Very easy! My husband came back with spring rolls wrappers so I had to make my own (my heart was set on soup for lunch!). While easy to make, it was time consuming and I found I got rolling fatigue. It also made A LOT.
Completely doable if you have some extra time. I was set on making this, but my store didn’t have wrappers. I used the recipe from the link Deb posted and rolled out the wrappers as I needed them with a pasta machine. It took an hour in total from ball of dough and bowl of chicken filling to when I completed the wontons. Plus side was that since I knew the recipe would make enough dough, I used a whole pound of chicken.
hmm- maybe a use for my pasta roller. I was going to make the dough myself as i have trouble finding wrappers thin enough- and when you mentioned that as well somehow a light bulb went off in my head about my pasta roller. thanks
For a mushroom-free vegetarian wonton filling, I’d try fresh favas, peas, daikon, pea sprouts, bok choi, green onions, leeks, tofu, and cilantro, probably not all at once.
Just what the doctor ordered. I have been craving nothing but soup so far this year, and it seems like everyone around here (DC) spent part of the holiday break sick in bed!
Deb, I love reading your blog but have never commented. However, since the subject is wontons–near and dear to my heart–I thought I would chime in. For veg wontons, my family uses a combination of cooked potato, mushrooms (shitake or any dried mushroom is great here), and lots of scallions, ginger and garlic. (Although I know this doesn’t help with the mushroom-adverse.) We also put in finely shredded napa cabbage in both meat and meat-free versions. (Napa cabbage is also what we use to line the steamer basket if we steam these instead of boiling.) The water from soaking the mushrooms also helps flavor the broth.
Also, I recommend having a damp cloth/paper towel or cling wrap handy during wonton wrapping to cover your freshly made wontons. They have a tendency to dry out and become brittle at the edges, especially if you’re a slow wrapper. And if you’re freezing them, it’s best to freeze them uncooked on a sheet (like cookie dough) and then put them into a bag for long-term storage.
And lastly, for leftover filling, we cook it and use it in fried rice or cook it as a patty and top it with a fried egg. For leftover wrappers, sprinkling with sugar and sometimes cinnamon, then baking was always a special treat. Hope this helps!
My favorite Chinese restaurant in Portland OR does a vegan potsticker that’s filled with a ground mix of mushrooms and cabbage – it so closely resembles ground meat that the first time I had them I thought they’d given me the pork version by accident! I think the filling would be excellent in a wonton.
Which restaurant in Portland? We’re always looking for good Asian food recommendations!
Yes, please share your PDX restaurant recommendations!
Great advice! I do the same with my leftover filling. Leftover pork w/ mushroom & cabbage from dumplings makes stir-fry the next day!
I might have to try this soup with a little miso paste in the broth to add some savory goodness.
This sounds delicious… anything specific you’d do to make it freezable for lunches?
To freeze, spread them out on a tray you’ve sprinkled with cornstarch. Freeze them, bag them once they’re solid. I haven’t boiled them from frozen yet but imagine it would only take 1 to 2 minutes longer.
I make won tons and freeze them on a regular basis. I make them the way mom made them, with seasoned pork sausage, a bit of chopped up won bok cabbage, minced garlic, ginger, and green onions. I flavor with a bit of oyster sauce (a big name Asian store carries a vegetarian sauce) & red pepper flakes. Freeze on a tray, pop them in a ziploc bag, & when time to cook, boil for up to 6 minutes. My husband soaks dried mushrooms in warm water and star anise in another warm water bowl, chops up the ‘shrooms when softened (& ditch the star anise after soaking while the won tons are cooking), then adds them to the final broth to eat. He makes a concoction of chicken, beef and water to boil the won tons in, then we dump in the mushrooms & the soaking waters. Toss in more green onions and won bok, and you have a meal! I also season later with soy and rice win vinegar.
Thanks! I have made this soup a few times and love it. Last time I doubled up and froze a batch of wontons, but wasn’t sure how to cook them this weekend. Love that I can cook them straight from frozen with just an extra few minutes.
Looks delicious! Deb, if you enjoy Fuschia Dunlop’s Sichuan food you have to go to Bar Shu when you next go to London (book tour?!). She’s the genius behind an incredible menu. We eat there every single time we’re in the Big Smoke, & often more than once.
I often find wonton soup a little bland, but this looks very flavorful with the ginger and toasted sesame oil in the filling and pimped-up broth. Any of your previous soups that I made have been fantastic. Garlic soup, cheddar-broccoli and black bean-pumpkin make frequent visits to my kitchen. Thank you.
This looks so delicious!!! Do you think it could be made as wonton meatballs… no wrapper? Trying to be gluten free…
I was thinking that might be fun, but I’d probably start with the formula here and use these seasonings instead. It has breadcrumbs in it, important for softness. You could use GF breadcrumbs.
Ground up rolled oats (pure certified GF if it’s important) are a perfect gluten-free substitute for the breadcrumbs in meatballs, too. Cheaper than buying GF crumbs!
I think so. I’ve used a bittman recipe for ‘broken wonton soup’ that is meatballs and then the wonton wrappers separate in the broth. I think simmering the meatballs in the broth sans the wonton wrappers would be delicious.
Definitely! I’m Chinese and my mom always eyeballs the recipe when she makes wontons. Sometimes we end up with extra wrappers and sometimes with extra filling. When we have extra filling, she’ll drop the wonton meatballs into the broth and cook them with the rest of the wontons.
Looks like Jessica G has suggested the same thing down below.
I bet Julia Moskin’s scallion/turkey meatballs from the Times site would also work in soup: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014039-scallion-meatballs-with-soy-ginger-glaze?action=click&module=Recipebox®ion=all&pgType=recipebox&rank=3.
I’ve never made wontons and was recently diagnosed with an allergy to wheat – can you not make/get rice-based wonton wrappers?
Vegan/vegetarian potstickers should have the filling cooked before forming the wontons for best results. I’m a classic napa cabbage/carrots/chive girl but a mashed soft tofu with spinach, ginger, and toasted sesame oil works as well. The soft tofu mixture gives it a little body instead of ground meat or egg.
I have found that it’s easier and better to add some raw spinach to individual soup bowls (like you do with pho) and pour the soup over it. The heat will wilt the spinach perfectly and it will be texturally better. Plus, spinach gets sort of tough and turns black in leftover soup so its not nearly as appetizing. Just a thought!
Looks amazing, I so want to try this.
My grocery was out of fresh ginger….do you think I could use ground ginger or would you recommend just omitting the ginger?
Thank you!!
Hi, I live in Japan. I would just omit the ginger, but powdered ginger wouldn’t be so wrong. But the taste would be a bit different. Add more onion… or garlic.
When I make wonton soup and I have more filling than I have wrappers, I make the extra filling into tiny meatballs and just poach them in the broth. It’s a great addition to the soup.
I love making wontons…once you make these instead of putting them in soup you can also fry them in hot oil, drain and serve with hot mustard and other condiments…yum, great appetizer.
This is so very close to my wonton/broth combo, except I have always used minced mushrooms (shiitake in the broth is always a winner here, too), or soft tofu mashed to resemble ground meat. Why I haven’t tried Actual Meat before, I can’t give a good reason.
Since I find wonton-making is fiddly and tedious, I freeze them in meal-sized batches, and cook them in the broth straight from the freezer for 10-minute hot lunches in the middle of winter (as you say, it clouds the broth, but it’s also only using one pot, which outweighs aesthetic considerations).
OMG! I’m a soup person (if there isn’t such a thing, then everything I know is a lie!). I’m sooo excited about this recipe. Now I just have to figure out a way to make it given I’ve 2 minions running around.
Thanks for this!
So does Deb! Where there’s a will……
Me too, and I almost never cook because of them! I did this one in stages – mixed the filling when they were in bed Friday night, then the next day watched for and seized a rare peaceful play time to work on making the wontons. They were intrigued for about 5 minutes and my older (6 yrs) actually folded one before getting bored, but they gave me enough time to make the wontons! The whole process took about 30 hours, but worth it, LOL!
This was stellar! A sign of a good meal is when my kids (before they are even finished eating) will ask for more. It was much needed on our -8 degree day here in Denver too.
I just made this soup for dinner. I always have homemade poultry broth in the freezer, so everything was a breeze. For those who are skiddish about making a soup with store bought stock, I would actually recommend it for this recipe. My homemade stock is on the rich side and I actually diluted it a bit to reach the right balance for the wonton soup. The wontons were a breeze to make (1st time!). I used 1 lb of ground chicken and it made ~40 wontons. I froze the extra wrappers, as well as some of the wontons that we won’t eat in the next few days.
To the broth, I added spinach, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, baby corn, some silken tofu, and chiles to spice it up. Delicious. I haven’t had wontons in years bc I have a gnarly shrimp allergy. Next time I am going to saute some cabbage and add it to the chicken filling, and float some steamed bok choy into the finished product. Thanks for the inspo, as always.
I make wontons or potstickers pretty often especially in winter, storing them in the freezer to have readily in hand. Every time the filling is different as I grab what I have available in my pantry. I also into the extra filling issue. What I’ve found is the leftover filling without wrappers to fill serves well in fried rice. I use the leftover filling the same day or next day to make a batch of fried rice and call it a day.
This looks perfect.
Oh, man! That looks awesome! Asian foods are generally adventures I have whilst dining out because we have a household member with a vicious (like, get-out-the-outrageously-expensive-epi-pen vicious) ginger allergy. I am open to any/all suggestions for a suitable replacement for ginger (which, in a cruel twist of fate, is one of my single favorite flavors), and while coriander sometimes does it, it might not work here.
You might try finger root. It’s another rhizome that is usually sold in Asian grocery stores in jars in a brine. Used for a few Thai dishes. It has a sort of gingery flavor, but I don’t know if the two are related. Definitely consult your allergist before offering it to your family member. I will try to find the Thai name for you to make it easier to locate.
Okay, finger root is called Grachai in Thai. I had a thought while I was looking it up. Ginger has a warming spiciness. Other things with a similar warming quality are white pepper and clove, but it would gave to be the tiniest pinch of ground clove ever or it might be overwhelming. I put white pepper in pretty much everything I can that’s Asian or Asian-inspired. Good luck!
Horseradish?
I always want more wontons than they give you in a restaurant here in Japan. There are lots of noodles and a few wontons. I’d rather have less noodles and more wontons. Making just a good homemade chicken broth with lots and lots of wontons would be heaven. Even 6 is not enough!! Shame on me!!
You mention Sichuan wontons. Could I add this link to homemade Sichuan wontons from The Mala Project – Cooking Chinese food in America?
http://themalaproject.com/chengdu-challenge-15-dumplings-red-oil-zhong-shui-jiao/
This is not my blog and I am no relation to anyone writing the blog, nor do I know them. The recipes are sooo good and authentic. Also, there is a restaurant with a similar name in New York but The Mala Project Blog came first!
I am making this tonight! This sounds so delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
This is a glorious soup — and I completely agree with you about the wonton soup you get in the chinese restaurants — 3 measly dumplings and a ton of broth. I’m all about jazzing it up with the chili oil etc, too. The weather is turning cold tonight so this will be just the thing — and it’s been a while since I’ve played with wonton skins! Fun!
My non-pork eating daughter has been disappointed to lose wonton soup from her menu options so I can’t wait to show this to her. Two questions: When I choose print, it’s picking up all the text from the beginning of your post. Shouldn’t it just print the recipe and recipe text? Also, I have always wondered what “And for the other side of the world” refers to. Happy New Year!
it’s so people cooking seasonally can get some good timely recipes too :) for example, it’s summer in australia now so they may not exactly be craving hot soup. or, depending on the recipe they may not currently have access to those ingredients – like i don’t see peaches in winter or a variety of squash in summer here in boston. cool huh? (that section just always seems to make me jealous year round though, haha! grass is always greener!)
LOL!! I am ‘the other side of the world’ (Australia) and am currently drooling over this soup. It’s too hot to make/enjoy it but that doesn’t stop the ‘grass is greener’ reaction. Nice to know it happens to those of you at the top end of the earth :-)
lol yes, you are totally not alone! i can’t stand warm weather but i miss fruit! eating only apples for months gets so boring. i could definitely go for some berries or stone fruit talked about in the “other side of the world” recipes in this post :)
Hi! First time posting long time reader and maker of your recipes. I want to to make this sooo bad but this is my son’s favorite thing, and he is at the base doing Marine things until tomorrow. I work tomorrow and really want this tonight. Feeling guilty and now hungry, not good. Should I keep soup and wantons separate or together in fridge overnight? I plan to make double so there is something left for my son.
I have not made Deb’s recipe, but from past experience, separated is the way to go. You can doctor up the broth and do all the folding, but don’t put the wontons into the broth until you are ready to eat.
(Or, more precisely: only put as many into the broth as you are going to eat now. Leave the rest uncooked until the next meal.)
Thanks for sharing, perfect timing I have a terrible head cold an can’t wait to try this.
This looks amazing!
Is it possible to post a short video of the wonton folding/filling instructions? My brain has a hard time converting written instructions into actual actions. Thanks!
Try this video link. 5 different ways to wrap wontons.
Oops! (Fail)
http://hot-thai-kitchen.com/5-ways-to-wrap-wontons/
Thanks Suze
I cannot wait to try this – two favorites cooked together!
I am enjoying a bowl of this soup as I write this. It is the perfect cold weather comfort food, plus I have a sinus infection and the warmth of the soup and spices are just what the doctor ordered.
I used egg roll wrappers because my grocery didn’t have wonton wrappers, and aside from being a little too large (extra pastry) I think they work really well!
Thank you for posting- this was fantastic.
Yum. Can’t wait to try these. what’s the prep for wontons Sichuan-style, in chili oil with soy and garlic?
I pretty much never cook because I have a 4 and 6 year old, work full time, and live in a house of very picky eaters. I made this purely for myself because the thought of it made me happy. It did not disappoint. Total comfort food on this snowy day.
I’m wondering if the soup itself would freeze? It made a lot and I might be the only one who eats it. If not, about how long would you keep it in the fridge? Thank you for this great and fun recipe!
Made these for lunch today. What a success!!! All members of the family ate them without any complaints! This has been put on the do again list.
THANK YOU!! I’ve been thinking about wonton soup literally for years. The last time I had any was in 2004, before I became Muslim. Of course I know I could make it, and could have searched out a recipe, but sometimes you need someone to figure it out for you and just send an email in the middle of the night. Thank you, Deb.
I love the freeze-ahead idea. Since I always have stock in the freezer, this means I can have soup in the time it takes to boil the broth and cut up some green onions. (We don’t say scallions in Minnesota.)
Can’t wait to try this!
Made this for lunch today, and it’s super-delicious! I wound up cooking up the leftover filling and plan to use it for filling for a lettuce wrap. Perfecto!
Thank you for all the soup ideas. I am new to your site and I appreciate knowing that on the New Year you post a soup. We love soups especially in January in Maine! I am enjoying your blog very much. Thanks again.
If I could come to your house (not that far away) and eat this soup right now, I would be happy! I can smell the deliciousness.
I feel like garbage and this looks soooo good. Unfortunately, the roads to the grocery store are covered in ice right now, so I will have to make do with leftover Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup and beer instead. This is going on my list, though!
We love wonton soup at our house! Making this for my family very soon. And seriously, could little Anna possibly be more adorable?? I don’t think so!! So happy to hear that she has made a full recovery and is feeling better!
I am so going to make this. I’m thinking about those small slivers of roast/BBQ pork that are sometimes in store-bought wonton soup – any suggestions for that?
Also, do you think this could be made with ground pork instead of chicken? Thanks!
This was amazing. Filling and comfort food worthy but still light if that makes sense?
Do you know if it is possible to buy gluten free wonton skins? this recipe looks great, but I have several gluten free people in my family and would love to be able to make this for all of us.
Made this for dinner last night and loved it. I think I would purchase the thinner wonton wrappers next time. I ended up freezing quite a few wontons so will have them ready for the deep freezes over the next few months. Thanks!
I made this recipe exactly as instructed except used 1lb ground chicken instead of ¾ lb (that’s the size my grocery sells it) so I just upped the seasonings a bit. I’m a total wonton virgin so I was nervous–followed these instructions and they turned out perfect! I feel like I learned a new life skill for 2017! I can’t believe I’ve never made these before–so easy and rewarding! (Does that sound weird? It’s exactly how I felt after scooping out the last little bugger.) This recipe is a keeper. Thanks, Deb!
Looks delicious. I have ground turkey at home now, can I sub that for the chicken? Thanks!
I don’t see why not.
I did. I thought the turkey was a bit dry, but the seasonings were good so it was fine. Though next time I will use chicken to see if I can notice a big difference.
Ahh just made this and it’s so great! Used sesame chili oil in the wontons instead of toasted to give it a little heat and tossed some baby bok choy and mushrooms into the broth (and ginger slices. Hah I was so confused when your instructions were to strain them out bc biting into slices of ginger in soup is the best!). I’m glad my grocery does ground chicken in the meat department so didn’t have to deal with extras from a package lol.
I adore wontons! Miss 11 makes THE best prawn and ginger wontons and she would love this soup.
Made this tonight because we figured it would be really good on a cold cold night…..in SW Florida. (now laugh and make faces all you want because we are shivering in 46 degrees, but compare this your teens up north). This was definately the right thought and the right soup! So so good! Paired it with a stir fry of garlic broccoli & cauliflower and some really strong kimchi. Feeling warmer now ;-)
Made it tonight- I will definitely be adding it to my regular rotation!
I made this for dinner tonight and we loved it! I’ve never tried making wontons and it turned out to be so easy – and now that I’ve done it, I’m excited to try various twists on this recipe! Thank you!
This was great! Very easy. I used home-made stock because that’s what I had. Too bad I forgot to add the spinach at the end. The kids loved it too.
Made this but used pork instead of ground chicken…. So good…. Omg…. Thank you! Once u get the first won tons made u get used to it and what works. I dried my hands in between wrapping them as too much water seemed to break the wrappers!
I added a tablespoon of Sambal Olek to the filling because we like spice here… And this soup is FANTASTIC!!! It will definitely be in regular rotation. YUM!!!
This isn’t a comment at all about your recipe (it looks delish!). Had to tell you about a lovely book that we read with the kids for the first time last night. Chicken Soup Chicken Soup – by Pamela Mayer. It’s about a little girl that has a Jewish grandmother that makes kreplach and a Chinese grandmother that makes wontons. Made me laugh this morning when I saw your recipe. :)
I had everything, but wonton wrappers, so made the chicken into mini-meatballs. While it wasn’t as much fun as wonton soup, it came together fast, and was incredibly delicious and warming. thanks for the great recipe! I can’t wait to make it again, per the directions
Brilliant. It honestly didn’t occur to me to make the filling into meatballs! That will make this a more common rotation for me!
A friend makes “exploded wonton soup.” She makes small meatballs and throws in sliced up wonton wrappers or noodles. You can throw in a few completed wontons for effect.
Absolutely wonderful and so easy! I used extra ginger and spice and found that even store bought broth tasted delightful! thank you!
Hello! Can Deb or someone else “in the know” tell me where in the grocery store I’d find wonton wrappers? I live in a suburban area with a couple of basic grocery stores.
Try the organic section, where tofu and such is. That is usually where they are in stores around here.
The wrappers are in the produce department at my grocery stores. Usually with the Oriental produce items.
Agreed, although my Whole Foods had a section devoted to tofu and other products — far from produce.
I found them frozen in the asian freezer section by the bags of potstickers!
I found wonton wrappers on the organic food aisle, right next to fresh tofu and local eggs.
Excellent – and the dumplings were so simple to make. We had friends over on a snowy winter day and this was the perfect winter meal. We made homemade chicken broth, but other than that followed the recipe. Served with chili flake (we like our soups spicy) and we were good to go. A keeper!
I made a double-batch of these yesterday! Along with a big pot of soup. Based on turkey necks, as the store was out of chicken bones. Wow, it’s SO good. Nicely and strongly flavoured, so I didn’t bother to put ginger in the soup. Time consuming, but not difficult at all. Just what my entire sick and jet-lagged family needs! Thanks :)
Made my husband a turkey burger for lunch with the leftovers. Loved that just as much as having wontons in the freezer!!
Oh yum!!! This looks fabulous!! I would definitely assemble a ton of wontons to freeze for a later use. Forming the little wonton dumplings is always the most time consuming part of recipes like this. If that part of the process is out of the way, this soup becomes super fast and easy for a weeknight!!! Fast and easy weeknight meals are definitely something I can’t get enough of! :)
Successfully accomplished and fed to crazy kids (and their Mom) before a full evening of freezing cold sports practice and corresponding car pool! Thanks are in order as usual, Deb. :)
Yum! Surprisingly quick, even for a wonton rookie. Only change I’d make next time is to spice up the filling. The fresh ginger really popped, but my taste buds and sinuses craved a little make-my-nose-run heat. I will try the Sambal Oelek someone else recommended, red pepper flakes or minced hot pepper, next time. Also, I left the soup simmering on the stove for my husband and the wontons got overly soggy and started to fall apart. Next time I will add only as many wontons as will be served straight away, and may store leftovers separately as well.
This was delicious! Glad I did doctor up the broth – the kick from a little extra ginger was tasty (I also love all things ginger). I made the dumplings late Sunday night, so this was a super simple dinner to toss together after work Monday. The dumplings held up just fine over night plus a day.
This was delicious. I wanted to make a version I could take for lunch, so I cooked the won tons for 2 1/2 mins before refrigerating them. At work I threw 7 won tons and the broth into the microwave until hot. It turned out perfectly, and I had to physically fight hungry co-workers off with a stick. Thanks as always, Deb.
Made this last night for dinner, so good! It was the perfect cold weather dinner. Thanks for making this so approachable. I never thought I’d give making my own wontons a try, but it was really easy and so delicious! This will be a regular dinner for us for sure.
Your description of takeout wonton soup reminded me of the new Ghostbusters movie, with Melissa McCarthy’s character always frustrated with the delivery guy who brings her a quart of soup with a single wonton in it! In the end, after the Ghostbusters save the city, he brings her a container packed full of wontons–and she’s like, “I just want a NORMAL amount of wontons!” I loved that.
Also, fun fact: the building where the Ghostbusters have their office is actually my favorite shabu-shabu restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown. :D
Making individual wontons like this isn’t the kind of thing I usually think of as quick and easy when I’m sick, but this doesn’t sound too bad.
To print this recipe requires 4 pages. Is that a glitch? I would rather not have to print anything except the recipe itself. I am using Safari on an iMac if that matters.
There’s a print icon under “Do More” — that should make it shorter. I often cut and paste into Word.
It’s a glitch! Or a Deb Error. I forgot to put the printing brackets in. Now fixed. Sorry about that.
I thought I’d make this, but Whole Foods was out of spinach and wonton wrappers. I wonder if everyone was making this. (Also, inconveniently, that location only sells pre-packaged pounds of ground chicken — I’ll have to figure out how to use an extra quarter pound.)
Has anyone made the wontons spicy yet? I want to but I’m unsure how much sambal oelek/chili flakes to add.
See Lucky#7’s comment above.
Dang, I swear I read all the comments first! Oh well, thanks!
I made this last night and it was delicious. Even my picky three year old ate it which says a lot. I would like to add that depending on the size of your won ton wrappers you may need to put a bit less filling. Our won ton wrappers only held a heaping tsp of filling comfortably. Regardless, this soup is a keeper and will be on repeat in our household.
“I found the wonton soup recipe on Serious Eats to be a useful reference in making this, although my recipe is intended to be quick, lazy and wildly less authentic.”
As I was reading the post I thought, didn’t Kenji do a wonton soup? Why haven’t I ever made that one? Then I went to the Serious Eats page and got a reminder; Any recipe that starts with bone blanching is too complicated for my life right now.
Onto the questions:
I tend not to care for ground chicken. Could I sub in finely pulled breast or do you think the three minutes here would be enough to dry out the already cooked chicken?
Second: I have some kombu in the pantry, do you think I’d get anything out of tossing some of it in for the 20 minute simmer or will it need a longer soak?
I would not start with cooked chicken breast because it will definitely end up overcooked and nobody wants that. Haven’t worked with kombu but if you like the flavor, no reason not to give it a try here.
OMG this looks ah-mazing. I love how you used this scallion garnish with abandon. I can’t believe how easy these wontons are to make!
This was great! I had ground turkey in the house so I used that instead of chicken and the wontons were delicious. I was nervous but they all held together just fine.
I am not one to comment on posts, but I made this last night and just had to say how great this soup/recipe was! I’ve never made wontons so was scared when making them that they were going to open up and spill their guts when I boiled them. I am happy to report I had no such problems and the flavor was amazing. Thank you for this! I can’t wait to try out different fillings.
It was a wise decision to double the wontons and freeze half for later when I made this last night. Folding all those cute wontons isn’t such a chore when you have something to sip on :) When I followed directions for the broth, I also threw in a handful of shitake and oyster mushrooms. Undeniably delicious.
Hi Deb, this looks fantastic. Thoughts on using cooked, finely shredded chicken in the filling? I’m a little nervous about the raw filling. Love the site! Thanks!
I’ve seen it done but it always tastes a bit dry to me because it’s cooked twice. Keep in mind that you can always (and should!) pull a wonton out at 3 minutes of simmering and cut into it to be certain it’s cooked before pulling the rest.
I love this idea! I’ve made a few things with wontons, but never soup. I’m going to try this very soon.
Wontons are always my favorite, i’m going to try this tonight , i’m sure my kids will love it, this really looks delicious and healthy, thanks for posting!
I made this over the weekend, and my husband and I both thought it was fantastic! We ate half on Sunday and froze the rest (which we had last night). We both have big appetites, and each serving was a filling meal. Best part is that it didn’t have a giant ingredient list, like many wonton recipes do. I’m lazy and I didn’t both to strain out the ginger, garlic and scallions from the stock. I just chopped up everything smaller, so we didn’t get a giant piece of garlic in a bite. I’m going to make it again this weekend, but this time will make a double batch so I can have more to freeze for later.
Any recommendation on a cooking time for the wontons I froze last week after making a batch? Or should I let them thaw first?
I have been craving these for a few days since I saw the Facebook post, and finally found the time to make them. WOW! I rarely eat meat but this was worth it. This was my first experience wrapping wontons (I’ve made ravioli out of the wrappers but never wrapped)I probably wrapped about 40 wontons before I figured out how to do it right, but they all held together anyway, so no problem there! It did take way longer than getting take out, but next time I’m pretty sure I can whip them up in half the time. And I would LOVE to see a vegetarian version!
I just posted a vegetarian version I made today . . . hope it’s helpful!
Not a single quote from the new Ghostbuster’s movie?! Looks tasty, Deb – thank you for the recipe!
Second comment about this! I am SHOCKED we haven’t seen it yet (thus I’m not getting it) because the original is my husband’s favorite movie from childhood. Plus, I hear Kate McKinnon is awesomepants.
Oh, absolutely, my first thought was Ghostbusters! You must see it.
I made this tonight for myself and my sick boyfriend who hasn’t eaten much in the last two days. I was SO pleasantly surprised at how easy it was and how AMAZING it turned out—glad I took a chance on making the wontons. Was really nervous but I got the hang off it after folding 10 or so.
By the way, between the TWO of us, there are exactly 4 wontons leftover. Someone may have been hungry.
Our store was out of wonton wrappers, so I used a 15-count package of egg roll wrappers, cutting each into four pieces. That gave me 60 wontons, and I was able to use a full pound of ground chicken. I adjusted the seasonings for the filling to allow for the slight increase in chicken. The chicken filling is fantastic and well-flavored, making a pleasant bite into the wonton! I also didn’t have spinach, but I did have escarole, so I used half a head of that for the soup greens. Very tasty — the whole house smelled great, and I’ll be sure to make this again when I want chicken soup. I’ve got leftover wontons in the freezer for future tasty soup. Thanks, Deb!
I was craving comfort food and despite being the middle of August, I made this recipe. I regret nothing. I ran out of wonton wrappers and ended up with half wonton, half meatball soup. So delicious. Thank you Deb!!!
Hi Deb! I made this recipe last night and LOVED IT! My little wontons were not as beautiful as yours but you were right about how long it took to make all 50. That encourages me to do this again with my own riffs. Thanks for the recipe! Can’t wait for your new book!!
This was delicious! My 8-year-old daughter and I both love wonton soup but have never tried making it at home. This was our inspiration and we enjoyed assembling the wontons together. It came out fantastic. Store was out of baby spinach so we added some thinly sliced cabbage. Even as leftovers, I thought it was great. Thank you!
Yum. Seriously good soup, I have been adding a few drops of fire oil to the soup. Is winter ever going to end?
That is calling to me right now. I made egg drop soup last night and added some veggies and I ate the ENTIRE pot!
This will be perfect for tonight, it’s been close to zero every night for the last little while.
Delicious! Easy! Surprisingly effective for cooking in advance, freezing, and making again from frozen!!!
This was delicious and easy to make! Instead of using the soup doctoring you suggested, I adapted from the Asian Big Bowl soup in Kosher by Design Short on Time and added 2 Tbsp soy sauce and 1 Tbsp mirin to the broth. It was great and the wontons were awesome, a real meal in a bowl for us! Thanks for sharing!
So, I may have overzealously mixed the chicken. It was pasty and quite like patè. Kinda inedible. Mix with caution. Or less haste.
I feel like I cracked a code. I love wontons and I’m shocked how easy this was. I couldn’t find white pepper and used a little Chinese 5 spice powder. I used frozen homemade stock and it needed some adjustment (salt and some siracha).
I didn’t have cornstarch and was sulking because Portland’s having a freak winter storm. The wonton wrappers seem to have a little cornstarch on them. I put some bread flour on a silicon mat and it was fine.
I am baffled by people who successfully grate ginger. I make a mess that yields no ginger. So I minced it.
Husband loved it, too.
I’ll be making variations on this for a long time.
Thanks!!!
Glad it was a hit. I have better luck grating ginger not with the finest microplane rasp but something with slightly larger holes. (I have the rasps in a few sizes, because I’m crazy.) And then I rap it against the bowl a lot so it comes off.
I have the exact same problem…I get a bunch of messy juice and zero gratings. Will have to try your tip, Deb, thanks!
Made the wonton soup a few days ago. It is fabulous. It had been a long time since I used wonton wrappers and they were so easy. As some others commented, the thinner ones work better if you can find them. Lots of ideas rolling around in my head for other uses (ravioli with short rib meat). My 20 year old daughter was home for college break so it was a great bonding time, too. She is so excited to make for her friends back at school. I just love using homemade stock in soup. It is an extra step but it is so easy and delicious. I ended up freezing some of the wontons as I did not think the soup needed that many, so have half left for another batch. I cooked my wontons in the stock because the flavor is just better. To heck with the cloudiness (and I didn’t have any). I did add some diced carrots and cabbage to add a heartiness and it was just yummy. Highly recommend. Thanks, Deb – love everything you do!
I tweaked this to make it vegetarian/vegan, and I’m writing to report that it was easily done and the recipe is wonderful!
I made two substitutions. First, I used 3/4 lb seitan (which I made according to Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s vegan Italian Sausage recipe, except formed into patties and using poultry seasoning, thyme and sage in place of Italian herbs — the link to the recipe is http://www.isachandra.com/2012/01/vegan_sausage/) instead of chicken. (I chopped up the seitan and whirled it in my food processor until it was the consistency of cooked ground meat at the beginning.) Second, in place of chicken broth I substituted broth using Better Than Bouillon’s Vegetarian No Chicken Base.
It was a huge hit among both vegetarians and omnivores. Thanks so much for the recipe!
I made this! It’s perfect for all the colds that everyone I know has come down with recently. I recommend cooking a sample of the wonton filling and tasting as you go, like Deb says, because as written, the wontons came out pretty bland. I upped all the seasonings and ended up probably doubling them.
Love this!! How would you go about pan frying for an appetizer?
I’ve never pan-fried wontons before, only potstickers, which are a little thicker. Doesn’t mean it can’t be done, but I’d be more inclined to use a different wrapper or serve them Sichuan-style, boiled and then in a chili oil mixture.
Literally just did this Saturday…pan frying them works really well! I was worried too because the wonton wrappers are thin, but I followed the instructions from 101 Easy Asian Recipes (the Lucky Peach book) and seared them for 30 seconds in enough vegetable oil to coat the pan, then poured in 1/4 cup water and covered with a lid for 4-5 minutes (don’t budge that lid during this time span!) No flipping, poke them with a fork, they’re done when they’re firm like a meatball. If they stick to the pan they aren’t done yet. So easy and yummy!
This is just the information I was looking for! Will try this tonight!
Thanks so much Deb, this came out absolutely delicious! Used vegetable stock and TVP instead of chicken to make this vegetatrian. Worked really well!
This was excellent, especially for a night where we’re supposed to get ice storms! Flavoring the broth made it excellent, and the wontons were much easier to make than I thought they would be. Will definitely be putting this in our regular recipe rotation.
I think it sounds delicious, Deb!
We made this last night and it was SOOOO yummy! The only substitution we made was ground turkey instead of ground chicken, which worked very well. Thanks for the delicious recipe; we can’t wait to make it again! P.S. We did have a little extra “filling,” so we made a few meatballs for appetizers. They were excellent!
I made this tonight. I had some shiitake mushroom and diced a few of them into the chicken mixture and sliced and sautéed them and added them to the broth after I strained it. This soup is bliss.
Made this last night to rave reviews from all family members. My only request is to enhance your wonton-forming instructions (for the wonton-forming-inexperienced among us). Step 1 was easy; step 2 did not come naturally to me. Although mine came out fine (and frankly, the teenage boys wolfing down wontons didn’t give a hoot what shape they were), I would prefer them to look more wonton-y. Thanks!
I made this today for a day off lunch/dinner and it is everything that is good and right in the world. I used half homemade stock half Swanson and I omitted the spinach (I’m going away soon and didn’t want to only use a handful before it went bad). Frankly, (in my opinion) I’m not sure if the spinach would have added anything or not, I can’t wait to make it again!
I made this today! My local store didn’t have any wonton wrappers so I used eggroll wrappers and cut them in half to make rectangular shapes, then folded them from there (rolled each side, then the middle). They came out just fine, although they needed an extra minute or so to cook. I also made some changes to the filling and broth. To the filling, I added some Napa cabbage (blanched, stems removed, and died), as well as a little bit of rice wine vinegar and some extra sesame oil and ginger. To the broth, I added a bit of fennel, let it sit for a few minutes, then strained it out. If I make this again, I may add some edamame, smoked tofu, or mushroom to the filling because it was somewhat lacking in umami for me. Overall, though, pretty good. Thanks Deb, as always, for inspiring me to venture outside of my food comfort zone!
Made this for dinner last night! The dumplings were delicious and easier to make than I thought. They were also fun to make together on a weeknight (instead of the chore I was afraid of). I followed the recipe but for 1 lb ground chicken so I increased everything a smidgen and even though we totally folded them wrong they cooked well and didn’t break open. I got 52 dumplings and cooked half last night, froze the rest–score!!
The only thing I’ll change for next time is the broth. It was fine but I just used boxed chicken broth that I dressed up as Deb suggested with ginger, scallions, garlic, and a little soy sauce/salt/toasted sesame oil. It was pretty lacking, though it’s not the recipe’s fault–I don’t know how I thought it was going to turn into some magical broth. It smelled really good but perhaps it needed more time or I should try a different boxed broth? I’m not sure what I would change for next time. Of course the whole point of this dinner is that it’s fast so I don’t want to turn it into a Monday night broth project but it needed a little extra love for us. It was definitely good though–I will happily be eating the leftovers for lunch today!
Couldn’t do correct shape but taste was awesome :) Thanks
wontong soup i made very good.
Oh this was wonderful! Easy to make, easy to follow, no adjustments needed. I did things in a linear fashion (made all the wontons, boiled them in water, then made the broth) and a few too many wontons were “tested” and never made it to the broth. Oops (but I make no apologies!)! This will go in our rotation.
So delicious, and great instructions! I did doctor up the broth and it was worth the (minimum) effort it took to do so.
I used ground turkey, which was perfect. Over stuffed them as the yield was lower but they were so good. Hubby went nutso for them!
I cut brocolli into small florets and threw them into the soup at the same time I threw the wontons into the water to boil. Broccolli cooked nicely in the 3 minutes it took to boil the wontons, just to up the veggie count. This will be in regular rotation at our house!
Excellent. I made this exactly as written. Doctored up ‘Better than Bouillon’. I found the broth to be well seasoned, salty, but in a good way that you want chicken broth to be. However, I used the recommended amount of salt in my wontons, and those when broken into the broth made it a bit too salty, but still delicious. I made the full broth amount but only cooked the wontons we were going to heat (froze the rest). Then I reheated broth and then just cooked off more wontons directly from the freezer. I cooked those for 5 minutes, not 3 and that seemed to work well. I’m very happy to have more wontons in the freezer for later! I’m interested in incorporating some more veggies, like bok choy or thinly sliced mushrooms to give it more volume.
I made this last week. The wontons were nice but I made the chicken stock and added the garlic and ginger while I was heating it up to put the wontons in, it tasted very strongly of raw garlic ruined it for me a bit.
I am almost done with a chicken vegetable minestrone”ish” soup and I’m thinking about making ricotta and wild mushroom wontons for it…. Just cuz that’s what’s in the frig and I’m feeling creative. This whole day has been dedicated to cleaning out the refrigerator and veggie drawers after a long weekend of houseguests who brought veggies on top of my veggies. I bought the wonton skins after you posted this recipe but soup today turned more towards Italian…. any reason this won’t work????
This was absolutely delicious and perfect for a rainy night! In addition to your recommended doctoring, I added a little bit of Sriracha, red curry paste, and lime juice to the broth (which my partner proceeded to drink by the bowlful after we ran out of dumplings). I’ll be making this again and again.
Phenomenal. Can’t wait for leftovers. Followed the advice of reviewer Susan and left the spinach out of the broth opting to pour the hot broth and wontons over it to wilt it to the perfect texture. As only two of us were having it tonight I also didn’t cook all the wontons so we will enjoy for lunch tomorrow. Deb, you can do no wrong in our kitchen!!!
I added about 4 finely chopped raw prawns to the filling mixture but otherwise followed the recipe faithfully. This was excellent! Wonton soup is my favourite but I’m usually slightly disappointed when we get it as Chinese takeout – I’m so glad to have found this recipe!
Deb, this turned out amazing (of course it did – everything on this site does!). I did a full pound of ground turkey because that’s what my WF had, and just bought extra wonton wrappers. I also found that once I got into making them, it was quick. I managed to pull this off as a week-night meal and still eat at a reasonable hour. The best part was all the extra wontons in my freezer – enough for at least 2-3 more meals for my husband and me. Perfect for those nights we get home late, don’t want to cook, and don’t want take out. We often have broth, spinach and green onions on hand for other things, so my plan now is to keep a bag of the wontons in the freezer. Second (more like “fourteenth” at this point) requests for vegetarian recipe as well!
I made this a week or two ago for the first time, and Husband requested that we have it again for dinner tomorrow, it was so good. I was *amazed* at how delicious everything turned out for how simple the recipe was. I was pressed for time when I first made it, so I didn’t bother wrapping the wontons–instead, I made small meatballs out of the mix and pan fried them. I fished the finished meatballs out of the pan and then deglazed with chicken stock. We added soba to substitute for the lack of “wonton.” It was delicious, thank you!
Thank you for the recipe. I made the won tons last night, but served them with the Sichuan sauce you recommended rather than as part of soup. Amazing comfort food. Boyfriend gave them 8.5 out of 10 and he is a tough crowd. Was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the won tons went together.
We loved this. We preferred the hooked up broth version. The only substitution I did was ground tempeh instead of meat. Delish!
Mine didn’t look nearly as gorgeous as pictured above, but they taste great, especially in an aromatic broth like Deb describes! I doubled this recipe (made about 100 total) and froze most. Next time I’ll try with ground pork perhaps, or add some water chestnuts into the mix, to give the wontons a bit more texture. Once the freezer is stocked, these make for a very quick and delicious meal.
Hi Deb!
I am wondering where on earth you found wonton wrappers in NYC. We’ve tried Brooklyn Fare, Khim’s Millenium Market and Key Food with no luck. Amazon Fresh sells them, but for a pretty penny.
You bought them, so obviously they can be purchased somewhere in NYC!
Thanks for your help!
I’m eating this incredible soup for my Sunday dinner. I was going to just have a little cup as an appy, but it’s so good I had to get a big bowl! I keep homemade chicken stock in the freezer, so I threw the aromatics in & let them steep while I made the wontons. I found them to be super easy to make but time consuming, so my plan is to freeze the uncooked extras in portioned out Zip-Loc bags so that I can have this yummy soup on a work night. The wontons are so delicious, I think I could eat a platter of them myself LOL. I’m so glad I made this recipe today. I’m adding it to my long list of Smitten Kitchen recipes in my arsenal. Thank you Deb!
Just made this for the second time. Something about making wontons is therapeutic, and I love having them in my freezer to pull out for a quick meal.
Deb, you always encourage me to make things I never thought I could make!
I used 1lb of ground chicken and upped some of the spices a bit, used an equal mix of garlic and scallions in the wontons. I doctored up some salt-free store bought broth, strained it, and put baby bok choy and shiitake mushrooms in to finish it (cooked them in the broth for 10 min or so while we cooked the wontons). It did help to cook the wontons separately because it meant we both could be cooking and get it done faster! My only complaint was I thought it was a bit too much ginger, but my husband loved it, so personal preference. I think next time, I’ll cut down the ginger in the broth. There’s plenty in the wontons.
All in all, it was awesome! I was kind of intimidated to make the wontons, but there are a ton of youtube videos that show you how to wrap them.
I make mine pretty much the same but use bok choy sliced and then chop up the green part a bit more so not too many large pieces. It adds a bit more flavor and my son loves it.
I made this for dinner tonight, and it was a revelation. I always had lukewarm feelings about wonton soup – too bland, and not enough substance to really make a meal – but this was fragrant, utterly delicious, and I put enough wontons in to make it dinner. Great return for not too much work, this will go into rotation! Leftover wontons in the freezer, can’t wait to try it with homemade chicken stock if it was this good with grocery store stock. Yum!
These were delicious, thank you so much!! My 3 year old demolished them too.
Excellent! I trust you will not be offended, but complimented, that I slightly changed your recipe (b/c that’s just a cooking tendency) and used ground pork sausage (hot) instead. The flavor was amazing and elevated the soup to a whole new level. Thank you for making something as potentially challenging-sounding like “homemade wontons” so simple and enjoyable! Family loved.
This was delicious and just what was need while fighting a cold. The enriched stock was so worth the little bit of effort!
This was wonderful! I have never made my own won tons before and was a little intimidated at first, but shouldn’t have been. It was quite simple! My grocery was out of ground chicken, so I used ground pork. We all loved it, especially the 11 year old. Thank you!
This is incredibly delicious and pretty easy (though it does take about an hour altogether). Question: what to do with cooked wontons while waiting to put them into the broth? I left mine in the strainer and they got a little stuck together. No big deal, just wondering if there’s a better method.
Thanks so much for this!
I might put have put them them on an oiled plate?
I put my wontons on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and, because there wasn’t really much cornstarch on them, I cooked them in the broth. I didn’t notice any cloudiness and it tasted great.
This was amazing! I added an extra 4 cups of broth and subbed a bunch of bok choi for the spinach. Next time, I’ll add quite a bit more white pepper. I bought over the counter broth because I’m fresh out of the good stuff and pepped it up with the aromatics described here. So good!
Just made this. The broth was bonkers delicious. My partner who doesn’t like soup was sipping on the broth without insulting it, which he’s never done before. I’ll be making this again.
I will note that it took awhile to wrap all wontons and I ended up cooking them in batches. In the end, the broth cooked down and I watered it down and the flavor held up. I’ll need to figure out a better system for next time so I can make this on a weeknight.
Thanks for the amazing recipe!!
delicious! made a version of this with a rotisserie chicken carcass broth and bits of chicken thrown in. made the wontons exactly as directed except with mashed peas instead of ground chicken, and worked splendidly! delicious and impressive weeknight meal.
Excellent recipe! thank you!
Annie
Montréal, Québec
We made this tonight and loved it! We used 1 lb of chicken and just increased the other seasonings. Will definitely add to our rotation for healthy winter meal. Thanks Deb!
2 questions:
You freeze these raw, correct? Just form them and stick in freezer?
Also, if making this as the main dinner dish, what else can I serve with this?
I served it with a big Asian style salad. Chopped lettuce, green cabbage and purple napa cabbage, carrots, sugar snap peas and red bell pepper. Topped with a Japanese miso dressing that I found at Costco and am absolutely in love with, sliced green onions and toasted almonds. Devoured the salad while the soup cooled a bit. Absolute perfection!
This was fabulous! Wow!! I increased chicken ingredients by 25% b/c I can only get 1lb. pkgs. of ground chicken, worked just fine. We had 6+ servings, my two teens claimed the leftovers for their lunches tomorrow. Doesn’t get better than that. Plus, they were at least a smidge impressed with their mom. Thank you!
I love this soup. I find the broth can be a bit bland, so I make this when we have homemade chicken stock in the freezer for a richer taste. I love the wontons in the soup- it is a perfect cold weather meal.
I’ve just discovered that cheating with frozen store bought pot stickers makes a great faux wonton soup, of course using a great homemade chicken stock!
I made the wontons ahead and froze them. Would you defrost them before cooking or cook them straight from the freezer? If the latter, how long would you recommend cooking them?
I’d cook them straight from the freezer in the soup. It’s not an exact science; give it a few more minutes to cook, cut one open before serving the rest to be safe.
This was delish. I’ve had Norovirus for a few days and haven’t been able to eat much more to toast. This was my first proper meal. Oh it was a delight. Thanks Deb x
I felt so dang proud of myself for making wonton soup (including making the wontons!). I really dug this soup for sure.
I will make this again and again, I am confident. Versions I am already salivating over:
1) adding a few star anise to the broth
2) having a bit of sambol oelek for individual taste preferences
3) adding some water chestnuts or bok choy to the broth instead of spinach
I ended up using all of the chicken in about 40 wontons or so. It took me about 20 minutes as suggested, and it was delightfully spent while sipping wine. I originally was painstakingly precise when making the wontons, but eventually decided it wasn’t that big of a deal. And it wasn’t; it wasn’t possible to tell the difference between my carefully made and sloppily made wontons.
Thanks, Smitten Kitchen! I will be actually be including this with one of the meals for a cooking group I’m a part of!
I made this for dinner tonight, it was amazing. I love the pork and shrimp wontons I used to get in Vancouver BC and in my new city the Chinese food isn’t as good so I make them with ground pork and 100g of fresh shrimp. So delicious!
Deb—I love these and have made them a few times. Tried something today that you might like for mixing. I combined everything but the chicken and garlic chives (ginger, salt, pepper, soy, sesame oil) first in a small ramekin and let it mix well. It flavored the chicken more evenly. Also, the butcher had just ground up some chicken thighs, so I used those instead. I usually hate thighs for texture reasons, but for this, the color and fat content were awesome.
Made this last night – it was so good!! Surprisingly easy to make and impressed everyone. I highly recommend this recipe!
Made the wontons for the first time yesterday during a snowstorm here in St. Louis. I adjusted the seasonings for our taste. I didn’t have garlic chives so I microplaned 2 large cloves of garlic into the recipe as well. I did follow the recipe otherwise adjusting amounts as necessary. I cooked them in gently boiling water for the appropriate time and then dumped them into a bowl with Tamari, sesame oil and Sambal Olek. The wontons soaked up the spicy sweet liquid and they were delicious. I made 12 to start and had to go back and cook another 12, for 2 people! They were that good. I doubled the batch so I have some frozen for another time. Worth any work these took to make. I’m interested to try this in a vegetable variety. Any suggestions for recipes?
What is that mesh label called/ where can I get one?
ladle*
I just picked one up on Amazon and it’s one of my new favorite kitchen tools. I don’t think I can put the link here, but you can search for ‘Helen Chen’s Asian Kitchen Stainless Steel Spider Strainer with Natural Bamboo Handle, 5-Inch Strainer Basket.’
Made this exactly as written (so rare for me) and it was perfect! We were planning on small bowls as a first course but everyone kept going back for more so we drained the pot and called it a meal. Revipe is now on “happy repeat” in our home.
At this point I make the wontons in big batches that I keep stocked in my freezer pretty much all year. We have a Japanese market nearby and my uncle raises poultry, so I swing by one for the wontons and the other for the ground chicken. It’s filling and satisfying with a hint of that childhood feeling of getting chicken soup, and is fast enough that when I come home tired I can throw stock on to boil, add in the wontons, and call it a day. It’s especially nice if you add a little sambal olek to make it spicy.
can i used chicken bouillion to make the chicken stock for my wonton soup
Turkey broth ok? I have some I made from thanksgiving….love your recipies!
Should be fine. Homemade broth is always more delicious.
Just made a pot with chicken + turkey broth, and it is amazing, Deb’s recipes never fail me.
Great recipe and fun to make the wrappers at home if you have time – also, for anyone wondering, I made the filling in a food processor since I had chicken breasts but not ground chicken and it turned out perfectly!
I wish I had checked for your recipe a few weeks ago! My folding looks horrible so next time I’ll try to make them as nice as yours! I also added some chopped water chestnuts for texture. I will try again using your good advice!
I’m so glad I decided to make this! I had 10 chicken backs in the freezer and made a giant pot of stock that was perfect for this recipe. I followed the recipe pretty much exactly and ended up with 47 wontons, which seemed like too many for the amount of broth, so I just froze the portion that I didn’t use . The flavor of the chicken was excellent and the wontons cooked up perfectly. You know it’s a good recipe when it turns out perfect when you follow it exactly as written.
Made this delicious soup yesterday for the first course of an Asian-themed Friday night dinner. My 11 year old daughter helped me with the wontons and not only was it easy, we had fun doing it! Followed the recipe to the word and it took about 15 minutes to make 50 perfect little dumplings. I sautéed shiitake mushrooms and added to the broth at the end and it was a huge hit with all. I can’t wait to make a double batch next time and try freezing it for quick weeknight meals. DEFINITELY will be making again!
This was perfect for a cold, rainy/icy winter day. I made it as written, although my wonton package was 14 oz, so I bumped all the chicken ingredients to use the full pound of ground chicken. (I still have 4 empty wonton wrappers left over) I boiled 1/2 of the wontons in the broth and froze the other half. The 8 cups of broth was just right for the 1/2 batch of wontons, and our 4 servings were very filling. I look forward to the 4+ servings in the freezer for another quick & easy meal.
I hate to say this, but I made this recipe exactly as written (even made the homemade broth), and it was a flop. The won tons, though so much fun to make, were disappointingly bland. The ginger in the broth was really off-putting. I am planning to try again. However, I will either amp up the flavor in the won ton filling by adding fresh garlic or I will use pork. The chicken was just so meh. I will definitely leave the ginger out of the broth next time.
Having said all this, the soup in the bowl was stunningly beautiful before I had a taste! The green of the spinach and the scallions against the clear broth and the gorgeous dumplings was perfection.
This is the FIRST time I have ever made anything from Smitten Kitchen that I didn’t love; and I have made too many recipes to even recall. SK will continue to be my go-to for recipes!
I have loved every recipe of yours that I have made–except this one. So disappointed that after eating one bowl I threw all the rest away. It didn’t taste anything like Chinese food. Too much filling in the won tons–one tsp of soy sauce for 3/4 lb of ground chicken–not enough and bland–no flavor. I put the extra ingredients in the broth–big mistake–didn’t have a good flavor at all.
Which toasted sesame oil and which wanton wrapper’s do you recommend?
Thank you.
Oops I meant Wonton wrapper.
So goooood. Have never made wontons but they turned out flawlessly. I would def take the time to flavor the broth with the ginger/garlic/scallions. Gives so much more flavor. My 3 and 7 year olds loved the dish and my husband couldn’t stop talking about how good it was. Thanks for another keeper recipe!
Want to go to heaven? Add some chopped roast green chile to the broth. Nirvana!
Don’t be shy…. call them what they are: Kreplach!
The “ch” is that German/Yiddish/Gaelic/Spanish gutteral sound.
This sounds wonderful! Buuuut, because I just have to be difficult, do you think these wontons would pair well with your chicken pho broth?
Sure, and it’s such an amazing broth, one of the best I’ve ever made.
So good. Tysm for walking me through the steps of making this tasty dish that I had always assumed would be way too complicated and time consuming to attempt myself. <3