Dinner: Asian Chicken Dumplings

One of my favorite things to do is to cook with my friends. Paige came over last night and we made Asian Chicken Dumplings with Sesame Dipping Sauce, one of the recipes I have tested before for one of my favorite chefs, Robyn Webb.

The filling is super easy to do and the dipping sauce is even simpler! I hope you try this at home with your friends: not only is it fun and delicious, but having company definitely makes the job of forming the dumplings :)

Ingredients for the filling
3/4 pound ground chicken
1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions
1/4 cup peeled, shredded carrots
1/4 cup minced water chestnuts
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
4 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger (Note: this time I actually used 1 tsp of fresh ginger I "grated" on a microplane)
salt and pepper
24 wonton wrappers (Note: the recipe actually makes more...and it's a good thing because my wonton wrappers came in a package of 48)

Sauce
1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
1 and 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp toasted sesame seeds (Note: be careful not to burn them!)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 cup sliced scallions

Directions
1. Combine all the ingredients for the filling.
2. Fill the wonton wrappers by placing a teaspoon of filling on the bottom half of the wonton, then wetting the sides of the wonton with some water and folding the wonton in a triangle (Note: I did mine in a rectangle just to be a bit different)
3. Keep filled wontons on a plate covered with a towel.
4. Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl.
5. Keep a large pot two thirds full with water. Bring the water to a boil and cook the dumplings for four minutes 8 at a time (Note: Robyn recommended cooking 4-5 dumplings at a time, but I had a super large pot and 8 fit just fine). Remove the dumplings with a slotted spoon or skimmer and keep covered with a towel until all the dumplings are cooked and you are ready to eat.
5. Drain any excess water and serve with the sauce.

Pictures: from top to bottom: my dumplings folded in half, Paige's perfectly folded dumplings, cooked dumplings.