Blanket Chicken Dumplings with a Peanut Chili Crisp
I have generally been in a bit of a funk, and these Blanket Chicken Dumplings offered me the perfect cure. I have been fitful with cooking, sometime cooking a lot, and other times just been feeling uninspired. My son visiting for Spring Break and a couple of classes have managed to break me out a little bit from things. Feeling somewhat more inspired. I even snuck in a library class, and made this vegan tofu tikka masala. And then decided to try my hand at what is being labelled as viral blanket dumplings. Most of the recipes out there seem to be using pork, but, I decided to make them with chicken. And then tried a quick chili crisp sort of thing. OMG, that is what pulls this recipe together.
The Story of my Blanket Chicken Dumplings
I will confess, 2026 not really becoming that great of a year. The silver lining is that it certainly is a lot better than 2025, this said, I still don’t quite find myself getting into my food writing routine. I do not like winter, and let’s just say Winter 2025 has been a nasty bad winter of sorts. I am a creature of habit and routine, so I like to try cooking different things, a lot of interesting recipes however, just dont seem to come in smaller portions. Not Asian recipes, anyway. However, the fun think about these blanket dumplings, is just that, they can be as few or as many as your heart chooses. You essentially mix up the meat with some seasonings, blanket them with a dumpling wrapper, steam until done.
And, while I was at it, I played around with doing skirted dumplings, well you know me, once I get started, I am all on board. My skirt was not as lacy as desired, so still a work in progress. My peanut Chili crisp or oil or whatever you will, more than makes up for my “non lacy” skirt.
A few things to note
- A good dipping or serving sauce with these dumplings is really a good idea.
- The skirt is not needed, but a fun idea.
- I have tried this with both chicken and turkey, while I am yet to try this with pork or a veggie filling, but my hunch is all your favorite fillings will work with this fun recipe.
So, there you have it, if you are looking for a fun recipe, to add onto your weekend repetoire, this one just might be it.
A fun and flavorful and ridiculously easy take on dumplings.
Ingredients
- For the Dumplings Base
- 3/4 pound of ground chicken
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon (about 2 cloves) fresh garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon oil
- Dumpling wrappers of your choice
- Water for steaming
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 or 2 star aniise
- 2 tablespoons crushed peanuts
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup neutral oil
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 tablespoon plus
Instructions
- Mix together the ground chicken, minced ginger, garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, black pepper, cornstarch and mix together and set aside for at least 30 minutes.
- In the meantime, to prepare the peanut chili crisp, heat the tablespoon of oil and gently cook the minced garlic and shallots until cooked through, fragrant, and pale golden. Add in the red pepper flakes, star anise and the crushed peanuts and stir well. Add in the remaining oil and heat through and set aside.
- Mix the water and the flour for the skirt, it should be very thin.
- Gently heat a heavy bottom pan, add in the tablespoon of oil. Add in the mean mixture in tablespoons uniformly around the pan. Blanket with the dumpling wrappers, gently crinkling to cover.
- Pour over the flour slurry and cover and cook on medium low heat, allowing the mixture to set and the dumplings to cook through.
- As the base starts turning crisp and lacy, sprinkle with the remaiming 1 tablespoon of oil.
- Carefully invert onto a plate.
- Drizzle with the peanut chili sauce, remove the star anise, and top with thinly sliced scallions and enjoy.