Take care to use the right kind of chicken meat. Red meat is best but grocery-bought ground chicken is usually ground skinless chicken breast meat which I do not like. It’s dry with the mouth feel of wet cardboard.
So, for the chicken wonton filling, I minced skin-on chicken thigh fillets. It’s added work, I know, but the fatty chicken skin gave the wontons better mouth feel and flavor. The fat acted as a natural binder too.
If you’re not in a hurry, the filling develops even better texture if allowed to sit in the fridge overnight. The starch and wine bind all the ingredients beautifully making handling easier.
Wrapping the wontons one by one is the time-consuming part of this recipe. But there’s no other way to make wontons except to wrap and seal them individually.
There are many ways to wrap wonton. For this recipe, the filling is placed at the center of the wrapper, the edge of the wrapper is moistened with water, folded to cover the filling and pressed to seal.
The long ends of the parcel are pulled toward each other until overlapping, one end is moistened with water and the other is pressed over it.
That’s how the wonton looks. Remember, you need to moisten the wrapper twice during the process to make sure that the filling is completely sealed.
Repeat until all your wrappers have been filled and sealed, or until you run out of filling, whichever comes first.
The wontons may be steamed or boiled briefly in water. If boiling in water, cook them in batches so that they don’t get stuck to one another and to allow them to float freely. This ensures fast and even cooking.
When the wontons are fully cooked, all you need to do is assemble the dish. What you garnish your chicken wonton noodle soup is a personal choice; scallions and fried shallots are preferred here at home.
Chicken wonton noodle soup
Ingredients
Chicken wonton
- 300 grams minced chicken
- ¼ teaspoon minced garlic
- ⅛ teaspoon grated ginger
- 2 tablespoons grated carrot
- 2 tablespoons finely sliced scallions
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon potato starch
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
- ½ teaspoon sesame seed oil
- 24 wonton skins - (we used small, about three inches square)
Chicken wonton noodle soup
- fresh egg noodles - for four, blanched and drained
- finely sliced scallions
- fried shallots
- chicken bone broth
Instructions
Make the chicken wonton filling
- In a bowl, mix together the minced chicken, garlic, ginger, carrot and scallions.
- In a small bowl, stir together soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, pepper, potato starch, sesame seed oil and Shaoxing wine.
- Pour the mixed seasonings over the chicken mixture. Mix well until the coloring is uniform.
Wrap the chicken wontons
- Separate the wonton wrappers.
- Take one wrapper, place on the palm of one hand and drop a teaspoonful of filling at the center.
- Moisten all the edges of the wrapper with water.
- Gather two opposite edges and press them together making sure that the filling stays at the center.
- Bend the folded wonton toward you until the unfilled sides overlap at the bottom.
- Moisten one of the overlapping ends and press the other end over it to seal.
- Repeat until all the wonton skins are filled or until you run out of filling, whichever comes first.
Cook the chicken wontons
- Boil water, at least three inches deep, in a pot or wok.
- When the water is boiling profusely, drop in half of the wontons one by one. The water will stop boiling for a while as the temperature drops after the addition of the wontons.
- Allow the water to come to a boil once more then wait for the wontons to float to the surface. They are done at this point. The cooking takes about four to five minutes.
- Scoop out the wontons with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate.
- Repeat the cooking process for the remaining half of the wontons.
Assemble your chicken wonton noodle soup
- Heat your chicken bone broth.
- While the broth heats, divide the noodles into four portions and drop into bowls.
- Arrange the cooked wontons beside the noodles.
- Sprinkle in sliced scallions.
- Pour in hot broth and garnish with fried shallots.
