Pork Sauerkraut Dumplings Pull-Apart Pie Step by Step From Scratch

Whether you are new or familiar with making Chinese dumplings, here are things I do differently to turn it into a new form - pie:

1. Traditional Chinese dumplings are always boiled. I made a potstickers pie.
2. If your order dumplings from a restaurant, they are always in a "boat" or curved shrimp shape, I made them in a shape I call "wheat ears."
3. A lot people dread of making dumplings because you have to make many, take care and keep them separate, not touching each other during the process, or they'll break during cooking. I intentionally pack them in a pan. I can cook 33 of them in an 11" pan which can only cook around 16 in the common way. Cooking more food in a pan means I can feed more people with less maintenance work. I even use corn starch solution to stick them together.
4. Commonly potstickers are placed bottom side on the bottom of the pan. I placed them bottom side up in the pan. That's what, together with the "wheat ears" seams, created the pie crust effect.

The recipe is a complete guide from scratch all the way to bare plate. I have been doing this a lot lately. I document the best way I found to do each step. Hope this will be your go to guide on this topic.

Food Processor

11" Non-stick Frying Pan

250 g unbleached all purpose flour

145 g (1/2 cups + 2 tbsp) water

1 pound ground pork, 10-20% fat

1/2 cup chicken stock (or beef stock, or water)

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

2 tablespoon Shaoxing wine

1 tbsp ginger, grated

1 tbsp garlic, grated

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorns

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp black pepper

16 oz sauerkraut, rinsed, squeezed

8 green onions, coarsely chopped

2 carrots, coarsely chopped

1/4 tsp chili flakes

2 tsp coconut oil or vegetable oil for coating frying pan

1 tsp corn starch

1/2 cup water

Sauce made of combining 1 spoon of the following ingredients: Chinese chili oil base, garlic paste, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sesame oil, and water.

Note: This article contains affiliate links as references for the same or similar products used in this project. If you click on the links and make purchases I could receive a small amount of commission from the affiliate company with no extra cost to you.

Weight 250 g unbleached all purpose flour.

Sift it to a mixing bowl.

Make a well in the center.

Add 145 g water in batches.

Mix with chopsticks or fork until crumbly.

Knead it into dough by hand.

Drizzle oil in the bowl and coat it inside the bowl.

Place dough in the bowl, covered, let it rest for up to 2 hours or more.

Dust the kneading surface and knead the dough to smooth.

Place dough back in the bowl, covered, let it rest for 30 minutes.

White the dough is resting for the last 30 minutes, proceed to next step to make filling.

Add ground pork to a large mixing bowl.

Break it up.

Add each of the following liquid and mix well after each addition:

1/2 cup chicken stock (or beef stock, or water)

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

2 tablespoon Shaoxing wine

Sprinkle each of the following seasonings over and mix well after all additions:

1 tbsp ginger, grated

1 tbsp garlic, grated

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorns

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp black pepper

Empty 16 oz sauerkraut to a sieve over a bowl.

Rinse it and stir it for 3 times.

Squeeze excessive water.

Add it to food processor.

Add carrot, onions, and chili flakes to food processor.

Pulse a few times and grind them to small pieces.

Stop the food processor and scrape food processor bowl if necessary to incorporate every pieces.

Combine above meat and ground vegetables together.

Mix mix mix mix mix a lot until they blend well.

Dust the knead surface generously.

Form Dough into a 5-in long thick log.

Cut it into 5 equal pieces.

Keep 4 pieces of dough covered and work with one piece at a time.

Roll it into a one inch thick log.

Cut it into 10 equal pieces with your palm.

Round two pieces at a time using thumb, index finger and middle finger.

Flatten them into round disks.

Repeat rounding and flattening the remaining four pairs of dough pieces.

Roll out one wrapper at a time by rolling the rolling pin over it with one hand and turning the disk with the other hand. Roll each piece to a circle of about 1/16-1/8" thickness.

Repeat rolling the remaining 9 pieces of dough into wrappers.

Cover the wrappers with damp towel if not used right away.

So, you'll make 10 wrappers and then 10 dumplings at a time, for 5 times, if you are a one person show. If you have a partner, then one rolls wrapper and the other forms dumplings. It's a perfect team work.

Oil The Bottom Of The Non-Stick Pan with about 2 tsp - 1 tbsp coconut oil or vegetable oil.

There are a few ways to form dumplings. I call this one "wheat ears." This is the way dumplings are always formed back in my mom's time and it is still done this way where I was born and have grown up. This form is the prettiest in my view. It is also the form you can pack most filling in one dumpling.

Place about 2 tsp filling in the center of a wrapper.

Cup it in your hand into a taco shape.

Start on one end, pinch the dough together alternatively from side to side to seal the filling in.

Place the seam side down on the bottom of the pan.

Pack the pan as many as you can. I was able to pack 33 dumplings in an 11" pan. The most I was ever able to cook in an 11" pan.

Cook dumplings pie covered on dry first until the side on bottom is nicely golden brown.

Add 1 tsp corn starch in 1/2 cup water, mix it well.

Add that to the pan.

Cover and cook until all water is absorbed.

Put the whole pan aside, covered, to cool for a few minutes.

Place a 11" plate over the pan.

Hold on the bottom of the plate and flip the whole thing over to invert and release the pie on the plate.

If it's not exactly in the center of the plate, shift it to the center.

P.S. While the pie is on heat. You can do next step - prepare dipping sauce. I don't want to write step 7 in the middle of step 6. But that's when I make the sauce usually.

Combine 1 spoon of the following ingredients to make the sauce:

Chinese chili oil base, garlic paste, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sesame oil, and water.

Good food waits for nobody. Literally, within minutes my family grabbed and gobbled the whole pie. It tastes delicious. The crust is so crunchy. Unfortunately, pictures can't show much of that. I'm writing this in a book. Also I'm editing videos which I will later post on my youtube channel.

This is so good. I made a second pie the same evening with remaining filling and thawed frozen wrappers. The second one looks better (last photo in this step). The thumbnail photo of this Instructable is the second pie. But the first pie made of fresh wrappers definitely tastes better, especially the crust. The work of making fresh wrappers definitely paid off. This is probably the end of me using frozen wrappers since after making fresh wrappers a few times, I'm not that slow in making them any more.

Please heart this recipe if you like it and leave comments and questions for me in the comments section below. Eat well! Live well!