Pork Wontons With Chili Crisp on a blue plate with a garnish of cilantro leaves

These pork wontons with chili crisp have been one of my favorite Chinese recipes to make at home in recent months. They are packed with flavor, easy to make, and can definitely bring the heat. Plus, wontons are a great dish to make with family. You turn cooking into an activity.

In this recipe I’ll be using homemade chili crisp, one of my most popular recipes on this site. However if you want to use store-bought feel free to do so. This ingredient works great not just on noodles and dumplings, but even vegetables like in a tomato salad!

How To Make Pork Wontons

pork wontons filling ingredients on a table

Wontons are so great because you have near infinite options for fillings. While pork is an easy go to, you can also use beef, fish, shellfish like scallops or shrimp, or even fully vegetarian. Not to mention it is fun to squish the mix together with your (washed) fingers. This filling also goes great in the classic stuffed chili pepper dim sum also popular in Southern China.

Pork Filling Ingredients

500 grams Ground Pork – this is about 1 pound. You can grind your own pork or just buy a pack at the market. Just make sure it is from a good quality market.
3 tbsp Green Onion – chopped
2 tbsp Soy Sauce
3 cloves Garlic – minced
1 tbsp Mirin – or to keep it fully Chinese you can use Mijiu + 1/4 tsp Sugar. But Mirin is more common and easier to find in most places.
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1/2 tsp Salt

You’ll also need about 25 wonton wrappers to encase this delicious pork filling!

Filling Pork Wontons

To fill the wonton skins with the pork filling just place a sheet in your hand and spoon a tsp of meat into the middle. Then fold two corners together to make a triangle, and then fold the other two corners together to seal it shut.

unboiled pork wontons on a floured piece of parchment paper

You can fold the tips around each other, or press them together to form another point. Both ways are fine, and this is a much easier wonton folding method than what is used to make crab rangoons!

When you have prepared all of the pork wontons it is time to boil. Just drop them gently into a pot of boiling water and let cook for about 3-4 minutes. If your wonton dough is extra thin you can get away with boiling for 2 minutes.

Remove the wontons with a slotted spoon or ladle and place them on a dish to serve. If you are using the chili crisp then just take a spoonful or five and drizzle that crispy spicy goodness all over the dumplings.

Chili Crisp Recipe

For the complete guide to making chili crisp you can click here. In this article I’m going to abridge it into a simple format.

INFUSED OIL INGREDIENTS LIST

1 cup Oil – soybean oil is what is most popular in China, but any neutral oil will work. I use sunflower oil as it works well too.
1 tbsp Allspice – this is also known as the Jamaica pepper and resembles a large, smooth peppercorn.
2 Star Anise
1 tbsp Black Peppercorns
1 tbsp Calabrian Chili – chopped
4 cloves Garlic – thinly sliced
1 Shallot – diced
10 Chile de Arbol – dried
2 Mini Sweet Peppers – you can just sub a bell pepper or other mild, fruity pepper for this ingredient.

CHILI CRISP INGREDIENTS LIST

1 cup Oil – same as you used for the infused oil
2 tbsp Red Chili Flakes
2 tbsp Gochugaru – these are Korean chili flakes mostly used for kimchi, but they are fruity and delicious and add great flavor to this chili crisp recipe
1 Shallot – diced
2 cloves Garlic – thinly sliced
1 tbsp Peanuts – chopped
2 tsp Fish Sauce – optional
1 tsp MSG – if you’re one of the people who like to pretend MSG is bad for you then feel free to leave it out or just replace it with salt.

Instructions

Take all the ‘infused oil ingredients list‘ and simmer them on your lowest heat setting in a pot for about a half hour, or until the ingredients begin to blacken. In another jar add place the ‘chili crisp ingredients list‘ minus the msg and fish sauce. Strain the hot oil directly into the uncooked ingredients jar. Let sit and when cool stir in the msg and fish sauce.

Pork Wontons Tips & Tricks

I highly recommend buying premade wonton wrappers. Making them yourself is an unnecessary hassle and it won’t taste any better.
Squeeze as much air out of the dumplings when you wrap them up. The air will expand when you boil which could cause the skin to rip.
Feel free to get creative with the spices you add to the filling. There is no set rule for what is authentic, every family in China has their own way of making pork wontons.
It is best to make the chili crisp a day in advance. The flavors meld and get so much richer if left to sit for a day.

Where To Buy Wonton Wrappers

While you can easily order wonton wrappers online at places like Amazon, your best option is to buy them locally. This is because wonton wrappers dry out very quickly, so you should only buy them when you are going to use them.

Find an Asian market near you that makes them fresh daily, or in the frozen section at your local supermarket. Wonton wrappers do freeze well so if you buy them frozen just keep them in your freezer until you are ready to use them.