Chile Oil Wontons

By Sue Li

Updated January 27, 2025

  • Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.
Media 1 of 2
Total Time
1½ hours
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
1¼ hours
Rating
5(600)
Comments
Read comments

This classic recipe shows you how easy — and satisfying — it is to make your own chile oil wontons at home. Here, they’re shaped to resemble gold ingots, a Chinese symbol of good fortune and wealth, but feel free to wrap them however you like. A crucial step here is making the sauce for the wontons, which can be done in advance and starts with mixing your own chile oil. (Save any extra sauce to use with fried eggs, tofu, potatoes, rice, chicken or anything, really.)

Featured in: It’s Dumpling Week! We Have 5 Amazing Recipes You Can Make at Home.

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: Give recipes to anyone

    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.

    Subscribe

  • Share this recipe

  • Print this recipe

    or to print this recipe.

Advertisement

Ingredients

Yield:About 50 wontons

FOR THE WONTONS

  • 1 pound ground pork or ground chicken

  • ¼ pound large peeled and deveined shrimp, chopped into ¼-inch pieces

  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil

  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce

  • 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine or sherry (optional)

  • 1 teaspoon ground white pepper

  • Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)

  • Cornstarch, for dusting

  • About 50 homemade or store-bought wonton wrappers (from one 12- to 14-ounce package), thawed if frozen

FOR THE SAUCE

  • 6 garlic cloves, smashed and coarsely chopped into ¼-inch pieces

  • 2 scallions, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

  • 3 tablespoons crushed red pepper

  • 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds

  • 1 bay leaf (dried or fresh)

  • 1 whole star anise

  • ⅔ cup vegetable oil

  • 1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce

  • 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

FOR SERVING

  • 3 tablespoons roasted, unsalted peanuts, finely ground or chopped

  • 1 tablespoon finely ground Sichuan peppercorns (optional)

  • 4 scallions, thinly sliced

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving

19 grams carbs; 13 milligrams cholesterol; 156 calories; 3 grams monosaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 6 grams fat; 1 gram fiber; 244 milligrams sodium; 6 grams protein

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Powered by

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the wontons: Combine the pork, shrimp, sesame oil, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine (if using), white pepper and 1 teaspoon kosher salt in a large bowl. Mix with a spatula until the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

  2. Step 2

    Prepare your tools for wrapping the wontons: Dust a large rimmed baking sheet or large platter with cornstarch and fill a small bowl with water.

  3. Step 3

    Assemble the wontons: Hold a wonton wrapper in your hand and rotate it so it sits like a diamond, with a tip at the top. Spoon about 1 scant tablespoon of the filling in the middle of the wrapper. Dip a finger into the water and dab the top triangle of the diamond and fold in half, lifting the bottom corner to meet the top corner and aligning the wrapper edges so you get a triangular shape, then press firmly to seal. Dab some more water on one corner of the triangle and then press the opposite dry corner on top to seal. Set the wonton on the cornstarch-dusted tray or platter and proceed with the rest of the filling and wrappers, making about 50 wontons.

  4. Step 4

    Cover the wontons with plastic wrap and place in the fridge while you prepare the sauce. (See Tip for freezing instructions.)

  5. Step 5

    Make the sauce: Combine the garlic, scallions, crushed red pepper, sesame seeds, bay leaf and star anise in a medium heat-proof bowl. Heat the vegetable oil in a small pot over medium-high until it is very hot and almost smoking, 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully pour the hot oil into the bowl over the garlic mixture. Allow the sizzling to subside and then add the sweet soy sauce, dark soy sauce and rice vinegar. (You can make the sauce up to 3 days in advance; keep it covered and refrigerated.)

  6. Step 6

    Make the garnish: Combine the ground peanuts, Sichuan peppercorns and ½ teaspoon kosher salt in a small bowl.

  7. Step 7

    Boil and serve the wontons: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the wontons in batches, depending on the size of your pot. Gently drop the wontons in the boiling water and cook over medium heat until they float to the top, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the wontons with a slotted spoon or a spider, making sure to shake out the water with each removal and transfer them to a serving bowl right away.

  8. Step 8

    Spoon the sauce over the hot wontons and sprinkle with the ground peanut mixture and scallions.

Tip

  • If you are not ready to boil the wontons right away, tightly wrap the wontons in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. To boil from frozen: Follow the cooking instructions in Step 7, cooking the dumplings until they float to the top, 6 to 7 minutes.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Ratings

5 out of 5
600 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Comments

SJ Kurtz

Wait. 15 min prep time for 50 wonton? More like 15 min cook time, 1 hour prep time.

Todd

I would like more info on "sweet soy sauce." Was this discussed already as part of dumpling week? I have ABC sweet soy sauce, which is Indonesian. Will this work? There are so many types of soy sauce, with different names. In Japanese cuisine, "dark soy sauce" refers to the everyday common soy sauce such as Kikkoman, which is by far the most common type found in American homes. Perhaps the New York Times cooking team could put together a comprehensive guide the recipe writers could link to.

Kiyo

Aloha Sue Li! I'm planning to make this delicious dish you shared. Quick question. What brand of sweet soy sauce do you use? I see ABC Kecap Manis but I'm thinking you use something else. Hope to know which brand you use. Also dark soy sauce, can I use Kikkoman regular soy sauce? I'm allergic to shellfish so will have to leave out the shrimp.

catherine

This sauce!! No sweet soy sauce so we just did regular with a small pinch of sugar. Absolutely delicious. It made a ton, and we ate it for weeks afterwards, diluted with extra vinegar and soy sauce as a sauce for cabbage slaw and for noodle salad.

KT

Delighted at how these turned out. Excited to serve them. Sauce is killer. Made exactly 50 wontons. I thought the Shaoxing wine didn’t add enough flavor to the filling so I added a touch of sweet soy sauce there, too. Didn’t take long at all!

Agnes

I could not find sweet soy sauce, so I subbed it for 2 teaspoons of regular soy sauce and 1 - 2 teaspoons of mirin! It worked very well.

Private comments are only visible to you.

Recipe Tags

or to save this recipe.