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The Dumpling 100 · make it at home

Sichuan chili oil wontons (hong you chao shou)

45 min · About 30 wontons, 3 to 4 people

Chengdu's most famous snack: tender pork wontons tossed in a sauce of chili oil, black vinegar, garlic and a little sugar. The sauce is the point; make extra.

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The real one

You need

• For the wontons: 300 g (2/3 lb) ground pork, 25% fat
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) cold water
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp Shaoxing wine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 egg white
• 30 thin square wonton wrappers
• For the sauce (for 4 bowls): 4 tbsp Sichuan chili oil with its sediment
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
• 2 tsp sugar
• 3 garlic cloves, grated
• 1/2 tsp ground toasted Sichuan peppercorn
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced, and a pinch of toasted sesame seeds

How to make it

1. Make the filling (10 min): Soak the ginger in the cold water 5 minutes, then strain the ginger water into the pork a spoonful at a time, stirring hard in one direction after each addition until absorbed. Stir in soy, wine, salt, pepper, sesame oil and egg white until the filling is sticky and smooth.
2. Mix the sauce (3 min): Stir chili oil, soy, vinegar, sugar, garlic, Sichuan pepper and sesame oil together, and divide among four bowls.
3. Wrap (15 min): Put a teaspoon of filling in the center of a wrapper. Fold in half into a triangle and press out the air. Wet one bottom corner, bring both bottom corners together beneath the filling and pinch, so it looks like a nurse's cap.
4. Cook (4 min): Boil in a big pot of water, in two batches, for 3 to 4 minutes after they float, until the filling is firm.
5. Toss and serve: Lift the wontons straight into the bowls with a splash of the cooking water, toss in the sauce, scatter scallions and sesame, and eat hot.

Tips

• Use a chili oil with plenty of crunchy sediment (Lao Gan Ma or homemade).
• Stir the ginger water in slowly: it's what makes the filling juicy and silky.

Chef Amazing's own home version of chili oil wontons, in our words; not any restaurant's recipe.