Tired of the typical dumpling look? Dumpling skirt is the easiest way to elevate your dumpling meals with its attractive lace appearance and irresistible contrasting textures of crisp and moist. It is super easy to make this lace-like appearance with only 4 pantry ingredients.
What Is Dumpling Skirt Or Dumpling Lace?
Dumpling skirt, also known as dumpling lace, is an extra crispy take on traditional dumplings. Instead of eating dumplings with just their skin and filling, the dumpling skirt adds an extra layer of crispness with the hardened cornstarch slurry at the bottom of the pan. This extra step is worth it, especially if you love a good crunch and an appealing web-like presentation.
Making the webbed appearance is easy! All you need are four pantry ingredients, including cornstarch, plain flour, water, and oil. For the dumplings, you can buy ready-made dumplings in the store or follow my dumpling recipe below.
In my recipe, I use the easy method to fold the dumplings. You can also check out my guide “7 Ways to Fold Dumplings” for different folding techniques.
If you have frozen dumplings, achieving the crispy skirt is still possible! Refer to step 7 in the recipe for any necessary adjustments.
If you like more dumpling variety, use my other recipes, such as Gluten-Free Dumplings Recipe (Taro Dumpling Skin) and Wu Gok 芋角 (Deep-Fried Taro Dumpling Puffs). To make this version of dumpling skirt, I filled the dumplings with ground pork, chopped shiitake mushrooms, corn, green onions, ginger, and various seasonings. I used my own dumpling wrappers which I made from scratch with the recipe guide, How To Make Dumpling Wrappers.
How To Customize This Dumpling Skirt Recipe
Making this dish has no limits! Use any filling you prefer, from meat to vegetables and seasonings. If you need alternatives and suggestions, refer to my tips below.
Dumpling Filling: Although store-bought dumplings will make it faster and more convenient to make this dish, nothing beats homemade dumplings made with the freshest ingredients. The dumpling filling I used is made of minced pork, shiitake mushrooms, corn, green onions, and ginger.
- Minced pork: Get ground pork from the market or cuts of pork. If using pork cuts, it has to be diced and blended to make it minced. Pork cuts you can use are pork shoulder, pork butt, pork blade, and boneless pork leg, to name a few. Some excellent substitutes for pork are beef, shrimp, tofu, soy meat, or more shiitake mushrooms.
- Shiitake mushrooms: Shiitake mushrooms are my favorite for their smokey and ‘meaty’ These are diced to have a chunky texture for a better-tasting filling. I don’t recommend blending these or cutting them too much. Otherwise, it will make the filling too mushy. Aside from shiitake mushrooms, other excellent mushrooms are button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and king oyster mushrooms.
- Corn: Use canned corn kernels and drain the liquid thoroughly. You can also use whole corn and manually remove the corn kernels using a knife.
- Green onions: The filling gets its mild sweetness and oniony taste with chopped green onions. If you don’t have green onions, use chives, shallots, white onions, yellow onions, or red onions.
- Ginger: Add a warming peppery taste with fresh ginger. You can swap fresh ginger with ground ginger. Use 1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground ginger for every 1 tbsp of fresh ginger.
Seasoning:
- Salt: Season it with salt and adjust to taste. Use sea salt, regular table salt, or kosher salt.
- Light soy sauce: Add salty and umami flavors with light soy sauce. You can also swap this with regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce, use tamari, liquid aminos, coconut aminos, or gluten-free soy sauce.
- Dark soy sauce: Dark soy sauce adds color and a richer flavor. This can be omitted or replaced with more light soy sauce if desired.
- Oyster sauce: Oyster sauce is often comparable to a mix of soy sauce and barbecue sauce. It has an umami taste with a hint of caramel. Replace this with other substitutes, such as hoisin sauce, teriyaki sauce, kecap manis, Worcestershire sauce with soy sauce and sugar, and oyster-flavored sauce.
- Chicken bouillon powder: This boosts the overall flavor with a touch of chicken taste. Aside from chicken, I recommend pork cubes, vegetable powder, and Italian seasoning mix. You can use powder or cubes. Feel free to omit this ingredient if you prefer.
- Oil: Oil helps keep the filling moist and prevents it from drying out. Use olive, avocado, and safflower oil for something healthier. For a neutral-tasting oil, go for peanut, soybean, or vegetable oil. If you like something Asian and earthy, sesame oil is the ideal option.
Cornstarch Slurry: This is key to making the lacey bottom appearance. Give this a good mix before pouring it into the pan.
- Cornstarch: If you don’t have cornstarch, you can substitute it with the following:
- All-Purpose Flour (1:1 ratio)
- Arrowroot Powder (1:1 ratio)
- Tapioca Starch/Flour (1:1 ratio)
- Potato Starch (1:1 ratio)
- Rice Flour (1:1 ratio)
- Plain flour: All-purpose flour works for the recipe. If you want to use other types of flour, you can also use rice flour for a hint of sweetness and a more airy dumpling skirt.
- Water: For every 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, you will need 12 tablespoons of water.
- Oil: This helps cook the slurry and give its crispy texture. You can use the same oil used for the filling.
How To Serve Crispy Dumpling Skirt
Enjoy this crispy dumpling skirt with a sweet or savory dipping sauce. Pair it with a savory soy sauce mixed with sesame oil, a spicy chili oil sauce, or something sweet like sweet chili sauce. However, you can also eat this on its own or with rice, noodles, or soup!
If you want to explore more varieties of dumpling sauce, have a look at my Four Dumpling Sauce Recipe. Learn how to make garlic-flavored dipping sauce, chili-infused dipping sauce, sesame dipping sauce, and hot wasabi dipping sauce.
Ingredients And Kitchenware To Prepare
All you need is a mixing bowl for the filling and a pan for frying. You can use any kitchenware you already have, but I highly recommend using a non-stick pan to avoid the cornstarch slurry from sticking to the pan and eventually breaking. It should be able to come out of the pan easily without breaking as you turn it over to a plate.
The ingredients to prepare are:
Dumplings
- Dumpling Wrappers
- Filling:
- 200g of minced pork
- 20g of shiitake mushrooms
- 20g of corn
- 10g of green onion
- 5g of ginger
- Seasoning:
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of light soy sauce
- 1 tsp of dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp of oyster sauce
- 2g of chicken bouillon powder(optional)
- 10g of oil
- 1 tbsp of neutral oil for pan-frying
Cornstarch Slurry:
- 1 tbsp of cornstarch
- 1 tbsp of plain flour
- 12 tbsp of water
- 1 tbsp of oil
Garnish (optional)
- Sesame seeds
- Green onions
Instructions: How To Make Dumpling Skirt
The main steps to remember are these 3: make the dumplings, fry the dumplings, and pour the cornstarch slurry. Follow my recipe video on Instagram or TikTok to see how I cooked it with the cornstarch slurry and flipped the pan over. Don’t forget to tag me @kitchenmisadventures to share your dumpling skirt creations.
It would be lovely if you could share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section as well. Have a great meal! Here’s the step-by-step instructions:
- Prepare the dumpling filling in a bowl. Mix the minced pork, chopped shiitake mushrooms, corn kernels, green onions, and ginger.
- Season with salt, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, chicken bouillon powder, and oil. Stir well.
- Make the dumpling wrappers or use your store-bought wrappers.
- Place the filling in the center of the wrapper, fold the wrapper, and pinch the top center to close. You can also refer to my guide “7 Ways To Fold Dumplings” for different folding techniques.
- Prepare the slurry by mixing cornstarch, plain flour, water, and oil.
- Prepare your non-stick pan with a thin coating of oil and heat it.
- Place the dumplings in the pot and fry until the bottom is crispy. The base of the dumplings should become crispy and golden brown. I use fresh dumplings here. If you are using frozen dumplings, drizzle 2 tablespoons of water in the pan, not on the dumplings. Cover the lid and cook until the water has completely evaporated. Now, proceed to the next step.
- Mix the slurry once more and drizzle it on the pan. Make sure the slurry is spread evenly on all corners.
- Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 8 minutes over medium heat.
- Sprinkle sesame and green onions over the dry dumplings.
- Place a large plate on the pan and flip the pan over.
- Carefully take out the pan to avoid breaking the skirt.
- Enjoy while hot and fresh with a delicious dumpling sauce!
Did you love this dumpling recipe? If yes, I suggest you try my crispy recipes as well, such as Wu Gok 芋角 (Deep-Fried Taro Dumpling Puffs), Crispy Fried Wonton Strips, and Fried Glutinous Rice Dumpling.
How To Make Dumpling Skirt
Ingredients
Dumplings
- Dumpling Wrappers
Filling:
- 200 g of minced pork
- 20 g of shiitake mushrooms
- 20 g of corn
- 10 g of green onion
- 5 g of ginger
Seasoning:
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of light soy sauce
- 1 tsp of dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp of oyster sauce
- 2 g of chicken bouillon powder optional
- 10 g of oil
Cornstarch Slurry:
- 1 tbsp of cornstarch
- 1 tbsp of plain flour
- 12 tbsp of water
- 1 tbsp of oil
Garnish (optional)
- Sesame seeds
- Green onions
Instructions
- Prepare the dumpling filling in a bowl. Mix the minced pork, chopped shiitake mushrooms, corn kernels, green onions, and ginger.
- Season with salt, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, chicken bouillon powder, and oil. Stir well.
- Make the dumpling wrappers or use your store-bought wrappers.
- Place the filling in the center of the wrapper, fold the wrapper, and pinch the top center to close. You can also refer to my guide "7 Ways To Fold Dumplings" for different folding techniques.
- Prepare the slurry by mixing cornstarch, plain flour, water, and oil.
- Prepare your non-stick pan with a thin coating of oil and heat it.
- Place the dumplings in the pot and fry until the bottom is crispy. The base of the dumplings should become crispy and golden brown. I use fresh dumplings here. If you are using frozen dumplings, drizzle 2 tablespoons of water in the pan, not on the dumplings. Cover the lid and cook until the water has completely evaporated. Now, proceed to the next step.
- Mix the slurry once more and drizzle it on the pan. Make sure the slurry is spread evenly on all corners.
- Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 8 minutes over medium heat.
- Sprinkle sesame and green onions over the dry dumplings.
- Place a large plate on the pan and flip the pan over.
- Carefully take out the pan to avoid breaking the skirt.
- Enjoy while hot and fresh with a delicious dumpling sauce!
