Chicken wontons


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Preparation Time : 30 minutes

Cooking Time :3-4 minutes for each batch deep fried + 20 minutes

Serving : 4-6 members

Description

Chicken wontons . The first time I got to read this dishes name on a menu card in a Chinese restaurant in Coimbatore , was not sure about how to pronounce the word wonton . I remember it was a chicken wanton soup . Wanting a clear soup , very hesitantly pronounced the word wonton and checked if it was a clear soup , then ordered the soup . Even till date I go through this difficulty of not being sure of a million words on how to be pronounced . But I never give up and make sure to learn the exact pronunciation of the word . Every passing day there is at least one new thing to be learnt isn’t it . The deep fried wanton also was introduced to me from the same restaurant Kowloon in Coimbatore . Ever since that  first mouthful bite , this in one of my favourite dishes .   Those days of no Internet and google left me in despair to experiment for a perfect recipe of home made wontons . But every try I failed with the texture of the wonton skin and the folding part .   Days of no google left us in plain experimenting of trial and error . Thanks to World Wide google network that anything and everything is just a finger touch away . My first try .. i was so very nervous but it was the talk of the table . From then on , it’s a staple at home . Only that no one ever gets enough of them .

Wanton wrapper ingredients

ingredients
Quantity
egg 1
salt3/4teaspoon
plain flour /maida2 cups + extra as needed
water1/4cup +extra as needed

 

Method for wanton wrappers

  1. Lightly beat the egg with the salt. Add the water
  2. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the egg and water mixture and combine.
  3. Add as much of the extra water as necessary to form a dough.
  4. Form the dough into a ball and knead for approximately 5 minutes, or until it forms a smooth, workable dough.
  5. Cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
  6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out until very thin and cut into 9 cm squares.
  7. Pasta machines are brilliant for rolling this out, or just use a rolling pin.

Ingredients for the filling

Ingredients
Quantity
Spring Onions 5 tablespoons chopped
Carrot 1 thinly sliced
Beans5 thinly chopped
Cabbage1/4 cup shredded
garlic1 clove crushed
pepper powder to taste
Cooked shredded chicken 1 cup , ( cook boneless chicken cubes with salt to taste and enough water ,evaporate the water to dry . then blitz in a food processor )
light soy sauce1 tablespoon

 

MethodFor filling

  1. Add the carrots , beans and cabbage to hot boiling salted water .
  2. Cover and switch of the flame and set aside for 5 minutes .
  3. Drain and  Mix all ingredients together,taste and adjust and set aside .

How to assemble and deep fry

  1. Cut wanton wrappers into equal shaped squares. Place a tablespoon of chicken filling in the Center of the square .
  2. Spread egg white on the two adjacent  edges of the wanton wrappers . Fold the square into a triangle so that the  egg white helps the edges of the triangle to stick together .
  3. Dot with egg white on one side of the long side of the corners . Take the two sides of the long corners and bring them together with the edged corner underneath the other corner .
  4. The edge should curl up to form a boat – like shape . Do the same with all the filling and wonton wrappers .
  5. Heat up the oil in a frying pan or wok at medium heat.  Fry the wonton until golden brown. Watch the heat carefully.
  6. Keep turning them to cook them all the way through. Will take about 30 seconds not more . Drain and serve hot along with sweet and sour sauce .

Ingredients Sweet and Sour Sauce

Ingredients
Quantity
Red chilly powder1 1/2 tablespoon
salta pinch
sugar3 tablespoons
vinegar 1 tablespoon
water2 tablespoon

Method

  1. Put all ingredients together in a small bowl and microwave it until the sugar is dissolved.
  2. Stir to prevent the sugar from crystalizing on the bottom. It should take about a minute or so depending on your microwave.

Notes

  1. I added some tomato sauce , red chilli sauce and thai sweet sauce to the filling . But this filling did have a change in colour on the wontons once fried only where the filling was . So better to keep the filling simple and white in colour .
  2. The authentic filling is usually made with raw meat ground and then mixed with garlic , spring onion and soya sauce , I was not confident if the raw meat might cook so I used cooked meat .
  3. Vegetarians can substitute with thinly sliced mixed vegetables for the filling .
  4. Be very careful while deep frying making sure you do not brown the wontons too much .
  5. In case I have ready made wonton wrappers in stock I do use them instead which is really handy and easy but nothing comes close to home made wanton wrappers .
  6. Be careful about microwaving sugary mixtures too long because the sugar gets extremely hot and can crack a bowl due to thermal expansion of the area where the sugar is.