Rating 8 Viral Dumpling Recipes

Hello, we are rating viral dumpling recipes today. It might be one of my favorites so far. I gotta admit, I was very excited to finally get around to doing this take on the rating viral recipes. I love, love, love, love dumplings. I have made many dumplings throughout my entire lifespan. It is probably one of my favorite things to eat in the world. And for some reason, it seems like there's a dumpling craze going on right now on the internet. I feel like we're just getting crazy creative with the things we can dumpling-fy. I love it. I am here for it. I feel like everyone should eat more dumplings in their lives. And that's why today I have, once again, curated eight very special dumpling recipes. The ones today range from different dumpling cooking methods to different dumpling folding methods. But ultimately, all of these are here to help you eat more dumplings. So let's get into it. So this is the one that basically started my whole let me test every viral dumpling thing rabbit hole. Because this dumpling bake has been living on my algorithm for weeks now. And I was so curious because the premise is almost suspiciously easy. It's also a very Trader Joe's specific one. Like you literally grab everything from the store and you dump all of it into a pan. So a can of coconut milk, some red curry sauce, a splash of soy yaki, garlic, all of that goes into a baking dish. And there's really very minimal cooking involved. If anything, we're just building layers. So a layer of veggies and then the frozen dumplings go right on top. I went with a Thai-style pork and shrimp one, also from Trader Joe's. I thought it would work really well. The best thing is they go in straight from the freezer. And that's pretty much it. The hardest part was probably the waiting because the smell coming from the oven was so good. It's very fragrant, but it does take quite a long time to cook. When it comes out though, the sauce bubbling around the edges, dumpling steaming in their little curry coconut bath, it does kind of feel like it's worth the effort. I gotta say, this smells really good. It really smells like that like coconut curry. You know, the ones you get at Thai restaurants that are creamy, extra fragrant, very aromatic. They also say you can scoop up this sauce and just drizzle it on the dumplings. The sauce did take a while to cook. I had to actually scoop some of the liquid out, but now it is this beautiful creaminess that I think people actually eat with rice. So I actually might save that sauce. Ooh, this dumpling has been cooking for a while, but surprisingly still holds up. The exact kind of curry that makes my mouth water. Mm, maybe I kind of get it. Because the dumpling has been sitting in the sauce for so long and dumpling wrappers are essentially just like noodles, right? So it almost feels like I'm eating curry noodles and almost like a laksa of sorts. It's just like really penetrating through the dumplings. Got a little scoop of creamy spinach on there as well. I'm impressed. There is so much flavor in here. I mean, I wonder if even the curry sauce itself would have been good enough. Now I'm doing it for a second one. Oh yeah, I see the vision. This is great. Easy crowd favorite. Honestly, I'd give this a nine out of 10. I don't want to start out too crazy. I feel like this is like pretty close to a 10 out of 10. It does take a while cook time-wise, but really this is quite delicious. Mm. Dumpling lasagna. This is the one that I actually already know a little bit about because my version of this went kind of viral on its own, but I wanted to see it through fresh eyes again. You know, is it genius or is it diabolical? That's really the question everyone keeps asking. It's one of those things where, you know, using dumpling wrappers as lasagna sheets, it sounds very wrong the first time you hear it, but then when you actually start layering it, it kind of makes sense. Dumpling wrapper, it's just dough after all. There's some filling, layer of wrapper, more filling, more wrapper, and it really does start looking kind of like an actual lasagna, just maybe with less sauce. I also like putting an extra layer of cabbage in the middle just for some more of that moisture, but I'm also using my family's cabbage-heavy dumpling filling for this one. I feel like it just works really well, especially once it starts steaming. Just allows a lot of that broth to be held in it still. And I will say it's a pretty hefty portion, this thing. But once you drizzle on the soy sauce, the chili oil, the scallions, you cannot tell me that that doesn't look so good. This dumpling lasagna, so many of you DM'd me on Instagram saying that I had to give it a try. Started out with a lot of skepticism. I am, I feel like, very much of a dumpling purist, so I was like, what do you mean lasagna? Dumpling fried. Putting this together really was quite a fun process. The layers of the meat and the pasta, which is in this case the dumpling wrapper, all these little layers in there. So the filling I used was my grandpa's recipe, which is very cabbage-heavy, which actually lends very well to this recipe, where you don't actually have to add additional water or broth. The cabbage in itself has enough liquid. That bit of broth in here, you actually can see it trickle down. It tastes exactly like the dumplings that we have at home. A much larger package. I do like the fact that it retains a lot of those juices. Still feels very clean. I was afraid that things would undercook or overcook, but honestly, it just works out beautifully. Also, if you like your dumplings extra meaty, you could easily go ham in this. I think my personal preference will always be individual portions. I like the little pockets. I would rate this a seven out of 10. I am very much a scallion pancake person, through and through, so when this showed up framed as a shortcut version to making them, I just had to know if it was actually onto something. The idea is to use dumpling wrappers to create the layers of a scallion pancake, which, honestly, I don't think I ever fully realized just how many different things you can turn a dumpling wrapper into. But the filling is very much the same. So mixing the scallions with some salt, sesame oil, sesame seeds. That's what we're putting in the wrappers here before slowly rolling it up into this sort of pinwheel shape. Again, basically the exact steps you would do with regular dough, except this time with half the amount of labor and maybe less than half of the total time needed. And I guess that's kind of the appeal of this one, you know, the flavor and the idea of scallion pancakes without the extra effort. The crazy thing, too, is when I'm pan frying these, I swear they look exactly like the scallion pancakes we love so much, just bite-size. Now I'm just curious about whether it'll actually deliver that same crispy, flaky bite, or is it just gonna feel like a smaller, sadder cousin? Y'all, this is beautiful. I am actually in awe. The miracle of dumpling wrappers. They do actually look like these perfect little scallion pancakes, which is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. You get the beautiful color, the beautiful crisp. You actually see the little bubbles on the skin as well. So crispy. What does it look like on the inside? Ooh. Y'all, this actually looks like a scallion pancake with the fluffy layers and such. Smells great, let's give it a shot. That's crazy. If you blindfolded me right now and I just tasted it with my eyes closed, I feel like I could be tricked into thinking this was an actual scallion pancake. Dumpling wrappers are just dough, just flour and water. And in this context, we literally just made minute scallion pancakes. They were so quick to put together and the satisfaction it gives is actually quite crazy. Insane. I'm trying to think of something to critique it for, but I don't even know what. I'm just completely blown away. This has to be a 10 out of 10. Wow, I cannot stop staring at it. Before we get into dumpling number four, I just need a quick sip of coffee. Today's coffee is from Trade, who's sponsoring this video. I drink a lot of coffee. It's what fused me for the 48 hours of cooking prep that usually happens before videos like this. But my other favorite part of coffee is the taste. I love finding new beans and I'm always looking for something new to rotate in. And that's what Trade Coffee is built for. One second. So you take the quiz, tell them how you brew, what you're into, and then they'll match you with a coffee picked just for you from over 55 hidden gem coffee roasters around the country. Today, I'm drinking another light roast. This is from Atomic Coffee Roasters. It has floral notes of peach, black tea. I really like drinking it just black, nothing else. I think this one actually might be one of my favorites so far. I'm probably gonna get it again. Best thing too, everything's roasted to order. It's shipped straight from the roaster so you know it's peak freshness every single time. And if you don't like your first bag, they'll replace it, no question asked. So go check it out, explore. Link's in the description box below. Coffee, I love coffee. Okay, back to dumpling time. So smash burgers are a whole thing because of that crispy, lacy edge you get from pressing the patty down hard and fast. Well, dumpling filling is essentially just meat filling, right? It could be a meat patty. So in theory, applying that same logic to a dumpling could potentially work, like smash dumplings. Also, I'm using the same dumpling filling throughout this video so I can actually compare these dumpling-making formats fairly, which makes this one interesting because I don't even know if I'm making dumplings at this point. It feels kind of wrong, actually, just spreading the meat out across the wrapper. But in this way, it means there's more surface area that would be touching the pan. So supposedly we'd get more crisp bits, more texture, all in theory, I guess. It does look a lot more like a taco currently, though. So we shall see. We have now ventured into the territory that is just different dumpling folding methods. This one's very interesting. It's basically an open-faced dumpling, but it really just looks like a little taco. And I think that's how you're meant to be eating it as. Scoop a little bit of my sauce on here, fold it up like that. This is such a bizarre experience because I feel like I'm tasting the dumpling, but I am not seeing the dumpling. I almost feel like I'm eating a quesadilla with dumpling filling on the inside and without the cheese. I do like the crunch, though. It's almost like I deep-fried the dumpling. It does run a little dry, though, as a result. I feel like I really need water right now because a lot of the juiciness in the meat filling has kind of evaporated in the cooking process. The crazy thing, though, is I can see this being at some sort of new-age restaurant, being the dumpling taco platter. But I feel like if I'm evaluating this from a dumpling perspective, I think this one reads more like a taco than it does a dumpling. So I'm not sure it would satisfy that craving. And so, because of that, I would have to give this a five out of 10. Like, it's not bad, but it is not quite what it says it would be. Now, this is what happens when we make mozzarella sticks, but the breading is swapped out for dumpling wrapper. That's the pitch for this one. And it is such a bizarre substitution that I couldn't not give it a try. Seems like such a small swap on paper, but I feel like it kind of changes the whole texture profile. Like, it becomes something that's a lot more crispy. I also wanted to have a little more fun with this one, so that's why I did a sweet and spicy spin with a drizzle of hot honey over the string cheese. It also wraps around the cheese stick a lot better. So it's like these little blanket cocoons. There's something very satisfying about seeing how neatly that cheese just tucks and melts inside their little blankets. Also, how it gets to this perfect golden brown. But the real test is going to be that cheese pool moment. Will it or will it not? Mozzarella cheese sticks? First thing I gotta do is obviously try the pool. Trying to see if I can touch this with my hand. Oh my God, oh my gosh. That was just the cheese, though. Cheese ooze right there. I really underestimated just how much the dumpling wrapper could do. It's like how rice paper is having a moment. You can use it for a lot of things. Dumpling wrappers. There's actually so many unique takes on it, especially if you like the crunch of spring rolls. Very crispy coating on the outside. And together with the sweetness of the hot honey, this is delicious. Looks like the kind of crunch that still has a bit of chew to it, too, which is very satisfying all around. A fantastic snack. Look at this. Oh my Lord. Today I learned. Never underestimate your dumpling wrappers. There is so much you can do with it. Truly one of the best bites I've had today. I even love the little shape it comes in. So good, I almost forgot to rate it. You know what? I feel like this deserves a 10 out of 10. I know it's not technically a dumpling dumpling recipe, but we're still messing around with dumpling wrappers, so this is the one. This is another one that's less about the filling and more about swapping out the entire wrapping method. So same dumpling filling as the others, but instead of a dumpling wrapper this time, the recipe calls for rice paper. So the chunk of dumpling filling is squeezed on the inside, and there's quite a lot of it. Then it's rolled up like a spring roll, which turns out is not the easiest process. I feel like it might be easier if the filling was more meaty. It kind of feels like we're making a sausage. But so when it's looking like this, it's then coated in potato starch before it's cut up into little bite-sized pieces. Definitely gets a little messy and a lot squishy, but the starch coating is very interesting to me because yes, it helps the rice paper from sticking, but I imagine it also gives the pieces more shape and chew. Skewering it though, that's more of a presentation choice, but it does immediately make it feel more like something you'd order off a night market cart. I do kind of like that this is testing what really counts as a dumpling. You know, same filling, just wildly different wrapper and format. The question is whether it actually works or not. Another very sort of peculiar take on folding dumplings. This is the dumpling filling in rice paper, cut up, fried, skewered. I couldn't even properly skewer the rest of them. I think the filling was just overwhelming the rice paper a little too much. This is probably the most sort of crazy looking. We'll indulge in it. Sauce right on there. It's very chewy because of the cooked rice paper, but the main texture I'm getting here is just like the meat itself, which just tastes like a giant meatball. Wrapper is so thin and there's so much meat. The meat to wrapping ratio is a little intense, a little too much. So this almost feels more like a meat skewer, which if that's what you're looking for, it could be fun, but comparing it to a normal dumpling, I think it misses a lot of what makes the dumpling so good. The ratio is just really throwing me off. And I don't feel like rice paper is the best substitute. I think it's a little too chewy, too soft. This one has to be a four out of 10. Feels a little squishy. Okay, this is the one on the list that I'm not sure if it actually qualifies as a dumpling in my head. It's much more gnocchi, maybe pierogi adjacent, but it keeps getting tagged as a viral dumpling recipe. So I had to include it just to interrogate that a little. The dough itself is actually very straightforward. It's just boiled potato and potato starch. There's no flour or any other kind of starch allowed. Apparently that swap is non-negotiable or the texture falls apart. I gotta say too, needing a hot dough that's mostly starch feels very different in the hands. It's way more elastic and stretchy than like a regular flour dough. But the most fun part is trying to shape them into these little button mushrooms where the caps will later on hold a lot of the sauce. It's actually a little bit like making boba, even cooking them, boiling them in hot water before cooling them in cold water. Even at this point, I feel like I could tell how chewy they're going to be. They feel almost bouncy in the hands already. But yes, covered in some savory spicy sauce. I think this visual is probably what made them go viral. This took a lot longer than I thought it was going to. I feel like this is the thing with a lot of these viral videos. They cut out all the time it takes to maybe make like one step. It deceives you. It makes you think that, oh, it's so straightforward, it's so easy. This one was probably one of the most time-consuming ones we've done yet. There was a lot of kneading that I had to do. I should've just used a stand mixer. But I will also admit, I have seen these potato dumplings appear quite a lot. It looks so cute. It looks so perfect. This little button mushroom situation that's just covered in sauce. Look at it. It's beautiful. Slightly translucent too. Hoping that it's soaking up the sauce as it sits here. It's even chewier than a mochi. I feel like it's almost akin to like a boba, which uses tapioca starch. I do still very much taste the potato, but it definitely reads way more like a mochi ball than like a noodle or a dumpling. Way chewier than a gnocchi. Only putting this in the video today because everyone calls it a potato dumpling. The chewiness is almost a little too much. Given how big they are, I think it does take quite some time to get through each bite. And also a lot of the inside doesn't soak up that sauce. I would put this at a six out of 10. Having it in the noodle form might be more enjoyable than as like this little mushroom dumpling. It's okay. Okay. So every proper dumpling video I've made before this always involves this very meditative, repetitive pleading process that I love. You know, you make one by one by one. This method, however, basically throws all of that out the window. There is no folding at all for this dumpling making method. It's quite literally just a spoonful of filling dropped into the middle of a wrapper, scrunched up loosely, and that's it. There's not even really a shape we're looking for as long as the wrapper can somewhat hold the filling in. So what you end up with is something that kind of resembles a bouquet of sorts, which is maybe a very unexpected way to describe dumpling, but seeing them all in a pan together, it does kind of look like art to me. The other supposed beauty of this method though is that it also allows you to get that perfect golden crisp of pan-fried dumplings at the bottom while the top stays soft. I just think it's funny because this is almost the antithesis of why I make dumplings, but I have to admit, looking at the bottom of this pan right now, I am impressed by how it's looking so far. This is my kind of thing. I love pan-fried dumplings. I gotta show you how crispy this is. Guys, look at this. This golden brown situation at the bottom. I'm kind of mad that I've never thought about doing this before. It saves so much time. It almost looks like a dumpling bouquet. Separate them out. There is more surface area for these to stick to each other, so it needs a little bit of patience, maybe more patience than I thought, as you can see. If you do it too fast, it does rip apart. Flavor-wise, fantastic. We've really changed nothing about the insides except the dipping sauce is the same as well. I love that you get that beautiful golden crispiness. Ta-da, that golden bottom. But again, I feel like you still need a little bit of water, though, around the edges just to make sure it crumps up. I do miss the juiciness of the dumplings when they're sealed and cooked here because it's open-faced. A lot of that evaporates, but I will also say the end satisfaction is quite similar still, and it just makes it a lot more accessible. So I would give this 7.5 out of 10, mostly because I am just having more trouble than I thought trying to separate these from each other. And so there it is, all eight of our viral dumpling recipes tried, tested, rated. A lot of different ways to enjoy dumplings today. I feel like if you've always been intimidated by the idea of pleating dumplings, hopefully today you got some inspo and you'll finally be able to get that satisfaction. But as always, if you like this video, remember to like and subscribe. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.