Chinese dumplings with chicken (Chinese New Year Recipe)

You simply cannot celebrate Chinese New Year without eating chinese dumplings, also known as jiaozi. These chinese dumplings can be cooked in a variety of ways and they come in different shapes as well as with different fillings. You can steam them, shallow-fry them or boil them, depending on your taste. Fillings include meat like pork, chicken, shrimp and vegetables. I make my own dumplings all the time because I do not like to eat pork. Well, I CAN eat pork, but I don’t really like it. I must say I am a weird sino-mauritian. When I tell my friends that I don’t like to eat pork (or beef too), they exclaim: “O god, are you Chinese?”. It’s because Chinese stuff pork in almost everything and the dumplings here are 99.99% all filled with pork. Last time, my chinese friend was telling me that she just loves eating beef or pork,and that almost all chinese are same. I think I might go vegetarian(except for shrimps-I love shrimps!), what do you think? I will be using cabbage and carrots, along with minced chicken for the filling this time.
Check out the Vegetarian potstickers and other Chinese New Year recipes: Mauritian-Chinese fried noodles, Sweet and Sour Pork Meatballs, Spring Rolls, Chinese Tea Eggs, Orange Chicken in a sauce.

(Complete list of Chinese New Year Recipes)

Chinese dumplings with chicken recipe

Ingredients:
250g minced chicken (use a food processor to get minced chicken)
2cm ginger, grated
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/4 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsps green onions, chopped
1 medium carrot, grated
1/2 medium cabbage, thinly cut
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
20-25 round dumplings wrappers

Steps:
1. Put a muslin cloth on a bowl. Place the grated carrot, cabbage and 1 tsp of salt onto the muslin cloth. Mix them and leave for 10 mins.
2. Take the muslin cloth and close it, squeezing the maximum amount of water out of the vegetables into the bowl. Keep the water as vegetable stock for soups.
3. Put minced chicken, vegetables and all other ingredients into a bowl. Mix well.
4. (a) Place a teaspoon of filling in the centre of one dumpling wrapper.
(b) Using your finger, moisten the edges with little water.
(c) Fold the wrapper and press in the middle. Pleat on both sides and press. Place on a tray or dish.
5. If you want to freeze and keep to eat later: after you finish doing all the wrappers, place the tray in the freezer until they harden. Then, place them in airtight plastic bags and keep in the freezer, until later use.
6. Boil water in a steamer. Oil the steamer tray with some sesame oil so the jiaozi don’t stick later on. Place the chicken dumplings on the steamer tray.
7. When the water start to boil, place the steamer tray and cover. Steam for about 10-15 minutes.
8. Serve them with any dipping sauce you like.
Note: You can also use the rice cooker for steaming, if your rice cooker has the steamer tray. I used the rice cooker