Fried Wontons

Fried Wontons
Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Sue Li. Prop Stylist: Megan Hedgpeth.
Total Time
40 minutes
Rating
3(78)
Notes
Read community notes

Crunchy on the outside with a juicy shrimp filling, these deep-fried wontons are the ultimate party food. (You can use storebought or make your own wontons with this recipe.) To make sure they cook to the ideal golden brown crispness, avoid crowding the pan of hot oil. Each batch takes only a few minutes to fry, and the wontons still taste great when served warm. Better yet, welcome guests into the kitchen and serve the wontons as they’re ready. The spicy sweet-and-sour dipping sauce can be prepared ahead, making this party dish even easier.

Featured in: Easy, Festive Dishes for Chinese New Year at Home

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Ingredients

Yield:50 wontons

    For the Dipping Sauce

    • cup granulated sugar
    • ¼cup distilled white vinegar
    • 2tablespoons sambal oelek, Sriracha or other red chile sauce
    • 2garlic cloves, finely chopped
    • ½teaspoon coarse kosher salt

    For the Wontons

    • 4 to 6cups peanut or canola oil, for frying
    • 50fresh or frozen wontons
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the sauce: Combine the sugar, vinegar, sambal, garlic and salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer rapidly, stirring occasionally, until syrupy, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a dipping bowl and cool to room temperature. The sauce can be covered and refrigerated for up to a week; bring back to room temperature before serving.

  2. Step 2

    Fry the wontons (you can use storebought or make your own wontons with this recipe): Fill a heavy saucepan with oil to a depth of 2 inches. Heat over medium-high until a deep-fry thermometer registers 360 degrees. Working in batches, add the fresh or frozen dumplings to the hot oil (avoid crowding) and fry, turning to evenly cook, just until golden brown and crisp, 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Serve hot or warm with the dipping sauce.

Ratings

3 out of 5
78 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

The NYTcooking Instagram account has a video showing 4 different methods of folding. It looks very achievable and helps the instructions above make sense https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnngE3YB-M3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Do yourself a favor and buy the wontons ....Trader Joe's has very good wontons and will make this much less time consuming.

this was good. Added some hungarian paprika to spice up the sauce.. it did

The NYTcooking Instagram account has a video showing 4 different methods of folding. It looks very achievable and helps the instructions above make sense https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnngE3YB-M3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

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