The time has come for me to make one of the singular most greatest soups on this planet and do it my way. And that is going to be one of the most wonderful, comforting, yet light soups one can slurp: Wonton Soup.
This classic Chinese staple is as good as soup gets: a delightfully tasty, yet simple and light broth adorned with wonderful, delicate meat-like pillows knows as wontons. And let’s not forget a few stunning greens caressing the wontons as well as some strands of chicken (or pork) floating in the broth and then topped with some crunchy noodles!
Or, if you wish to forego a typical over-the-top description of a recipe like the one above: IT’S DARN GOOD.
You’re going to be able to make this either in your Instant Pot or just as simply on the stove. Forget the bland broth and clunky wontons with meat the size of a Skittle. We’re talking perfect wontons in a broth so beautiful, it will be one of the most legit, perfect and flavorful wonton soups you’ve ever enjoyed – rivaling even the best of NYC Chinese restaurants. AND, it’s surprisingly easy to make!
Here’s How I Made It!:
We’ll begin by making our wonton filling by taking a shallot…
…and dicing it up finely.
Take a bunch of scallions…
…and slice them up and then divide them into 1/3 and 2/3rd groups.
Take the smaller, 1/3 group and finely chop it up…
…while reserving the larger, sliced 2/3rds for later.
Take some shiitake mushrooms and remove the stems…
…and (you guessed it), finely chop those up too. (You can leave these out of you hate mushrooms for whatever reason, but they do add a wonderful texture to the wonton meat)
Now let’s take a pound of ground pork.
Add the ground pork to a large mixing bowl as well as our finely chopped shallots, mushrooms and scallions (only that smaller 1/3 group though).
And now season up the mixture by adding some low-sodium soy sauce…
…Shaoxing (Shaohsing) rice wine (or cooking sherry if you cannot find or don’t wish to buy it online, although I suggest getting it)…
…some squeeze or minced ginger (optional)…
…and some seasoned salt.
Mix everything together very well (using clean hands, naturally)…
…so it looks like this when done – nice & combined.
Now take some square-shaped wonton wrappers (found in the frozen or refrigerated sections of many markets) and let them that because we’re about to make some delectable wontons!
But first, grab a buddy/companion/loud mother to help you because this will be done most easily and conveniently in assembly line fashion.
Set up your wonton-wrapping station with the stack of wonton wrappers, a bowl of cold water and the wonton filling. Take one sheet of wonton wrapper…
…wet the tip of your index finger…
…line the edges/perimeter of the wrapper with water (this will serve as a glue)…
…while the other person takes some filling…
…rolls it into a ball about the size of a pinball (but no bigger)…
…and places it in the center of the wrapper.
Now back to the wonton wrapping person. Take the bottom edge of the wrapper…
…and fold it up so it meets the top edge of the wrapper and press together so it seals.
Press all around the edges so that the meat is firmly sealed in the center with room to spare on the top and sides.
Now let’s give this wonton its shape. Lightly lift the upper flap along the top…
…and have it lay against the meat-filled portion of the wonton skin as you curve down the sides of the excess skin so that it’s in a rainbow/arch formation. The bottom of the wonton should naturally pleat when this happens. And that’s it! You’ve just made a wonton! After doing a few of these, you’ll be doing them quickly!
As you complete each wonton, place them in a plastic container, cover them and set them aside.
And when you’ve wrapped them all, feel proud of yourselves. I mean, YOU JUST MADE INCREDIBLE WONTONS! (Did you think you’d ever do that?)
Okay. Now let’s focus on our soup. Take some chicken tenders/tenderloins…
…and cut them into tiny strips.
Now go to the Instant Pot and give it some heat on the “Sauté” function because we’re gonna want to get our broth hot right away for the sake of cooking our delicate wontons.
Add in some chicken broth…
…garlic powder…
…sugar…
….seasoned salt…
…turmeric (this gives it that lovely color)…
…Shaoxing (Shaohsing) rice wine (or cooking sherry if you cannot find or don’t wish to buy it online, although I suggest getting it)…
…and low-sodium soy sauce…
Stir everything together.
Now, let’s add in the chicken…
…stirring it into the soup.
The heat of the soup will begin to cook the chicken immediately. Wonderful.
And now let’s add in some (but not all) of our wontons.
Drop them into the soup one-by-one…
…BUT DO NOT STIR as they are delicate. They’ll just be covered by the broth.
Lastly, top it off with some spinach (but again, DO NOT STIR). It may feel like it’s coming to the brim of the pot, but spinach cooks down significantly once cooked. Secure the lid and cook at high pressure (which will be very quick!)
As for the rest of the wontons, simply leave them in the container…
…and seal them with an airtight lid. Pop them in the fridge if you plan to use the rest the next day OR in the freezer where they’ll last for a few months!
Remove the lid when done and you’ll see the spinach will have wilted down to nothing.
Lightly stir up the pot so spinach gets mixed in (be gentle on the stirring though because we have delicate wontons in there!)
NOW let’s add in our remaining 2/3rds of scallions…
…and lightly stir them in.
Now it’s time to serve! Ladle the desired amount of wontons into your bowl…
…followed by some soup and greens.
Top it off with some crunchy chinese/chow mein noodles!
Then stick a spoon in it…
…bring a beautiful wonton to your lips…
…show it off…
…blow on it and delicately insert it into your mouth…
…(this is the reaction you and yours will likely have)…
…and you’ll just be all smiles after this. Because you just made some of the truly best wonton soup one can have. Number one, bar none.
Enjoy it with my renowned Hibachi Fried Rice AND Chicken & Broccoli!
Instant Pot Wonton Soup
Wonton Soup is my all-time favorite soup in Chinese cuisine, but too often when I order take-out, I get bland wontons in even blander broth. That all changes with this easy and accessible recipe which transports you to the finest of Chinese establishments. Take it from a Jewish boy who knows his Chinese food and grew up eating it every Sunday night.
Ingredients
For The Wontons:
- 1 lb of ground pork
- 1 large shallot, finely chopped
- 1/3 of a bunch of scallions, finely chopped
- 4 large shiitake mushrooms, finely chopped (optional if you hate mushrooms but it’s a great texture enhancer)
- 1 tbsp of low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tbsp of Shaoxing (Shaohsing) rice wine (or cooking sherry if you cannot find, but I do suggest using this as it can be found in many major or international markets and online)
- 2 tbsp of sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp of seasoned salt
- 1/2 tbsp of squeeze or minced ginger (optional)
- Package of wonton wrappers, square-shaped is preferable and thawed (usually found in the frozen section of many major or international markets)
For The Soup:
- 1 lb of chicken tenders/thighs, sliced into thin strips about 1/4″ long (optional, but I love this in my wonton soup)
- 6 cups of low sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 tsp of garlic powder (NOT the same as garlic salt)
- 1/2 tbsp of squeeze or minced ginger (you can add another 1/2 tbsp if you want a stronger flavor of ginger in the broth)
- 2 tbsp of Shaoxing (Shaohsing) rice wine (or cooking sherry if you cannot find, but I do suggest using this as it can be found in many major or international markets and online)
- 2 tbsp of low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tsp of sesame oil
- 2 tsp of seasoned salt
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 1 tsp of turmeric
- 5-8 oz bag of baby spinach
- The remaining 2/3rds of the bunch of scallions, sliced
- Chow mein noodles, for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Add all of the wonton ingredients to a large mixing bowl (except for the wrappers, of course) and mix well by hand for about 1-2 minutes
- Assemble the wontons by taking a wrapper, lining the perimeter/edges of the wrapper with cold water using your finger (this serves as a glue), placing a pinball size of the rolled filling mixture in the center of the wrapper, taking the bottom edge to meet the top edge and sealing the edges of the wrapper together so that the meat is nice and tucked in like a rectangular pocket. Then, take the top flap of the wrapper where the two edges have been sealed together, lightly fold it upwards and lay it against the meat-filled portion of the wrapper while curving down the the two sides of the wonton so it forms a curved, rainbow shape where the bottom will become naturally pleated. Allow the curved sides to rest against the meat-filled portion of the wonton where it should stick. And that’s it! (NOTE: See step-by-step photos and the video above as that will be very helpful as a visual guide – you’ll get the hang of it really quickly after 2 or 3 wontons. And I suggest you have two people do this: one person to roll the meat into pinball-sized balls, placing it into the center of the wonton skin and the other to do the wrapping as it will be a lot less messy and avoid getting the filling meat on the outside of the wonton wrapper since it’s a different set of hands handling each task)
- As the wontons are fully wrapped, place them one-by-one into a container and place an airtight lid on it when done. You should get about 40-50 wontons when all’s said and done
- On the Instant Pot, hit “Sauté” and “Adjust” so it’s on the “More” or “High” setting. We want it to come to a bubble as we prepare our soup for the wontons to cook in a timely fashion as they are delicate and we don’t want them overdone (NOTE: If you wish to do this on your stovetop instead of pressure cooker, see the “Jeffrey Sez” section)
- Add all the soup ingredients to the pot EXCEPT for the spinach, remaining scallions and chow mein noodles. Once you give everything a good stir, gently add in about 20-25 wontons one-by-one and top with the spinach BUT DO NOT STIR THESE as the wontons are delicate and we don’t want to pester them too much. (NOTE: As for the leftover wontons, simply leave them in the container and seal them with an airtight lid. Pop them in the fridge if you plan to use the rest the next day OR in the freezer where they’ll last for a few months!)
- Secure the lid and hit “Keep Warm/Cancel” and then hit “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” for 0 (yes, zero) minutes at High Pressure. Quick release when done
- Give the soup a LIGHT stir (the wontons will be a bit delicate) so the spinach gets evenly dispersed, add in the remaining scallions giving another light stir and serve immediately into bowls with desired wontons and soup in each. Feel free to top off each bowl with some chow mein noodles
- Enjoy it with my renowned Hibachi Fried Rice AND Chicken & Broccoli!
Jeffrey's Tips
Don’t want pork for the wonton filling? Use ground turkey, ground chicken or chopped, raw shrimp instead! You can also add some chopped, raw shrimp to the pork mixture above if you want some in there! About 1/4 pound should do nicely.
If you wish to make this soup on your stove instead of in your Instant Pot (for slightly firmer wonton skin), simply make the soup in a large pot, bring it to a low boil/simmer and then add in the uncooked wontons and allow to simmer/boil for 4 minutes, uncovered along with the spinach added. The wontons should cook nicely in that time. Then, turn off the heat and serve.
Given you’ll wrap about 40-50 wontons, you’ll have leftover wontons and can simply freeze the uncooked leftover wontons in an airtight container. When ready to eat, just add the desired amount of frozen (or thawed) wontons to the simmering soup in a pot on the stove and let cook for 5-10 minutes (test a wonton to make sure it’s heated and the meat is cooked). If making the leftover wontons the next day, you can put them in the fridge instead of the freezer (but I wouldn’t leave them in there for more than a day as the wonton skin will begin to dampen and get mushy). NOTE: If you add shrimp to the wonton mixture, the leftovers CANNOT be frozen and then re-thawed due to health/safety issues. So if you use shrimp in the wontons, they should all be cooked when made.
If you have leftover COOKED wontons, simply store them in a large container so they aren’t on top of each other (or they’ll stick together after a while and will rip when you take them apart) with about 1/4 cup of broth, secure them in an airtight container and pop in the fridge to reheat in the broth within the next 4 days.
If you don’t want any leftover wontons, simply halve the wonton recipe (but I suggest just making as written as you’ll have them ready to go in the future)!
Enjoy it with my renowned Hibachi Fried Rice AND Chicken & Broccoli!
Suzanne
FYI, if you fold the wonton into a triangle and bring the two outside tips together and seal they keep their shape
easier. Love every recipe I have made of yours! Recommend you all the time! Keep up these awesome videos! Canadian viewer/ huge fan!
Jeffrey
Nice tip! Thanks!
Lani
This recipe is beautiful and yummy! Even my husband went back for a second bowl and he isn’t a soup person! Definitely will be making this again especially in the aussie winter! Thank you
Lenette Noack
Hi
My wonton wrappers dissolved completely in the soup. I had meatball soup! Only thing i did different was i used rice vinegar instead of rice wine. Could that have been the problem?
TrishS
That happened to me also. I’ve read and tried a lot of wonton soup recipes and I actually do love Jeffrey’s recipe for the filling and the broth and the addition of spinach. I just think it’s a little tricky not to overstir the dumplings and to get your broth boiling to the right point so that once you put the lid on you’re going to be getting up to pressure very quickly. Plus, I use a Ninja Foodi and it does seem to take longer to come down in pressure and any additional time for those wontons to be exposed to heat means they’re going to dissolve. My solution is to 1) make the wontons ahead of time and freeze them (for at least an hour) so that I’m adding frozen instead of fresh dumplings or 2) boil the wontons separately on the stove, watching for them to rise as the sign that they are done and scooping them out immediately
Jill
I have frozen mini wontons from the market. Can I use them in the IP and how long would the IP be instead of 0 mins.
JW
The soup looked good.could you cook 8qt recipes for six.I just got my instant pot 8qt.Also any cook books works well with instant pot.
Bree
So, is the chicken added already cooked or do we cook it in the broth for zero minutes?
Thanks