so last night i cooked up some gyoza in the teflon pan. threw in a little oil and browned the frozen dumplings for a tiny bit before adding water and steaming the whole long. surprise! what emerged was a batch of perfectly crispy-bottomed gaozi that most importantly, flew right off the skillet! usually i screw it up but good, with skins sticking to the pan, all tore up, and exposed meat filling like butt hanging out a furry bunny yellow suit with a trap door for the ass.

i think it was the unintentional pre-water browning, while i fumbled to rip open a new bag of gyoza. how do you do yours?

Yeah, I do it like that too. It gets nice and brown on the bottom. Though sometimes the top part of the shell is still chewy. It’s very dependent on how well the steam cooks everything once you put a lid on it. I was thinking it’d be cool to gratuitously spray the tops using a spray bottle instead of simply adding water to the bottom. Just gotta make sure I’m not using my Aquanet bottle accidentally. =)

Not sure if this answers your question but instead of just water, for the steaming part, I go 50/50 water and mirin.  Gives the little guys an extra flavor kick

Badrox

really? mirin? you think anybody else does this? it’s not a bad idea actually…

i’ve further tested my newly discovered technique on a large bag of wei chuan pork and vegetable gyoza, which i consumed almost nightly over the course of the past week. not a single bum dumpling or ripped skin! awesome!!! i’ll never screw it up again…

That’s exactly how my dad taught me to make them (minus the mirin part - gotta try it someday though).  Coincidentally, he works for Wei Chuan.  He used to hook me up with free bags of the stuff all the time.

lol JC that’s an awesome perk to have!

ooh ok so i just made gyoza again last night… i’m something like 52-1 now, with one broken skin since my discovery (and that’s just cuz the spatula tore it cuz i crammed too many in the pan! =P)

photographic proof of my newfound gyozabilities!

What brands of gyoza do you guys recommend?  Ironically, I’ve been making LingLing’s Potstickers from Costco as the fat content is relatively low and not as oily as the Asian market counterparts.  I used to use Wei Chuan or I-Mei, but the oiliness got to be too much for me.  Also those thick LingLing skins prevent it from tearing, although this neat little trick of yours might prevent that from happening to me in the future!

This exactly how you are supposed to cook gyoza. You first fry them in the pan to get the bottoms crispy golden brown. It’s even OK if they stick a little. Then you add your water and cover to steam them. This will (hopefully) release them form being stuck on the bottom of the pan as well as cook them. A teflon pan helps for sure. Or you have to use a very well oiled pan or a well seasoned wok.

Never tried mirin. It’s a good idea. I’ll have to give it a try!