Look, I Made Dinner!: Steamed Chicken Dumplings

No, not chicken and dumplings... chicken dumplings. Like, Chinese food. I got a bamboo steamer! And I was very, very excited to use it. I got it so I could make steamed buns, but I thought I should start with something a little easier to get the hang of how the steamer works, since I've never used one before.

Steamed Chicken Dumplings

Ingredients
1 lb ground chicken
4 green onions, minced
4 Tbsp minced garlic
about 1" of fresh ginger, peeled & minced
4 Tbsp soy sauce
1 package wonton wrappers
optional: cabbage or lettuce leaves instead of parchment paper

Equipment
mixing bowl, wok, bamboo steamer, stove, parchment paper

Instructions
In a large bowl, mix the ground chicken, green onions, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce by hand until thoroughly combined. Line your bamboo steamer with cabbage or lettuce leaves or with parchment paper. Spoon a little bit of chicken mixture into the middle of each wonton wrapper, wet the edges and fold together into a triangle, pressing out the air and sealing it. Set the dumplings into the paper-lined steamer trays in a single layer. Steam according to your steamer's directions for about 10-12 minutes. (Mine calls for putting about 2" of water in the wok, setting the steamer in, waiting until it boils, and then starting the timer for how long to cook.)

Yields
We made about three dozen dumplings and had a little chicken mixture left over.

Total time
Since we made ours in three batches, it took about 45 minutes, what with the 10 minutes per batch, and figuring out how to work the steamer and putting together the first batch of dumplings (I made the others while the previous batch was cooking).

Cleanup rating 2/5
For so much work, it's surprising how easy it is to clean up. We used parchment paper, so I don't know if lining with leaves makes a difference, but the steamer just needed a quick clean, and other than that, there's just a mixing bowl and spoon to deal with.

Difficulty rating 7/10
In future dumplings recipes, I'm sure I'll rate this a lot lower, but with it being our first time using the steamer (and not realizing that you can leave at least the bottom tray in the wok while you remove cooked dumplings) and getting the hang of making dumplings that don't make big air pockets... it was a little more difficult than it probably will be in the future.

Flavor rating 7/10
YUM. We made dumplings, you guys. Real, honest-to-goodness, dumplings. Like the ones in restaurants. It's kind of amazing. We used a little bit too much ginger (my fault) but they were delicious. Birk threatened to eat all of them so I had to pack up leftovers for lunch before he could do that.

Adjustability: high
You can put pretty much whatever you want in your dumplings. The original recipe actually called for ground pork, but I couldn't find any at the store, so I used chicken instead. You can add minced veggies or other spices or whatever! You could also pan-fry them after they're steamed, which I plan to do next, as far as dumplings are concerned.

Make it with...
Well, there's a dipping sauce recipe here that I loved with these. You could make some rice, steam some vegetables in another tray of the steamer, make tempura... whatever!

Bonus photos: