Baked Wontons!

Good morning!  Gung Hay Fat Choy!......yesterday.  Yep, I dropped the ball.  Chinese New Year was yesterday.  We celebrated here with some Chinese food for dinner.  I made fantastic baked ginger chicken wontons.  And today I am going to show you how I made them.  But….I should have shown you last week so that you could have made them yesterday too.  Like I said, I dropped the ball.  I am sorry that I have let you down.  Perhaps you could celebrate a belated Chinese New Year? 

Normally, I would fry my wontons, but in an effort to be a bit healthier, I baked them.  They still turned out great.  And there was way less mess in my kitchen.  Deep frying can be a pain in the tush, but baking wontons was crazy easy.  I will show you how I did it……

BTW-wait till you see what I put in the wontons.  I guarantee you will be surprised.

My starting line-up is chicken thighs, wonton wrappers, garlic, soy sauce, water chestnuts, green onions and Gourmet Rooster Ginger Pear spread.

Does the Ginger Pear spread surprise you?  It actually was the star ingredient.  It has a great consistency which helped bind all the ingredients.  Plus, it has a really great ginger flavor which works so well with chicken.  Ginger Pear spread……it’s not just for breakfast!

I chose chicken thighs because I prefer the flavor.  You can totally use chicken breasts if you want.  I feel that chicken thighs retain their moisture better than breasts. 

I started by dicing the chicken thighs up.  Do you see my pretty knife?  I like that the picture on it tells me “Use this knife for chicken, moron.”

Don’t worry too much about the size……everything gets thrown in the food processor in a bit.

I browned the chicken in a sauté pan.  I used a smidge of oil, and salt & pepper.  Go easy on the salt because soy sauce gets added later.  And soy sauce is salty.

I cooked the chicken for about 5 minutes, or until cooked through.  When the chicken was almost done, I added the garlic.  I wanted to cook it a little bit, but I didn’t want it to burn.

I added the cooked chicken and garlic, Ginger Pear spread, soy sauce, water chestnuts and green onions to the food processor.  I “pulsed” it until it was the right consistency.  You will see what I mean by that in the next picture………

See that consistency?  No big chunks, but not a puree. 

I used smaller size wonton wrappers.  I found mine in the produce section of my local grocery store. 

Wonton wrappers can be difficult to work with.  They like to dry up super-fast and crack.  Not cool, wonton wrappers, not cool.  Keep a damp paper towel over the pile that you are working with, and they should be fine.

I put a heaping teaspoon into each wrapper.  I sealed the edges with a bit of water.

Place the wontons on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  When you are ready to pop them in the oven, spray the tops with cooking spray too.

These bake at 400 degrees for about 10 to 12 minutes.

Even without frying, these bad boys still come out brown and crispy.  And not greasy!  Look how good those look!

I served mine with some extra soy sauce for dippin’.  The chicken, combined with the green onions, soy sauce, and Ginger Pear spread is amazing.  Even I was surprised at how good it was…..and I make the spread!  It is the perfect combination of sweet and savory.  This is a must try!

Making wontons can suck…..and I mean the actual process.  I think you should enlist some help folding and sealing.  If you don’t have help, and you get sick of forming wontons…..save the rest of the filling and make fried rice with it.  This recipe makes a ton of wontons…..about 40, so there is a strong chance you will get sick of making them before you finish the filling;)

Have a great week!  I will see you on Thursday……

Ginger Chicken Wontons

Wonton skins, about 40

1 tablespoon oil

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

¾ lb. chicken thighs, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup Gourmet Rooster Ginger Pear Spread

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1/3 cup water chestnuts, drained

1/3 cup green onion, chopped

Water for sealing

Cooking spray

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large sauté pan, sauté chicken in oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Brown on all sides, about 5 minutes.  When chicken is almost cooked, add garlic.  Sauté chicken and garlic until chicken is cooked through.

Add cooked chicken and garlic to food processor.  Add Ginger Pear spread, water chestnuts, green onions and soy sauce.  Pulse until mixture is blended, but still chunky.

Fill wonton wrappers with about 1 teaspoon of filling each.  Seal edges with water.  Place wontons on baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.  Spray tops of wontons with cooking spray.

Bake wontons at 400 degrees for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes about 40.