Xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, are Chinese steamed dumplings that have soup inside of them. They are like magic! I grew up eating these with my family at our favorite dim sum restaurant in Chicago’s Chinatown and later learned how to make them by combining my family’s go-to pot sticker recipe with the secret ingredient: soup gelatin, which melts down into soup once the dumplings are cooked.
| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 2 hr 40 min |
| Active: | 1 hr 30 min |
| Yield: | 32 dumplings |
| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 2 hr 40 min |
| Active: | 1 hr 30 min |
| Yield: | 32 dumplings |
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 1 3/4 cups chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- One 1/4-ounce envelope gelatin powder (about 1 tablespoon)
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce, plus more for serving
- 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon sambal oelek, plus more for serving
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, plus more for serving
- 4 scallions, finely chopped
Instructions
- For the wrappers: Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl and create a well in the middle. Add the boiling water and mix it in with a spatula, then incorporate with your hands until you have a mealy, shaggy mixture. Mix in the cold water and bring everything together into a dough, then turn it out onto a work surface and knead, adding additional flour if it gets too sticky to work with, until you have a smooth and slightly sticky dough, 7 to 10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel for 30 minutes while you make the filling.
- For the soup: Heat the chicken stock, then add the soy sauce and gelatin powder. Whisk to combine. Pour into a shallow dish and chill until set, around 1 hour. Break up the gelatin by fluffing with a fork. Set aside.
- For the filling: Put the pork in a large bowl and sprinkle on the salt, then add the soy sauce, ginger, sambal oelek, sesame oil, rice vinegar and scallions. Mix everything together with your hands (don’t overmix), then set up your dumpling folding station.
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and dust with flour. To assemble the dumplings, divide the dough into 32 balls and keep them covered when you’re not working with them. Roll them out into 3 1/2- to 4-inch circles, flouring the surface as needed. Place 1/2 tablespoon pork filling in the center of each circle and 1/2 tablespoon soup gelatin on top of the filling. Fold up the edges of the dumpling and pinch everything in the center. Repeat with the remaining dumpling wrappers and filling and place on the lined sheet pan.
- To steam the dumplings, line a bamboo steamer with cabbage leaves or parchment paper with a few holes cut out. Place the dumplings in the steamer, leaving a little bit of room between them, then set the steamer over a pot of boiling water. Steam in batches until cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Alternately, line a plate with cabbage leaves or parchment paper. Place in a pot of boiling water, making sure the water doesn’t cover the plate (you will need about 1/2 to 3/4 cup). Cook 8 to 10 minutes.
- Let cool slightly, then enjoy with a sauce of equal parts vinegar and soy sauce with sambal oelek to taste.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 32 servings |
| Calories | 91 |
| Total Fat | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Carbohydrates | 10 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Sugar | 0 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Cholesterol | 11 mg |
| Sodium | 119 mg |
| Serving Size | 1 of 32 servings |
| Calories | 91 |
| Total Fat | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Carbohydrates | 10 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Sugar | 0 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Cholesterol | 11 mg |
| Sodium | 119 mg |
Reviews
Dis nut dumpling dis 小笼包.
I have been learning and experimenting with getting the dough right, which is getting a very thin yet is strong enough to hold all of the fillings kind of skin. I started with all purpose flour, but the skin always turn out thick or hard, or thick and hard; so I started communicating with some Chinese youtubers that have posted video about making soup dumplings, after all, soup dumpling is originated in China, and they told me the ingredients of the AP flour in the western countries are different from those in China, hence although they are both AP flour, they would yield a different texture of dumpling doughs. If I want to use AP flour (in USA), I need to add wheat starch (not wheat flour) to the flour mixture, or to save myself some guessing works on the proportions between AP flour and the starch, I should just go ahead to use the flour that are premix for dumplings. I had my first try on mixing AP flour with the wheat starch, the texture is getting much closer to how an authentic dumpling should be, but was still not exactly the right texture, so I am gonna experiment with the premix flour.
You are using just all purpose flour here, not trying to undermine your success, I am going to just make a bold statement that your recipe is not gona yield a correct dough for soup dumplings
You are using just all purpose flour here, not trying to undermine your success, I am going to just make a bold statement that your recipe is not gona yield a correct dough for soup dumplings
These were good but I thought the dough was a little thicker than I like. I would make these again but use wrappers from the store to cut down on the prep time.
Can you use beef instead?
My 6yr old daughter is very tactile and loves cooking together. This was the perfect way to spend an evening together, thank you! I messed up how much filling to put in each dumpling but they still turned out AMAZING. She even said she thought they tasted better than chocolate
Would this recipe be possible to recreate with Chicken rather than pork? My dad doesn’t like pork so I was wondering if it would still taste right if I replaced the pork with chicken.
So delicious and fun to make! Love the first bite with the soup explosion. The first few were not that pretty but eventually got the hang of pleating. Will definitely be making this again. Gotta practice the fold!
Amazing! Better than our local dumpling house. Takes practice to get them to look right. But even the ugly ones taste delicious.
This was mind blowing but probably because I substituted the gross-sounding soup broth with braised chashu pork belly broth (Chicken stock soy sauce and gelatin? Really?). I’d recommend spending some time making a good broth base since so much of the taste comes from the broth. You won’t need gelatin with a collagen-rich pork broth to complement the ground pork filling. The ground pork mixture was 5/5 though. There was a slight raw flour taste in the dough though so maybe it would be better if steamed longer?
Ehhhh is ok i gess