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Who can resist the magic of potstickers—crispy on the bottom, tender on top, and packed with savory goodness? These heart shaped pork potstickers are perfect for Valentine’s Day or Chinese New Year, but honestly, you’ll be looking for excuses to make them year-round. Paired with a crave-worthy Asian dipping sauce, they’re as fun to make as they are to eat. Whether you stick with hearts or try another shape, these dumplings are sure to steal the show. Go ahead and add them to your party spread—you won’t regret it.
Heart shaped potstickers are a great idea for Valentine’s Day. They’re easy to prepare and, served with a yummy dipping sauce, a surefire way to anyone’s heart!
Other party faves include Dirty Martini Dip or Brie Cranberry Bites. For a birthday bash, consider Funfetti Birthday Cheesecake.
Why You’ll Love It
Tasty: Potstickers are really delicious and that applies to the texture as well as the filling. The part soft part crisp dumpling wrappers, ground meat and pork filling and dipping sauce complement each other beautifully.
Great for Valentine’s Day or Lunar New Year: These are just potstickers – they’re heart shaped potstickers! This means not only are they going to be delicious but they’re going to look Insta-worthy cute as well. So get those Valentine captions ready too.
Customizable: Feel free to use any kind of ground meat (or even a ground meat alternative), any veggies and whichever seasonings you want to personalize them.
Easy Pork Dumplings Ingredients
A complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Ground pork or chicken: Use your favorite ground meat for these. Bear in mind extra-lean beef and anything naturally lean like chicken can dry out more easily that fattier cuts.
Purple cabbage: This adds a splash of color to the recipe and looks pretty in the photos but you can use green or white cabbage if you prefer.
Egg: To add flavor and also hold the filling in the potstickers together.
Wonton wrappers: You can’t have pot stickers without the wrappers! You need to get small square ones, available from any Asian food market.
Soy sauce: A typical ingredient used to both flavor the dumplings and also in the dipping sauce. Use regular or gluten-free.
Butter: For cooking the pot stickers. You can use vegetable oil instead when making pan fried dumplings but the butter does give a nice flavor.
Rice wine vinegar: For a sharp flavor that contrasts with the salty soy sauce and rich-flavored sesame oil. Add a pinch of sugar to the dipping sauce too if you prefer more sweetness.
How to Make Valentine Potstickers
For more detailed instructions with weights and measurements, jump to the printable recipe card.
Prepare the dipping sauce: Whisk all the dipping sauce ingredients together and set to one side.
Make the potsticker filling: Mix the pot stickers filling ingredients together.
Prepare the wonton wrappers: Cut them into heart shapes using a heart shape cookie cutter.
Assemble the potstickers: Wet your finger with water and run it around the edge of the heart shaped wonton wrapper, add a little filling and then add another heart shaped wonton wrapper on top and press the edges together to enclose the filling. Repeat until they’re all done.
Pan fry the pot stickers: Melt butter and oil in a skillet and add the dumplings and a little water, and then cover the pan and cook for a few minutes. Flip them over and brown the other side.
The finishing touches: When the potstickers are golden brown on both sides, serve them with sliced cabbage, green onions and sesame seeds, as well as the dipping sauce you made earlier.
Substitutions and Variations
Switch the protein: Any kind of ground meat would work or you could even use seafood or a vegetarian protein.
Swap the veggies: Anything goes really, so if you want to add carrot, beansprouts, mushrooms, water chestnuts, or anything else, make sure they’re finely chopped first. Fresh ginger is good in homemade dumplings.
Gluten free option: If you want a gluten free version, make sure you use gluten free soy sauce (not the regular kind that often has wheat) and use gluten free wonton wrappers.
Serving Suggestions
Appetizers: One of these Panda Express copycat recipes will set the theme and tone for a delicious evening.
Side dishes: Fried rice pairs well with this potstickers recipe or perhaps homemade ramen soup.
Dessert: S’mores brownie bite truffles are a romantic dessert option, or you could whip up pretty stained glass effect Valentine cookies.
Drinks: Any one of these romantic Valentine cocktails would be perfect.
How to Store Potstickers
Store: Keep any leftover potstickers in an airtight container in the fridge and eat within 3 days. You can also keep the dipping sauce, but in its own container.
Freeze: You can freeze the assembled potstickers before cooking for up to 3 months, then proceed with the recipe.
Thaw: Not necessary. You don’t have to thaw them out first because they cook fast over a medium high heat.
Reheat: Either pan fry them in a little oil for a minute or until hot, or heat them back up in the microwave.
Top Tips
Don’t overfill them: Don’t put too much filling in there and make sure you squeeze out any excess air, so the potstickers don’t split or fall apart during cooking.
Cook in batches: Potstickers don’t just stick to the pot. They can also stick to each other, so don’t crowd the pot! Cook them in batches if you need to.
Made too much filling? Save it. You can mix it into fried rice or noodles to make another meal.
Heart Shaped Potstickers FAQs
These fried dumplings are a popular snack in China. According to legend, they were invented during the Song Dynasty. A chef was making dumplings but they stuck to the pan and became crispy. Everyone enjoyed them and now these savory bites are beloved street food in Northern China and popular around Chinese New Year.
Unless you’re a Chinese chef with years of Chinese dumplings experience and can make these at warp speed, you’ll need to cover the ones you’ve made which you work on the rest. Put parchment paper on a baking sheet, then lay the dumplings on top as they’re made and cover with a damp clean towel. This will stop the uncooked dumplings from drying out.
The heat of the pan turns the water into steam which helps cook the dumplings evenly.
Pork Heart Dumplings Recipe
Heart Shaped Pork Potstickers Recipe
Equipment
- Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter Heart Shaped
- Skillet Large with Lid
Ingredients
For the Potstickers:
- 1 Pound ground pork, or ground chicken
- ½ Cup purple cabbage, minced
- 4 green onions, sliced thinly – white part only
- 1 egg
- 2 Teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 Teaspoon rice wine vinegar, seasoned
- 1 Teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ Teaspoon ginger powder
- ¼ Teaspoon white pepper
- ¼ Teaspoon salt
- ½ Teaspoon butter
- ½ Teaspoon sesame oil
- 50 wonton wrappers
- 1 Tablespoon cooking oil
- water, as needed
For the Dipping Sauce:
- ¼ Cup rice wine vinegar
- 3 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 green onions, sliced thinly – green part only
- ½ Teaspoon sesame seeds
- ¼ Teaspoon sesame oil
- ¼ Teaspoon ginger powder
- ¼ Teaspoon red pepper flakes
Instructions
Make the Dipping Sauce:
- Combine all ingredients for the sauce, mix well and set aside for later.
Make the Filling:
- Combine the chicken, cabbage, white portions of the sliced green onions, egg, soy sauce, seasoned rice wine vinegar, garlic powder, ginger powder, sesame oil, salt, and white pepper in a bowl. Mix well.
Cut Out and Fill the Wonton Wrappers:
- Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut each of the wonton wrappers into a heart shape. Place a damp paper towel over the top of the wonton wrappers to keep them hydrated while you are working.
- Take one of the wonton hearts and set it in front of you. Dip your finger in a small bowl of water and trace the edge of the wonton heart to moisten it. Then fill the middle with about a tablespoon of filling. You may need more or less depending on the size of wonton wrappers and hearts you are making.
- Take a second wonton heart and lay it on top of the first, gently press the edges together to seal. Once you are sure it has been sealed, set aside onto a piece of wax or parchment paper, and place a damp paper towel over the top. Make sure to keep the finished pot stickers in a single layer before you cook them, as they will stick to each other.
Cook the Pork Potstickers:
- Once all of the potstickers have been made, add a tablespoon of oil and ½ tablespoon of butter into a large skillet that has a lid. Melt over medium low heat.
- As soon as the butter has melted and the butter oil mixture has coated the bottom of the pan, carefully lay the pot stickers along the bottom of the pan.
- It is important not to overcrowd so you may need to do these in batches. Add a tablespoon of water to the pan, then cover with a lid and cook on medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid and turn the burner heat up to medium high. Flip the potstickers once the bottoms have begun to brown, and continue to cook until the other side has browned.
Garnish and Serve:
- Remove from the pan when both sides are nicely browned, serve on a bed of sliced red cabbage garnish with green onions and sesame seeds, and serve with the dipping sauce.
Notes
Cook in batches: Potstickers don’t just stick to the pot. They can also stick to each other, so don’t crowd the pot! Cook them in batches if you need to.
Made too much filling? Save it. You can mix it into fried rice or noodles to make another meal.
Nutrition
This pork potstickers recipe boasts classic Chinese flavors such as ground pork or chicken, rice vinegar, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, and shredded cabbage. Rather than cook the filled dumpling wrappers in a half moon shape they are cut into hearts with a cookie cutter to make them perfect for Valentine’s Day. These heart shaped dumplings are almost too cute to eat.
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Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
Loved this recipe. I will be making it again for sure!