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    Home » Recipes » wonton and dumplings

    Xiao Long Bao— Soup Dumplings

    Last Modified: November 15, 2022 by Elaine| 50 Comments

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    Xiao Long Bao (Chinese steamed soup dumplings) is a famous Chinese dessert. Sometimes you may hear Shanghai Xiao Long Bao, but like Beijing style Zha Jiang Mian, this soup dumpling can be found in many Chinese cuisines. Xiao Long Bao recipe might differ from one cuisine to another. Here I introduce the most basic version, you don't need professional skills but can make yummy soup dumpling at home easily.

    Shanghai soup dumpling|chinasichuanfood.com

    It is not easy to make this little, juicy and yummy soup dumplings at home. Soup dumping usually is featured by its juicy soup filling. There are two different varieties of the pork filling. Some use pork rind jelly while the other one use stock directly. For beginners, pork rind jelly version is much easier since it would be easy to assemble to soup dumplings. 

    Xiao Long Bao—Chinese Soup Dumpling

    The basic processing of making soup dumping at home should be: prepare the pork meat jelly in the previous day— make the filling and then set aside to let the flavors combine together —— Knead the dough and Make the wrapper and assemble soup dumplings one by one.

    How to make pork jelly: 

    1. In a large pot of water, add salt, scallion, ginger and Sichuan peppercorn seeds. Cook for 5-8 minutes. Then transfer out and remove the fat with knife. Try to remove all of the fatty layer on the surface and remove any hair.

    2. Add baking soda or (alkaline powder) and salt on the pork rind. Message for a while then you will white tissues coming out. Clean with hot water until the water turns clear and further cut the rind into smaller pieces.

    3. Add water and then blanching the rind again fro 1 minute after the water boils. Then transfer out and strain the rind once again. We do lots of blanching and cleaning work in order to remove the impurities and keep this a lovely taste.

    4. Stir in 1 teaspoon of salt in 900ml water and then steam for 30 minutes in high pressure cooker. Let it cool naturally. Transfer to mould and then keep in fridge for 3 hours or overnight.

    Tips for juicy filling

    In a small bowl, soak minced ginger, green onion and Sichuan peppercorn with ½ cup hot water for around 10 minutes to make ginger and green onion water.

    Blend the pork jelly for a while. Then add pork chunks in a blender, add salt, sugar, pepper, light soys sauce and oyster sauce. Blend with pause for 10 seconds. Then add the ginger and green onion water in. Continue blending with pause for another minute.  Add the pork jelly, chopped green onion and sesame oil in. Stir in one direction for 1 or 2 minutes. Cover and place in fridge.

    Shanghai soup dumpling|chinasichuanfood.com

    Dough 

    All purpose flour or bread flour can be used as the ingredients of the dough. But all purpose flour is much easier for beginner since it needs less resting time. The key step of a successful soup dumpling is kneading the time.  Kneading time should be at least 12 minutes (15 minutes for beginner) until the dough becomes whiter and shinning  and very smooth on surface. If you feel the dough is hard to knead during the process, cover with plastic wrapper, set aside for 15 minutes and then continue kneading. I recommend the two hands kneading method shown in the video, which helps to knead the dough completely and quickly.  Once the dough is well kneaded, cover with plastic wrapper and set aside for 1 hour. 

    Shanghai soup dumpling|chinasichuanfood.com

    Wrapper and Assemble 

    Shape the dough into a long log and cut into small pieces (around 12g each one). Then roll the wrapper out to form a large wrapper (around 12 cm in diameter). The wrapper should be quite thin.

    Place the wrapper in your left hand. Place 1 tablespoon of the filling in the center of your wrapper. Fix the starting point with the thumb of right hand and begin to fold the edge counterclockwise. Move the thumb slowly in the process. Repeat the process until the dumpling is completely sealed. Then slightly pull up the sealed peaks and then remove the extra flour(so we can get even and thin wrapper). 

    Shanghai soup dumpling|chinasichuanfood.com

    Shanghai soup dumpling|chinasichuanfood.com

    Steam for 8 minutes after the water boils. And here we are! Enjoy!

    Shanghai soup dumpling|chinasichuanfood.com

    Shanghai soup dumpling|chinasichuanfood.com

    Shanghai soup dumpling|chinasichuanfood.com

    Xiao Long Bao—Chinese Soup Dumpling

    Elaine
    Chinese Xiao Long Bao--Steamed Soup Dumplings
    5 from 5 votes
    Watch Video Print Recipe
    Prep Time 40 mins
    Cook Time 15 mins
    Total Time 55 mins
    Course staple
    Cuisine Chinese
    Servings 24 Making 24 soup dumplings
    Calories 122 kcal

    Ingredients
      

    Wrapper

    • 300 g flour , 2 cups unshifted
    • 150 ml warm water water +15ml for adjusting
    • a small pinch of salt

    Pork Filling

    • 250 g pork , at least 20% fat
    • 200 g pork jelly
    • 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
    • 2 tbsp. light soy sauce
    • ¼ tsp. ground pepper
    • 2 tsp. salt
    • 1 tsp. sugar
    • 1 tbsp. sesame oil
    • 1 tbsp. chopped green onion

    Ginger and Green Onion water

    • 1 tbsp. minced ginger
    • 1 tbsp. minced green onion
    • ½ tsp. Sichuan peppercorn
    • ½ cup hot water

    Dip Sauce

    • 1 tbsp. Chinese black vinegar
    • ½ tbsp. light soy sauce
    • 5 ginger shreds

    Instructions
     

    For the Pork Jelly

    • Make the pork jelly in the previous day with this instruction.

    For the Filling

    • In a small bowl, soak minced ginger, green onion and Sichuan peppercorn with ½ cup hot water for around 10 minutes to make ginger and green onion water.
    • Blend the pork jelly for a while. Then add pork chunks in a blender, add salt, sugar, pepper, light soys sauce and oyster sauce. Blend with pause for 10 seconds. Then add the ginger and green onion water in. Continue blending with pause for another minute.  Add the pork jelly, chopped green onion and sesame oil in. Stir in one direction for 1 or 2 minutes. Cover and place in fridge.

    For the wrappers

    • Add pinch of salt in flour. Add flour and water in a mixing bowl and then knead the dough until smooth and stretchy (this process may need 15 to 20 minutes depending on your kneading skill. You can also use a mixer to do this job.) Cover with a wet cloth and reset for 1 hour.
    • Shape the dough into a long log and cut into small pieces (around 12g each one). Then roll the wrapper out to form a large wrapper (around 12 cm in diameter). The wrapper should be quite thin.
    • Place the wrapper in your left hand. Place 1 tablespoon of the filling in the center of your wrapper. Fix the starting point with the thumb of right hand and begin to fold the edge counterclockwise. Move the thumb slowly in the process. Repeat the process until the dumpling is completely sealed. Then slightly pull up the sealed peaks and then remove the extra flour(so we can get even and thin wrapper). 

    Steaming process

    • Place the assembled dumpling on lined steamer. Set up the steamer and steam for around 8 to 10 minutes after the water is boiling.
    • Serve directly or with Chinese black vinegar and ginger shreds.

    Video

    Notes

    The Nutrition Facts is based on each single Xiao Long Bao.
    Recipe firstly published in 2016 and updated in 2020. 

    Nutrition

    Calories: 122kcalCarbohydrates: 8gProtein: 7gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 18mgSodium: 343mgPotassium: 73mgVitamin A: 15IUVitamin C: 0.3mgCalcium: 7mgIron: 0.7mg
    Keyword Dumpling
    Tried this recipe?Mention @ChinaSichuanFood
    Shanghai soup dumpling|chinasichuanfood.com

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Zhou

      September 19, 2014 at 1:10 pm

      I love all of the different tong bao I’ve had. My favorite so far was in Xi’an. Soup dumplings are BY FAR my favorite dumplings. I’ll be saving this recipe for Chinese New Year. If I’m going to be making dumpling for hours, I might as well make the best!

      Now, I have a strange question. Are there any soup dumplings made with Chicken stock or veal stock? I’ve never seen them but that doesn’t count for much. I’d love to make a veal version of this with a nice demi or glace de veau. That would be an interesting experiment in French-Chinese fusion that I would love to try! Man, I love soup dumplings.

      For Western readers, I’d like to offer up alternative pork stock advice for those who would make the mistake of not trying this recipe because of the pork rind. Make a traditional stock using pork bones (find a simple recipe online). Once you have the stock, reduce it by at least 50% and then refridgerate overnight. The stock will look like a pretty hard Jello - which is exactly what you want.

      Anyway, Western readers, try Elaine’s recipes! They’re easy, great and authentic, unlike most of the stuff you’ll find online.

      Reply
      • Elaine Luo

        September 20, 2014 at 7:29 am

        Hi Zhou,
        I have soup dumplings from Xi'an city. I have spend my four year university life in the city of Xi'an. There are so many yummy stuff.
        Yes you can use chicken stock or veal stock in this recipe as long as the stock can form the jelly. We have chicken soup dumpling named as “鸡汁灌汤包” usually with chicken stock made from chicken bones and chicken feet.
        Thanks for much for providing this information, I will list this as a note for other reader.
        Thanks again for your lovely recommendation. You guys are the reasons why I continue posting recipes. Enjoy cooking!

        Reply
        • Angela

          May 12, 2017 at 7:36 pm

          Hi, can you tell me what flour is used for the wrappers? Thanks.

          Reply
          • Elaine

            May 15, 2017 at 8:28 am

            Hi Angela,
            I use all purpose flour to make the wrappers. But you can use bread flour too. Only cake flour is not recommended.

            Reply
            • Rozan

              August 07, 2019 at 1:51 pm

              What happens when you use cake flour?

            • Elaine

              August 08, 2019 at 7:41 am

              The wrappers are not supported by enough gluten and quite easy to break.

    2. Thalia @ butter and brioche

      September 20, 2014 at 9:59 pm

      Craving some Chinese dumplings right now.. these look so incredibly delicious. I have never made dumplings from scratch myself before so you have definitely inspired me to recreate the recipe. Thanks for sharing it!

      Reply
      • Elaine Luo

        September 20, 2014 at 10:17 pm

        Thalia,
        Making everything at home from starch is really enjoying. Like baker, I am always excited about how my dough turns out finally with seasonings and fillings.
        Try it and I hope you like them the same as me.

        Reply
    3. Lai

      April 11, 2016 at 10:22 pm

      In your receipt, the dumping wrapper use cold water, you mean ice cold water or room temperature water, because my dumping skin turn out a little bit too hard.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        April 13, 2016 at 5:14 pm

        Hi Lai,
        It should be room temperature water. If the dumpling skin becomes too hard or too dry, you can slightly add extra 10ml to 15ml water.

        Reply
    4. Maya

      April 24, 2016 at 8:48 pm

      they are lovely and tasty! there is just one problem I have experienced - some of them are breaking when I am steaming them and the soup runs away 🙁 and sometimes this happens just after open the steamer. Not all of them though, so I wonder, what I am doing wrong? they are all almost the same, and I love the soup taste 🙂

      Reply
      • Elaine

        April 25, 2016 at 3:42 pm

        Hi Maya,
        Are you using homemade wrapper or store bought wrapper? You will need to wait for several minutes until the temperature of the steamer drops slightly.

        Reply
    5. Tina

      May 09, 2016 at 10:00 am

      Hi There,it such a great recipe
      But is There any subtitute the pork coz i don't eat pork,is There any other way to make it without pork?thanks 🙂

      Reply
      • Elaine

        May 11, 2016 at 9:29 pm

        Hi Tina,
        I think you can use chicken to replace pork. Chicken feet can work as a substitute of pork rind.

        Reply
    6. DB

      November 03, 2016 at 1:11 am

      Can you use store bought round wrappers instead of making them from scratch? I like to add julienned ginger to the black vinegar for dipping. Thank you.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        November 03, 2016 at 2:59 pm

        If you do not want to make from starch, you can simply use store bought dumpling wrappers.

        Reply
    7. Beatrice

      November 03, 2016 at 6:40 pm

      Hello!! Any substitute for pork rind?? Cause I've never heard of it here in Italy and I guess Itmight be a bit difficult to find...Thank you!

      Reply
      • Elaine

        November 03, 2016 at 8:54 pm

        No pork rind in Italy? You can replace it with thickened broth.

        Reply
        • Sam

          January 03, 2020 at 11:40 pm

          Yes There is! I used "cotenna" and it was perfect. I think cotenna and pork rind are the same thing, isn't it? Today I made these dumplings, but while cooking, in some of theme the soup ran away. Maybe the wrappers were too thin or there was too much filling. I made the wrappers following this recipe. The next time I will make more wrappers, increasing the amount of flour and water. I've got a doubt….2 cups of flour weighs 250g?

          Reply
    8. CJ

      January 06, 2017 at 11:22 pm

      Thanks for the recipe

      Are you referring to raw pork rinds or the fried pork rinds you buy in the snack aisle?

      Reply
      • Elaine

        January 09, 2017 at 2:26 pm

        I use raw pork rinds.

        Reply
    9. emf

      June 18, 2017 at 1:48 am

      I've made quite the aspic using chicken feet - think it would work well here.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        June 19, 2017 at 8:10 am

        Sure, it should work fine. Chicken feet contains enough collagen.

        Reply
    10. Sylvia

      August 24, 2017 at 1:51 pm

      Where have you been all this time?! By reading through your instructions, I figured out what I've been doing wrong with during my Chinese food preparation. You gave me hope! Thank you! Can't wait to try your recipes!

      Reply
      • Elaine

        August 26, 2017 at 8:46 am

        You are the most welcome, Sylvia! I hope you will love my recipes and cook yummy Chinese dishes successfully.

        Reply
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