Pangsit Ayam (Indonesian Chicken Wontons)
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Chicken wontons are a very popular snack that one can never forget. These dumplings are made with minced meat and wrapped in thin flour pastry. The wonton pastry feels light, and the fillings are delicately delicious.
They are also very versatile. You can enjoy them boiled in a clear soup or deep-fried as finger foods.
In East Asia, every country and region has its own version of chicken wontons, all of which trace back to the original Chinese won-ton/hûn-thun. In Vietnam, it is called Hoành Thánh. In Japan, they call it Gyoza. Thai people call it Kiao. And in Indonesia, you can find Pangsit.
Most wontons are made with pork mince, but in Indonesia, they use chicken mince. Hence, their popular name is Pangsit Ayam, which literally means Chicken Wontons.
You often get it as one of the street food (Jajan Pasar) options, since it is a type of food people don’t really make at home. It is better known as Jajanan Pasar, which literally means “things to buy at the market,” but it suffices to translate it as “street food.”
Ways to Enjoy Chicken Wontons
The recipe I’m sharing here is very easy, and the wontons you create from it are quite versatile. You can boil the wontons to cook and have them in a clear chicken soup. Or you can deep-fry them and enjoy them as crispy snacks.
Whichever way you want to eat them, I promise you will love these chicken dumplings.
If I may suggest, try making these chicken wontons in bulk and freezing them, because they’ll come in handy for a light lunch or snacks on busy days.
This recipe is based on the popular pangsit ayam from Indonesia. Most Indonesians will enjoy the wontons with chicken noodles in bakmi Ayam soup. But many like to enjoy them as they are with a clear soup.
In this post, I’m sharing the one with clear soup. But feel free to fry your wontons if you like.
Key Ingredients
As I mentioned above, most wontons outside Indonesia are made with pork mince. However, the majority of Indonesia’s population is Muslim, who are not allowed to eat pork. So, Indonesian wontons use chicken mince instead.
Therefore, ground chicken is one key ingredient for this recipe, as are wonton pastry/wrappers.
For the pastry, you can buy ready-made wonton wrappers from Asian (Chinese) shops. They have a selection of good wonton pastries. The basic choices are yellow egg pastries or plain white flour pastries.
If you feel like making the pastry yourself—which can be done easily but with a little bit of labor of love—you can check out my tutorial on how to make the wonton pastry.
When choosing chicken mince, you can buy ready-minced chicken from your butcher or supermarket, or mince it yourself with a food processor or meat mincer. If you decide to make your own chicken mince, I suggest you use boneless chicken thighs. They have a little bit of fat that can give more flavor to your dumplings.
The rest of the ingredients are equally basic. You will need tapioca flour, plain flour, eggs, spring onions/ scallions, ginger, garlic, light soy sauce, sesame oil, black or white pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.
How to Make Chicken Wontons
1. Get your ground chicken ready. Then, finely chop the spring onions/ scallions and mince the ginger and garlic into a paste. Place the chicken mince and all other ingredients in a mixing bowl or in a food processor.
2. Mix well or blitz it if you use a food processor until all is well blended.
3. Then, fill a wonton pastry with a teaspoon of the chicken mince. Fold the pastry and seal it tightly. You can check how I fold my pastry in this video.
4. Continue wrapping the chicken filling in the pastry until all is finished.
5. Next, boil 1.5 liters of water in a large pot. Once the water reaches boiling point, add a teaspoon of cooking oil. This will help the wontons not to stick to each other. Then, place the folded pastries in the water.
6. When the dumplings emerge and float to the surface, let them cook for another 4-5 minutes to ensure they are fully cooked. You can then pick them out of the water with a slotted spoon.
7. You can brush the cooked wonton with a little oil to make sure they’re not stuck to each other.
8. Serve the wontons with clear chicken soup.
For the soup, you can use any base stock that you like. I prefer chicken stock, though I sometimes use beef stock and vegetable stock. You can make your stock to use for the base. Check this clear soup recipe that you may like. Or you can use stock cubes/ stock powder that you love.
Whichever stock/ broth you choose, you can prep it as follows.
Fry the finely chopped onion and the sliced spring/ scallion in a tablespoon of butter. When the aroma releases, carefully add the stock/broth. Season it with salt and pepper according to your taste. Let it cook until it reboils.
To serve, place a few dumplings in a small bowl, pour in the soup, and sprinkle with fried onion or sliced spring onion/ scallion, if using.
How to Store
If you make the chicken wontons in bulk, you can keep them in the freezer for about 2 months. A little tip before you pack them in the freezer bags: Place the wontons on a tray with a little space between them. Put the tray in the freezer until the dumplings are hard-frozen. Then, quickly take them off the tray and put them in the freezer bags. Don’t forget to write or label the bag so you remember the due date for enjoying your wontons.
When you want to eat them, you don’t have to thaw them before boiling or cooking. But make sure you boil them thoroughly, as this will take longer than boiling the freshly made wontons.
If you want to enjoy them as crispy fried wontons, I suggest boiling them first, then frying them.
Chicken wontons
Equipment
Ingredients
For the wontons
- 1 pound ground chicken/ chicken mince.
- 7 tablespoons tapioca flour.
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour/ plain flour.
- 2 spring onions/ scallions finely chopped.
- 2 cloves garlic minced or crushed finely into paste.
- ½ inch ginger minced finely.
- 2 eggs lightly beaten.
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce.
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil.
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper or white pepper.
- 1 teaspoon onion powder.
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder.
- 1 teaspoon salt.
- 50 pieces wonton pastries. (see the note).
For the soup:
- 1.5 liter Chicken/ vegetable stock.
- ½ Onion finely sliced.
- 1 Spring onion/ scallion sliced.
- 1 tablespoon Butter.
- Salt and pepper according to taste.
- Fried onions optional
Instructions
For the wontons:
- Firstly, we have to make the filling by putting all the ingredients except the pastry into a mixing bowl.
- Using a spoon, mix the ingredients well that you can tell that it’s all mingled.
- At first, you may find it slimy and slippery because of the eggs. But keep stirring and mixing until all is well blended.
- Open the wonton pastry pack, and put the pastry on a damp tea towel. Fold the towel and cover the pastry with it. The idea is to keep the pastry moist so it won’t go dry and hard.
- Take a sheet of the pastry and put it on your palm, then put about 1 teaspoon of the chicken mixture on the middle of the pastry.
- Take one corner of the pastry to its opposite and fold it over the meat. So you’ll have a triangle pastry with the chicken filling inside.
- Fold the pastry gently from end to end.
- You can check the video to get a clearer idea.
- In a pot, boil some water and put the wontons in the boiling water. Make sure the water covers the wontons fully.
- When the wontons float on the surface, it means they’re cooked.
- Spoon and drain the wontons.
For the soup:
- In a separate pot, melt the butter and put in the onion slices.
- When the onions become translucent and smell fragrant, add in the spring onion/ scallion slices. Fry further for about a minute or two.
- Put your preferred stock in the pot, and let it boil at low heat.
- You can season the soup with salt and pepper according to your taste.
Assemble the chicken wontons with the soup:
- Put a few wontons in a small bowl and add in the soup.
- Garnish with some fried onions.
- Tuck in and enjoy.
Video
Notes
- If you make the wontons in bulk, you can enjoy them as crispy snacks by deep-frying the boiled wontons. They’re perfect for finger food dipped in chili sauce.
- You can use shop-bought pastry or make your own using my guide to making wonton pastry.
Nutrition
Devy founded So Yummy Recipes and Drizzling Flavor to share her love of food after exploring various cultures and cuisines for more than two decades. Her mission is to help others easily recreate traditional and non-traditional food with readily available ingredients. Her works have been featured in Reader’s Digest, Al Jazeera, MSN, Yahoo, Bon Appétit, and more.
