You’d be hard-pressed to find a culture that doesn’t take immense pride in its dumplings. And why wouldn’t they? It’s hard to go wrong when it comes to wrapping the best of a cuisine into little bundles and devouring them by the dozen. Filipinos are no exception, as Nicole Ponseca and Miguel Trinidad demonstrate in their James Beard Award–nominated cookbook, I Am a Filipino: And This Is How We Cook. Take, for instance, their recipe for pansit molo, a beloved wonton soup that combines some of our favorite flavors of the Philippines in one big, comforting bowl.
The key to success with these dumplings is buying the thinnest wrappers you can find—the authors recommend hitting your local Asian market and picking up some Shanghai-style squares. Then, fill them up with ground chicken that’s aggressively seasoned with ginger, garlic, water chestnuts, white pepper, and mushroom powder. Once the wontons are wrapped up, boil them in a fresh chicken bone broth (the gelatin in homemade stock helps the liquid cling to the dumplings) until they’re all floating to the top. Garnish each portion with plenty of sliced scallions for freshness and white pepper for heat, then tuck into your bowl of ultra-aromatic comfort. Get the recipe.
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Frank Guerriero is the media assistant at the Beard Foundation. Find him on Instagram.
