Chefs Chris Cheung, Christine Lau, and Jason Wang are used to thinking outside the box when it comes to cooking; however, today on Epicurious we’ve asked them to give us their unfiltered, honest reviews of some prominent frozen dumpling brands found on supermarket shelves. Which dumplings pack the most bang for your budget, and which should you avoid at all costs?
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00:00We've gathered three professional chefs
00:02to blind test taste every supermarket frozen dumpling brand
00:05we could get our hands on
00:06to see which ones meet their standards.
00:10All dumplings have been prepared
00:12following the cooking instructions
00:13on the back of their packaging.
00:16Twin Marquis jowls a dumpling.
00:18They remind me of the old soy gowls,
00:20which is basically water-boiled dumplings.
00:22They kind of suck into the filling
00:24and they give you this really cool texture
00:26in the form of these grooves.
00:28There's a lot of green showing through the skin,
00:30which means the skin isn't super thick.
00:32Three delicious dumplings, hopefully.
00:34My ideal dumpling, I would love to see a wrapper
00:37that is thin, but it has texture and pliability.
00:40Chewy, pliable, bouncy.
00:42Unless it's pan-fried
00:44and they want it to be super crispy and seared.
00:46Dumplings are meant to symbolize prosperity
00:48in Asian culture,
00:49so we do not want to get skimpy on the fillings.
00:51We want a nice, full, abundant stuffing in there.
00:55Filling to wrap ratio is very important.
00:57I just want to be able to taste the ingredients
00:59that are in the filling.
01:00When you bite into the dumpling,
01:02it should be flavorful and juicy.
01:06Hmm.
01:07Got some juice coming out of the dumpling, which is great.
01:09It's moist.
01:10It's juicy on the verge of going a little bit moist.
01:13It's good texture, so I do like the skin.
01:15Silky, has a bite.
01:17It's like soft and chewy,
01:18so you're having different textures.
01:20Traditionally, you use hot water and flour,
01:22and that gives it pliability and chewiness.
01:25It's a solid ratio of the filling to the wrapper.
01:29This dumpling is definitely a jiaozi,
01:31so it's the Chinese style.
01:33An easy way to identify a jiaozi is the crescent shape.
01:37I think it's a big one pork and garlic chive combo.
01:40Now, Chinese chives,
01:41often a very strongly flavored vegetable.
01:43Some people don't like it, actually,
01:45but the fact that it's cut with the cabbage,
01:47you get that flavor, but it's not overpowering.
01:50I'm going to guess Twin Marquis.
01:52Twin Marquis.
01:53It's a jiaozi dumpling.
01:55Pork and Chinese chive, Twin Marquis brand.
01:57People would know this
01:58because they make the commercial dumpling wrappers
02:01that everybody basically uses.
02:03So this packet says fully cooked and then frozen,
02:05and I think that explains some of the texture of the filling.
02:08In some restaurants that prepare frozen dumplings,
02:12they'll freeze them at the raw state and cook them to order,
02:15but when you're dealing with packaged frozen dumplings,
02:18I'd say the majority of them
02:19are going to have them fully cooked,
02:21and a lot of that is for safety.
02:23I think it's a wonderful introduction for someone
02:25to have a traditional style dumpling
02:27and get some of those classic flavors.
02:31P.F. Chang's Pork Dumpling.
02:34Ooh, a pan fried dumpling.
02:36Classic pot sticker shape.
02:38They look nice and plump.
02:39People often are referring to pot stickers as gyoza,
02:43and again, gyoza are, in fact,
02:44the Japanese style interpretation of a pot sticker.
02:48In Mandarin Chinese, pot sticker,
02:50literally means stuck to the pot.
02:54When the water and the steam kind of dissipate in the pan
02:58and the cooking goes from wet to dry,
03:02the top pleats will dry out,
03:05so you don't want them too thick.
03:07It's one of the ways you can tell
03:08that they're machine-made skins.
03:10The thickness of the dough is so thin
03:13that you can't even taste that there's pleats in it,
03:14so I wouldn't mind a little bit thicker
03:17so you can taste the chew.
03:18When it's too thin,
03:19you're gonna lose some of the bounciness
03:21because it doesn't have enough dough
03:23for it to give you that proper bite.
03:25The filling is not flavorful
03:27and has a strange flavor that I can't identify.
03:29The dumpling I had before from Twin Marquis
03:32had just a little bit more flavor to it.
03:34So is this like Panda Express?
03:37P.F. Chang's?
03:38Oh, P.F. Chang's.
03:39Oh, it's a P.F. Chang's.
03:40The chain Chinese restaurant in the United States.
03:44They're the one.
03:45Ginger puree, the wrapper,
03:46there's nothing particularly in here
03:48that screams like chemicals or artificial.
03:51Maybe I'll have to revise my view on this chain
03:55just a little bit.
03:56I'd pass on this dumpling.
03:59Laoban pork and chive dumplings.
04:02This one maybe looks to me more like handmade style.
04:05They have texture unlike the last one that was pan-seared.
04:09Looks pretty nice.
04:09I like the look of these dumplings.
04:11Looks crispy, looks delicious, looks juicy,
04:13and let's take a bite.
04:17Not very juicy on the interior.
04:19A little dry, and the filling doesn't have that much flavor.
04:22It's kind of disappointing, it looks so good.
04:24There's a lot of space in between
04:26the wrapper and the filling.
04:28This dumpling does not have as plump of a filling.
04:32The ingredients that are in it
04:34aren't popping out tremendously.
04:36You're missing the texture of ground meat in this one.
04:38So it just feels like one consistent texture
04:42that you don't, you can't identify anything that's in there.
04:46The wrapper itself is delicious.
04:48It has a nice elasticity to it.
04:51The dough for this one is definitely soft, pliable,
04:54and you get that layer of crunch
04:55going into that kind of chewy al dente pasta texture,
04:58but man, that's a letdown with the filling.
05:00The vegetable component should really enhance
05:02the meat itself, or vice versa.
05:04It's not doing anything for either.
05:06Ooh, these are nice.
05:07Laoban dumplings got, oh,
05:09from Michelin-awarded chef Tim Ma.
05:11So chef Tim Ma, I apologize, but this is not my cup of tea.
05:15They're using good quality ingredients.
05:17Filling is Berkshire pork.
05:19Unbleached wheat flour, lye water.
05:22So we use lye water to actually make the doughs more chewy.
05:25Now, lye water is potassium bicarbonate in solution.
05:28It is mixed with a little bit of sodium bicarbonate,
05:31otherwise known as like baking soda, right?
05:33And that creates an alkaline environment,
05:35and when that interacts with the gluten
05:37that is present in the flour,
05:39it allows you to have more elasticity and spring.
05:42Kudos to them for using a little bit of a chef's trick.
05:46Target brand, Good & Gather,
05:48chicken and vegetable pot stickers.
05:50Nice crisp bottom, nice size, looks delicious.
05:54The carrot flavor is actually pretty pronounced in this.
05:57Chicken and carrot, maybe some cabbage in there?
06:00Flavor is definitely lacking
06:01unless you want to eat a carrot dumpling.
06:03So carrots are not giving me traditional Chinese vibes
06:07or anything like that.
06:08The wrapper is thin.
06:09It still had a bite.
06:10Decently folded over the filling pretty tightly.
06:14I'm squishing it.
06:14There is some juice to it,
06:16but again, what's a little off-putting
06:17is that slightly spongy texture.
06:20Good & Gather, chicken and vegetable pot stickers.
06:24This is the house brand for, okay, Target.
06:26For a place that also makes clothing and shoes,
06:29this is a perfectly acceptable dumpling, I'd say.
06:34Trader Joe's pork gyoza pot stickers.
06:36Oh, this one has pleats.
06:38The folding is not great.
06:40The ends are not pinched.
06:41Looks tasty, though.
06:42Nice sheen on the dumplings.
06:44The ratio looks a little bit under.
06:47These could be gyoza,
06:48because the skin is really thin.
06:50And gyoza is the Japanese interpretation of the jiaozi,
06:54which is the original Chinese version.
06:55So always a finely textured filling,
06:58pan-fried so it's crispy, sometimes open on the ends.
07:01Have high hopes.
07:02Let's taste.
07:05The skin tastes soft and pliable.
07:09You're missing extra chew from the lack of pleats.
07:13It's kind of verging on that borderline of being too thin.
07:15The filling has a pretty pronounced white pepper flavor.
07:19Looks like it's cabbage.
07:20The filling is juicy,
07:21but I would say the flavor is a little lacking.
07:24Just based on the lack of complexity in the flavoring,
07:28I think this is maybe like a generic supermarket brand.
07:31That's Trader Joe's, aren't they?
07:34Oh, Trader Joe's, you let me down, man.
07:37Nailed it, Trader Joe's.
07:39I would eat them again,
07:40because they're in the freezer and it's already there.
07:43I probably wouldn't buy them.
07:44I expected more from you, Trader Joe's.
07:46I truly did.
07:49A Geno motto, pork and chicken, gyoza dumplings.
07:52It's beautiful.
07:53Can see through them almost, like paper thin.
07:56I love when the wrapper kind of sucks in over the filling.
08:03It's definitely soft and thin and pliable.
08:06It's in your mouth for a little bit and then it's gone.
08:09This wrapper was a lot more delicate, a lot more soft,
08:12little less of a bounce,
08:13but it made up for it in that thin, silky wrapper.
08:17I'm getting a little bit of mushiness to the filling.
08:20It's savory, it has umami characteristics, depth of flavor,
08:23but it's not actually truly complex
08:26from natural ingredients.
08:27I feel like there must be some flavor enhancers in here.
08:30There might be like a filler in here,
08:32like bean thread noodles or something,
08:34so you can put less meat in there.
08:35It's not tremendously juicy, but it's juicy enough.
08:38I would have liked more flavor in the dumpling.
08:40My guess is this is a gyoza on the packaging.
08:44It is a Japanese gyoza.
08:46Ajinomoto.
08:47One of the largest companies that make MSG.
08:50Well, it has textured soy protein concentrate,
08:52so I think that that's probably them cheaping out.
08:55We'd rather just have fully pork.
08:58This one has a lot of more complex chemical type ingredients
09:02in there.
09:03It says no cooking oil needed for a perfect crisp,
09:06although it didn't have a perfect crisp.
09:08So there's rice flour in here.
09:10My guess is that's in the wrapper,
09:12and that's what's helping the wrapper get really crispy.
09:15If they were in my freezer, I'd probably eat them again.
09:18Not terrible, not super delicious,
09:20but just kind of middle of the road.
09:23Twin Maki Gyoza Dumpling with Pork and Napa Cabbage.
09:27So this set of dumplings almost looks like something
09:29that I might make myself at home,
09:32just the way that it's pleated.
09:33This one looks very promising.
09:35The skin crisps up nicely.
09:36I'm excited to try this one.
09:40The wrapper is supple, silky, has nice chew to it.
09:43It could have allowed for a little bit more filling
09:46with the amount of wrapper that they left over
09:48in the full process.
09:49Filling's great.
09:50It's one of the better fillings that we've had.
09:52Pork and cabbage.
09:53The meat is identifiable, definitely juicy.
09:56I'm dripping juices here.
09:58Full flavor, not overpowering.
10:00I am getting more a natural sense of the ingredients
10:02on the inside.
10:03The filling was pretty flavorful and decently juicy.
10:07What makes a dumpling filling juicy is meat
10:10that has a decent amount of fat content in there,
10:13and you can add stock,
10:15and the stock emulsifies with the meat,
10:17and you might use egg or cornstarch
10:19to seize them all together.
10:21And then when you cook it, the juices kind of fall out.
10:24I'm feeling like this is pretty good of a representation
10:27of something that was freshly made and then frozen.
10:30More Twin Maki!
10:32There you go.
10:34This is the Chinese brand,
10:34but they've done this in the Japanese style,
10:36which means that the wrapper is especially thin,
10:39so it is meant specifically to be cooked as a potsticker.
10:42Disodium insulate and disodium guanylate.
10:48Now those are substitutes for MSG.
10:51It's put in there so they don't actually have to say
10:53it's made with MSG, because technically it's not.
10:55But yeah, this is solid to me.
10:57Yeah, I'd eat this.
10:58So far, I've liked the Twin Maki dumplings the best.
11:01Did y'all try this one?
11:02This one's pretty good.
11:05Bibigo Mandu, pork and vegetable dumplings.
11:08These are the largest of the dumplings that we've had.
11:10Very plump.
11:11So this one potentially could be a Korean style mandu.
11:16The amount of filling seems very abundant.
11:18And mandu filling typically is always,
11:20you stuff it till it's about to pop.
11:24Full, plump, nice ratio of filling to wrapper.
11:27The flavor of the filling is pretty good.
11:29It's juicy, black pepper forward.
11:32What I'm getting at is a lot more
11:34freshness in this dumpling.
11:35It's just moist enough that it's giving me
11:37a really satisfying bite.
11:39Some of the things that make a mandu identifiable
11:42are glass noodles.
11:43And this one definitely has noodles in there as a filler.
11:47All I have is the knock, is the crust on the top.
11:49When you fold them this way with these pleats,
11:51when you cook it with dry heat,
11:53the top of the seal gets hard.
11:55You wanna roll the edges out thinner.
11:58So when you fold them,
12:00it becomes the same consistent thickness
12:02throughout the dumpling.
12:03So you don't want them too thick.
12:05But I'm demoing a nice new way to eat dumplings
12:08if you find a flaw in it.
12:09Eat it like you eat pizza and you don't like the crust.
12:14If this is a mandu, my guess is that,
12:16well, the one Korean brand I know is,
12:19how do you say it?
12:20Bibigo?
12:22Bibigo is apparently the way to go sometimes.
12:24Just remember that you can change the cooking method
12:28to avoid certain pitfalls.
12:31I would recommend the steam version.
12:33Eight minutes.
12:34So in eight minutes, you'll have happiness.
12:36I'd eat this again.
12:39A toggy kimchi and pork jumbo mandu.
12:41My guess is these are another mandu.
12:43Mandu you, mandu me, mandu yummy.
12:46Very plump.
12:47That's that kind of abundant Korean kind of hospitality
12:51of like, give it all you got.
12:53Seeing a lot of orange through it.
12:54So it's either carrot or seafood or something like that.
12:59Kimchi.
12:59Definitely a mandu.
13:00The wrapper's thin, a little bit of chew.
13:03I like the spice.
13:04It's a little chalky though.
13:05There's a lot of moisture from the kimchi component
13:08that's in here.
13:08It's very pasty.
13:10So for mandu style dumplings,
13:12there are often ingredients that are pre-cooked
13:14and that's in an effort to control the moisture level
13:16of the filling.
13:17It's all a game of moisture control.
13:19This particular dumpling did not quite
13:21meet the standard there.
13:22It's mushy.
13:23Almost like we went through a food processor a little bit
13:26and like took a detour in the blender for a hot second.
13:28So texture's not great on this one.
13:32A Togi brand.
13:33Kimchi and pork jumbo mandu.
13:36There are some tapioca starch in there
13:37and the beauty in that is you can usually see through
13:40and that is kind of just building the anticipation
13:42of what the filling is going to be.
13:44The mushiness of the filling made it
13:47for not the greatest bite ever.
13:50Bibigo steamed chicken and vegetable dumplings.
13:53Microwave only.
13:54Oh, this one's a new shape.
13:56These are round.
13:57The fold on this reminds me of soup dumplings
14:02but they don't look like traditional soup dumplings.
14:05If this is not supposed to be a soup dumpling,
14:07then I'm not Asian.
14:09If this is supposed to be a soup dumpling,
14:10it looks a little sad.
14:15It's not soupy.
14:16They're reminiscent of a soup dumpling
14:19but not a soup dumpling.
14:20The interior is juicy but not soup dumpling juicy.
14:25The texture of the wrapper just makes it slightly mushy.
14:28It's a lot of wrapper to filling ratio
14:31but I think that has to do with the choice in shape here.
14:34In terms of flavor, this particular dumpling is,
14:37I think it's very solid.
14:38I'm getting vegetable crunchies in there.
14:41There is a nice level of umami kind of richness,
14:43savoriness to it.
14:46Oh, it's a Bibigo.
14:48Ready in one minute and 45 seconds.
14:51In the microwave.
14:52If you're going for speed and convenience,
14:54you can't beat a minute and 45 seconds
14:57but you are gonna lose some quality along the way.
14:59This is not it.
15:01No.
15:02No.
15:05Feel Good Gluten-Free Pork Pot Stickers.
15:08This one's giving me Asian aesthetic vibes.
15:12It's so pale.
15:14Is this gluten-free?
15:17The wrapper is really mushy, like almost goopy.
15:21I'm wondering if it's like a gluten-free wrapper.
15:24Are these like gluten-free dumplings?
15:25There's a crisp bottom
15:27and then it's just all mush on the top.
15:29I'm feeling like there is rice flour in here,
15:32tapioca starch, some kind of situation.
15:34They're decently juicy.
15:36The flavor is okay.
15:37There's nothing wrong with it but it is just one note.
15:40I'd say the filling is moderately tasty.
15:43I'm getting some ginger hints in there
15:46that's actually pretty forward on the palate.
15:49Ah, this is Feel Good Foods.
15:54It is always gluten-free.
15:56Ding on that one.
15:57I don't feel very good.
15:59Oh, cognac flour.
16:00Cognac is the tuber of a type of plant,
16:03like a morphothallus family.
16:05It gives you this kind of elastic consistency.
16:08Sorry, gluten-free people.
16:11365 Whole Foods Vegetable Pot Stickers.
16:14The wrapper is a little more yellow.
16:17Maybe there's egg in it.
16:18Maybe they look a little more yellow
16:21because we just had the anemic dumpling.
16:22Pretty, consistent.
16:24Sealed very well.
16:25Having a seal is really important.
16:27The juice is going to escape from the dumpling
16:32and it's going to create a burn effect on the pan
16:35and then you're just gonna taste burnt.
16:39Oh, so they're gonna be like that, okay.
16:41I'm gonna assume that's supposed to be vegetarian
16:43but that ain't it.
16:44It's a little thick and leathery and it's a little dry
16:47and I think it's like a chewier dough,
16:50which I like, but it's almost too thick.
16:53It keeps the crisp though.
16:54Weirdly enough, the wrapper is pliable,
16:57has a bounce to it, but doesn't taste good.
17:00When you make dumpling dough,
17:02you will add salt to the dough.
17:03I think that they didn't add anything to this dough.
17:06This might be just straight flour water.
17:08Ratio is good of the filling to the dough.
17:10It's well-filled, but in some ways,
17:12I wish that the wrapper had exploded
17:14and all the filling ran away
17:15because then we wouldn't have to eat that.
17:17The flavor and the texture of the filling
17:18is really off-putting.
17:19So I have vegetable dumplings in my restaurant,
17:21but I don't puree the vegetables.
17:23I julienne the vegetables
17:24and keep them crunchy within the skin.
17:27So it would be much better to have crunchier,
17:29larger chunks of vegetables in this dumpling,
17:32but because it's a frozen dumpling,
17:33it may not be able to do that.
17:35Is this the Whole Foods brand?
17:38Whole Foods market?
17:39Vegetable pot stickers.
17:41365, how about zero?
17:44Nasoya Tofu Vegetable Vegan Dumpling.
17:47Oh, these are cute.
17:48Cute little dumplings.
17:49It looks like they made it with a cookie cutter.
17:51It's not giving me Asian dumpling.
17:55Wrappers?
17:56Crispy.
17:57Skin's got an okay bounce to it.
18:00It's crispy in the right way.
18:02The filling is very mushy
18:06and very unidentifiable.
18:09Like cheesy vibes?
18:10This one's really confusing to me.
18:12If it's tofu, it's been so processed
18:15that it's giving me like ricotta cheese grainy vibes.
18:18It's not juicy at all.
18:20It's very mushy.
18:22They didn't treat the tofu too great in these.
18:24Which one of those ingredients that can make dishes sing?
18:26Whoever made the filling for these dumplings
18:29should probably find another job.
18:33Is this a collaboration between Poland and China?
18:35I don't know.
18:37Nasoya Organic Vegan Tofu Vegetable Dumplings.
18:41It's not unpleasant,
18:43but don't serve this to me as like Asian style dumplings.
18:46If you serve it to me as something else, I'd eat it.
18:48Something like this is why people don't like tofu.
18:51That makes me kind of sad
18:52because I'm a very pro-tofu chef.
18:56Miele Pork Soup Dumplings.
18:59I see some bubbles, kind of motion of liquid in there.
19:02This is definitely a soup dumpling.
19:03If they serve this spoon to you,
19:05then it's the soup dumplings
19:07or they're also called soong baos.
19:09Very key in a soup dumpling is that the wrapper
19:12keeps its structure, keeps its integrity.
19:14Any little hole in there or crack in there,
19:15you've lost that juice.
19:17The fillings don't tend to have vegetables in them.
19:20And the way that you get the soup
19:21is you're adding reduced and gelatinous stock
19:24into the filling.
19:26So then when you steam it, it becomes liquid.
19:29What you'll do is you'll bite the little top off.
19:32That lets the steam come out
19:34and then you'll just pop it in your mouth
19:36and then eat the whole thing.
19:38Mm.
19:39The skin itself is about in the middle there.
19:42It's not thin, but it's not overly thick.
19:44I can taste that it's pork.
19:46It's not masked by too many flavorings.
19:48It's a little under plump.
19:50But overall, it was flavorful.
19:52It was juicy.
19:53Is it like the Miele?
19:56So it's a Miele soup dumpling, pork,
19:59savory and juicy, restaurant quality.
20:01These dumplings are about a dollar a piece.
20:03So it's on the pricier side.
20:05A bucket dumpling?
20:06Yeah.
20:07Soup dumplings are a lot of work.
20:09You could go out to a restaurant,
20:10get fresh ones for maybe $16
20:13and you don't have to do dishes.
20:14You don't have to turn on the stove.
20:16They give you dipping sauce and they clear your plate.
20:20Trader Joe's pork and ginger soup dumplings.
20:23Ooh, another soup-shaped dumpling.
20:26I wonder if these are the Trader Joe's ones.
20:28Maybe.
20:30Juicy.
20:31Probably triple the amount of juice
20:33that we got out of the last soup dumpling.
20:35Flavor-wise, it is seasoned.
20:37It's not overpowering.
20:38The flavor of the filling, it was very clean
20:40and it was very refreshing.
20:41Although this wrapper seemed to be
20:43a little bit inconsistent.
20:44The skin itself, I think, is a little bit too wet.
20:48It's not giving me that al dente kind of chewiness
20:51that I'm really looking for.
20:53Trader Joe's soup dumplings.
20:55There you go.
20:55These are pretty tasty.
20:56I have heard a rumor that these are good, though.
20:58Even if they were the same price,
21:00I would definitely pick this one over the last one.
21:02Now let's see which products
21:04our chefs like the most and the least.
21:06So my favorites were the first one,
21:08which was the straight-boiled dumplings from Twin Marquis.
21:11I'm a fan of the Twin Marquis.
21:12Both of the Twin Marquis filling there
21:15was one of the more flavorful.
21:17It just gave a very classic flavor profile.
21:20The Bibigo mandu.
21:21That one was super plump with a lot of filling.
21:24And the last one.
21:25These soup dumplings were really, really flavorful.
21:28My least favorites,
21:30unfortunately, the nasoya tofu.
21:33Yeah, that tofu dumpling was probably my least favorite.
21:36Unless you're telling your friends
21:38I'm making ricotta pierogi.
21:40The texture of the gluten-free wrapper,
21:43the really mushiness was very off-putting.
21:45And unfortunately, 365, the Whole Foods brand.
21:48The vegetarian, no.
21:50No.
21:51No.
21:52Dumplings are a happy food.
21:54There's a lot of different options on the market.
21:56It should be everybody's mission
21:58to taste and enjoy all of them.
22:00Fill a hole in your heart, fill a hole in your tummy,
22:02and maybe bring a smile to your face.