Dumpling in a Bowl: a deconstructed pork dumpling recipe made on the Blackstone griddle or a large skillet with wonton wrapper noodles. Easy weeknight dinner, ready in 30 minutes. All your favorite dumpling flavors without the extra work!

dumpling in a bowl with ground pork, wonton noodles, shredded carrots, and cilantro

Egg roll in a bowl has had a good run. It’s quick, it’s cheap, and it’ll always have a place on the griddle. But I got a new one that’s about to knock it down a peg – Dumpling in a Bowl.

Same idea as egg roll in a bowl – ground meat, veggies, some sauce, all cooked down together – but this one leans straight into pork dumpling flavor, and instead of rice or just eating it as a stir-fry, we’re using wonton wrappers cut into noodles. That’s it. That’s the twist. And it works better than I expected.

My kids have been on a dumpling kick for months now – frozen, restaurant, didn’t matter, they wanted dumplings. So I told them I’d figure out a way to give them that flavor without standing at the counter folding fifty wrappers by hand. This is what I came up with, and it’s dang good.

mixing ground pork, wonton noodles, shredded carrots, and other dumpling ingredients on a Blackstone griddle

Why You’ll Love this Recipe

It tastes like a dumpling without the fold. The pork mixture is built the same way you’d season dumpling filling – ginger, garlic, green onion, soy sauce – so every bite tastes like the inside of a potsticker.
You get way more filling per bite. Regular dumplings are mostly wrapper. This is mostly meat and veggies. Way more satisfying, way more filling.
It’s a genuinely different way to use wonton wrappers. Instead of folding and steaming or frying individual dumplings, you slice the wrappers into noodles and let them cook right in the mixture.
It’s budget-friendly. Ground pork was under $4 a pound when I made this, and a handful of wonton wrappers goes a long way. We only used six wonton wrappers for this recipe.

Two Ways to Incorporate the Wonton Wrappers

When I was first developing this dumpling in a bowl recipe, I wasn’t sure about the best way to incorporate the wonton wrappers so that they tasted like dumplings. And I searched three different grocery stores and couldn’t find actual dumpling wrappers.

So I tried a few different methods. Both worked, though I would say that method 1 is a bit more advanced, because you have to work quickly and take care to not let your “noodles” stick together.

Method 1: Flash-boil, then griddle

Slice your wonton wrappers into thin strips, and then drop them into boiling water for about a minute – no longer. Drain them and get them straight onto the heated griddle with a little oil. This gets you some char on the noodles, which I’m a sucker for. Just be sure that you spread them out as best you can, so they don’t stick together or get gummy.

Method 2: Straight into the mixture, no boiling

This is the one I wasn’t sure about. Cut the wrappers the same way, but instead of boiling them, just toss them raw into the pork and veggie mixture while it’s cooking. The moisture coming off the pork, mushrooms, and bok choy does the work – it steams those noodles right on the griddle, and the starch off the wrapper thickens up and helps bind everything together. No extra pot, no extra step.

Both methods worked well for this recipe. The boiled-then-charred version has a little more texture, more like a pan-fried potsticker. The straight-in-the-mixture version is faster and gives you that soft, silky bite you get from a steamed dumpling. Can’t go wrong either way – do whichever fits your night.

Ingredients

For the pork mixture:

ground pork
rice vinegar
soy sauce
fresh ginger
garlic cloves – I prefer fresh garlic in this recipe.
fresh cilantro – Most people think of cilantro as a Mexican herb, but it is widely used in Asian cuisine.
green onions – I always thinly slice my green onions and then separate the whites from the greens. The whites get added to the vegetables to cook, just like regular yellow onions, and the green tops are used at the very end of the cooking process for added color and flavor.
salt and black pepper

For the veggie mixture:

shredded carrots – I buy the pre-shredded to keep this easy.
bok choy – I like to separate the stalks from the leaves, because the stalks take longer to cook.
mushrooms
wonton wrappers – Find these refrigerated in the produce section.

For the sauce:

soy sauce
Thai sweet chili sauce
chili crisp – We love this ingredient for so many different Asian dishes. The Chef Troy’s brand is fantastic, and it’s labeled as “Crunchy Garlic Chili Sauce”.

Ingredient Notes

About the ginger: Don’t skip fresh ginger for the powdered stuff here – it’s one of the most important flavors in the dish. Peel it with a spoon by simply scraping over the outer brown layer (way easier than a knife), and then grate or mince it fine.

About the bok choy: Never used it before? Think of it as a cross between celery and cabbage. You can sub green cabbage if you can’t find it or aren’t a fan.

About the sauce: This is not a sweet sauce. It leans savory and spicy from the chili crisp, so if you like things sweeter, add a touch more sweet chili sauce to taste, or reduce the amount of chili crisp.

dumpling in a bowl with ground pork, wonton wrapper noodles, vegetables, and sauce

Step-by-Step Instructions

Make the pork mixture. Combine the ground pork, rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, cilantro, green onion, black pepper, and salt in a bowl. Mix until well incorporated and refrigerate while you prep the rest.

Make your sauce. In a bowl, mix the soy sauce, Thai sweet chili sauce, and chili crisp. Set aside.

Prep your noodles. Slice the wonton wrappers into thin noodles, about 1/4″ wide. If you’re flash-boiling, drop them in boiling water for about a minute, then drain and set aside. If you’re going the no-boil route, just have them cut and ready to add straight into the mixture later.

cooking ground pork and seasonings on a griddle

Start the pork. Get your griddle going on medium-low to start. Add the pork mixture and let it start browning, using your spatula to break it up into crumbles as it cooks.

Add the veggies. Once the pork is browning, add the mushrooms, the tougher bok choy stalks, and the carrots to a clear section of the griddle. Let those cook down for about 2 minutes before adding to the ground pork.

Drain excess grease. Push everything together and drain off any extra grease you don’t need. *For griddle cooking, if you pile up the dumpling in a bowl on the griddle for a few minutes, you’ll notice the excess grease starts to pull away and drain towards the grease trap. You can then use your scraper to scrape the excess grease into the trap.

Add the sauce. Pour in about three-quarters of your sauce mixture to start, and sauté all of the ingredients together. You can add more of the sauce later.

cooking ground pork, vegetables, and noodles on a griddle for dumpling in a bowl

Add the noodles. If going the no-boil route, add the raw sliced wrapper strips here and let the moisture from the pork and veggies steam them right on the griddle. Just spread the wonton wrapper “noodles” out in a thin layer directly on top of the pork and veggie mixture.

Add the tender greens. Stir in the bok choy leaves and any remaining green onion right at the end so they stay bright.

Finish it off. Turn off the heat, sprinkle more cilantro over the top, and give it one final mix. Serve it hot, straight off the griddle. Taste, and drizzle some of the remaining sauce on top if you wish.