Shrimp Wontons

While most of us think if wonton soup or crab rangoons - that wonderful appetizer with a cream cheese filling! - when thinking of wontons, today’s recipe is a slightly different type of chinese dumpling.

These crispy wonton bites are one of my favourite finger foods to serve during the holiday season. The FEEL fancy, but take only a little time to whip up , and no hard work at all!

The filling is a super flavourful blend of shrimp and aromatics, wrapped in a wonton and cooked one of 2 - possibly 3! - ways:

For the most authentic texture, they can be deep fried. For a healthier alternative - with less clean up involved! - they can be air fried.

If you don’t have an air fryer, they could probably be baked.

We have an air fryer, so I haven’t gotten around to trying a baked version yet - I’ll eventually update this recipe, when I do!

Whichever way you choose to cook these up, you - and your guests! - are sure to love them.

Anyway, let’s look at what’s involved here...

Ingredients

This recipe uses mostly simple ingredients. With the possible exception of the wonton skins, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding everything you need, pretty much anywhere.

As always, I have a few ingredient notes for you:

Wonton Wrappers

You’ll find these in the refrigerated section at larger grocery stores - we usually see it near the produce section - or in pretty much any Asian supermarket

These are usually available in two sizes - a large one for egg rolls, and smaller squares. You’ll want the smaller squares.

Raw Shrimp

You can use whatever size of shrimp you like, as long as it’s decent quality, thawed, peeled, and deveined.

If shrimp isn’t your thing, you can use this recipe for basic pork wontons instead. Just swap 1 lb of ground pork in, at the point you’re mixing everything into (what would have been) the chopped shrimp.

For that matter, this would also work well with ground chicken.

Soy Sauce

You can use Tamari or Coconut Aminos if you prefer. If you use low sodium soy sauce, you’ll want to taste the dipping sauce and possibly add a little more salt.

Rice Vinegar

Rice vinegar (or seasoned rice vinegar) works best for this recipe, but you can use white vinegar or apple cider vinegar if you prefer.

Oil for Frying

If you’re deep frying these wontons, get a neutral flavoured oil with a high smoke point, like vegetable oil or canola oil.

If you’re air frying or baking them, you can use any nonstick spray you like - we’ll usually use the Pam olive oil spray.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Freshly Grated Ginger (or ginger paste)
Green Onions
Garlic Cloves
Sesame Seeds
Sesame Oil
Crushed Chilies
Granulated Sugar
Crushed Chilies
1 Egg

... I just don’t have anything to add, as far as these last few ingredients go. Pretty basic stuff!

How to Make Shrimp Wontons

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the end of this post, here is the visual walk through, with step-by-step instructions:

Shrimp Filling:

I like to prepare and measure the ingredients before getting started.

Pat thawed shrump dry with paper towels. Finely chop the shrimp, or blitz in a food processor until finely chopped.

Place shrimp in a large bowl, along with remaining filling ingredients, and mix thoroughly. I like to use my hands for this – does a much better job of distributing everything than any mixing spoon will!

Cover and chill until ready to use.

Dipping sauce

In small mixing bowl, combine sauce ingredients together until well combined.

Cover and refrigerate until use.

Note: There are a variety of other sauces that go well with these shrimp wontons. Try them with chili oil sauce, duck sauce, hot sauce, plum sauce, and/or sweet chili sauce!