I Never Skip This Important Step When Air Frying Dumplings.
I have no qualms about traditional boil pies: slippery dough pockets stuffed with everything from potatoes to cabbage to cheese or meat are pure comfort. But if I had a choice, I would almost always choose the crispy, golden fried dumplings. More precisely, air fried. Note that there is one important step to achieving incredibly light and bouncy skin using the air fryer, and that, my friends, is simmering.
The secret to making excellent dumplings in the deep fryer
If you’ve ever put frozen dumplings in the air fryer, you’ve probably only tried them once because they turn out dry and hard (not to be confused with crispy). An air fryer, as we know, doesn’t magically fry anything : it’s a miniature convection heating system. As long as the fan moves hot air around a small interior space, high temperatures can be achieved. Your food can cook faster, and there’s a better chance that whatever you put in it will be delicious and crispy. Perhaps the texture is similar to something deep fried or like a nice piece of cardboard.
The dry wind of an air fryer is very effective at drying things out, so things that don’t have much moisture in them will simply become drier. This is why it is not so good for toasting sliced bread . Frozen dumplings look like dry pasta. If you put it in the fryer, it will simply dry out while the filling heats up. The finished pie will be edible, but the skin will have a mealy taste and a pasty consistency. Not ideal.
In a side-by-side comparison of just air-fried (right) and boiled (left), you can immediately see the difference in color and texture. If you look closely, you’ll see that the dumplings on the left, the first to cook, have tiny bubbles running all over the surface. These are air pockets that form after hydration and rapid evaporation of moisture from the shell.
Boiling first changes the composition and texture.
Taking a cue from air fried caramel spread chips , I first boil the dumplings and add them to a little butter. Boiling the dumplings for a few minutes first moistens the wrapper, and a light layer of fat helps them brown. After cooking, pasta becomes soft and puffy due to water molecules. Now, when you put pasta in the air fryer, whether it’s potato-filled dumplings or plain pasta, the intense heat from the convection oven quickly evaporates the water, leaving the pasta sheet riddled with tiny air pockets. When you bite into this thin, bubbly sheet, it feels light and crunchy without being hard.
I like to sprinkle the dumplings with a little butter and salt before air frying. This helps conduct heat through the fryer even more evenly and tastes great. Two birds, do you understand? If you air-fry fresh homemade dumplings, cook them only until they float; about two minutes.
Air fried dumplings recipe
Ingredients:
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8-10 frozen dumplings
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½ tablespoon butter
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Pinch of salt
1. Fill a medium saucepan with water. There should be a lot of water so that the dumplings can submerge and not hit their neighbors too hard. Bring to a boil.
2. Place the dumplings in boiling water and cook almost completely. Read the boiling instructions on the package and subtract two minutes from the time. Depending on their size, this may take five to eight minutes. Mine were medium in size and I cooked them for seven minutes.
3. While they are cooking, add the butter and a pinch of salt to a wide bowl.
4. Drain the dumplings in an unfamiliar area and allow any residual moisture to evaporate for about two minutes, then toss the still hot dumplings into a bowl. Turn the dumplings over to coat them with the salted butter.
5. Place the dumplings in the air fryer. Set to air fry at 350°F and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, turning halfway through cooking time. Serve with your favorite dumpling seasonings or a little garlic butter.