How to Make Chef John's Spicy Potsticker Soup

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In this video, learn how to make Chef John's Spicy Potsticker Soup—a flavorful and comforting dish that’s quick and easy to prepare. This recipe transforms frozen potstickers into a delicious soup with a spicy, savory broth packed with garlic, ginger, and chili flavors. Topped with fresh herbs and chilis, it’s a perfect weeknight meal that combines convenience with gourmet taste.

Transcript

00:00Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with spicy potsticker soup.

00:09That's right, I couldn't decide if I wanted wonton soup or potstickers, so I ended up

00:13making this.

00:14And as the old commercial used to say, this is a soup that eats like a meal.

00:19And oh my goodness, what a meal it was.

00:22And to get started, we'll do a little bit of optional vegetable prep, which will involve

00:27slicing up some shiitake mushrooms, which are incredibly delicious, although the stem

00:31is a little bit tough and fibrous.

00:34So what we'll do is pull that out, and then we'll slice our shrooms about an eighth of

00:37an inch thick.

00:38And by the way, your grocery store might not have fresh shiitake, but they'll almost always

00:43have a package of dry shiitake, which you can simply soak until they're soft, and then

00:47slice them up the same way.

00:49So that's how we'll prep our mushrooms if we're using them.

00:52And then I'm also going to put in some bok choy, which I like to divide in half first,

00:56between the light part and the dark green part.

00:59And for the lighter parts near the bottom of the plant, I like to slice that about a

01:02quarter of an inch thick, since that takes a little longer to cook than the leaves.

01:07So by cutting the light parts smaller, and then cutting the green parts about an inch

01:10to two inches wide, they will theoretically cook at about the same rate.

01:15And other than some green onions you're going to see in a minute, and a few aromatics, that's

01:19going to pretty much do it for the knife work.

01:22And once we're ready to start cooking, we'll heat up some oil on high heat in a soup pot,

01:27to which we will add our sliced shiitake, along with a nice pinch of salt.

01:31And we will cook that, stirring for a few minutes, until those slices of mushroom start

01:35to soften up, and the edges start to take on a little bit of brown color.

01:39And there are a lot of recipes that just add the shiitake right to the broth, which is

01:43fine, but you really do get a lot more flavor if you do this first.

01:47And then what we'll do once we're happy, or even very happy with our mushrooms, is make

01:50a little space in the center, and we'll pour in another tablespoon of oil, into which we

01:55will toss our aromatics, also known as some finely minced garlic, some very finely minced

02:01ginger, as well as some sliced up green onions, mostly just the white and light parts.

02:06And we can save the green parts to add later.

02:10And then what we'll do is cook this, stirring for just about a minute, but we have to be

02:13careful, since we're still on high heat, and we do not want our garlic to burn.

02:18So make sure you have your chicken broth right next to you, since after briefly sizzling

02:22that stuff in the hot oil, we will grab our broth, and we will quickly and carefully pour

02:26it in, which of course is going to prevent any further browning.

02:30And once that's been transferred in, we'll give it a stir, and then we'll wait for this

02:34to start to boil.

02:35And in case you're keeping score at home, I'm going to do a combination of chicken broth,

02:39with vegetable potstickers.

02:40All right, if you wanted, you could do vegetable broth with chicken potstickers, or both chicken,

02:45or both vegetable, or any combination you want.

02:48All right, there's really no bad choices, unless you use a cheap bad broth.

02:53But no matter what you use, once this comes to a boil, we'll give it a stir, and then

02:57we will flavor it up with some soy sauce, as well as a big splash of rice wine vinegar,

03:03which is actually a nod to hot and sour soup.

03:07And then we'll also do a couple teaspoons of toasted sesame oil, followed by as much

03:11hot sauce as you think this needs, which for me is going to be a couple teaspoons of

03:15sriracha.

03:16And we'll go ahead and stir all that together.

03:19And once again, we'll wait for this to come back to the boil, at which point we'll grab

03:23our prepped bok choy, and we'll toss that in, both the thinner sliced stem parts, as

03:29well as those larger slices of the leafy parts, and we can also add in the sliced green parts

03:34of our scallions, and we'll give that a quick stir, at which point we can add the star of

03:40the show, our favorite frozen potstickers, and we'll go ahead and gently stir those in.

03:47And as I mentioned, I'm using vegetable potstickers, which I only got because my local market was

03:51out of the chicken potstickers.

03:53But it's funny how things like that happen, and while Michelle and I enjoyed the final

03:57product, we were actually glad the dumplings were vegetarian, since that made for a great

04:02contrast with that rich, spicy, aromatic chicken broth.

04:05So once again, the universe had my back.

04:08And that's it.

04:09All we need to do is cook this for about 3 or 4 minutes, or until our potstickers are

04:13cooked through.

04:14Oh, and by the way, if you want to take a more beautiful picture, you can add that bok

04:18choy right at the last second, but personally, taste and texture wise, I do prefer my bok

04:23choy cooked tender, but the tradeoff, of course, is you're going to get a drab green instead

04:28of a bright green, which bothers me not at all.

04:32But it might bother you, so I thought I would mention it.

04:36And then for one final optional step, about 30 seconds before we think our soup is ready,

04:41I'm going to go ahead and mix in a nice big spoon of miso paste, which I like to add to

04:45a ladle like this first, and sort of give it a stir around in that hot soup, so it softens

04:50up and sort of breaks down and mixes in a little easier.

04:54Sometimes if you just add the whole spoon in, it will just stay in a big clump.

04:58And the reason we're doing this right at the end is because you're not supposed to boil

05:01or cook miso, but rather add it to a soup right before you're about to serve.

05:06So that's what I did, at which point I turned off the heat, and then before we serve this

05:10up in some nice hot bowls, I'm going to stir in one big spoon of chili crisp, just for

05:15some extra spice, plus I also love what it does to the color.

05:20So I stirred that in, before grabbing a spoon to give this the official taste for seasoning,

05:25since we might need another pinch of salt, or a little splash of soy sauce.

05:29But I'm happy to report mine was perfect, so I went ahead and ladled some up.

05:34And then as far as finishing touches go, because I generally like things very spicy, I added

05:39a little more chili crisp to the top, plus one last scattering of freshly chopped green

05:43onion.

05:45And that's it!

05:46My version of spicy potsticker soup was ready to enjoy!

05:50And that, my friends, really is a tremendous bowl of soup, especially when you consider

05:54how little work we did, and how other than a couple minutes of knife work, there's really

05:58not a lot of prep involved.

06:00And not to pat myself on the back, but that nice big splash of vinegar, which gives this

06:05hot and sour soup vibes, plus that little addition of miso, which is another one of

06:10my favorite soups, but those two additions, to me, really elevated this, and made it more

06:15delicious, and more savory, and more interesting.

06:19And of course, like all soups, you go ahead and throw in whatever you want to throw in.

06:23Alright, if it's a meat, or a vegetable, or a spice, or an herb, and you enjoy it in

06:28other soups, well then, by all means, add it to this one.

06:31I mean, you guys are after all the fixers of your soup with potstickers, and speaking

06:36of making things disappear, the only slight drawback of this soup, is that it doesn't

06:41really reheat that well, since the potstickers might fall apart when you bring it back up

06:45to temperature.

06:46So, I would suggest trying to eat it when you make it.

06:49But having said that, I did reheat some, and yes, the potstickers did sort of come

06:53apart, but it was still great, and everything was still in the bowl, and if we were eating

06:57the soup blindfolded, we might not even know the difference.

07:01But anyway, that's it, my take on spicy potsticker soup.

07:06It's fast, it's easy, it's incredibly delicious, and it's exactly what you want, when you don't

07:11know what you want.

07:13Which is why, I really do hope you give this a try soon.

07:17So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe,

07:21and much more info, as usual.

07:24And as always, enjoy.

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