isithalal.food

Halal-conscious recipe

Chicken gyoza without sake

Pan-fried Japanese gyoza with a Halal chicken and cabbage filling, no cooking sake, a soy sauce you have checked, and a dipping sauce on the side.

  • Cuisine Japanese
  • Meal Snack
  • Difficulty Moderate
  • Yield 26 gyoza
  • Time 50 min
  • Last updated

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

Printable view
A plate of dumplings
Photograph from our ingredient library: a plate of dumplings, not the finished dish.

Why Halal checks matter here

Gyoza fillings are often pork, many recipes season them with cooking sake, and the soy and oyster sauces need their own checks.

Gyoza are Japanese pan-fried dumplings: crisp on the bottom, steamed on top. BBC Good Food's recipe fills them with cabbage, spring onion, ginger and water chestnut bound with pork or chicken mince, and seasons the filling with soy, oyster sauce, sesame oil and a teaspoon of cooking sake. Sake is rice wine, so this version leaves it out and takes the chicken option.

The other checks are on the bottles. Use a soy sauce with no added alcohol, or a certified one, in the filling and the dip. Oyster sauce follows your school's view on molluscs; a mushroom-based vegetarian version does the same job. The chicken needs Halal slaughter, and the skins are worth a look at the pack like any ready-made wrapper.

Fry the gyoza on one side only and don't lift the lid while they steam. The dumplings page covers what to ask in a restaurant, where pork fillings are common.

Halal-critical ingredients

  • Cooking sake Sake is rice wine. The original filling uses a teaspoon of it. Leave it out; the soy and sesame carry the seasoning. See Sake.
  • Pork mince Many gyoza are pork, and the original offers pork or chicken. Use Halal chicken mince. See Dumplings.
  • Soy sauce and oyster sauce Some soy sauces add alcohol, and scholars differ on oysters and other molluscs. Use a soy sauce with no added alcohol or a certified one, and oyster sauce only if your school accepts molluscs. See Soy sauce and Oyster sauce.

Safe substitutes

  • Cooking sake → Nothing
  • Pork mince → Halal chicken mince
  • Oyster sauce → A mushroom-based vegetarian 'oyster' sauce

Allergens

gluten (gyoza skins, most soy sauce), soy, sesame, molluscs (oyster sauce), peanuts (second dipping sauce)

Ingredients

Filling

  • 4 spring onions, ends trimmed, roughly chopped
  • 2 large leaves Savoy or pointed cabbage leaves, hard stem removed, roughly chopped
  • 1½ cm piece (½ in piece) ginger, peeled and chopped
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 50 g (about 5) water chestnuts, drained
  • 2 tsp soy sauce with no added alcohol, or a Halal-certified soy sauce
  • 2 tsp oyster sauce (if your school accepts molluscs), or a mushroom-based vegetarian 'oyster' sauce
  • ½ tsp sesame oil
  • 140 g (5 oz) Halal chicken mince

To assemble and cook

  • 2 tbsp cornflour, for dusting
  • 26 ready-made gyoza skins, defrosted if frozen (read the pack)
  • 2–3 tbsp vegetable oil

Dipping sauce (one or both)

  • 2 tbsp, 1 tbsp and 2 tsp soy sauce with no added alcohol, rice vinegar and sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp, 2 tbsp and 2 tsp soy sauce with no added alcohol, yuzu juice and peanut oil

Method

  1. Make the filling. Whizz the spring onions, cabbage, ginger and garlic in a food processor until fine, or chop them by hand. Pulse in the water chestnuts so they stay a little crunchy, then add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and a pinch of salt. The original adds a teaspoon of cooking sake here; leave it out.
  2. Add the chicken. Tip the mix into a bowl, add the chicken mince and mix by hand until well combined. Chill until you are ready to fill.
  3. Fill and pleat. Dust a plate with cornflour and keep a small bowl of water nearby. Hold a skin in your palm, put a heaped teaspoon of filling in the middle and wet the edge with a fingertip. Bring the edges together and pinch pleats along one side, pressing each against the flat side to seal. Set each gyoza on the floured plate.
  4. Fry, then steam. Cook in batches. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a non-stick frying pan, brush the excess cornflour off the bases and fry the gyoza on one side only for about 2 minutes until golden. Add a good splash of water, cover and cook over a medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes until the water has gone and the chicken is cooked through.
  5. Serve. Mix the dipping sauce, or both, and serve alongside the gyoza.

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Gyoza' (a spring onion, cabbage, ginger, garlic and water chestnut filling seasoned with soy, oyster sauce, cooking sake and sesame oil, mixed with pork or chicken mince, pleated into 26 ready-made skins, fried on one side then steamed). We chose its chicken option, specified Halal chicken, left out the teaspoon of sake, and asked for a soy sauce with no added alcohol. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Technique and ingredient sources

  1. Gyoza — BBC Good Food Retrieved:

    Makes 26: spring onions, cabbage, ginger, garlic, water chestnuts, soy sauce, oyster sauce, 1 tsp cooking sake, sesame oil, 140 g minced pork or chicken, 26 gyoza skins, cornflour, vegetable oil; fried on one side then steamed 3 to 5 minutes; two dipping sauces. We used chicken and removed the sake.

  2. Dumplings analysis — isithalal.food Retrieved:

    Filling, wrapper and sauce checks for dumplings.

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