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You can easily make these Chinese chive pockets using rice paper. It is so much faster, so delicious and you want to keep eating this mini chives pocket with the dipping sauce!
A twist to the classic
Traditional Chinese chives pockets, sometimes called chives boxes, are popular street food or snacks in Northern China. The pastry is typically made from a dough similar to that used for dumplings or pancakes, which is then filled with a mixture of Chinese chives (also known as garlic chives), scrambled eggs, and sometimes vermicelli noodles or other ingredients like tofu or shrimp. This recipe is a twist to the classic Chinese chives pocket. You don’t have to make the wrapper from scratch. I use rice paper, which results in crispy chives pocket bursts with juicy savory pork and chives filling! so good!
Rice Paper Chive Pockets (韭菜盒子)
Ingredients
For wrapping:
- 8 pieces rice paper I use 8.5 inches rice paper
Filling:
- 227 g ground pork with fat
- 300 g garlic chives
- 56 g dried bean thread noodles
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp chicken powder
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
For pan frying:
- 2 Tbsp Oil or more as needed
Dipping sauce:
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp chili oil
- ¼ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds
Instructions
Prepare the dipping sauce:
- Put all ingredients for the sauce in a small pan, except for the sesame seeds. Bring it to a simmer and stir until sugar dissolves. Off the heat. Let it cool down completely. Transfer to a jar with a lid and this can be kept in the fridge for about 1 week
Prepare the filling: (can be done the day before)
- Chope the chives into fine pieces
- Soak the bean thread noodles/mung bean noodles in warm water until softened.
- Drain off water and then use a kitchen shears to cut into short pieces, about 1-2 inches long
- In a large mixing bowl, add the pork, chives, noodles, and the rest of the ingredients for the filling. Use a pair of chopsticks or a wooden spatula to stir in one direction until you get a sticky paste-like texture
- To taste it, you can microwave a tiny portion of the filling until cook through, probably only take couple seconds, and see if you are happy with the seasoning department! If not, adjust to your preference
- Cover with a cling wrap and let it marinade for at least 15 minutes or put it in the fridge if you plan to marinade it overnight
Wrapping:
- I use round rice paper with a diameter of 8.5 inches. Use a kitchen shears to cut into 4 pieces. This makes 32 mini chives pockets. If you prefer larger size, simply cut into half and you get 16 chives pockets instead
- Prepare a small bowl of water. Get one pre-cut rice paper and dip in the water until the wrapper is softened somewhat, about 6-7 seconds (this may vary depending on the brand of the rice paper too). Don't oversoak because you still want it to be firm (but soft enough to be bent so it won't tear). The rice paper continues to soften as you do the wrapping
- Put this on top of a cutting board. Scoop the filling, about 1 tablespoon on the center.
- Fold the softened wrapper over the filling to enclose the filling completely.
- Put the dumplings on a lightly oiled plate, seam side down and continue wrapping the rest.
- At first, you may feel like the dumplings don't seal well, but you will see that the wrapper continues to soften and the seal sticks better
Pan fry:
- Preheat a large non-stick pan or skillet with 2 tbsp of oil over medium heat. When it's hot, place the chives pocket, seam side down on the pan and cook for about 4-5 minutes or until the bottom are golden brown, then flip over and cook for another 3-4 minutes or until they are crispy and golden brown. Remove from the pan and put on absorbent paper towel
- Continue with the next batch. Add more oil if needed and let it heat up before you start to pan fry again
- You can keep them warm in the oven, while cooking the rest. Here's how I usually do it. I set up a cooling rack over a baking pan and put the pan-fried chives pocket on top and keep them warm in the oven using the "keep warm" function
Serving:
- Serve them warm with the dipping sauce on the side
*Nutrition facts are just estimates and calculated using online tools*
Variations to the recipe
1. Meatless: if you want to make it meatless, simply substitute the amount of meat with meatless protein such as extra-firm tofu, scrambled eggs (which is the original filling for Chinese chives pocket)
2. Substitute the noodles: if you don’t have mung bean thread noodles (or known as glass noodles), you can use another type of noodles such as rice vermicelli noodles
3. Substitute for garlic chives: if you don’t like garlic chives, you can use scallion or leeks instead
Can I cook with an air fryer?
I prefer the result with pan-frying, but if you want to cook them with an air fryer, here’s how:
1. Preheat the air fryer to 350 F (180 C)
2. Spray the basket with some non-stick spray
3. Arrange the chives pocket on the basket, preferably don’t crowd them too much
4. Brush with some oil on top and cook for 5 minutes and then flip them over and brush with some oil and cook again for another 3-5 minutes. The timing is just for reference as it may vary depending on the air fryer. Just air fry until crispy and lightly golden brown. They may not be as golden brown as if you pan-frying them
