Shanghai Soup Dumplings {Xiao Long Bao 小笼包}

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Shanghai Soup Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao 小笼包) are a classic breakfast favorite from China’s Yangtze River Delta. Each mini bun is delicately wrapped with thin dough and filled with juicy pork and savory broth—simple, comforting, and irresistibly delicious

Keep reading to learn the simplified, straightforward way to make this delicious dish perfectly at home – every time!

What Do You Need to make Shanghai Soup Dumplings?

Wrappers

There’s no doubt – fresh, home made wrappers are the best. Soft, thin, and tender, they make a noticable difference in teh final dumplings. If you have a KitchenAid Stand Mixer or a manual pasta machine, you’ll be surprised how easily you can make dumpling wrappers in under 20 minutes.

That said, store-bought wrappers work well too. Simply roll them out a bit thinner for a more delicate texture.

Ground Pork

Quality ground pork is essential for truly delicious soup dumplings. The ideal blend of 40% pork belly and 60% pork shoulder (or butt), coarsely ground together. This ratio creates teh perfect balance of juiciness and meaty flavor.

I use the KitchenAid Stand Mixer Meat Grinder attachment to grind the pork for all my ground pork needs.

When my husband bought the KitchenAid stand mixer over 10 years ago, I secretly thought it might end up being another gadget we rarely used. To my surprise, it’s now one of the most-used tools in my kitchen.

With it many attachments, I use it for making noodles, wonton wrappers, dumpling wrappers, whipped cream, home-ground pork – just to name a few.

If you prefer a shortcut, you can absolutely use store-bought ground pork. Look for pork that contains 70% lean meat or less, which will give you enough fat for juicy, flavorful dumplings.

Marinating Sauce for the Pork

The marinating sauce is the key to the juicy, flavorful pork filling. What goes into the secret marinating sauce? It’s simpler than you might think – yet the ingredients work together like magic: aged soy sauce, light soy sauce,Shaoxing wine, egg, arrowroot flour, star anise powder, freshly ground coriander seeds, green onion, and ginger.

I find it much easier to buy organic whole coriander seeds than pre-ground powder, so I simply grind the seeds myself using a spcie grinder for the freshest flavor.

Fresh organic ginger adds wonderful aroma and depth. I like to use a compact food processor to finely mince the ginger and green onion together. If you prefer an even smoother texture – or want to avoid any ginger chunks in the filling – you can substitute with organic ginger powder instead.

Tips & Tricks Making Shanghai Soup Dumplings Perfectly Every Time!

See the Recipe for detailed step-by-step guide. I’d like to highlight a few tips & tricks here:

Use homemade dumpling wrappers if you can

Read here for detailed recipe and tutorial.

Prepare juicy, tasty pork fillings

Wrap the dumplings as if they are mini buns

Read here for detailed and easy to follow tutorial.

Prepare liner for the steamer

Since Shanghai soup dumplings have thin & soft skin containing loads of yumminess, we will need to prepare a liner for the steamer. Otherwise, they will simply stick to the surface. I often use carrot slices as the edible liner.

Using a Mandoline slicer‘s thinnest setting, slice a large carrot vertically. It works out great. Each carrot slice can then serve as an individual liner for the freshly wrapped Shanghai soup dumplings. Alternatively, you may use vegetables such as zucchini, cucumber as well.

Or you can use parchment paper. I recently discovered the unbleached parchment paper. Use a hole punch to punch some holes and you shall have a restaurant-style steamer liner.

Steaming Techniques

A 14-inch wok (about 4-inches in height) coupled with a 12-inch bamboo steamer works out great as a steaming pair. You wouldn’t need an additional rack to support the bamboo steamer.

For steaming the food, the water level should follow a Goldilocks principle, not too much but not too little either.

Too much water, the boiling water will end up touching the bottom of the food during steaming. As a result, the food will get soggy and affect the taste and flavor.

With too little water, the wok might get dried out during steaming, which may turn into dangerous kitchen hazards. This is because water gets evaporated into steam quickly during the steaming process. Please always do some tests and stay in the kitchen monitoring the steaming process as you learn the process and get to know your steaming set.

For steaming Shanghai soup dumplings, 10-minute on medium-high heat is all you need. 5 cups of water will support a 10-minute steaming well. This will also leave enough space between the water level and the bamboo steamer bottom to avoid boiling water to touch the dumplings during the steaming process.

Add 5 cups of water into the wok, bring it to a boil and then add the bamboo steamer. Steam for 10 minutes and then turn off the heat.

Serve Shanghai Soup Dumplings

Once you are done with steaming, remove the steamer immediately from the wok, and serve hot. Freshly steamed soup dumplings are the best. They contain juice inside the dumplings that will eventually get absorbed by the wrappers. Therefore, enjoy freshly steamed, juicy & soupy Shanghai soup dumplings whenever you can.

Zhenjiang vinegar with thinly cut ginger slices is a popular dipping sauce. They just complement and contrast the flavor so well.

Do you like authentic, healthy Chinese food made easy at home? Make sure you check out the following.

• Huai Yang Style Wonton Soup
• Huai Yang Style Lion’s Head Soup