Pro Chefs Blind Taste Test Every Frozen Dumpling

[Anna] We've gathered three professional chefs

to blind test taste every supermarket frozen dumpling brand

we could get our hands on

to see which ones meet their standards.

All dumplings have been prepared following

the cooking instructions in the back of their packaging.

Twin Marquis Jiaozi dumpling.

They remind me of the old soy jiaozi,

which is basically water boiled dumplings.

They kind of suck into the filling

and they give you this really cool texture

in the form of these grooves.

There's a lot of green showing through the skin,

which means the skin isn't super thick.

Three delicious dumplings, hopefully.

My ideal dumpling,

I would love to see a wrapper that is thin,

but it has texture and pliability.

[Chris] Chewy, pliable, bouncy.

Unless it's pan-fried,

and then I want it to be super crispy and seared.

Dumplings are meant to symbolize prosperity

in Asian culture,

so we do not wanna get skimpy on the fillings.

We want a nice, full, abundant stuffing in there.

[Chris] Filling-to-wrap ratio is very important.

I just wanna be able to taste the ingredients

that are in the filling.

[Chris] When you bite into the dumpling,

it should be flavorful and juicy.

Hmm!

We've got some juice coming out of the dumpling,

which is great.

It's moist.

It's juicy on the verge of going a little bit moist.

It's good texture.

So I do like the skin.

Silky, has a bite.

It's like soft and chewy,

so you're having different textures.

Traditionally, you use hot water and flour,

and that gives it pliability and chewiness.

It's a solid ratio of the filling to the wrapper.

This dumping is definitely a Jiaozi,

so it's the Chinese style.

An easy way to identify Jiaozi is the crescent shape,

I think is a big one,

pork and garlic chive combo.

Now, Chinese chives,

often a very strongly flavored vegetable.

Some people don't like it, actually,

but the fact that it's cut with the cabbage,

you get that flavor, but it's not overpowering.

I'm gonna guess Twin Marquis.

Twin Marquis!

It's a jiaozi dumpling,

pork and Chinese chive, Twin Marquis brand.

People would know this because they make

the commercial dumpling wrappers

that everybody basically uses.

So this packet says fully cooked and then frozen,

and I think that explains some of the texture

of the filling.

In some restaurants that prepare frozen dumplings,

they'll freeze 'em at the raw state and cook 'em to order.

But when you're dealing with packaged frozen dumplings,

I'd say the majority of them

are gonna have 'em fully cooked,

and a lot of that is for safety.

I think it's a wonderful introduction for someone

to have a traditional style dumpling

and get some of those classic flavors.

[Anna] P.F. Chang's Pork Dumpling.

Ooh, a pan-fried dumpling!

Classic potsticker shape.

They look nice and plump.

People often are referring to potstickers as gyoza.

And again, gyoza are in fact

the Japanese style interpretation of a potsticker.

In Mandarin Chinese, potsticker, guotie,

literally means stuck to the pot.

When the water and the steam kind of dissipate in the pan

and the cooking goes from wet to dry,

the top pleats will dry out,

so you don't want them too thick.

It's one of the ways you can tell

that they're machine made skins.

The thickness of the dough is so thin

that you can't even taste that there's pleats in it.

So I wouldn't mind a little bit thicker

so you can taste the chew.

When it's too thin,

you're gonna lose some of the bounciness

because it doesn't have enough dough

for it to give you that proper bite.

The filling is not flavorful

and has a strange flavor that I can't identify.

The dumpling I had before from Twin Marquis

had just a little bit more flavor to it.

So is this like Panda Express?

P.F. Chang's?

Oh, P.F. Chang.

Oh, it's a P.F. Chang!

The Chang Chinese restaurant in the United States,

they're the one.

Ginger puree, the wrapper.

There's nothing particularly in here

that screams like chemicals or artificial.

Maybe I'll have to revise my view on this chain

just a little bit.

Mm, I'd pass on this dumpling.

[Anna] Laoban Pork and Chive Dumplings.

This one maybe looks to me more like handmade style.

They have texture,

unlike the last one that was pan-seared.

Looks pretty nice.

I like the look of these dumplings.

Looks crispy, looks delicious, looks juicy.

And let's take a bite.

Not very juicy on the interior.

A little dry, and the filling doesn't have that much flavor.

It's kinda disappointing.

It looked so good.

There's a lot of space in between

the wrapper and the filling.

This dumpling does not have as plump of a filling.

The ingredients that are in it

aren't popping out tremendously.

You're missing the texture of ground meat in this one.

So it just feels like one consistent texture that you don't,

you can't identify anything that's in there.

The wrapper itself is delicious.

It has a nice elasticity to it.

The dough for this one is definitely soft, pliable,

and you get that layer of crunch going into

that kind of chewy al dente pasta texture,

but, man, that's a letdown with the filling.

The vegetable component should really enhance

the meat itself, or vice versa.

It's not doing anything for either.

Ooh!

These are nice.

Laoban dumplings got...

Oh! From Michelin awarded Chef Tim Ma.

So Chef Tim Ma, I apologize,

but this is not my cup of tea.

They're using good quality ingredients.

Filling is Berkshire pork.

Unbleached wheat flour, lye water.

So we use lye water to actually make the doughs more chewy.

Now, lye water is potassium bicarbonate in solution.

It is mixed with a little bit of sodium bicarbonate.

That was known as like baking soda, right?

And that creates an alkaline environment.

And when that interacts with the gluten

that is present in the flour,

it allows you to have more elasticity and spring.

Kudos to them for using a little bit of a chef's trick.

[Anna] Target brand, Good & Gather Chicken

and Vegetable Potstickers.

Nice crisp bottom, nice size.

Looks delicious.

The carrot flavor is actually pretty pronounced in this.

Chicken and carrot?

Maybe some cabbage in there.

Flavor is definitely lacking,

unless you want to eat a carrot dumpling.

So carrots are not giving me traditional Chinese vibes

or anything like that.

The wrapper is thin, it still had a bite.

Decently folded over the filling pretty tightly.

I'm squishing it.

There is some juice to it,

but again, what's a little off-putting

is that slightly spongy texture.

Good & Gather Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers.

This is the house brand for, okay, Target.

For a place that also makes clothing and shoes,

this is a perfectly acceptable dumpling, I'd say.

[Anna] Trader Joe's Pork Gyoza Potstickers.

Oh, this one has pleats.

The folding is not great.

The ends are not pinched.

Looks tasty though.

Nice sheen on the dumplings.

The ratio looks a little bit under.

These could be gyoza 'cause the skin is really thin.

And gyoza is the Japanese interpretation of the jiaozi,

which is the original Chinese version.

So always a finely-textured filling.

Pan fried so it's crispy, sometimes open on the ends.

Have high hopes.

Let's taste.

Hmm!

The skin tastes soft and pliable.

You're missing extra chew from the lack of pleats.

It's kind of verging on that borderline of being too thin.

The filling has a pretty pronounced white pepper flavor.

Looks like it's cabbage.

The filling is juicy,

but I would say the flavor is a little lacking.

Just based on the lack of complexity in the flavoring,

I think this is maybe like a generic supermarket brand.

That's Trader Joe's, are they?

Oh!

Trader Joe's, you let me down, man.

Nailed it.

Trader Joe's.

I would eat them again because I'm,

they're in the freezer and it's already there.

I probably wouldn't buy them.

I expected more from you, Trader Joe's.

I truly did.

[Anna] Ajinomoto Pork and Chicken Gyoza Dumplings.

It's beautiful.

Can see through them almost, like, paper-thin.

I love the,

when the wrapper kind of sucks in over the filling.

Hm.

It's definitely soft and thin and pliable.

It's in your mouth for a little bit and then it's gone.

This wrapper was a lot more delicate, a lot more soft.

Little less of a bounce,

but it made up for it in that thin, silky wrapper.

I'm getting a little bit of mushiness to the filling.

It's savory.

It has umami characteristics, depth of flavor,

but it's not actually truly complex

from natural ingredients.

I feel like there must be some flavor enhancers in here.

There might be like a filler in here,

like bean thread noodles or something,

so you can put less meat in there.

It's not tremendously juicy, but it's juicy enough.

I would've liked more flavor in the dumpling.

My guess is this is a gyoza on the packaging.

It is a Japanese gyoza!

Ajinomoto.

[Chris] One of the largest companies that make MSG.

Well, it has textured soy protein concentrate.

So I think that that's probably them cheaping out.

We'd rather just have fully pork.

This one has a lot

of more complex chemical-type ingredients in there.

It says, No cooking oil needed for a perfect crisp,

although it didn't have a perfect crisp.

So there's rice flour in here.

My guess is that's in the wrapper

and that's what's helping the wrapper get really crispy.

If they were in my freezer, I'd probably eat them again.

Not terrible, not super delicious,

but just kind of middle of the road.

[Anna] Twin Marquis Gyoza Dumpling

with Pork and Napa Cabbage.

So this set of dumplings almost looks like something

that I might make myself at home,

just the way that it's pleated.

This one looks very promising.

[Chris] The skin crisped up nicely.

I'm excited to try this one.

Hmm.

The wrapper is supple, silky,

has nice chew to it.

They could have allowed for a little bit more filling

with the amount of wrapper that they left over

in the fold process.

Filling's great.

It's one of the better fillings that we've had.

Pork and cabbage.

The meat is identifiable.

Definitely juicy.

I'm dripping juices here.

Full-flavored, not overpowering.

I am getting more a natural sense

of the ingredients on the inside.

The filling was pretty flavorful and decently juicy.

What makes a dumpling filling juicy

is meat that has a decent amount of fat content in there,

and you can add stock

and the stock emulsifies with the meat,

and you might use egg or cornstarch

to seize them all together.

And then when you cook it, the juices kind of fall out.

I'm feeling like this is pretty good of a representation

of something that was freshly made and then frozen.

More Twin Marquis!

There you go.

This is the Chinese brand,

but they've done this in the Japanese style,

which means that the wrapper is especially thin,

so it is meant specifically to be cooked as a potsticker.

Disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.

Now those are substitutes for MSG.

It's put in there so they don't actually have

to say it's made with MSG,

'cause technically it's not.

But yeah, this is,

this is solid to me.

Yeah, I'd eat this.

So far, I've liked the Twin Marquis dumplings the best.

Did y'all try this one?

This one's pretty good.

[Anna] Bibigo Mandu Pork and Vegetable Dumplings.

These are the largest of the dumplings that we've had.

Very plump.

So this one potentially could be a Korean-style mandu.

The amount of filling seems very abundant.

And mandu filling typically

is always you stuff it till it's about to pop.

Full, plump, nice ratio of filling to wrapper.

The flavor of the filling is pretty good.

It's juicy, black pepper forward.

What I'm getting at is a lot more freshness

in this dumping.

It's just moist enough

that it's giving me a really satisfying bite.

Some of the things that make a mandu identifiable

are glass noodles,

and this one definitely has noodles in there as a filler.

All I have is the knock is the crust on the top.

When you fold them this way with these pleats,

when you cook it with dry heat,

the top of the seal gets hard.

You wanna roll the edges out thinner,

so when you fold them it becomes

the same consistent thickness throughout the dumpling.

So you don't want them too thick.

But I'm demoing a nice new way to eat dumplings

if you find a flaw in it.

Eat it like you eat pizza and you don't like the crust.

If this is a mandu, my guess is that,

well, the one Korean brand I know is,

how do you say it, Bibigo?

Bibigo is apparently the way to go sometimes.

Just remember that you can change the cooking method

to avoid certain pitfalls.

I would recommend the steam version.

Eight minutes.

So in eight minutes you'll have happiness.

I'd eat this again.

[Anna] Ottogi Kimchi and Pork Jumbo Mandu.

My guess is these are another mandu.

Mandu you, mandu me!

Mandu yummy!

[Christine] Very plump.

That's that kind of abundant Korean kinda hospitality

of like, Give it all you got!

Seeing a lot of orange through it,

so it's either carrot or seafood, or something like that.

Hm.

Kimchi.

Definitely a mandu.

The wrapper's thin.

A little bit of chew.

I like the spice.

It's a little chalky though.

There's a lot of moisture from the kimchi component

that's in here.

It's very pasty.

So for mandu-style dumplings,

there are often ingredients that are precooked,

and that's in an effort to control the moisture level

of the filling.

It's all a game of moisture control.

This particular dumpling

did not quite meet the standard there.

It's mushy.

Almost like we went through a food processor a little bit

and, like, took a detour in the blender for a hot second.

So texture's not great on this one.

Oh!

Ottogi brand.

Kimchi and Pork Jumbo Mandu.

There is some tapioca starch in there,

and the beauty in that is you can usually see through,

and that is kinda just building the anticipation

of what the filling is gonna be.

The mushiness of the filling made it

for not the greatest bite ever.

[Anna] Bibigo Steamed Chicken and Vegetable Dumplings.

Microwave only.

Oh, this one's a new shape.

These are round.

The fold on this reminds me of soup dumplings,

but they don't look like traditional soup dumplings.

If this is not supposed to be a soup dumpling,

then I'm not Asian.

If this is supposed to be a soup dumpling,

it looks a little sad.

It's not soupy.

They're reminiscent of a soup dumpling,

but not a soup dumpling.

The interior is juicy but not soup dumpling juicy.

The texture of the wrapper just makes it,

it's slightly mushy.

It's a lot of wrapper-to-filling ratio,

but I think that has to do with the choice and shape here.

In terms of flavor,

this particular dumpling is,

I think it's very solid.

I'm getting vegetable crunchies in there.

There is a nice level

of umami kind of richness savoriness to it.

Hey!

Oh, it's a Bibigo.

Ready in one minute and 45 seconds in the microwave.

If you're going for speed and convenience,

you can't beat a minute and 45 seconds,

but you are gonna lose some quality along the way.

This is not it.

No.

No!

[Anna] Feel Good Gluten-Free Pork Potstickers.

This one's giving me Asian aesthetic vibes.

It's so pale.

Is this gluten-free?

The wrapper is really mushy,

like almost goopy.

I'm wondering if it's like a gluten-free wrapper.

Are these like gluten-free dumplings?

[Christine] There's a crisp bottom

and then it's just all mush on the top.

I'm feeling like there is rice flour in here.

Tapioca starts some kind of situation.

They're decently juicy.

The flavor is okay.

There's nothing wrong with it, but it is just one note.

I'd say the filling is moderately tasty.

I'm getting some ginger hints in there

that's actually pretty forward on the palette.

Ah!

This is Feel Good Foods.

It is always gluten-free.

Ding on that one.

I don't feel very good.

Oh, cognac flour.

Cognac is the tuber of a type of plant,

like amorphophallus family.

It gives you this kind of elastic consistency.

Sorry, gluten-free people.

[Anna] 365 Whole Foods Vegetable Potstickers.

The wrapper's a little more yellow.

Maybe there's egg in it.

Maybe they look a little more yellow

'cause we just had the anemic dumpling.

Pretty.

Consistent.

Sealed very well.

Having a seal is really important.

The juice is going to escape from the dumpling

and it's going to create a burn effect on the pan

and then just gonna taste burnt.

Oh, so they're gonna be like that.

Okay.

I'm gonna assume that's supposed to be vegetarian,

but that ain't it.

It's a little thick and leathery and it's a little dry,

and I think it's like a chewier dough,

which I like, but it's almost too thick.

It keeps the crisp though.

Weirdly enough, the wrapper is pliable,

has a bounce to it,

but doesn't taste good.

When you make dumpling dough,

you will add salt to the dough.

I think that they didn't add anything to this dough.

This might be just straight flour, water.

Ratio is good of the filling to the dough.

It's well-filled,

but in some ways, I wish that the wrapper had exploded

and all the filling ran away,

'cause then we wouldn't have to eat that.

[Christine] The flavor and the texture of the filling

is really off-putting.

So I have vegetable dumplings in my restaurant,

but I don't puree the vegetables.

I julienne the vegetables

and keep 'em crunchy within the skin.

So it would be much better

to have crunchier, larger chunks of vegetables

in this dumpling,

but because it's a frozen dumpling,

it may not be able to do that.

Is this the Whole Foods brand?

Whole Foods Market Vegetable Potstickers.

365.

How about zero?

[Anna] Nasoya Tofu Vegetable Vegan Dumplings.

Oh, these are cute.

Cute little dumplings.

Looks like they made it like with a cookie cutter.

It's not giving me Asian dumpling.

Wrapper's crispy.

Skin's got an okay bounce to it.

It's crispy in the right way.

The filling is very mushy

and very unidentifiable.

Like cheesy vibes.

This one's really confusing to me.

If it's tofu, it's been so processed

that it's giving me like ricotta cheese grainy vibes.

It's not juicy at all.

It's very mushy.

They didn't treat the tofu too great in these.

It's one of those ingredients that can make dishes sing.

Whoever made the filling for these dumplings

should probably find another job.

Is this a collaboration between Poland and China?

I don't know! [laughing]

Nasoya Organic Vegan Tofu Vegetable Dumplings.

It's not unpleasant,

but don't serve this to me as like Asian-style dumplings.

If you serve it to me as something else, I'd eat it.

Something like this is why people don't like tofu.

That makes me kind of sad,

because I'm a very pro tofu chef.

[Anna] MiLa Pork Soup Dumplings.

I see some bubbles kind of motion of liquid in there.

This is definitely a soup dumpling.

If they serve this spoon to you,

then it's the soup dumplings,

or they're also called xiaolongbaos.

Very key in a soup dumpling

is that the wrapper keeps its structure,

keeps its integrity.

Any little hole in there or crack in there,

you've lost that juice.

The fillings don't tend to have vegetables in them,

and the way that you get the soup is you're adding reduced

and gelatinous stock into the filling,

so then when you steam it, it becomes liquid.

What you'll do is you'll bite the little top off,

and that lets the steam come out

and then you'll just pop it in your mouth

and then eat the whole thing.

Mm!

The skin itself is about in the middle there.

It's not thin, but it's not overly-thick.

I can taste that it's pork.

It's not masked by too many flavorings.

It's a little under-plump.

[Chris] But overall, it was flavorful, it was juicy.

Is it like the MiLa?

So it's the MiLa Soup Dumpling, pork.

Savory and juicy, restaurant quality.

These dumplings are about a dollar a piece,

so it's on the pricier side.

A buck a dumpling?

Yeah.

Soup dumplings are a lot of work.

So you could go out to a restaurant

and get fresh ones for maybe $16.

And you don't have to do dishes,

you don't have to turn on the stove,

they give you dipping sauce, and they clear your plate.

[Anna] Trader Joe's Pork and Ginger Soup Dumplings.

Ooh, another soup-shaped dumpling.

I wonder if these are the Trader Joe's ones?

Maybe.

Juicy.

Probably triple the amount of juice

that we got out of the last soup dumpling.

Flavor-wise, it is seasoned.

It's not overpowering.

The flavor of the filling,

it was very clean and it was very refreshing.

Although this wrapper seems to be a little bit inconsistent.

The skin itself I think is a little bit too wet.

It's not giving me that al dente kind of chewiness

that I'm really looking for.

Trader Joe's Soup Dumplings.

There you go.

These are pretty tasty.

I have heard a rumor that these were good though.

Even if they're the same price,

I would definitely pick this one over the last one.

[Anna] Now let's see which products

our chefs like the most and the least.

Some of my favorites were the first one,

which was the straight boiled dumplings from Twin Marquis.

I'm a fan of the Twin Marquis.

Both of the Twin Marquis' filling there

was one of the more flavorful.

It just gave a very classic flavor profile.

[Christine] The Bibigo Mandu,

that one was super-plump, with a lot of filling.

And the last one.

These soup dumplings were really, really flavorful.

My least favorites,

unfortunately, the Nasoya Tofu.

[Chris] Yeah, that tofu dumpling

was probably my least favorite.

Unless you're telling your friends,

I'm making ricotta pierogi.

The texture of the gluten-free wrapper,

the really mushiness was very off-putting.

And, unfortunately, 365, the Whole Foods brand,

the vegetarian, no.

No!

No.

Dumplings are a happy food.

There's a lot of different options on the market.

It should be everybody's mission

to taste and enjoy all of them.

Fill a hole in your heart, fill a hole in your tummy,

and maybe bring a smile to your face.