Pork and Shrimp Wonton Soup got me through a lot of fall and winter workdays. When I worked in San Francisco’s Financial District, the restaurant on the first floor of my building sold deli sandwiches and wonton soup, and the soup was $5 a quart. A quart was easily two lunches, sometimes three, and I ate so much of that soup. Now I make my own, with juicy pork and shrimp wontons in a gingery broth with bok choy and more shrimp.
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Homemade wontons take some folding time, but they aren’t hard, and they’re much better than anything I’ve found in the freezer case. One batch of filling makes about 50 wontons. Cook what you need for tonight and freeze the rest, and the next pot of soup comes together fast.
Why you should make your own wontons and homemade wonton soup?
I am arguably not a typical home cook, so you might be skeptical when I say that making homemade wontons is not only worth the effort, but actually very easy. You’re just going to have to trust me on this: You can make your own wontons (and wonton soup!) in less time than it would take you to order take out and pick it up.
If you have an Asian supermarket nearby, you might be able to buy decent frozen wontons. But I’m telling you, these homemade pork and shrimp wontons are a thousand times better. And I would never lie about something this important.
I have posted this basic pork and shrimp wonton recipe before (try my Fried Pork and Shrimp Wontons or Air Fryer Wontons). I love wontons deep fried or air fried until they’re crunchy, but I also love wonton soup. Fortunately, the same wontons work just as well in this wonton soup recipe as fried!
I buy my wonton wrappers because the ones you buy from the store are pretty good and making them at home adds a lot of time and, frankly, they aren’t as consistent as store-bought. You can find wonton wrappers in most supermarkets, usually in the produce section or wherever they put the tofu.
Ingredient Notes
Wonton wrappers. I buy them. Store-bought wrappers are good and consistent, and making your own adds a lot of time for no real gain. Look for square wrappers in the produce section near the tofu, or in the freezer or fresh pasta section. I’ve used a lot of different brands and they’ve all worked, so buy whatever your store carries.
Shrimp, twice. This recipe uses shrimp in two places: half a pound finely chopped into the filling, and another half pound cooked whole in the broth. Buy them peeled and deveined and you skip the most tedious part.
Shaoxing wine. This Chinese rice wine gives the broth a mellow depth that plain chicken broth doesn’t have. You’ll find it at Asian markets and online. If you don’t have it, sake or a dry white wine will do.
Chicken broth. Store-bought broth works here, because the ginger, soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine give it plenty of flavor in 10 minutes. If you have homemade stock in the freezer, like my Instant Pot Chicken Stock, use it and the soup will taste even richer.
Soy sauce. I keep lower-sodium soy sauce on hand for dipping sauces, but for seasoning a dish like this I use regular soy sauce, because the salt is exactly what I want from it. Lower-sodium works if you’re watching your sodium.
Substitutions. Ground chicken or turkey can stand in for the pork. If you don’t eat shrimp, leave it out of the filling and add a bit more ground meat or some chopped mushrooms, and skip it in the broth or use mushrooms there too.
How to Make Pork and Shrimp Wonton Soup
The filling is one bowl: ground pork, chopped shrimp, scallions, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, and a little cornstarch to bind it. Folding is the only part that takes time. Each wrapper gets about a teaspoon of filling, folds into a triangle, and then the two long corners come together into a purse shape. After the first dozen, your hands know what to do.
The broth starts with store-bought chicken broth simmered with ginger, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and sesame oil until it tastes like more than the carton it came from. Bok choy and the whole shrimp go in at the end and cook in about two minutes.
A lot of recipes cook the wontons right in the soup. I don’t. The wrappers shed starch as they cook, and boiling them in the broth turns it cloudy and starchy. I cook them in a separate pot of boiling water, then build each bowl: shrimp and bok choy, wontons, and hot broth ladled over the top.
How many wontons per person?
I figure 3 to 5 wontons per serving, so about 16 for four people, more if your people are hungry. That leaves plenty to freeze from a full batch. If you don’t want extras, make a half batch of filling and use half a package of wrappers.
How To Freeze Wontons
Freeze them uncooked. Arrange the wontons in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze until firm, then transfer them to a resealable plastic bag. They keep for 3 months. To cook them, drop them straight from the freezer into boiling water.
Can You Use Frozen Wontons?
You can, if you just want a bowl of wonton soup fast. Asian supermarkets carry decent frozen wontons, and 99 Ranch Market has good pork and shrimp ones. Chicken or vegetarian frozen wontons work too. Homemade are much better, though, and a bag of your own in the freezer is just as quick.
What To Serve With It
A bowl of this soup is a full meal on its own, with protein, starch, and greens. When I want a bigger spread, I serve it with Pork Fried Rice or Singapore Rice Noodles, plus something with heat like Szechuan Shrimp or Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings. For a vegetarian main, Sweet and Sour Tofu or Air Fryer Salt and Pepper Tofu works well.
More Wonton and Dumpling Recipes
This same filling makes great fried wontons, either Fried Pork and Shrimp Wontons or the lighter Air Fryer Wontons. If you like folding, try Har Gow Chinese Shrimp Dumplings or Chicken Potstickers. And for another cold-weather soup, there’s Chicken Hot and Sour Soup.
Pork and Shrimp Wonton Soup
Robin Donovan
Ingredients
For the wontons
- ¾ pound ground pork
- ½ pound peeled and deveined shrimp finely chopped
- 4 scallions thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
- 1 small garlic clove minced
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- 12- ounce package square wonton wrappers
For the soup
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine or substitute sake or dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon toasted esame oil
- 4 to 6 leaves bok choy
- ½ pound shrimp peeled and deveined
- 3 scallions thinly sliced
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the pork, shrimp, scallions, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, cornstarch, salt, and white pepper and mix well.
- Working with one wonton wrapper at a time, lightly brush two adjacent edges with water and place about 1 teaspoon of the filling in the center. Fold one corner over so the moistened edges meet the dry edges, forming a triangle, and press to seal.
- Hold the two corners of the long side of the triangle and bring them together to form a purse shape, sealing them with a dab of water. Set the wonton on a parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.
- In a medium saucepan over high heat, combine the broth, ginger, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and sesame oil and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Add the bok choy, shrimp, and scallions to the broth and cook until the shrimp are pink and cooked through, about 2 minutes.
- Drop 3 to 5 wontons per serving into the boiling water, working in batches to avoid crowding, and cook until they float to the top, about 5 minutes.
- Using a slotted spoon, divide the shrimp and bok choy among 4 bowls, then add the cooked wontons. Ladle the hot broth over the top and serve immediately.
Notes
- The filling makes about 50 wontons. Freeze the extras uncooked in a single layer on a baking sheet, then transfer them to a resealable bag. They keep for 3 months. Cook them straight from the freezer in boiling water.
- For a smaller batch, halve the filling ingredients and use half a package of wrappers.
Ground chicken or turkey can replace the pork. Chopped mushrooms can replace the shrimp in the filling or the broth.
Thank you for the Recipe looks good I will give it a try
My family loved this recipe. We added thin wonton noodles to it so it was very hearty. You can also eat the wontons alone with dumpling sauce and garlic chili sauce.