Chengdu Zhongshuijiao (钟水饺): Fuzhi Soy Sauce and Chili Oil Dumpling

By Taylor Holliday

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Published Mar 17, 2015, Updated Oct 09, 2024

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zhong's dumplings in red oil

Chengdu Challenge #15: It’s All About the (Zhong) Sauce

If you’ve ever had 钟水饺 (zhōngshuǐjiǎo) dumplings in red oil at a real Sichuan restaurant then you know it’s all about the sauce. While every Chinese cuisine can claim a wonton, jaozi or siumai of its own, only Sichuan floats its famous zhongshuijiao in a sweet-hot special sauce. As such, it kind of blows all other dumplings out of the water.

It’s hard to guess exactly what’s in that special sauce, besides chili oil, but you know it when you taste it. You also know you can’t just throw some soy sauce, vinegar and store-bought chili oil together and get the same effect. No, it’s a little—but just a little—more complicated than that.

Zhongshuijiao, or Zhong’s boiled dumplings, gets its name from the street food vendor in Chengdu who created it some hundred years ago. It is part of the family of snacks—dumplings, noodles, small plates—specific to Sichuan called 小吃 (xiǎochī), or little eats.

cafeteria of xiaochi little eat snacks in chengdu
Zhong Shuijiao lends its name to a famous chain of old-school snack shops in Chengdu serving xiaochi (little eats)
zhongshuijiao dumplings in red oil as part of a snack set
Zhong dumplings in red oil (on the right) as part of a snack set

Zhongshuijiao is a crescent dumpling, “shaped like a first quarter moon,” according to Sichuan Cuisine in Both Chinese and English.  The classic version of Zhong’s creation is made from a round dumpling wrapper, folded in half and filled with a simple minced pork, but you can also use different fillings and/or shape them as wontons—wontons in chili oil is what you often find in the U.S. Or you can even buy them readymade! Remember, it’s all about the sauce.

folding dumplings for zhongshuijiao at the kitchen island
A  great mother-daughter project

Even though the sauce is the star,  the better the dumpling the better the dish of course. I made jiaozi according to Mrs. Chiang’s recipe, just increasing the ginger. I did not make the wrappers myself because, well, life is just too short and it takes forever. The wrapping itself takes a while, so that is where you want to enlist some help, perhaps making it a family affair as in China. (Though my daughter never made one dumpling in 11 years in China. Was it because kids don’t make dumplings in China, or because foster kids don’t make dumplings in China?)

neat rows of folded shuijiao
Not perfect, but still beautiful and tasty

Zhongshuijiao’s Secret Ingredient: Aromatic Soy Sauce

Zhongshuijiao’s special sauce is actually a combination of two special sauces: a chili oil with crisp and a fuzhi soy sauce, which the cookbook translates as “concocted” soy sauce. Both of these you’ll need to make yourself rather than buy. I’ve already gone on at length about the joys of chili oil. You can find my basic recipe using just chilies and oil here. Or my fancy recipe for Crispy Shallot Chili Oil here. If you decide to go the store-bought route, try Laoganma’s Spicy Chili Crisp, even though it doesn’t really contain enough oil for this purpose. [2023 update: The Mala Market’s new Chengdu Crispy Chili Oil has the ideal mix of oil and crisp for this.]

homemade chili oil in glass jar
Sichuan-style chili oil is a must for dumplings in red oil

For the other must-have ingredient, the special soy sauce, you start with Chinese dark soy sauce, which is thicker and darker than “light,” or normal, soy sauce and has a distinct molasses taste from added sugar. I wasn’t sure what to do with it, and Sichuan Cuisine in Both Chinese and English was no help, because it simply calls for “concocted soy sauce” without explaining what it is or how to concoct it.

My only cookbook that had the recipe is Fuchsia Dunlop’s Land of Plenty, which calls it Sweet, Aromatic Soy Sauce. Basically, it is dark soy sauce simmered with sugar and Chinese spices—star anise, fennel, Sichuan pepper, cassia bark, etc.—until it is syrupy and fragrant.

[2023 update: Note that it can be made with light soy sauce as well, as it is in this recipe.]

making concocted soy sauce for the zhongshuijiao dressing
Simmer dark soy sauce, sugar and spices until thick and syrupy

Once you have the two sauces—which will both keep quite some time—it’s just a matter of mixing it to your desired proportions to create Zhong’s special sauce, generally about 2:1 fuzhi soy sauce to crispy chili oil. The Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine adds a bit of MSG, and Fuchsia adds a bit of sesame oil. I don’t think it needs either. Traditionally, zhongshuijiao are topped with fresh minced garlic and perhaps roasted sesame seeds. And that’s it! Dumplings in red oil, in your own home.

neatly folded dumpling rows on cutting board with chili oil and concocted soy on side
Two sauces you should always have on hand
zhongshuijiao dumplings in red oil
Yinyang sauces
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Chengdu Zhongshuijiao (钟水饺): Fuzhi Soy Sauce and Chili Oil Dumpling

By: Taylor Holliday | The Mala Market | Inspiration & Ingredients for Sichuan Cooking
Pork dumplings adapted from Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook; fuzhi soy sauce adapted from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty
Yield: 60 dumplings

Ingredients 

Fuzhi Soy Sauce (makes about 2/3 cup)

  • ⅓ cup Chinese dark soy sauce
  • ⅔ cup water
  • 5 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2- inch piece of cinnamon or cassia bark
  • 1 star anise
  • ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
  • ½ teaspoon whole Sichuan pepper
  • 1- inch piece of ginger, peeled and smashed

Pork Dumplings (makes about 60)

  • 2 packages round dumpling wrappers
  • 1 pound ground pork
  • 15 scallions, minced
  • 3 tablespoons ginger, minced
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • 4 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 1½ teaspoons salt
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground Sichuan pepper (see note)
  • 1 egg
  • chili oil with crisp (see recipes on The Mala Market)
  • Minced garlic
  • Toasted sesame seeds

Instructions 

  • Make the fuzhi soy sauce by combining all of its ingredients in a small saucepan and bringing to a boil. Once at a boil, lower heat and summer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. It will reduce and become a bit syrupy. Allow to cool, then strain into a container.
  • Prepare dumpling filling by mixing pork, scallions, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, Sichuan pepper and egg in a large bowl, stirring to combine thoroughly.
  • Remove dumpling wrappers from package, but keep them covered with a damp paper towel so they don't dry out as you wrap. Have a small bowl of water nearby. Take a single dumpling wrapper and, using your fingertip, wet the edges all the way around the dumpling, which will help it seal. Put 1½ teaspoon pork filling in the center of the wrapper, fold edges to meet and seal tightly. A simple seal will do, or you can pleat the edges along one side for a fancier look. Sit dumplings aside under a damp paper towel until you have wrapped them all. (At this point, you can freeze a portion of the dumplings if you like, to be freshly cooked at a later date.)
  • Bring a large pot of water to a full boil. Put 10 to 15 dumplings into the water, or as many as will comfortably fit in your pot without crowding the dumplings. Using the tried-and-true Chinese method for cooking dumplings, wait for the water to return to a full boil and then pour in enough cold water to completely stop the boil. Wait for the pot to return to a boil, then repeat the process, adding enough water to stop the boil. After the dumplings return to a boil for the third time, the dumplings are done! (Though do test one to make sure. I learned three times in Sichuan, but Mrs. Chiang actually returns the dumplings to boil a fourth time.)
  • Ladle dumplings into individual serving bowls and top with a generous amount of the fuzhi soy sauce and the crispy chili oil, generally in a 2:1 ratio. Garnish with a small amount of minced garlic and toasted sesame seeds. Serve hot.

Notes

Ground Sichuan pepper: Sort Sichuan peppercorns and discard any black seeds or twigs. Toast in a dry skillet or toaster oven until pods start to smell very fragrant, but do not brown them. Let peppercorns cool, then grind in a spice grinder or in a mortar & pestle to your desired coarseness. Sift out any yellow husks that don’t break down. Sichuan pepper powder will retain its potent flavor and numbing punch for only a few weeks.

Tried this recipe?

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Zhongba dark soy sauceZhongba Dark Soy Sauce (Naturally Brewed)Buy on Mala Marketcassia barkCassia Bark (Gui Pi)Buy on Mala MarketStar Anise (Ba Jiao)Buy on Mala Marketda hong pao sichuan pepperDa Hong Pao Sichuan Pepper (Hua Jiao)Buy on Mala MarketTribute Sichuan pepperSichuan Tribute Pepper (Hanyuan Sichuan Pepper, Qingxi Gong Jiao)Buy on Mala MarketZhongba light soy sauceZhongba 360 Light Soy Sauce (Naturally Brewed 1 Year)Buy on Mala MarketToasted sesame oilCuizi Small-Mill Roasted Sesame Oil (Cold-Pressed)Buy on Mala MarketChengdu Crispy Chili OilChengdu Crispy Chili Oil (All Natural, Made in Sichuan)Buy on Mala MarketDIY chili crisp kitDIY Mala Chili Crisp and Chili Oil KitBuy on Mala Market
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About Taylor Holliday

The Mala Market all began when Taylor, a former journalist, created this blog as a place to document her adventures learning to cook Sichuan food for Fongchong, her recently adopted 11-year-old daughter. They discovered through the years that the secret to making food that tastes like it would in China is using the same ingredients that are used in China. The mother-daughter team eventually began visiting Sichuan’s factories and farms together and, in 2016, opened The Mala Market, America’s source for Sichuan heritage brands and Chinese pantry essentials.

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48 Comments

  1. I am really loving your posts; they make me feel like I am in Chengdu. Now you will have to describe that snack set! Many thanks. You make my day.

    Reply

  2. Thanks for this research. I’ve been wondering for years where the sweet background notes of the chili oil for Sichuan dumplings come from. I suspect it will make a tasty dipping sauce for more than just that.

    Reply

    1. You are welcome! I agree about that sauce. Coming up soon is a cold chicken and noodle dish that uses the concocted soy sauce. Thanks for chiming in!

      Reply

  4. It’s totally worth making the wrappers! Homemade wrappers are completely different from storebought ones, they’re thicker, rougher and have more bite compared to the slippery, uniform store bought wrappers. Unfortunately, making good wrappers is such a hands on activity I don’t know if it can be taught solely through written instructions, although even average quality handmade wrappers are a completely different experience from storebought ones.

    Dumpling making tends to be more of a Northern Chinese tradition which is perhaps why your Shanghainese daughter never encountered it. In my family, dumpling making was a way of bringing people together as it’s the perfect assembly line food. The women and children would be in the kitchen making dumplings and gossiping while the men were in the dining room drinking beer and eating peanuts.

    To make the wrappers, knead bread flour and water into a dough slightly stiffer than an earlobe, then let it rest for at least an hour. Roll a fist chunk ball into a snake and then cut with a knife into chunks about as big as a gnocchi (experienced dumpling makers will tease a ball into a hoop then hand tear chunks of dough for better texture but this is extremely hard to do well). Place each chunk cut side up and flatten with your palm into a puck. Then, take a rolling pin and, for each puck, roll the pin 40% of the way up the dough and back down, then turn a quarter turn. Repeat until you get a thin circle of dough. The goal is to keep the dough slightly thicker in the center while having delicately tapered edges. With handmade wrappers, because the edges are so much thinner, the pleats of the dumpling are the exact same thickness as the center, making them cook evenly. Uniform thickness wrappers will always be a bit doughy around the pleats.

    Anyway, IMHO, homemade wrappers are worth trying at least once just to experience how different they are from machine made ones.

    Reply

    1. Yes, everyone should try once. I did. 🙂 It is definitely worth the effort to make homemade wrappers when you have time. Thanks so much for these detailed instructions. It’s a great addition to this recipe.

      Reply

  6. The Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine “Concocted soy sauce” 复制酱油

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/kattebelletje/4469806304/in/photostream/

    Boil half a liter of soy sauce with 2 star anise, a caoguo (Chinese “black cardamom), 5 pieces of ginger, some fennel seeds, some Sichuan peppercorns, 2 large sliced spring onions and a handful of candy until the sauce has reduced to a syrupy black soy-like sauce . Sift the ingredients out and use the ‘laid strength soy’ as a base for sauces.

    Reply

    1. Ooh, thanks for finding this! I’m definitely trying this version (which the institute left out of its cookbook, for some reason). I would just add, for non-Chinese, that “candy” would mean rock sugar.

      Reply

      1. Oh my gosh, how did you make those beautiful sweet water noodles? I’ve eaten them several times in Chengdu, but have never seen a recipe for them. Did you find one, or make up your own?

        Reply

    1. Thanks for this interesting recipe. He did a lot of research to come up with what he believed to be the first recipe in English for sweet water noodles. They look fantastic, and I will definitely try it. Funny enough, the last time I was in Chengdu, about a year ago, I ran into Fuchsia Dunlop at a well-known tian shui mian restaurant. She was standing in the open kitchen behind the ladies making the noodles, taking copious notes. So I assume she will be publishing that recipe somewhere…

      Reply

    1. This is a fantastic video showing in detail most of the process of making Zhong dumplings. The recipe for the sauce is very similar to what I’ve given here, which makes sense, since the recipes I adapted came originally from this school. It’s great to have the visual. Thanks so much for sharing it!

      Reply

  9. As I am in the South (Alabama) much of the time, I would like to ask if you can share where you buy your ingredients. When I am in Seattle I have no problem finding Asian ingredients, but here in the South it is more difficult. Thank you in advance.

    Reply

    1. It can be difficult to find Sichuan specialty ingredients in the U.S. Some pan-Asian markets have them, and some don’t. The big Chinese supermarket chains—such as 99 Ranch on the West Coast and Texas and Great Wall Supermarket on the East Coast—surely will. The closest to you is probably Great Wall in Atlanta. When I can’t make it there, I order online from Posharp, which has the best selection of Sichuan ingredients I’ve seen online. I link directly to them on many of my ingredient pages. Good luck!

      Reply

  10. Thanks for posting this recipe! I’ve been trying to get that sauce right, without success, for years. My question is about the wrappers. I’ve made my own pot sticker wrappers (I believe that is what is used here) and I agree with you that it’s too much effort (except on special occasions). So what sort of store-bought round wrappers should I look for? Round wonton wrappers, or something else?

    Reply

    1. You’re welcome, Paul! Thanks for your question. I don’t know what kind of selection you have when shopping for dumpling wrappers, but mine is not great. I usually eyeball all the candidates and pick what looks like the thinnest round wonton wrappers. This fascinating guide from my friends at The Cleaver Quarterly (http://luckypeach.com/the-guide-to-chinese-dumplings/) confirms that shui jiao are basically wontons served without the soup.

      Reply