Sichuan Wild Turkey Wontons
These Sichuan turkey wontons are yet another reason to save those wild turkey thighs if you don’t already. They have a reputation for being tough, and if you don’t have the patience to braise them, throwing them into a grinder with some fat is the best way to maximize your yield on a hard-earned bird. Turkey thigh meat is red in color, and once ground and mixed with a little bit of fat, can be used in any recipe that calls for ground beef or pork. For this recipe, I mix in about 10% pork fat.
These wontons are easy to make and are downright addictive. The most time consuming part of the recipe is folding the wontons, and once you have the technique down, you can knock out a few dozen in minutes.
This is another adaptation from Fuchsia Dunlop’s incredible book on Sichuan cooking, “The Food of Sichuan”. that we can not recommend enough. It is a very simple wonton recipe. While the use of ginger water is a new technique to me, it adds a very subtle, uniform, ginger flavor while also increasing the water content of the filling. This leads to a somewhat runny filling that cooks up bouncy and moist.
Other than boiling the wontons, there is no additional cooking. Layer the remaining ingredients directly in the bowls, add the cooked wontons, and stir before eating.
Warning- you can eat a lot of these. This recipe is scaled out for about one turkey thigh worth of ground. I recommend making a double batch if you like this style of dish.
You can make this with any ground wild game meat, but some added fat is highly recommended.
Sichuan WIld Turkey Wontons
INGREDIENTS:
For the wontons
~½ pack of wonton wrappers
~2” of thick ginger, not peeled
½ pound of ground turkey
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp shaoxing wine
2 tsp sesame oil
¾ tsp salt
Heavy pinch of ground white pepper
To serve: (these are guidelines, add more or less to your taste)
2 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp sichuan chile oil
2 tbsp sichuan chile oil sediment
2 tsp ground toasted sichuan pepper
2 tsp ground sichuan chile
4 tbsp roasted or deep fried peanuts
Scallions, thinly sliced
method:
Crush the ginger with a rolling pin to break it up (you don’t need to make a paste), and place in a cup with about 1 cup of cold water. Set aside.
Put the ground meat in a mixing bowl, and add in the egg, shaoxing wine, sesame oil, salt, and white pepper. Stir or knead to combine. Add in a few tablespoons of the ginger water mixture (just the water part) and stir quickly to incorporate. Repeat until the mixture is slightly runny, yet still sticky. You will probably use ¼ cup to ½ cup of the ginger water.
Lay out the wonton wrappers, adding ~2 tsp of filling to the center of each. Wet half the edge with a pastry brush and water. I'll sometimes use the leftover ginger water. Fold the wonton in half, press edges together firmly, working out any air pockets. Pinch the outer corners together to get a tortellini-like shape. Continue until you use up all the filling.
When ready to cook, bring a pot of water to a boil and prepare the bowls by dividing the soy sauce, chile oil, chile oil sediment, and sichuan pepper between two large bowls.
Add the wontons to the boiling water, stirring once to keep them from sticking to the bottom or to each other. Cook until they are all floating, about 3 minutes. Strain and divide between the two bowls.
Top with ground sichuan chiles, peanuts, and scallions. Stir to evenly coat the wontons before eating.
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As an Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases. With that being said, none of these companies asked or paid me to include their products in this dish. These are the products we keep in our pantry and used in the creation of this recipe.
