No faff Gyozas
If you love the flavour of homemade gyozas but can’t face the faff of sealing, pleating and hoping they don’t burst, these No-Faff Gyozas are about to become your new favourite cook. They take everything we love about traditional dumplings—the crispy base, the juicy filling, the savoury punch—but flip the method on its head. Instead of stuffing and folding, we simply lay the dumpling wrappers flat and top them like mini gyoza “pizzas”. Same flavour, same crunch, but ready in a fraction of the time.
Cooking them in a cast-iron pan on the Big Green Egg adds an unbeatable depth of flavour. The cast iron gets ripping hot, giving each wrapper that golden, lacy crispiness, while the Egg’s steady heat keeps the toppings tender and perfectly cooked. It’s a brilliant way to experiment too—choose whatever filling you fancy, from classic pork and cabbage to prawn, chicken or even veggie mixes.
These bite-sized beauties make a perfect snack, starter or crowd-pleasing platter. They’re quick, playful and packed with flavour, proving once again that great cooking on the Egg doesn’t need to be complicated. Just simple ingredients, clever technique and that unmistakable Big Green Egg magic.
Cooking surfaces
BBQ Temperature
Ingredients
To cook
- Gyoza wrappers (1 pack) – you should be able to get these from an Asian supermarket. If you can’t get them, you can use Chinese Dumpling Wrappers; they’re just slightly thicker.
- 3 tbsp groundnut oil or veg oil
Filling
- 340g pork mince, I like 20% fat as it will have flavour
- 140g of hispi or sweetheart cabbage, chopped finely
- 2 spring onions, chopped finely
- 2 shiitake mushrooms, I rehydrate the dried ones
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 inch ginger, finely chopped
- 1tsp sake
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp sweet soy sauce (we like the sweet stuff)
- 1/4 tsp Maldon Salt
- 1/4 tsp crushed black pepper
- 1 tbsp corn flour dissolved in a little water to form a slurry.
Dipping Sauce – per person
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1tbsp sweet soy sauce
- 4 or 5 drops of La-Yu Chilli Oil
Equipment
- I use the Big Green Egg skillet and the dual cast iron plancha as a lid. They’re designed to work with each other as a small dutch oven.
Method
- In a bowl, mix all of the filling ingredients.
- Using your hands, mix it all together thoroughly. It should pull together like sausagemeat and stick to your hands. Work it more if it’s not sticky.
- Open your wrappers.
- Using a tablespoon, dollop a portion into the centre of one of the wrappers and spread it out almost to the edges.
Cooking the Gyoza
- Preheat your Egg to 200°C with just the stainless steel grid for a direct cook.
- Using a frying pan or the Big Green Egg cast-iron skillet, put the groundnut oil into the bottom of the pan.
- Add your first batch of gyoza, dough side down, making sure they don’t overlap.
- Cook for a couple of minutes until the wrapper starts to brown and crisp.
- Now flip them and cook the topping for a minute or two.
- Mix the three dipping sauce ingredients together for each person in a small dipping bowl.
- Dive in.