These super easy dumpling cups are everything you love about juicy dumplings, with no folding, pleating, or fiddly wrapping required. Just mix your dumpling filling, press wonton wrappers into a muffin pan, fill, and bake. Top with a zingy cucumber salsa and lots of lovely dumpling dipping sauce to serve.
Table of Contents
- Mini Dumpling Cups, at a Glance
- A Very Good Dumpling Shortcut
- Ingredients You’ll Need
- How to Make Mini Dumpling Cups
- Kate’s Top Recipe Tips
- Mini Dumpling Cups FAQS
- Like this recipe? Try these bite-sized ideas next
- Want to make proper dumplings? Here are some useful guides for you
- Crispy Mini Dumpling Cups Recipe
Mini Dumpling Cups, at a Glance
⏰ Time: 30 minutes
🍽️ Serves: 4 as a light meal, 6 to 8 as an appetizer
🛒 Key Ingredients: Ground pork (or chicken), wonton wrappers, scallions, garlic, ginger, soy sauce
🧠 Skill Level: Easy
👩🍳 Cooking Method: Baked
🍳 Equipment Needed: Mini muffin pan
⏳ Prep Ahead: Make the filling up to 48 hours ahead, then fill and bake the cups when you’re ready. Or make in advance and bake or reheat from frozen.
💃 Perfect For: Party bites, game day snacks, casual entertaining, satisfying dumpling cravings, or a fun better-than-takeout night at home.
A Very Good Dumpling Shortcut
Much like my viral smash dumpling tacos or dumpling-inspired stir fried noodles, these cute little cups are brilliant to try if you love dumplings but don’t love how fiddly they can be to fold.
These GORGEOUS little bites actually use the same filling I use in the tacos, so if you’ve tried and loved them, you’ll enjoy these too.
It’s as simple as:
- Mix your dumpling filling.
- Press store-bought wonton wrappers into a mini muffin pan.
- Fill the cups with the mixture.
- Bake until golden and crispy.
- While they cook, I love to make a zingy pickled cucumber salsa and a speedy dumpling dipping sauce to spoon on top to serve.
They’re also a fabulous party food idea (you can prep them ahead of time 👀) and a very easy way to make dumplings for a crowd. As someone who recently did make dumplings for a crowd, I wish I’d come up with this recipe sooner because it is 100% easier than trying to pan-fry 100s of dumplings at once!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Ground pork. You can also use ground turkey, chicken or a plant-based alternative. Always use free-range.
- Wonton wrappers. I’m using regular square wonton wrappers here, but you could use round ones too. You could also use phyllo (filo) pastry or puff pastry.
- Black vinegar. I recommend having this lovely vinegar in your cupboard as it brings a deep savoriness to dishes with Asian flavors – but if you don’t have any or can’t find it, regular white wine vinegar or rice vinegar will be fine.
- Soy sauce. Use regular light soy sauce – not dark – in this recipe.
- Fish sauce. Probably my most used ingredient! It works beautifully in this filling and doesn’t make it taste at all fishy. If you don’t like it, add another teaspoon of soy sauce instead.
How to Make Mini Dumpling Cups
This is a step-by-step photo overview of how to make the dumpling cups – the full recipe with ingredient quantities is at the bottom of the page for you.
- Mix your dumpling filling.
- Grease your mini muffin pan and press your wonton wrappers into the pan.
- Fill the cups with the dumpling mixture, being careful not to overfill them.
- Bake until the pork is cooked through, and the wrappers are crispy around the edges.
- Carefully remove the cups from the pan, then spoon over the cucumber salsa and dumpling dipping sauce, then scatter with cilantro and scallions.
- Serve while hot and crispy.
Kate’s Top Recipe Tips
- Grease your muffin pan well. This both helps the wonton wrappers stay in place, and makes them A LOT easier to remove once they’re baked.
- Don’t overfill the cups. A couple of heaped teaspoons is fine – try not to pack too much in, as they can overflow and/or cause the wrappers to go soggy.
- Remove them from the pan while they’re hot. Leaving them in the pan for too long after cooking can make them go soggy and make it harder to get them out.
Mini Dumpling Cups FAQS
You can absolutely make the dumpling filling in advance (up to 48 hours) and then fill and pop into the oven when you’re ready.
You can fill the cups and pop the tray in the fridge for an hour or two, but I don’t recommend leaving it longer than that. The filling can make the wonton wrappers quite soggy.
Yes! Use ground chicken, turkey, beef, or a plant-based alternative.
The cups themselves aren’t spicy, but the dumpling dipping sauce has a bit of a kick. If you’re worried, skip the chili oil in the sauce.
Or, you could dollop the cups with egg-free garlic aioli or instant Kewpie mayo before topping with the cucumber salsa.
You can! I recommend cooking them first, letting them cool, removing them from the muffin pan, freezing them until solid on a plate or tray, then transferring them to ziplock bags to store. You can reheat them on a baking sheet at 360F (180C) for about 10 minutes.
If you can fit your muffin pan in your freezer, you can freeze them unbaked, then bake from frozen. Just add another five or so minutes onto the cooking time.
Try not to fill them too far in advance (a couple of hours is ok), and remove them from the pan after baking. Add the cucumber topping and dumpling sauce just before serving.
Like this recipe? Try these bite-sized ideas next
Want to make proper dumplings? Here are some useful guides for you
If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you! You can leave a recipe rating and a comment below. And remember to tag @DishedByKate on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok if you’ve made one of my recipes. Seeing your recreations really makes my day 😊.
Crispy Mini Dumpling Cups
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Make your dumpling filling. Start by heating your oven to 400°F (200°C fan). Add the ground pork, most of the chopped scallions and cilantro (keep some aside to scatter on top to serve), the crushed garlic, ginger, 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, 2 teaspoons of fish sauce, 1 tablespoon black vinegar, and a good grind of black pepper to a mixing bowl. Mix well to combine and ensure all the seasoning is evenly dispersed through the meat.
- Prepare your mini muffin pan. Brush the insides of your mini muffin pan with olive oil. Gently press the wonton wrappers into each hole, folding the edges to create a little cup. The olive oil will help them stay in place.
- Fill your dumpling cups. Spoon a couple of heaped teaspoons of the dumpling mixture into the wonton cups, pressing down so that the filling goes to the bottom of the cups. You should get 24 cups out of this mixture.
- Bake your dumpling cups. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for 20 minutes, rotating it halfway through the cooking time (this will ensure the cups cook evenly).
- Make the pickled cucumber.While the cups cook, add the diced cucumber, 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds to a small bowl. Mix to combine, then set aside.
- Make the dumpling dipping sauce. Add 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of chilli oil, 4 teaspoons of black vinegar, 2 teaspoons of sesame oil, the crushed garlic, and chopped scallions to a jar you have a lid for, or a bowl. Pop the lid on the jar and shake well to combine, or mix in the bowl. Set aside.
- Remove the cups from the oven. Once the wonton wrappers are looking golden brown around the edges and the dumpling mixture is brown on top, remove the pan from the oven. If you're worried, the pork is cooked when it reads 160°F (71°C) if you're using a probe thermometer, and it shouldn't be pink in the middle. You should be able to quite easily remove the cups from the pan if you've greased it with the oil.
- Garnish and serve. Transfer the cups to a serving platter, then spoon a little pickled cucumber salsa on top of each. Drizzle with dumpling dipping sauce, then scatter over the reserved scallions and cilantro. Serve with more dumpling dipping sauce on the side.
Can I make these and freeze them? If so, cooked?
Hello! It’s probably easier here to cook them and freeze them – then you can reheat them on a regular oven tray for about 10 minutes at 360F/180C. Unless you can fit the whole muffin pan in your freezer – in which case baking them from frozen would work too. Just add another five or so minutes onto the cooking time.