Trader Joe's Chicken Gyoza Potstickers

I'm not really a fan of frozen food but I can appreciate their convenience in spite of the weirdness; yes, frozen food is weird to me. But some days you just don't want to go out, you're not that hungry and you really don't feel like cooking- on these rare days I bust out potstickers!  

I grew up with homemade dumplings. I remember my mother sitting at the kitchen table with a very large mixing bowl full of ground meat mixed with green onions, garlic, tofu and stuff, and a stack of small round dumpling skins- I always tried to stay out of her site on these days for fear she might ask for help. Making twenty-five or even fifty is one thing, but hundreds! Come on! We would eat them for months of course, she'd freeze the pre-made dumplings and bust them out on cold days to make hot dumpling soup, awesome. While my mom could sit there content, slowly wrapping dumplings for a 1/3rd of the day I on the other hand, don't have the patience to sit around and prepare dumplings (call me young), naturally I just buy them. 

I stereotype frozen food, the stereotype is that they definitely don't taste as good and maybe even taste a little stale because of the whole frozen part, and that frozen food is definitely weird (and I don't mean this in a good way) because the food themselves can survive way past their natural due-date- I know, that's what frozen food is all about, but still... it weirds me out.

When I first decided to try out Trader Joe's Chicken Gyoza Potstickers, which was roughly 5 years ago, I was definitely preparing myself for the worst. But of course, as you probably already saw coming, I was pleasantly surprised< smiley face to that.  They're uber easy to make and actually, quite delicious. The meat is flavorful and my potstickers always come out wonderfully perfect, kind of crispy on the outside and moist and flavorful on the inside. I have yet to compare Trader Joe's potstickers with Korean-made or a Korean brand one- I suppose that'd be the real challenge (soon to come!).  Getting down to the point, these potstickers are practically as good as the real thing, honest!

I've been eating Trader Joe's frozen potstickers on and off for about 5 years now, and when I'm eating frozen potstickers I always get Trader Joe's Chicken Gyoza Potstickers. During those 5 years I've definitely made them a few different ways, steaming them, frying them, even adding them to soups.  But I've found that the best way to cook and eat the potstickers is simply to follow the cooking directions on the back of the package, if so... you'll find yourself looking at a plate full of just-crisp browned skinned dumpling with moist flavorful middles. 

If you're up for a fun challenge and would really like to try and make dumplings/gyozas from scratch try the recipe from Maangchi