Four years ago, I posted a gyoza (pot-sticker) recipe. Later that year, I posted an update–I had found out that adding Mozzarella cheese to the inside mix helped bind the filling and keep it moist.

Tonight, I made a new batch, and found out a few new improvements to the recipe. First, instead of using regular cabbage, you should use Chinese Cabbage (also called “bok choy,” or in Japanese, “hakusai,” or はくさい), and use more of the leafy parts and not really all of the heavy stem parts. Regular cabbage leaves too much bulk and hardness.

Leeks (nira, or にら) are still an integral part, but scale them down a bit, and fill in with “green onions” or “scallions” (negi, or ねぎ–not too heavy.

Also, drop the regular onions. Makes it too, well, oniony, too sharp. The scallions are enough to add flavor, along with the garlic.

Keep the Mozzarella cheese; as I said, it helps bind and moisten the interior.

I still prefer ground chicken to ground pork; chicken tends to be more moist and tasty a meat. You can even increase the proportion of chicken, unless you like more veggie and less meat.

Next–and this is important–if you can find more than one type of skin (wrapping), choose the thin type. That tastes much better than the thicker type.

And finally, I’ve been experimenting with adding cream cheese to the cooking process; for example, cooking chicken in stir-fry, cream cheese added to the final cooking stretch makes a big difference, and gives the chicken a rich, creamy overtone. Yo don’t need to use much, just a teaspoon or so, to add flavor. And I think it worked tonight with the gyoza. I added it soon after I poured water into the frying pan to cook the prepared gyoza dumplings, just a dab here and a dab there between the pieces, as there was still a good deal of water that had not boiled off. The cream cheese melts and joins with the water, and then slowly coats the gyoza as the water boils off, without becoming crusty or anything. It may even help maintain the moistness of the dumplings.

So follow the original recipe with those modifications. If you do, let me know your impressions!