UPDATED! Make Epic Universe Snowflake Potstickers at home with this recipe
We attempted to make Snowflake Potstickers from The Blue Dragon Pan-Asian Restaurant at Epic Universe; how do you think we did?
Photos by Samantha Davis-Friedman
Universal Epic Universe has been open nearly six months, and while the Mac & Cheese Cones from How to Train Your Dragon – Island of Berk have become social media darlings, another dragon may be giving Berk a run for its money: The Blue Dragon in Celestial Park—and more specifically, the Pan-Asian restaurant’s Snowflake Potstickers.
The Epic Universe Snowflake Potstickers are savory pork dumplings with a lacy crust, which is what gives them their name, but the Hane-Style Gyoza from Ajinomoto, Japan’s top gyoza brand (credited with discovering umami in 1908) are the only frozen gyozas on the market that feature the signature “hane,” or “crispy lace skirt” that forms as they cook, meaning you can have “Snowflake” dumplings even when you’re not at Universal Orlando’s newest theme park.
Did You Know? The five basic tastes are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (savory).
How to Make Snowflake Potstickers at Home
I made the Ajinomoto pork gyoza according to the directions on the package (they also make chicken gyoza). As you’ll see my results were less than picture-perfect, but they were still very delicious.
Here’s How to Make Snowflake Potstickers:
Without adding cooking oil, place pork or chicken Hane-Style Gyoza in a circle (flat side down) in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat.
Slowly pour 3 oz. (about 1/3 cup) of water into the pan. Cover and cook for about 5-7 minutes to heat the dumplings through.
Once dumplings have cooked through, uncover the pan.
Continue to pan-fry until the lacy “wing” is golden and the water evaporates.
Turn off the heat. Carefully flip the pan onto a heatproof plate and serve the dumplings bottom-side up. And here’s where I had a bit of trouble.
This is what Ajinomoto says they should look like:
And this is what my potstickers looked like:
I honestly think this is a process that requires a bit of practice. I could see the lacy skirt forming in the pan, but it stuck when I tried to take the potstickers out, so I may have cooked them too long. I’m definitely willing to keep trying until I get the perfect snowflake.
UPDATE:
After consulting with my son (a chef), I added more water (about 1 cup), so it went about half-way up the sides of the dumplings and added a splash of vegetable oil.
While the results were still far from perfect, there was definitely more of a “snowflake” situation, so my friends, it seems recreating Blue Dragon’s potstickers is possible with practice (and patience).
Let us know if you try to replicate the Epic Universe Snowflake Potstickers at home—and hopefully, you’ll have even more success!
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