Brandon Jew’s Whole Chicken Wontons in Broth

Serves 6 to 8, with plenty of leftover wontons

This Chronicle archive recipe (2011) from Brandon Jew, chef-owner of Mister Jiu’s, uses a whole chicken for the stock and wontons. You can fold the wontons into a more traditional shape, but for this soup, Jew wraps the stuffed wontons into the shape of tortellini. The best part about this soup: Both the stock and wontons can be made ahead and frozen, which means you can easily stock up and bust out as needed. Ask your butcher to bone out the chicken.

Stock

1 chicken, about 2 to 3 pounds 2 quarts cold water 1 leek 1 carrot 2 ribs Chinese celery or conventional celery, roughly chopped Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Wonton filling

Reserved chicken meat 8 ounces small to medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, shells reserved for broth 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine 1½ teaspoons ground white pepper 1 teaspoon minced cilantro ¼ cup finely minced fresh water chestnuts or jicama 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 1 teaspoon garlic paste (use a mortar and pestle or side of your knife blade to crush garlic into paste) 2 packages of wonton wrappers (about 50 per package) 1 egg, whisked with 2 teaspoons water Green onions to garnish (optional)

To make the stock: Remove and discard skin; set aside breast and leg-thigh meat. Place the chicken carcass and 2 quarts of cold water in a large stockpot and bring to a low simmer. Skim off any impurities, then add the leek, carrot, celery and shrimp shells (reserved from peeling the shrimp for the filling). Simmer for 3 hours. Remove from heat. Using a fine-mesh strainer, strain the stock and discard the solids. Cool, and refrigerate or freeze. Reheat and season with salt and pepper before using. Makes approximately 1 quart.

To make the wonton filling: Mince the raw chicken meat until it begins to look homogenous and starts to stick together. You can also do this by pulsing the meat in a food processor. Roughly chop the shrimp into three pieces — it’s nice to bite into a large chunk.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the minced chicken, shrimp, soy sauce, wine, white pepper, cilantro, water chestnuts, ginger and garlic, and mix thoroughly.

To form the wontons: Place a scant tablespoon of the filling in the center of the wonton wrapper. Fold into a triangle, then cross the edges to form a tortellini shape, using the egg wash to help seal the ends together. Continue until all the mixture is used up — you should have about 6 dozen. The wontons can be made to this point and frozen. To finish: Bring 3 quarts of water to boil. Place 8 to 12 wontons in the water at a time and cook 1 to 2 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove wontons and place in bowl along with the green onions, if using. Pour hot stock over and serve.