How to cook Frozen potstickers in air fryer or Ninja Foodi is here. We will show you how to cook frozen dumplings filled with meat or vegetables inside with crispy dough on the outside. Perfect lunch or dinner.
If you haven’t tried potstickers in air fryer yet, they’re so good! You can start from frozen and they come out tender on the inside with a crunch on the outside. Just like the restaurant but cheaper. Skip the spitting oil to get them crispy and try this easy air fryer recipe. (affiliate links present)
We started this journey making air fryer frozen french fries. They were such a game changer we tried other frozen items and oh WOW we were obsessed. Not only was it so much faster to get warm but the texture on the outside is so much better than boiling in water.
Ninja Foodi Potstickers
There is a trick to getting these just right, we will share the two steps to this process. It is easy but defrosting just a bit at the beginning is key. You can use a Ninja Foodi, Cosori or any other brand you might have at home. The only real difference is the size and shape of the air fryer basket.
If you love easy air fryer recipes too, here are some resources to start with:
- My Favorite Air Fryer is a Cosori or for a dual machine, the Foodi.
- You can find more easy air fryer recipes here, we have Ninja Foodi recipes as well; bookmark them both!
- If you are active on Facebook we have a page specifically for sharing easy air fryer recipes.
- This is the best air fryer cookbook. It’s important to know and remember how to preheat air fryer for best results.
- Here’s a printable free air fryer cooking time chart here for your fridge.
- It has temp. and times for making the best frozen foods for air fryer too.
- Then join our Facebook page below where you can share and find more ideas you’ll love.
Bibigo Dumplings Air Freyr
There are many brands out there and a variety of fillings inside too. You can typically find beef, chicken, pork and vegetable which would be vegetarian. All of these would need the same steps we share below in order to get warmed on the inside and crispy on the outside.
Here we featured a bag of Ling Ling potstickers (could be called dumplings) but have used others as well. The only difference between these terms really is the shape of the outside. These are half moons and the other usually look more like a present. Doesn’t change the temp. or timing.
I started with some mini won tons I found next to these. They were really tiny but the same method worked so I thought I’d share. The thing is with these you really want the insides to be tender but crisp outsides.
That isn’t super easy to do if you throw them in. You need to “cook” the insides so they’re soft first. The best way to do involves some wet paper towels and a microwave. That only takes about 2 minutes to get each piece soft and ready to throw inside your electric air fryer.
Perfect Gourmet Potstickers Air Fryer
Here are a few questions you might have before you get started here:
I only have 2 choices where we live but if you’re in a larger area you might have more. Bibigo has a chicken and veggie one that tops the list, followed by the one’s at Trader Joe’s, Wei Chuan and Shirakiku have styles that are more like dumplings. I feel like the dumpling or won ton versions with a thinner, wetter wrapper turn out best.
Before making air fryer potstickers I used to put them in a pan with some water. With a lid on they’d steam to soften. Then I’d have to drain the water, add butter into the pan and let them brown that way. We prefer this method now.
Yes, we did that in the first step. You could stop after that and not air fry to crisp if you wanted. Just wet thick paper towels, wrap them inside and microwave for 2 minutes to soften.
This is what ours looked like in the bag. They came with some sauce that is a cross between soy and ponzu.
How to Cook Air Fryer Dumplings Not Frozen
What if you either made your own from fresh or defrosted in the bag and chose to cook them that way? Well you could just skip the first microwave steps since the middle wouldn’t be rock hard. This is the quickest and most effective way to defrost and cook the middle. That way the meat and vegetables will stay soft while getting the outsides crunchy like we like them. If you want to make frozen won tons, follow these same steps.
Frozen potstickers in air fryer
- Frozen potstickers
- Thick paper towels, about 6
- Water
- Olive oil spray
Avocado oil or even sprayed on melted butter would work just the same. It helps to moisturize the outside and crisp too.
The trick to the perfect bite is to fold 4-6 thick paper towels in half. 4 for just a few, 6 if you’re cooking quite a bit. Squeeze out the excess and then lay the halved towels out flat on a plate. (see above) Lay what you want to cook in the middle and then fold the sides up and around them. This will essentially allow them to steam in the heat and get the middle nice and tender.
- The larger your pieces are the more time you will need.
- For mini frozen won tons it’s 1-1.5 minutes or so.
- These larger frozen potstickers took closer to 2-2.5 minutes of time.
- Just touch the center of each, rewrap and add 30 seconds more at a time until they’re soft. We do the same thing to make frozen pierogies in air fryer.
Air fryer potstickers
Once that step is done you just need to preheat the machine, spray the outside and give it time to crisp on the outsides. A bit more spray each time you open and flip them will make sure they don’t dry out.
Ling Ling Potstickers Air Fryer
Time needed: 6 minutes
Potstickers in air fryer
- Defrost
Fold 4 – 6 thick paper towels in half (so it’s 2-3 paper towels long, twice as thick). Run under faucet to wet, squeeze gently to remove excess water. Lay on a plate with frozen potstickers in the middle. Fold wet paper towels over the top of them. Microwave for 2 minutes, or until the middle of each is not frozen or hard any longer.
- Preheat
Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees F for 5 minutes.
- Crisp
Put defrosted potstickers into basket and spray generously with olive oil spray. Set to 6 minutes total. Flip every 2 minutes and spray tops each time you flip over. Remove once they’re as crispy as you’d like them to be. Enjoy immediately with soy sauce to dip in.
- Mini won tons
For mini frozen won tons follow the same directions, but microwave for 2 minutes and air fry for closer to 4 minutes flipping once until as crunchy as you want.
You can see the before (top) and after (bottom) here. Without having to deep fry them and risk getting splattered with oil to get them crunchy, this is a good alternative.
Need more tasty finger food ideas like our pot stickers now?
Other easy air fryer snacks you’ll love
- You can make air fryer egg rolls not frozen some time.
- My kiddos love making air fryer frozen corn dogs that are frozen too.
- You can use a CrispLid on your Instant Pot to make all of these too but I really would recommend a separate electric air fryer.
- We love our Instant Pot egg roll bowl for dinner too.
- Want to make something similar but totally homemade?? Try our air fryer won tons or…..
We made air fryer empanadas the other day with ground beef and they were wonderful too. Let us know what you think about them both below!
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Potstickers in Air Fryer
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6-8 potstickers frozen
- 1 spray olive oil spray
Instructions
- Fold 4 paper towels in half (so it's 2 paper towels long, twice as thick). Run under faucet to wet, squeeze gently to remove excess water.
- Lay on a plate with frozen potstickers in the middle. Fold wet paper towels over the top of them.
- Microwave for 2 minutes, or until the middle of each is not frozen/hard any longer.
- Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees F for 5 minutes.
- Put defrosted potstickers into basket and spray generously with olive oil spray.
- Set to 6 minutes total. Flip every 2 minutes and spray tops each time you flip over.
- Remove once they're as crispy as you'd like them to be.