Make cozy wonton noodle soup at home just like your favorite hole-in-the-wall Cantonese restaurants in Chinatown. Read the blog post for notes on recipe adjustments, shortcuts, and ways to fold your wontons or jump on down to the card below.

With Lunar New Year coming up, I’ve been craving some good ol’ fashioned Cantonese food. Wonton noodle soup (or wonton mein) is one of my husband’s comfort foods. We love going to Mike’s Noodle House or King Noodle on cold, rainy days (a.k.a. every day in Seattle). As you might have seen in my homemade gyoza post, any sort of dumpling making at home is going to be somewhat of a  labor-intensive process. BUT, it is so worth it. I went to bed still thinking about my noodle soup and excited to eat it again the next day. Because there’s some time and effort involved in this recipe, I’m going to break it down for you in a big of a longer blog post than normal. So if you’re ready to commit to making fantastic pork and shrimp wonton noodle soup at home, this post is for you!

Ingredients For Pork and Shrimp Wontons

Shrimp and pork are the main ingredients. Don’t forget to buy noodles and wrappers!

Aside from condiments like soy sauce, which hopefully you already have at home, there aren’t that many ingredients. I use a combination of pork and shrimp for my wonton fillings. However, you can make the ratio of pork to shrimp whatever you like. I typically buy about an equal weight of both, one half to one pound each. There’s a lot of flexibility in the filling, which is why the ingredient list shows a range in quantities. One thing you must do, however, is to buy whole shrimp with the heads on. Yes, you’ll need to peel and devein them yourself, which is more work. But you’ll need the shrimp heads for the broth. Being that I’m still a busy person, I opted to buy the wonton wrappers and noodles instead of making those from scratch. Of course feel free to go all out and make those as well.

If you’re NOT making the broth from scratch, you can get away with buying already peeled, deveined, and tail-off shrimp. You can also skip the pork bones too, but if you happen to have them, I still think a pork bone broth is better than store-bought chicken stock.

Making the Cantonese Wonton Filling

The basic ingredients for the filling are pork, shrimp, and one egg. To this you can add whatever spices or condiments you like. I typically add just a DROP of sesame oil, a splash of soy sauce, a pinch of salt, sugar, and pepper, and grated garlic and ginger, about the size of one clove each. I use light soy sauce, but really, just use what you have. Most times, I don’t measure here. I add ingredients until the mixture smells good. If you’re new to dumpling making, you can take a small teaspoon of filling, microwave it for ten seconds or until cooked, and taste it to try it out. Blend all ingredients in a food processor, stand mixer, blender, or even by hand. You’re ready to fold!

How to Fold Wontons

There are many ways to fold wontons. The easiest way is to scoop a teaspoon of filling in the middle, pull up the corners and pinch the edges together into a triangle. That is a completely acceptable, albeit potentially rustic looking, wonton. However, if you want to make yours a little prettier, I’ll show you how I do mine.

Update: Now that I have two kids, I often go for the fastest and scrunchiest wonton, which you will see in my updated photos. You gotta do what you gotta do. I still like these nicely folded wontons, though.

Start with a teaspoon of filling on the wrapper. Wet edges with water.

Place your wonton wrapper square on a plate, with a teaspoon of filling in the middle. This filling expands when it cooks, so do NOT try to overstuff your wonton. Wet the sides of the square with water. Fold the bottom corner up to form a triangle.

You could leave your wonton in a triangle shape if you wanted!

Then, wet the two bottom corners of your triangle and pinch those edges together. That’s it!

Voila!

Pork and Shrimp Broth for Wonton Noodle Soup

A lot of recipes I’ve seen use chicken stock or pork stock for the broth. While they both taste good, they don’t taste quite right, when I compare them to my memories of slurping down noodles at Mike’s Noodle House. By all means, if this is all you’ve got, then feel free to use chicken or pork broth. I also use this shortcut when I don’t have the time to peel and devein shrimp. But if you do have the time to spare, this homemade broth is so worth it.

The internet claims that the most authentic broth needs dried fish powder, but I’m too practical to go searching for fish powder just for one recipe. Instead, my recipe uses a combination of pork and shrimp for the broth, which I find to be just right in flavor and not too difficult to make. I bought pork bones for a couple bucks at our local Japanese market and used the shrimp heads leftover from the wonton filling. I used my trusty InstantPot to cook them in about two quarts of water for 45 minutes at high pressure. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can still make broth the old-fashioned way, simmering for a couple hours on the stovetop. 

A somewhat unattractive photo of pork bones and shrimp heads in my instant pot.

Assembling Your Noodle Soup

Alright, your broth is ready and your wontons are folded. Bring some water to a boil and blanch whatever veggies you want in your soup. Then, boil your wontons in batches; it only takes about 4-5 minutes to cook through. Finally, cook your noodles. You are ready to assemble your bowl of wonton noodle soup!

Just some more beautiful wontons, ready to be cooked.

Pour some broth into a bowl. To each individual bowl, add condiments to taste! I add a splash of light soy sauce and a few drops of sesame oil. If you want some spice, add some chili oil. You could also add some white pepper or salt if you’d like too. The fun is that you can really customize how salty or spicy you want your soup to be. Once you’re satisfied with your soup, add in the vegetables, wontons, and noodles. At long last, you’re done! Eat and enjoy!

More Chinese Home Cooking

Looking for more easy homemade Cantonese food? Try these:

4 from 2 reviews

Cantonese Wonton Noodle Soup

Mochi Mommy
Making homemade wonton noodle soup is a labor of love, but it leaves you with a steaming bowl of Cantonese comfort food full of complexity in flavor!
Servings: 50 wontons
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
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Ingredients
  

For Optional Homemade Broth

  • 1-2 large pork bones (any type)
  • shrimp heads from 1 lb of whole shrimp (optional)
  • 8 cups water

For Wontons

  • 1 lb ground pork
  • 1 lb peeled, deveined, tail off shrimp
  • 1 egg, see note
  • 1 tsp light soy sauce
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tsp ginger, grated
  • 1 12 oz. package wonton wrappers

For Noodle Soup

  • 1 lb package Chinese egg noodles
  • vegetables such as bok choy, choy sum, gai lan

Various Seasoning Condiments (All Optional)

  • soy sauce
  • sesame oil
  • salt
  • sugar
  • pepper
  • garlic
  • ginger
  • green onion

Equipment

  • Pressure cooker (optional)

Instructions
 

To make homemade broth

  • Remove heads from shrimp, peel, and devein.
  • Place shrimp heads and pork bones in pressure cooker with about 8 cups of water (I fill my pot up to the 1/2 way marker). Lightly season with about a teaspoon each of salt and sugar, if desired. Cook on high pressure for 45 minutes.
  • If not using whole shrimp, you can make a broth with just the pork bones. You can also just use chicken broth simmered with some ginger, garlic, and scallions.

To make wontons

  • While broth is cooking, prep the wontons. Put ground pork, shrimp, egg, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic in a food processor or blender. Mix until filling resembles a thick paste. You can also add additional seasonings as you like, such as salt and pepper or sesame oil.
  • Scoop a teaspoon of filling into each wonton wrapper and fold the edges as desired. See instructions in above blog post for a couple folding options.
  • When broth is close to done, bring a large pot of water to boil. Blanch vegetables of choice for your noodle soup by cooking for 4-5 minutes.
  • Remove vegetables and set aside. In the same pot, boil the wontons in batches until all are cooked. It should take about 4-5 minutes per batch. Wontons are done when they float to the top of the water. You can cut one open to check if the filling is cooked through.
  • While the wontons are boiling, prepare bowls of soup. Scoop finished broth into serving bowls, one per person. Add condiments to taste. I like to add a drop of sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce, but see the blog post for other ideas.
  • When wontons are done, cook noodles in the same pot of water according to the package instructions. While noodles are boiling, place vegetables and 4-6 wontons in each bowl of prepared soup. Finally, add the noodles when finished. Garnish with green onions, if using. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Instead of an egg, you can also use 1 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp water to help the filling come together.
I find the broth made from pork bones and shrimp heads (or some sort of seafood) tastes the most like our favorite Cantonese wonton noodle soup broth in Seattle. However, plain pork broth tastes great too. In a pinch, I use chicken broth.
If I’m not making homemade broth with shrimp heads, I buy peeled, deveined, tail off shrimp and just dump them straight into the food processor. It cuts down on the prep time a lot.
When I have the kids help me stuff wontons, we sometimes need more than 1 pack of wonton wrappers, since they’re not able to fill the wrappers to the max. If you’re a beginner wonton wrapper, you may want to buy two packs just to be safe. Or use the leftover filling to make meatballs.
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