Sausage Wonton Cups With Sriracha Ranch Recipe

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Pan-Asian flavors meet a Midwestern appetizer classic in this sausage wonton cups with sriracha ranch recipe. The OG formula for this game-day-approved morsel involves stuffing raw wonton wrappers with classic Midwest comfort food ingredients: pork sausage, shredded cheese, and ranch dressing. A mini muffin pan is also involved, which is perfect for scaling bite-sized snacks. The resulting apps have this creamy-cheesy-savory-crunchy element going for them, and they're absolutely delicious and enticingly customizable.

In this Asian-inspired take on the classic app, I kept all of the core elements intact, only subbing out the cheesy component to make way for a more robust assortment of vegetables and aromatics. The sausage filling includes cabbage, mushrooms, red bell peppers, water chestnuts, ginger, and garlic, all nicely seasoned with hoisin and low-sodium soy sauce. This combo of ingredients might seem a bit unusual to pair with traditional breakfast sausage, but trust me when I say that everything comes together beautifully. Those herby-warm baking spice notes from the sausage transform into something almost five-spice-like, adding some serious depth of flavor for an appetizer that's meant to be playful. The homemade sriracha ranch adds a subtly spicy appeal to the wonton filling, rounding out the little cups and truly taking them over the edge.

For the sriracha ranch dressing, you will need mayonnaise, sour cream, rice vinegar, sriracha, dried chives, toasted sesame oil, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper.

For the sausage wonton cups, you will need raw wonton wrappers, raw pork breakfast sausage, coleslaw mix, mushrooms, red bell pepper, water chestnuts, scallions, ginger, garlic, hoisin sauce, low-sodium soy sauce, and white sesame seeds.

Make the sriracha mayonnaise by placing the mayonnaise, sour cream, rice vinegar, sriracha, dried chives, sesame oil, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper in a medium bowl.

Whisk to combine the dressing. Remove 3 tablespoons from the bowl and set aside. Cover and refrigerate the larger portion of the dressing until ready to serve.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Gently press each wonton wrapper into the wells of a mini muffin tin, forming 24 total cups. Transfer the muffin tin to the oven and par-bake for 5 minutes, or until the wontons are just beginning to stiffen. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside.

Make the filling by preheating a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Once hot, add the raw sausage to the skillet and saute until browned, about 5 minutes.

Add the coleslaw mix, mushrooms, red bell pepper, water chestnuts, white scallion parts, ginger, and garlic to the skillet and stir to combine.

Stir-fry the veggies with the pork for 5 to 6 minutes, or until tender. Drain away any excess pan drippings.

Add the hoisin and soy sauce to the skillet and stir to combine. Cook for 2 minutes more, stirring frequently.

Remove the skillet from the heat and add the reserved 3 tablespoons of sriracha ranch dressing. Stir to combine.

Divide the filling mixture between the par-baked wonton cups.

Sprinkle the filled cups with sesame seeds and place in the oven.

Bake the wonton cups for 10 minutes, or until crisp and golden around the edges. Remove the muffin pan from the oven and set aside to rest for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle the cups with the chopped scallion green parts, remove from the muffin pan, and serve with the extra dressing on the side for dipping.

• Smashed Buffalo Potatoes Recipe
• Sticky Garlic And Ginger Pork Burgers Recipe
• Loaded BBQ Pork Belly Baked Potatoes Recipe
• 3-Ingredient Lychee Martini Recipe

This wonton cup recipe is almost endlessly customizable, allowing you to substitute proteins, veggies, and seasonings depending on flavor preferences and what you have on hand. If you would like to swap out the protein, feel free to use ground pork, ground turkey, or ground chicken. I'd say that even a seafood element could work really well here — think minced raw shrimp, lobster, or fattier fin fish like salmon or tuna. 

If you would like to increase the spice level in the wonton cups, feel free to add some additional sriracha to the ranch dressing. I purposefully went mild on this recipe, with just 1 teaspoon, but feel free to spice things up to your heart's content. You can also add chile peppers, like jalapeños or Thai chiles, to the stir-fried veggie blend for some added heat. Speaking of the veggie blend, you can swap ingredients in (or out) at will. Other viable veggies include bok choy (just drain before filling your wonton cups), onions, red cabbage, and carrots. My only word of caution is with sodium-heavy ingredients. The breakfast sausage already makes the filling relatively well-salted, so use lower sodium-containing ingredients for balance.

Wonton wrappers are pretty delicate and require an equally delicate touch when working with them. To start, keep your wrappers mildly moist while prepping. I like to dampen a sheet of paper towel and gently drape it over my wrappers while I am working with them. This keeps the wontons from drying out and cracking. It's worth noting that you do get quite a few wonton wrappers when you purchase a pack, so even if you rip or tear a couple, you have plenty of back-up wrappers to work with.

Size matters as well. Standard wonton wrappers are typically 3x3-inch square sheets, and these are the ones to purchase for this recipe. Shanghai-style wrappers are usually larger and longer, which would create too much overlap. There are also round wonton wrappers, averaging about 3.5 inches in diameter, and I don't see these being a big problem if they happen to be your only option.

If you are working with frozen wrappers, make sure to thoroughly thaw them in the refrigerator before proceeding. If your wrappers are even the slightest bit frozen, they will rip, tear, and stick together, which is exactly what we don't want to happen when making this appetizer.

• Easy Pork Egg Roll In A Bowl Recipe
• Sweet And Spicy Gochujang Pork Riblets Recipe
• Crab Cake Egg Rolls Recipe
• Classic Sausage Balls With Cranberry Mustard Recipe