Vietnamese Wonton Soup Recipe in Less Than 1 Hour!

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If you don’t want to spend a ton of time making a delicious Vietnamese wonton soup recipe, you’ve come to the right place. This recipe takes less than an hour to prepare, and is satisfying and delicious!

Keep reading to learn how to make this super easy wonton soup. 

VIETNAMESE WONTON SOUP RECIPE

The cooking process couldn’t be any easier since it is all in one pot. Here is how we make our semi-homemade wonton soup. 

The soup base for this recipe is chicken stock and you will need 14 cups of it. Homemade is always best, but you can always use store-bought or make it with bouillon cubes.

Place your 14 cups of broth into a large pot (about a 5 qt pot). Then add the following: 2 star anise, 2 whole cloves of peeled garlic, a piece of peeled ginger that is 1-2 inches long and 2 cinnamon sticks.

Bring to a boil over high heat. Once it is boiling, turn it down to medium heat, or lower, and simmer gently. Then add one carrot to the broth, sliced into rounds. Cover the pot and simmer for about 30 minutes

Your chicken broth will be infused with the distinctive flavors of the spices. Star anise adds a delicate licorice flavor, while the cinnamon, ginger and garlic add plenty of flavor.

While the broth is simmering, add 1/2 ounce of dry shiitake mushrooms to a bowl and enough hot water to completely cover them. Let them sit for 30 minutes to rehydrate. Pour into a colander to drain all the water out.

Keeping dry mushrooms on hand is really convenient because they keep for a long time, and you can rehydrate them anytime you need them. They also have more flavor than fresh ones!

After the broth has finished simmering, use a slotted spoon to fish out and discard the pieces of star anise, cinnamon sticks, and ginger and garlic chunks. Leave the carrots in the broth. 

Add the mushrooms to the hot broth in the pot, and then add a heaping cup of shredded chicken to the pot. If you make your own chicken stock, reserving shredded chicken from the soup chicken is a great way to always have chicken on hand.

After we make chicken stock, we like to shred the chicken and freeze individual baggies right in the freezer. This comes in handy if you love making soups like we do. You can also use rotisserie chicken and shred that, or just buy pre-shredded chicken.

Lastly, add your wontons to the broth. We love to have frozen wontons on hand at all times. For this soup, we love Trader Joe’s Chicken Cilantro Mini Wontons.

Add one full pack of the wonton dumplings (each pack is 12 ounces) and simmer on low for 5 minutes.

If you like them a little more al dente, 4 minutes will probably be enough. These wonton noodles are already fully cooked, so you’re basically just reheating them. 

If you don’t want chicken wontons, you can always add vegetable wontons, pork wontons, or even shrimp wontons. Use your favorite! 

At this point, taste the broth and add any additional salt or black pepper to taste, or even 1 tablespoon soy sauce for added depth of flavor. 

​If you want to add more vegetables, you can add some fresh bok choy. It adds more nutrition and color to your soup. You can also add a small can of sliced water chestnut to add a different texture.

Laddle into your serving bowl and garnish. There are so many different ingredients that you can use for garnishing.

We like to use fresh bean sprouts, cilantro, cut up jalapeno or serrano peppers (if you like it spicy!), green onions, and a little hot sauce. Sriracha is delicious!

You can even drizzle a little sesame oil on top for added flavor. Toasted sesame oil is super tasty and you only need a small amount because the flavor is very concentrated. For a richer taste, drizzling a little oyster sauce is delicious too, but not necessary.

If you’re having a hard time easily finding certain ingredients like fresh bean sprouts, check out your local asian grocers. You will find everything you need and more.

Asian grocery stores usually have more favorable pricing and a much larger selection of products than your standard grocery store. 

Store any leftover soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator and warm it up whenever you want to enjoy it.

The cooked wontons typically don’t freeze too well, but you can always freeze the leftover broth and add in wontons after you thaw the broth. Check out our blog post on the best ways to freeze soups. 

This is a great recipe to enjoy during the winter months. Who doesn’t like a tasty bowl of hot soup during chilly weather? And with the ease of preparation, there is no reason that you can’t easily whip up a batch!

And if you like more wontons and less broth, you can always add two packs of the frozen Trader Joe’s wontons instead of one. Make yourself a large bowl and enjoy!

This truly is a simple, great wonton soup that you will find yourself making over and over again. If you want another easy, tasty and quick soup, try our 5-ingredient Chicken Tortilla Soup!