Why do they call them "Potstickers"?

“Whether you call them wortip (roughly translated as “pot stick”) guotie (the Mandarin word) Peking Ravioli (a term coined by restaurateur Joyce Chen), or just plain pan-fried pork dumplings, it’s impossible to eat only one.”

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“Chinese dumplings, Jiǎozi (literally, transliterated into pot sticker) due to their wide popularity in Japan and Korea have come to be widely referred in most of the world as Gyōza (In Korean, Gyoja).”

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@marinelife has a good answer.

More generically, I don’t think it means sticking to the pot, rather you were able to stick your fork or knife into the pot and pull something out. This goes back to when there was a communal pot set on the table and you either dipped your bowl into the pot or pulled things out with your knife or fork.

I always took it to mean that they stuck to the pan a bit because they were sauteed.

@janbb I guess it may have to do with where and how you were brought up. Different terms can have totally unrelated definitions from one area of the country to another.

They do stick to the pan. A lot. I suppose it depends on how much oil you use. Then again, even if you boil them… A lot of starch in the wrapping.

You cook them in a frying pan, with peanut oil barely covering the bottom, to get the bottom of the dumplings browned. When they are brown, you add water to steam them until they are cooked. They should stick a little, but a spatula will take them off the pan without a lot of trouble. Unless you overcooked them, in which case you may need a chisel.

When you cook them they do stick to the pan, then right before they’re done, you add liquid to the pan and they release.