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SubscribeSaturday, January 15, 2011
My Mother’s Famous Chinese Egg Rolls
These are my Mom’s Famous Crispy Chinese Egg Rolls and a recipe that I published way back in 2007 but somehow got lost in the Internet void. Thank goodness that this recipe was part of my cookbook so I still had the text and photos. ~Jaden
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This is one of those recipes that is a little more time consuming to make, but one that’s my favorite because 1) it’s my Mom’s recipe 2) everyone who has tried them instantly declare they are the best they’ve ever had 3) you can make a big batch of them and freeze them. I usually call a couple of my girlfriends over and we have an eggrollin’ party where we’ll make a massive batch of them, enjoy them fresh that night and have enough for all to take home and freeze. If you are making these with friends, I’d suggest doubling the recipe so each person has some to take home to freeze. I promise you they will taste just as good fried after frozen and you will never taste better egg rolls than these. BUT – you must follow my Mama’s rules.
Ready?
Mama Ruthie’s Egg Roll Rules
Mama’s Rule #1: Your egg roll filling ingredients must be drained of excess moisture and cooled before rolling. Soggy, hot filling makes soggy egg rolls.
Mama’s Rule #2: Use the right kind of wrapper. The size I get is 8 x 8 inches (20 x 20 cm) around and come 25 wrappers to a package. These wrappers are light, paper-thin and fry up to a shatteringly crisp crunch. Oh yes, before I forget – “spring roll” and “egg roll” are interchangeable and mean the same thing. Sometimes my regular American grocery store will have “spring roll pasta sheets” that are in the refrigerated produce section. Do not use those – they are way too thick! Let’s just say that if it has Italian writing on the package, it probably ain’t the good stuff for Chinese egg rolls.
Rule#2A. Treat the wrapper right. You also want to keep the wrappers covered with a damp towel at all times to prevent the edges from drying and cracking.
Mama’s Rule #3: Roll small and tight! Sloppy and loosely rolled egg rolls will break apart and allow oil to seep into the inside of the roll. Mama says baaaad. One time I was watching a celebrity chef on television making monster egg rolls the size of a cola can. Who in the heck can wrap their mouths around that thing? It looked hideous. Mama’s egg rolls are elegant and skinny. Don’t be too greedy and overstuff them! And roll them tight so that the filling doesn’t fall out while frying! Remember the days when you were younger and rolled your own…um…cigarette? Channel those rolling skills back.
Mama’s Rule #4: Lay the rolled egg rolls neatly with a piece of parchment, foil or wax paper in between each layer if you are stacking them on top of each other. Keep them covered with plastic wrap or a towel to prevent drying. If you are freezing, freeze them in like this first. Once frozen, you can gather them up and transfer them to a plastic freezer bag. If you roll them out and jumble them all together in a big pile, they’ll eventually stick to each other and you’ll tear the delicate skin trying to pry them apart.
How to make my Mother’s Famous Chinese Egg Rolls
The printable recipe is below, but here are step by step photos on how to wrap. The recipe is for ground pork as the filling, but as you can see in these photos, the filling is very flexible. I’ve used chopped shrimp, ground chicken, ground beef, ground turkey, very thinly sliced pork (almost like matchstick sized). In these photos, I used crawfish and diced Chinese sausage!
These photos are just a guideline to teach you how to wrap (and the wrong way to wrap Chinese Egg Rolls!)
After you fry the filling, you’ll want to spread it out to cool on a baking sheet. Tilt the baking sheet and prop it up so that all the juices accumulate. You’ll discard this juice. Too much juice in filling makes soggy eggrolls.
Lay the wrapper on a clean, dry surface as shown. Spoon just a heaping tablespoon of filling near the bottom corner. Resist the urge to over stuff with too much filling!
Lift the bottom corner up and begin rolling until you reach halfway up.
Fold over the left side, and then the right side towards the center.
Continue folding up with a tuck-roll-tuck-roll motion. Dip your fingers into the cornstarch slurry and brush all over the final top corner. Finish up the roll, seal and place seam side down.
See how tightly the egg roll wrapped? Any holes or large air pockets will allow oil to seep in, resulting in a greasy egg roll! The width or diameter of the egg roll should ONLY be 1.25-inches. If you make them any larger (i.e. too much filling) you’ll end up with less egg rolls.
The wrong way:
Common mistake is to not fold over and tuck good enough. See that big space? Oil seeps in and will make your egg roll greasy.
Big holes = your egg roll will fall apart while frying.
See the difference between the above photo and this one?
Mother's Famous Chinese Egg Rolls Recipe
Once you make these egg rolls, you'll never make them any other way! Make sure you get the correct egg roll wrappers. They should be FROZEN and very thin, almost paper thin. Do not use egg roll wrapper found in the refrigerated section (usually near tofu) in Western supermarket - they make starchy, thick, gooey egg rolls with big bubbles on outside when you fry. It's important to make sure you keep your wrapper and rolled egg rolls under plastic wrap so that they do not dry out!
Ingredients:
50 Spring/Egg Roll Wrappers (about 2 packages), defrosted unopened at room temperature for 45 minutes or in the refrigerator overnight
1 tablespoon cornstarch (or flour) mixed with ¼ cup of cool water to seal egg roll
Oil, for frying
FOR THE GROUND PORK
1 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon sugar
freshly ground black pepper
FOR THE VEGETABLES
2 to 3 cloves garlic, very finely minced
½ head of cabbage (about 11 ounces)
3 carrots, shredded
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
10 fresh shiitake mushrooms (or dried black mushrooms soaked overnight), stems discarded
1 tablespoon cooking oil (canola, vegetable, peanut)
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Freshly ground black pepperDirections:
1. To make the filling, combine the ingredients for the ground pork together. Marinate at least 10 minutes. In the meantime, shred the cabbage and the carrots using your food processor or by hand. Slice the mushrooms into very thin strips (or you could use your food processer and pulse a few times to get a fine dice.
2. Heat a wok or large saute pan over high heat. Add the cooking oil and swirl to coat. Add the pork and stir-fry until no longer pink, about 2-3 minutes. Turn heat to medium-low, push the meat to one side of the pan. Add the garlic, cabbage, carrots, ginger and the mushrooms and stir-fry for 1 minute, until the vegetables are softened. Add the rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and black pepper. Continue to stir-fry for another minute. Scoop out the filling to a baking sheet and spread out to cool. Prop up one end of the baking sheet so that it tilts and will allow all the moisture to drain to one end. Let cool for 15 minutes.
3. Discard all of the accumulated juices. Use paper towels to blot the filling to rid of extra oil or juice. Now, you're ready to wrap (see photos for instructions on how to wrap). IMPORTANT: Only use 1 heaping tablespoon of filling for each egg roll. These are slender egg rolls, the width of the egg roll should only be 1.25" diameter.
Keep the rolled egg rolls in neat, single layer and covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying. If you want to stack the egg rolls, make sure you have layer of parchment paper in between the layers to prevent sticking. Keep wrappers also covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying. Refrigerate up to 4 hours until ready to fry or freeze.
4. To fry the egg rolls, fill a wok or pot with 2 inches of high-heat cooking oil. Heat the oil to 350°F (175°C) or until a cube of bread will fry to golden brown within 10 seconds. Gently slide in or lower the egg rolls, frying 4 to 6 at a time, turning occasionally until golden brown about 1½ minutes. Place on wire rack to drain and cool.
NOTE: To fry frozen egg rolls, do not defrost the egg rolls – just add them to the oil frozen, frying 4 to 6 at a time. Add an additional 1½ minutes to the frying time since they are frozen.
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Other Egg Roll/Spring Roll Recipes
Red Lantern Vietnamese Spring Roll Recipe Cha Gio
Firecracker Shrimp with Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce
Egg Roll Recipe on RasaMalaysia
White on Rice has a vegetarian Vietnamese Curried Tofu Spring Roll (not fried!)
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199 Responses to “My Mother’s Famous Chinese Egg Rolls”
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These are fantastic!! This time I did not have all the ingredients but tried a couple of variations: chicken & shrimp in one and pulled pork in the other. Thank you so much for sharing. I love to try authentic recipes and this is truly so. Cheers.
I just finished the first batch and I want to say thank you for this recipe and tutorial. They are perfect. Of course I made mine bigger, but they were the same size as they serve in my favorite Vietnamese restaurant. I made two batches together and even with to much filling tasting, I got 47 eggrolls. I fried up two odd lenght ones so I know they are really good.
I had to go across town to a oriental market to be sure to get the right wrappers. I wish I’d gotten my ground pork there because when I went to my regular maket it was over a dollar more per pound. I wish I’d been a bit braver and done all the shopping for the project at the oriental market. But it was close to closing and I felt out of place. I couldn’t find rice cooking wine at my regular market so I substituted white cooking wine. It took a bit of practice and a little template for me to get them all the same length. I’m sure with a bit of practice, it will go a lot faster.
I’m glad I got enough supplies for three more recipes. I’ll make these up and freeze them and take them to my next local food swap. I know they’ll go over well. This is a keeper recipe.
I just finished the first batch and I want to say thank you for this recipe and tutorial. They are perfect. Of course I made mine bigger, but they were the same size as they serve in my favorite Vietnamese restaurant. I made two batches together and even with to much filling tasting, I got 47 eggrolls. I fried up two odd lenght ones so I know they are really good.
I did not any mention of how you seal the egg rolls… water, egg white, other…? Egg roll wrappers do not seal themselves, so the egg roll will unravel in two inches of oil, and quicker in a deep fryer.
SteamyKitchen replied: — September 22nd, 2012 @ 9:02 am
The cornstarch slurry is in the recipe, but you’re right, it’s not explained well enough. I’ve added a couple of lines to clarify. Thanks!
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MAMA knows best!!! This was so easy to edke. Everyone loved them
Great point about the 2 types of egg roll wrappers! I like the “western” ones, too, but whose idea was it to sell burrito wrappers for egg rolls! I have to find the crispy ones. So right, they are way better with the flaky crust. Try using pizza cheese and toppings as filling. Schwanns Food Service sells “pizza wonton rolls” that are very tasty, but expensive. I’m sure you can simulate them with the crispy egg roll wrappers by substituting the pizza ingredients.
I had a heck of a time finding the frozen egg roll wrappers, but just as I thought I’d never find them a new Chinese/Vietnamese/Mexican grocery store opened up! They also had the rice wine, so I made the recipe exactly as you wrote it. OMG…..these are the absolute BEST egg rolls I’ve ever had! Apparently I had them wrapped tight enough because there was absolutely no grease on the inside….in fact they weren’t greasy on the outside, either! These things absolutely rock….they’re going to be my new go to appetizer. Made 2 batches so I have a bunch in the freezer just waiting to be fried. Thanks so much for this most excellent recipe!
Excellent recipe!! Made this a few times and it’s ALWAYS a hit. We love serving this to our guests during Chinese New Year so being able to prepare and freeze them weeks ahead saves us much time (and sanity!) during one of the busiest times at home
These are soooo amazing! My sister and I make them all the time. I don’t like pork, so I use chicken and they come out really good. We always make a double batch and freeze half for later use. We also put them in containers and freeze them for easy lunches.
The one thing is, I never have good luck frying. What kind of oil do you use? We tried to make them a little healthier by brushing them with oil and broiling them in the oven. They still came out fairly crispy and really good but was curious of the best type of oil to fry them in.
Thanks so much for this awesome recipe (and pass the thanks along to your mother!)
Why do i see crawfish tail meat in the photo of the filling but not in the list of ingredients?
SteamyKitchen replied: — November 19th, 2012 @ 8:34 am
If you would have actually read the text right above the photo, you’ll see that I explained why.
Some notes for you:
Spring rolls are not the same thing as egg rolls. At all. They are completely different; different wrappers, different fillings, and they even come from different countries.
Traditional egg rolls are sealed by painting a light coat of beaten egg before rolling (not corn starch); hence the name, egg rolls.
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Tonight I made this recipe for the hundredth time, mostly to freeze for the lazy nights! Okay, slight exaggeration in that number, but I love this recipe; thank you for sharing. I most appreciate the details that help you understand the recipe beyond the steps and measurements.
How can I store crispy eggrolls to keep them crispy for lunch the following days.
These were excellent, I followed the recipe with no variation. Why is this the best recipe of many I surveyed and have made before? The rules truly capture the nuance and techniques that must be abided by… so many recipes did not preach the rules. Thank you so much, this is a big contribution to anyone who wants to make their own egg rolls. BTW: not even top asian restaurants have egg rolls this good… I guess it’s the care that goes into it.
Freezing takes moisture out of fried food, and can enhance crispiness upon reheat–but reheat using a toaster or regular oven, not more oil, not saute–maybe like 375 for 10-15 minutes after slightly thawed.
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I love cooking all sorts of cuisine and have attempted to make egg/spring rolls many times, unsuccessfully. My sister is an Asian food finatic and for her 21st birthday in oct. she requested egg rolls. I happened upon this recipe and decided to use it. IT WAS A BIG SUCCESS! So much so that my father asked me to make them for his birthday four months later. Thank you for the recipe and the rules of successful egg roll making!
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Just wanted to say a huge thank you!! This was something I had thought about making for a long time but simply never gotten around to it. I was looking for recipes a couple of weeks ago and stumbled across yours. I’ve made them twice now and everyone that has tried them absolutely loves them!!
The first time I had to settle for the only wrappers I could find (in the local grocery store) since making them was somewhat of a last minute decision. They were great but they were even better today when I took your advice and visited our local Asian market on Sunday. We go there five or six times a year anyway but had never looked for these wrappers before. They have several different types so we tried a couple of them and they were both far better than our local ones. We also found that if we make the meat as you described (only add some garlic and ginger) and use it (uncooked) to fill dumpling wrappers, then boil (and pan fry if you choose) they are awesome as well.
Again, thank you (and thank your mother!!).
The recipe above is more of a Vietnamese style fried spring roll, not a Cantonese style egg roll, which blister up when cooked and are slightly thicker than a spring roll wrapper.
SteamyKitchen replied: — February 20th, 2013 @ 3:43 pm
It’s both. The thick, bubbly wrapper is found in AMERICAN-Chinese restaurants.
In China, Hong Kong, and actually all over SE Asia too, you’ll find these spring roll/egg rolls that are smooth, thin and extra crispy.
Oh Jaden! These look marvelous!
I have made egg rolls using the rice wrapper typically used for spring rolls in the U.S. The question on my mind is: Are there any other gluten free wrapper options?
Thanks in advance for your response.
You are amazing, and you Mom obviously is too. ; )
Jen
SteamyKitchen replied: — February 21st, 2013 @ 8:57 am
Hi Jen! I think there is a Chinese wrapper that’s made of rice too. I can’t think of the name for it, but I’ve seen it at the store. It’s round, solid white, paper thin, and kind of reminds me of thick paper as it’s very flexible. The wrapper has frayed edges. You’ll have to check the ingredients list though, but I think it’s rice based.