Savory ground pork and veggies wrapped up in a crispy fried shell then served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce make these Homemade Egg Rolls even better than the ones you get for take-out from your favorite Chinese restaurant!
If you love Asian-inspired recipes, be sure to try our Better Than Take-Out Chinese Sweet and Sour Pork, Easy Honey Walnut Shrimp, Asian Lettuce Wraps, and Slow Cooker Asian Pulled Pork Sliders!
Homemade Egg Rolls
These egg rolls are an incredibly tasty and easy way to satisfy your cravings for Chinese food, which is what my family always seems to be craving. If you want a slightly healthier, deconstructed version, you might want to check out this Quick & Healthy Egg Roll in a Bowl recipe instead!
Making this pork egg roll recipe at home means that you won’t have to venture out to a restaurant for one that may be overly greasy or soggy (my biggest pet peeve about poorly executed egg rolls) or worse, the ones from the grocery freezer section to get your fill. Get the great taste at home for a fraction of the cost with this easy egg roll recipe.
We love that you can assemble the egg rolls ahead of time and then freeze them when ready. Egg rolls are great party fare and make an excellent appetizer, but I’ll confess that sometimes we will just make these our dinner!
What Is The Difference Between an Egg Roll and a Spring Roll?
The biggest differences are in the wrap and the preparations. Egg rolls have a thicker wrapping and are deep fried whereas spring rolls often have a thin and translucent wrapper and are not fried.
Tips for the BEST egg rolls
Tip #1: Correct oil temp
Fry at the right temperature (around 375°F) using a thermometer to monitor the oil so it doesn’t dip too low. Going much lower than this (like around 325°F) and the egg rolls start soaking up more oil as they cook. Frying at a higher temperature (like 425°F) results in egg rolls that cook too quickly on the outside without heating the inside and cooking the wrapper all the way through.
Tip #2: Don’t crowd the pan
If you crowd the pan by attempting to cook too many egg rolls at once, this can cause the oil temperature to drop significantly and the egg rolls will run the risk of turning out greasy.
Tip #3: Cool and drain the filling
My last tip for success is to let the filling cool and drain off any extra liquid before wrapping it in your egg roll wrappers. Soggy filling makes for soggy egg rolls that steam from the inside.
Ingredients in homemade egg rolls
- Square egg roll wrappers: You can find these in the produce section at the grocery store, in one of the refrigerated cases.
- Ground meat: My preference is to use ground pork, but you could also use ground beef, ground chicken, ground turkey, or chopped shrimp.
- Fresh ginger
- Garlic
- Soy sauce
- Sesame oil
- Salt & pepper
- Green onions
- Coleslaw mix: Coleslaw mix is made of shredded carrots and shredded cabbage. It’s sort of cheating, but so much easier than shredding carrots and chopping cabbage. If you go that route, you want about 3 cups of finely chopped veggies.
- Flour
- Water
- Oil for frying
How to make homemade egg rolls
- Make the filling: In a large skillet, cook the ground pork, ginger, and garlic until it’s crumbled and browned, using a wooden spoon to break up the meat as it cooks. Add in soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper, scallions, and coleslaw, stirring to combine. Remove from heat and set aside to cool, draining off excess liquid.
- Make a paste to seal the egg rolls: In a small bowl, mix together the flour and water with a fork to create a thick slurry. I’ve tried sealing egg rolls with just a beaten egg before but find that this simple paste works best for holding the egg rolls together while they are fried.
- Assemble: Work with one egg roll wrapper at a time and keep the others covered with a damp paper towel. Lay a wrapper on a clean surface, on the diagonal, with one corner pointing toward you. Scoop 3-4 tablespoons of the filling mixture and arrange it in the center of the wrapper making a small mound that goes from one corner to the other.
- Seal: Use your fingers to brush some of the flour slurry around the edges of the wrapper, then fold the bottom point over the filling and roll the egg roll up nice and tight, folding the left and right corners in on the side and sealing with the flour mixture as needed.
- Repeat with remaining filling and wrappers until all have been used. Be sure to keep the rolled egg rolls covered with a damp cloth so the wrappers don’t dry out as you roll the others.
- Fry: In a large heavy bottomed skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat until it reaches 375°F. Use a thermometer to keep the oil temperature steady to avoid the egg rolls being too saturated and greasy. Gently lay 4-5 eggs rolls in the hot oil at a time and fry, turning partway through. It should be about 2-3 minutes until they’re golden brown and crispy. Remove egg rolls with tongs to a wire rack set over a baking sheet to allow excess oil to drain. Repeat until all egg rolls are cooked.
- Serve with dipping sweet and sour sauce for dipping.
What Is The Best Oil To Fry Egg Rolls In?
I recommend using peanut oil because it’s great for frying Asian foods, but if you have a peanut allergy or want to use something else, vegetable oil and canola oil are also good options. Just make sure to let the egg rolls drain on a paper towel so most of the oil can drain off.
For all you folks out there with an air fryer, I’m sure you could make these in there as well.
How to bake egg rolls
I get it that sometimes we want egg rolls but don’t want to go to the hassle of frying them. You can actually get away with baking these egg rolls, although they won’t be quite as good and the appearance will be a little different.
Just preheat the oven to 425°F and grease a baking sheet with oil. Lay the egg rolls on the baking sheet and brush each of them all over with more oil. Then pop them in the oven and bake for 13-16 minutes, flipping them once or twice, until they are crispy and golden brown.
Make-ahead and freezing instructions
Make-ahead: Egg rolls are great because they can be made in advance. You can make the filling in advance and assemble when you are ready to fry them. But if you need to roll them more than a day in advance, I recommend freezing them.
Freezing: You can make and assemble the egg rolls without frying them and freeze them right away. Just place each egg roll in a single layer in a large gallon-size ziploc freezer safe bag as they are made. I do this on a baking sheet that so I can easily transfer them to the freezer without the egg rolls mushing on top of each other, which can result in them freezing together instead of separately. Freeze for up to 4 months.
To cook the frozen egg rolls, just add them straight to the hot oil from frozen and cook an extra 1 ½ minutes longer than normal, for about 4-5 minutes total. Or if baking, add an extra 5 minutes to the bake time from frozen.
What Do You Serve With Egg Rolls?
Obviously it’s a good idea to serve egg rolls with a dipping sauce like sweet and sour sauce. My other favorite is the Thai sweet chili sauce that you can buy in a bottle at the store.
But egg rolls go great with a nice Asian vegetable stir fry, noodle dish or even fried rice to make a full dinner! You can even do something like orange glazed chicken or pork or broccoli beef for a nice variety of flavors.
More Easy Appetizer Recipes You’ll Love
- Oven Baked Korean BBQ Chicken Wings
- Crispy Loaded Potato Skins
- Soft Garlic Parmesan Homemade Breadsticks
- Smoked Pork Belly Burnt Ends
- Easy Refried Bean Dip
- The BEST Guacamole Recipe Ever
- Slow Cooker Little Smokies in Honey Garlic BBQ Sauce
- Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers
- Easy Stromboli Recipe
- Asian Slaw with Ginger Peanut Dressing
- Slow Cooker Asian Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Did you make this recipe?
Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
Homemade Egg Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 Tablespoon fresh ginger grated
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 3 green onions chopped
- 10 ounces coleslaw mix roughly 3 cups finely chopped cabbage and shredded carrots
- 1 package egg roll wrappers
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons water
- Oil for frying about 1 quart
Instructions
- In a large skillet, cook the ground pork, ginger, and garlic until crumbled and browned, using a wooden spoon to break up the meat as it cooks.1 pound ground pork, 1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, 2 cloves garlic
- Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper, scallions, and coleslaw, stirring just to combine, then remove from the heat and set aside.2 Tablespoons soy sauce, 1 Tablespoon sesame oil, ½ teaspoon salt, ⅛ teaspoon pepper, 3 green onions, 10 ounces coleslaw mix
- In a small bowl, mix the flour and water with a fork to create a slurry.2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour, 2 Tablespoons water
- Working with one egg roll wrapper at a time and keeping the others covered with a damp paper towel, Lay it on a clean surface on the diagonal with one corner pointing toward you. Scoop 3-4 tablespoons of the meat and coleslaw mixture and arrange it in the center of the wrapper making a small mound that goes from one corner to the other.1 package egg roll wrappers
- Use your fingers to brush some of the flour and water slurry around the edges of the wrapper, then fold the bottom point over the filling and roll the egg roll up tightly, folding in the corners on the side and sealing with the flour mixture as needed.
- Repeat with remaining filling and wrappers until all have been used.
- In a large heavy bottomed skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat until it reaches 375°F. Gently lay 4-5 eggs rolls in the hot oil at a time and fry, turning partway through, for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Remove with tongs to a wire rack set over a baking sheet to allow excess oil to drain. Repeat until all egg rolls are cooked.Oil for frying
- Serve with dipping sauce.
I found this recipe very easy to follow. This was my first time attempting to make egg rolls, and I am very proud of how they came out. They were very crispy and tasty. I will definitely make them again. Thanks for sharing.
I’m glad you thought so!
Delicious! After tasting the filling I added 1/2 tsp salt. All were eaten!
So glad you enjoyed them!
Another great recipe! The filling was top-notch. I couldn’t find egg roll pastry at either of my 2 local supermarkets (it might just be in certain countries?) so I used spring roll pastry instead. Additionally, I opted to pan-fry rather than deep-fry mine, and they still turned out great! All of them were happily devoured.
Oh good! I am glad you enjoyed them! Yes it is sometimes hard finding certain ingredients but it sounds like you made it all work out!
Good looking recipe. Just wanted to thank you for such clear and concise presentation. good direction, great, descriptive photos.
And you might want to add a suggestion for tofu or tempeh for the vegetarian knuckleheads out there (like my dear wife.)
Can I make up the egg rolls, put in the refrigerator, then fry the next day?
You can make the filling in advance and assemble when you are ready to fry them. Be sure to keep the rolled egg rolls covered with a damp cloth so the wrappers don’t dry out as you roll the others. But if you need to roll them more than a day in advance, I recommend freezing them.