Egg rolls. They’re the quintessential Chinese takeout food. This egg roll recipe is a copycat of the basic version you’ll find in takeout places and Chinese buffets, with cabbage and roast pork in the filling.
It’s been a very long time since I was regularly making them in my parents’ takeout restaurant, when we’d crank out hundreds of egg rolls at a time. With this recipe, however, we’ve recorded the ingredients and method we used, so we can make them anytime at home!
Note: This recipe was originally published on November 10, 2014. We have since updated it with new photos, clearer instructions, nutrition information, and more. Enjoy!
What Are Egg Rolls?
Egg rolls are fried, savory rolls, generally filled with cabbage chopped Chinese roast pork. The wheat flour based wrappers form small bubbles when fried, giving them their signature look.
It is an American creation that evolved from Chinese spring rolls (check out our Shanghai Style Spring Roll recipe to see the difference), sometime in the early 20th Century.
Contrary to the name, the filling does not actually contain egg, and there may or may not be eggs in the wrapper! Like other fried foods, they’re often served with duck sauce, a sweet condiment popular in Chinese-American takeout restaurants.
A Restaurant Recipe
I first attempted to make these beside my father, who was a Chinese chef working at the Holiday Inn restaurant in upstate New York. He later became a business owner with his own Chinese restaurant.
Back then, chefs and kitchen hands were judged by how many pounds of egg roll wrappers they could go through in one hour. If you were any good, you could tear through 25-30 pounds of wrappers per hour, and all the egg rolls would look like perfect little clones of each other.
I wasn’t particularly good at it (25 pounds an hour was a far off dream), but I could make them well enough. It’s a relatively easy process, and you’ll get the hang of it quickly.
While my father is no longer here to give us his exact recipe, I’ve developed this one from memory. It’s very close to what we used to make at the restaurant.
Adapting & Storing
That said, you could use the traditional ingredients in this recipe, or get creative with just about any fresh vegetables and meat.
Just make a good-sized batch. They freeze well after frying, and reheat nicely for after school or party snacks. You can even cut the wrappers into smaller squares, and make minis for a delightful appetizer. Need I say more?
Egg Roll Recipe Instructions
Making the filling:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put the savoy cabbage, green cabbage, carrots, and celery into the boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes. Transfer the veggies to an ice bath and drain.
Thoroughly squeeze out all the excess water from the vegetables (you can put the drained veggies in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out the water). This is a very important step. If the filling is too wet, you will have a wet filling and soggy egg rolls!
A Chinese bamboo strainer/spider really comes in handy for scooping veggies out of the boiling water and even for frying the egg rolls if you are making a large batch. Check out our Chinese Cooking tools page to see what we use in our kitchen.
Once dry, transfer the veggies to a large mixing bowl. Add the scallions, salt, sugar, sesame oil, 2 tablespoons oil, five spice powder (if using), white pepper, Chinese roast pork, and cooked shrimp (if using). Toss everything together.
NOTE: One of our readers reported that his egg rolls were bland. We all have different taste preferences, and varying methods of measurement when it comes to portioning out ingredients. It’s a good idea to try the filling at this point and adjust the seasoning to taste.
As a general rule, the filling will taste a little bit more salty at this point, until it has a chance to absorb the seasonings. Remember though, you can add seasoning when you eat the egg rolls, but if they’re too salty, there is little that can be done to save the batch. Keep this in mind when re-seasoning.
You may also want to wrap a test egg roll and fry it to check the taste before you wrap the entire lot. We always did this at the restaurant before we made a batch of 600!
Okay, the filling is ready to be wrapped!
Back in the day, the egg roll wrappers at the restaurant used to come in 5-pound bundles. Each person would start with one and work their way down the stack, which made about 120 egg rolls.
We were pretty expert at making sure we had enough filling so that there’d be no leftover wrappers. It’s not an exact science, so play it by ear.
Wrapping the egg rolls:
The way to wrap these egg rolls is to first take a small fistful of filling, squeeze it a little in your hand until it is compressed together, and place it on the wrapper.
Check out the photos below to see how to wrap them. Basically, it’s similar to the method you’d use to wrap a burrito. Just add a thin layer of egg to make sure it stays sealed. Line them up on a lightly floured surface, and continue assembling until you run out of ingredients.
You can also watch the video on this page, demonstrating the folding technique or check our article on How to Fold Egg Rolls.
Check out our Chinese Noodles and wrappers page to see more on egg roll and spring roll wrappers, as well as all kinds of noodles.
Frying the egg rolls:
In a small pot, heat the oil to 325 degrees. You don’t need too much—just enough to submerge the egg rolls.
Carefully place a couple egg rolls into the oil, and fry them for about 5 minutes until golden brown. Keep them moving in the oil to make sure they fry evenly.
My father used to tell me that frying egg rolls was a fool-proof task. You just slide them gently into the oil, and keep them moving while they are frying. When they’re done, they’ll “call” you with a slightly louder sizzling noise.
That splattering noise is signaling that the filling is getting hot inside. The steam is escaping, causing the oil to bubble up.
You can serve them after they’ve cooled a bit, either by themselves, or with a little duck sauce, Chinese hot mustard, or hot sauce.
Freeze leftovers in freezer bags and reheat them in the oven. Enjoy folks!
Copycat Takeout Egg Rolls
Ingredients
- 8 cups savoy cabbage (shredded)
- 8 cups green cabbage (shredded)
- 2 cups carrot (shredded)
- 2 cups celery (shredded)
- 3 scallions (chopped)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil (plus more, for frying)
- 1/4 teaspoon five spice powder (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 3 cups roast pork (char siu, shredded or diced)
- 2 cups cooked shrimp (chopped, optional)
- 1 package egg roll wrappers (about 24 pieces)
- 1 egg (beaten)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put the cabbage, carrots, and celery into the boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes. Transfer the veggies to an ice bath and drain. Thoroughly squeeze out all the excess water from the vegetables (you can put the drained veggies in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out the water). This is a very important step because if the filling is too wet, you will have a wet filling and soggy egg rolls!
- Once dry, transfer the veggies to a large mixing bowl. Add the scallions, salt, sugar, sesame oil, 2 tablespoons oil, five spice powder (if using), white pepper, roast pork, and cooked shrimp (if using). Toss everything together. The filling is ready to be wrapped!
- To wrap the egg rolls, take a small fistful of filling, squeeze it a little in your hand until it is compressed together, and place it on the wrapper. The wrapping method is similar to that of a burrito. Just add a thin layer of egg to make sure it stays sealed. Line them up on a lightly floured surface, and continue assembling until you run out of ingredients.
- In a small pot, heat oil to 325 degrees. You don't need too much—just enough to submerge the egg rolls. Carefully place a couple egg rolls into the oil, and fry them for about 5 minutes until golden brown. Keep them moving in the oil to make sure they fry evenly.
- Cool slightly and serve! Freeze leftovers in freezer bags and reheat them in the oven at 350 degrees, until crispy.
I haven’t made this in a while so I apologize if this is a repeat comment. (The comments by “Grossed Out” compelled me to comment again.)
I love American-style Chinese take-out and egg rolls are always the item that I judge a restaurant by. It’s my thing. Your recipe includes celery which seems to be a missing ingredient in some egg rolls I’ve ordered – at least my palate tells me so. I was so happy to find this! The blanched veggies, the whole method was perfect! Admittedly, I did use Nina Simonds’ recipe for the BBQ sauce which is probably not much different from yours. I think it was a matter of what ingredients I had in my pantry? Also, I used jack fruit for the pork to make it vegetarian. I chopped it pretty fine after cooking, before mixing in to the filling. I am afraid of deep-frying so once I tried baking them, but the skins split a bit. Once I tried to shallow-fry but they came out a bit greasy. (Maybe I didn’t roll them tight enough?) They were delicious either way, but I was wondering if you had a preferred alternative to deep frying? Tips or tricks?
I read a lot of recipe comments for any potential trouble-shooting and I gotta say, comments like “Grossed Out” are everywhere which says more to me about the person’s basic common sense in the kitchen than the recipe. As you noted – TASTE AS YOU GO! Sheesh! I can’t believe how many comments I’ve read of people having to “throw out” entire meals. Most mistakes can be fixed. I know. I think I can eye-ball things and then end up having to add a bit extra acid, or a bit extra sweet, etc. This recipe is so simple. Ugh. I hate hearing people unnecesarily throwing food away.
I will add a note about 5-spice. I LOVE 5-spice, but found it’s easy to use too much (for me, anyway.) I learned that for my own taste to add it sparingly. It’s like the necessary secret ingredient!
Thank you guys! I shall never be without my perfect take-out style egg rolls!
Hi Mae, thank you for your thoughtful comments. five-spice powder is definitely a strong spice so everyone should use it with caution based on their own preferences. As far as deep-frying goes, nothing is better than deep-frying as long as you fry at the right temperature. Other than that, brushing the egg rolls with peanut or vegetable oil and baking them on a rack is probably the best alternative to frying. Happy cooking!
I wonder if air rrying would work?
These were easy and terrific! (I took some short cuts) I was looking for a substitution for grocery store snacks that are always disappointing. I minced a rotisserie chicken, used a bag of coleslaw and shredded 4 stalks of celery. I didn’t have peanut oil so just used an extra tablespoon of sesame. That made one dozen. I probably needed 2 bags of coleslaw. I “fried” them in the air fryer. The five spice powder added a really nice flavor. Thanks for this recipe and the wonderful pictures on how to roll them.
Hi Joanne, using pre-cut coleslaw definitely saves you some prep time. Thanks for sharing your shortcuts with us and our readers
Hands down the best eggs rolls I’ve ever had. Followed the recipe exactly, including the shrimp, and I am so happy I did! The five spice really made them.
Thanks Liz and happy to hear the best eggs rolls you have ever had came out of your own kitchen!
My first time making homemade egg rolls and it was so easy! I love the idea of being about to freeze some for later use as I’m just cooking for two! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Hi Darline, I totally agree. freezing egg rolls for easy reheating in the toaster oven is a convenience and joy :)
These were absolutely delicious!!! The five spice and white pepper really set this off. Thanks for posting this recipe! Will make this again and again. (I don’t eat meat so subbed Gardein burger crumbles instead of pork and shrimp, and it actually tasted fantastic)
Hi Meghan, great idea on your substitution to make these eggs rolls meatless!
Dude, you should have stayed at Burger King. We followed the recipe and measured perfectly and the egg rolls were disgusting. We asked our local Chinese restaurant where to get 5 spice and was directed to a local Chinese store that sells 5 spice. The taste of your eggrolls is God aweful. I showed the recipe to the Chinese restaurant we frequent and she said you are using ingredients from a province that is NOT used in the USA Chinese restaurants. You should take this recipe off your website as it is a big lie. I spent $40 00 on ingredients just to throw it all away. Luckily I used a lower per serving amount not the 24 you reccomended. Shame on you.
Well this is a supremely unhelpful comment.
It’s a shame that your egg rolls didn’t turn out well, but given the number of people who have commented that this recipe works and tastes great, I doubt the problem is with the ingredients or the instructions.
If you have any actual useful feedback as to why this recipe didn’t work, I’m sure The Woks would like to see it; I have seen them take feedback and make adjustments in the past. However, if you’re just here to bring the usual internet hate to a family that clearly puts a lot of effort into providing a service for you, please don’t.
Well said Jon. My egg rolls turned out FANTASTIC!
All I would add is that if you can find frozen egg roll wraps (I had to go to the Asian market as the local grocery only carries the refrigerated wraps) use frozen, no comparison, the frozen wraps will give you that crispy restaurant egg roll compared to a more doughy result with the wraps found in the refrigerated section.
Hi Brad, I am wondering whether you are referring to frozen spring roll wrappers. They will definitely yield thinner and crispier egg rolls but they can be a little trickier to fry since they brown quickly. Happy cooking!
Wow! You could not even use your name. First of all this family has gone out of their way to share some amazing recipes with everybody! If you did not like the recipe a simple it was not for me would have been perfect! Why don’t you take your negativity and go find another website to find your recipes from!
And I believe what you were trying to say to this amazing family is thank you!
Hi,
I’m very excited to try this recipe tonight! Would you recommend any changes to the recipe if I’m using ground pork instead of char siu?
Hi Katlyn, if using ground pork, you should pan fry and season it first before adding it to the filling.
Hi,
Can I use the char sui sauce as a marinade for ground pork? I have a pound of it in my freezer and really craving egg rolls. I am assuming I can just mix together the ingredients and then pan fry but not sure if that would work out.
Hi Stephanie, using the char siu sauce and pan-frying ground pork is a great shortcut for the roasted char siu!
There’s really no reason for such rudeness here. I’m sorry the recipe didn’t work out for you but I (and the restaurants where I have worked) and many of our readers find it works great, so I’m not sure where you went wrong.
If you can’t cook just say that
Whoops – this was supposed to be a reply to the comment from “Grossed Out”. Recipe was great.
So, 25+ cups of ingredients make 24 egg rolls? I just feel like I need confirmation before I begin.
This is a disgusting recipe not a real eggroll. Dont use 24 or you will throw out over $50.00 in ingredients.
Hi Debbie, that sounds right
These are the best recipe I have ever found! After putting the ingredients together can it go in the freezer to use another time? Also once cooked can the egg rolls also go in the freezer?
Hi Chrissy, yes and yes, but we prefer freezing them after they are fried. We usually reheat them in the toaster oven, but they are best if refried in oil ;-)
This is now the base for all my egg rolls. I made this twice last weekend with bacon and shrimp inside and my wife loved it. They looked just like the pictures and they tasted wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Hi John, good job and yes, variations in the filling like using bacon instead of cha siu are welcome!
What would be the best wrapper to make these gluten-free?
Hi Kristine, I don’t know of any gluten-free egg roll wrappers and making your own could be quite a task. You could try rice roll wrappers and make a gluten-free cha gio egg roll with this filling. See our recipe for cha gio for the details.
You can use ricepaper wraps. We use them for fried springrolls and they’re ideal!