Pork Egg Rolls
Pork Egg Rolls
These pork egg rolls are filled with ground pork flavored with peanut, soy sauce, green onions, ginger and more. The are a labor of love but can be made ahead of time and fried and frozen. Easily reheat in the oven or air fryer. Make a big batch and enjoy for months or serve at once for a fun and festive appetizer.
There is a full, printable recipe card at the end of this post. Leading up to the post are some pictures and short paragraphs with any clarifying questions some of you may have. Please take a look to help you through the steps to making this recipe.
Peanut Butter
Many, many years ago I worked for the Chicago Park District. I was invited to a Christmas party at my bosses house one year and he had ordered an entire tray of egg rolls from a Chinese restaurant up North in Chicago that everyone loved called Kow Kow. Truly the best egg rolls I had ever tasted. Kow Kow is now closed permanently and I miss it so much. They shared their egg roll recipe at one point and it had peanut butter in it. Peanut butter has been in my egg rolls ever since.
The peanut butter adds a nutty, delicious and creamy flavor that you will love. It is a great addition to the ground pork.
Meaty and Delicious
My recipe calls for a lot of meat. You can use more veggies if you prefer and more cabbage. This recipe is a suggestion and you should adjust it to your liking. You can also sub ground beef or ground chicken if you do not eat pork.
Rolling Your Egg Rolls
Here is a video of how to roll your egg rolls so you have a nice tight roll. You want to make sure you seal up the egg roll really well or the insides will come out if you are frying in oil. If you are using a air fryer, you wont have this issue, but you should still have a tight seal.
Pork Egg Rolls
These pork egg rolls are filled with ground pork flavored with peanut, soy sauce, green onions, ginger and more. The are a labor of love but can be made ahead of time and fried and frozen. Easily reheat in the oven or air fryer. Make a big batch and enjoy for months or serve at once for a fun and festive appetizer.
Ingredients
- 3lbs of ground pork
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup of cup of soy sauce
- 1 heaping tablespoon of peanut butter
- 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 bunch of green onions, sliced thinly, white and green parts separated
- 1/2 cup of seasoned rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons of finely minced fresh ginger
- 1 package of egg roll wrappers (14 wrappers)
- 1 small head of green cabbage, sliced in thin ribbons then chopped into small bite sized pieces *you will need approximately 4 to 5 cups of shredded cabbage, you can use more or less depending on your liking.
- *all of the seasonings in this can be adjusted to your taste,
- **you can add more or less meat or more or less cabbage
Instructions
- In a bowl combine the soy sauce, peanut butter, black pepper, onion and garlic powder, whisk until smooth and set aside.
- In another bowl whisk the rice wine vinegar with the green parts of the green onions and ginger. Set aside.
- In a skillet add a little oil and your ground pork. Cook fully and make sure to break up the pork into a fine crumble. When it is cooked, add the white parts of the green onions and sauté for a 5 minutes. Then add your soy sauce mixture and simmer for 15 minutes on low.
- While the soy sauce simmers in the meat toss your vinegar mixture with your cabbage and set aside.
- When the soy sauce has simmered into the meat, turn off the heat and add the cabbage to the meat mixture. Toss to combine and the heat will wilt the cabbage but let it still have some crispness to it. If you like your cabbage super soft, cook it a little with the meat.
- Let this mixture sit until it is cooled off. Then place a strainer over a bowl and add the mixture to the strainer so the excess liquid drains out. I leave this sit for about 30 minutes. This will help keep your egg rolls sealed.
- When you are ready to troll the egg rolls, set up a work station, I use a wood cutting board, have a small bowl of water to seal the edges, have a cookie sheet with some parchment or wax paper on it and some damp paper towels to clean your hands in between and a small spoon for filling.
- To roll, tunr the egg roll sheet so it is a diamond shape that you are seeing, not a square. (picture in post) I add about 3 heaping tablespoons across the center of the diamond. You can use less, but I like bugger egg rolls. Dip your finger in the water and run your finger around the edges on the bottom half of the diamond (below the meat line) pull that flap up and over the meat line, and press into the wrapper on the other side. I use some water on my finger and rub the edge so it seals to the other side of the wrapper (skin) next, fold in the two edges to like make an envelop. use your finger and water to seal this down then tuck and roll it upwards. Then use your finger and water to seal the flap. I then take my edges with my wet fingers and seal up and openings. I will link a video in the post.
- Place the egg roll on the cookie sheet and repeat until all the egg rolls are rolled. I let these rest for an hour outside in natures freezer, covered with foil to harden up a bit. You can put them in your fridge or freezer.
- I fried mine up in hot oil in a fry daddy. You can fry in a few inches of oil in a deep skillet, I prefer to use peanut or veggie oil. Or you can brush them all with oil and air fry at a high temp for 10 minutes. Every air fryer will be different so test one out with time and temp. I let the eggs rolls rest on a wire rack over a sheet pan with paper towels.
- You can freeze these and fry up from frozen.
- Do not let the filling touch the edges of the wrapper. The oil from the meat will keep it from sealing.
