Make crispy homemade egg rolls in an air fryer! It is easy to make air fryer egg rolls at home without the mess and hassle of deep frying. These takeout favorites are crispy on the outside and filled tasty pork and cabbage.
Egg rolls are one of my favorite parts of Chinese takeout! They are perfect crispy finger food. But let’s face it, as a deep fried food they aren’t very good for you.
These are traditional pork egg rolls, if you are looking for other options try my recipe for sweet and sour chicken egg rolls or my Buffalo chicken egg rolls!
Don’t feel like making homemade egg rolls? No problem! Follow this link to learn how to cook store bought frozen egg rolls.
An air fryer offers two big advantages over other cooking methods. First it is fast, so you can cook things liked baked potatoes quickly.
Second it allows you to cook with little to no oil, which means favorite meals like fried catfish, fried chicken or fried egg rolls become much better for you.
Using an air fryer means you can make these homemade egg rolls without deep frying in oil. The hot circulating air still gives you a nice crispy egg roll texture, even without the oil.
What is the Difference Between Spring Rolls and Egg Rolls?
One of the biggest differences between spring rolls and egg rolls is that spring rolls are usually served cold and egg rolls are served hot. The other big difference between the two is that the wrapper is completely different.
Egg roll wrappers are made from flour and are thicker to hold up to frying. Spring roll wrappers are thinner, translucent, and are made of rice flour. But both are excellent sides to serve with dinner and you can find my recipe for black bean spring rolls here!
What is Inside Egg Rolls?
Cabbage is probably the most traditional thing to have in egg roll filling. After that it can vary a lot.
Many times meat is included with the cabbage, in which case it can be pork, shrimp or chicken. I’ve never seen egg rolls with beef, but the beauty of homemade egg rolls is you can do whatever you want, so if you want to use beef go for it.
My totally non-scientific survey of Chinese restaurants over the past 20 some years leads me to believe that pork is the meat most often used in egg rolls. Based on this I used for pork for my homemade egg rolls.
Making the Air Fryer Egg Roll Filling
Making the filling is very easy. I just browned the ground pork with some onion and then stirred in some vegetables for a few minutes to soften and cook.
To save time and make these homemade egg rolls super easy to make I used a bag of shredded coleslaw in the filling instead of slicing cabbage. Using the coleslaw mix means my filling has a few carrots too.
I also added sliced mushrooms and celery to the egg roll filling for added flavor. Once the coleslaw mixture and veggies had cooked for 5 minutes the filling was ready and it was time to start rolling.
Rolling the Homemade Egg Rolls
Rolling the filling tightly in the egg roll wrappers takes a little practice. The important thing to remember is that it doesn’t really matter if your egg rolls are perfect. Is anyone going to refuse to eat one of your egg rolls because it is a little wider on one side than the other? Of course not!
To roll the egg rolls place a wrapper on a cutting board along with a bowl of water. The water is used to seal the edges of the egg roll wrapper together.
Then put about 1/3 cup of egg roll filling in the top corner of the wrapper. Fold the top over the filling and roll it up tightly towards the bottom corner, folding the edges in as you go.
Use your fingers to add a little water around the bottom so the egg roll stays sealed during cooking. Then put the egg roll aside and make a few more.
The key to rolling the egg rolls is not to use too much filling – it is not supposed to be stuffed like a burrito! Rolling the egg rolls is kind of fun and becomes easier as you do it.
How to Air Fry Egg Rolls
When cooking the egg rolls in an air fryer it is critical not to put too many in the air fryer basket at one time.
An air fryer works by circulating hot air, so you need to leave room between the egg rolls or the air can’t circulate. My Omorc Air fryer basket can fit 6 in a time, but yours might vary.
The egg rolls will brown more nicely if you add a little oil to the wrappers before cooking. I usually just spray them with cooking spray.
However if you prefer to cook them without any oil they will still taste good, they just won’t be as brown.
I set my fryer at 400 F and cook the egg rolls for 6-8 minutes, turning them once with tongs about halfway through the cooking time. If you don’t think they look crispy enough after 8 minutes add another minute or two of cooking time on.
Find More Air Fryer Recipes!
What to Serve With Air Fryer Egg Rolls
I like to serve my air fryer egg rolls with a variety of dipping sauces. I usually put out dipping bowls of soy sauce, sweet chili sauce and peanut sauce on the table. Then there is something for everyone!
Can I Make Egg Rolls Ahead of Time?
This is an easy recipe to make ahead of time because they keep well. So you can do the more time consuming part of making the filling and rolling the egg rolls hours before you cook them.
Put the filled egg rolls on a plate covered in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours and then just put them in the air fryer when you are ready to serve.
By using the high heat of an air fryer to cook egg rolls you can make this tasty side dish without a lot of grease and mess. The high heat of the air fryer crisps up the egg rolls for a crispy outside shell, which contrasts perfectly with the pork and cabbage filling.
Find More Air Fryer Recipes
Air Fryer Egg Roll
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound ground pork
- 1/2 onion
- 1/2 bag coleslaw mix
- 4 ounces mushrooms
- 1 stalk celery
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 12 egg roll wrappers
Instructions
- Heat a skillet over medium heat.
- Add the ground pork and onion and cook until pork is no longer pink.
- Add the mushrooms, celery, coleslaw mixture and salt to the skillet. Cook for 5 minutes to soften the vegetables.
- Put the wrapper on a cutting board. Add 1/3 cup of filling mixture to the top corner of the egg roll wrapper. Fold the top down over the filling. Then roll the wrapper up, tucking the sides in as you go. When you get to the bottom use your fingers to moisten the edges of the wrapper and seal it in place.
- Continue to roll the egg rolls until the filling is gone.
- Spray the egg rolls lightly with cooking spray if desired. This will ensure even browning of the egg rolls.
- Cook the egg rolls at 400F for 6-8 minutes, flipping once with tongs half way through.
Video
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Nutrition Information
Nutrition facts are estimates.
CaN you bake the egg rolls in the oven if you don’t eat fried foods? I love egg rolls and we don’t fry our foods, because my diet doesn’t allow it. Let me know as soon as you have time. Have a great day.
An air fryer is amazing because it’s not frying the food in oil it’s frying it with heat/ hot air. It is way healthier than actual deep fryer.
Do you mean a regular oven and not an air fryer? You COULD, of course. However, the unique ability of an air fryer to mimic deep frying, without the oil, is what will give the best results. Hope this helps.
I often bake my egg rolls in the oven. I make mine similar to this recipe, but only use 1/4 cup filling. It seems I baked them for longer time. I believe 12 minutes at 400° F. If I use the convection feature, I can cut the temperature to 375° F and set the time to 10 minutes. I would suggest turning them at the halfway point, and experiment with the time.
Of course, just keep an eye on them so they don’t burn!!
OMG….I used this recipe for my 2nd attempt at making egg rolls in the air fryer. The last recipe was really good but oh my word, these were delicious! Thank you very much!!
Can these be frozen before you cook them?
Take frozen egg rolls from store, thaw a little in microwave, spray with oil both side cook 400 till
Crispy. Great taste, less work
I would like to make these ahead of time, like the night before. I saw that it says the egg rolls can be refrigerated for 8-12 hours. Is 12 hours the max time.
If you want to make it real easy, use a bag of broccoli slaw,instead of chopping cabbage and holds up better than cold slaw.
Absoluely delicious recipe. Better than take-out. What is the name of the instrumental that is playing in the background of the video? Thanks for sharing recipe AND music.
I found the mixture bland before adding to the egg roll wrap so I added a few dashes of garlic powder, pepper, red pepper flakes and a little drizzle of sesame oil. Very good filing now.
Oh, almost forgot, a little soy sauce as well.
We make egg rolls every New Years Eve….but we put a lot of stuff in them….very, very finely chopped cabbage, onions, water chestnuts, bean sprouts, mushrooms, ground pork, egg, soy sauce, corn starch, fresh ginger, salt. Then we make pineapple dipping sauce with crushed pineapple, mustard, honey, sugar cornstarch. We have also made them with ground chuck but lately just ground pork. They are so good.
Can these be made ahead and frozen? I’m sure they can be but I’d love to know if anyone has done that yet.
Your recipe was wonderful. I substituted small bay shrimp in place of the pork. Yum, thanks
The spring rolls that you refer to are actually “summer rolls”. Spring rolls are pretty much the same as egg rolls, while summer rolls have the translucent wrapper.
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I made a few changes–didn’t include the mushrooms (don’t care for them) or celery (didn’t want to bother!); added a dash each of soy sauce and mirin–not enough, I think. This was sort of a good starting recipe for me–full of things I liked without having a big flavor punch. But it was a very good way to feel confident that I can make these with some different fillings and flavors. I want to try them with shrimp and more traditional/Asian spices.
Hi, can you tell me what the “bag of coleslaw” mix consists of please? I make coleslaw with mayonnaise by chopping all the ingredients or buy a tub of ready made coleslaw but have never seen a “bag of coleslaw”. Is this something specific to USA as I live in UK?
Su
“bag of coleslaw” is probably a specific US thing- it’s simply a bag of shredded cabbage and carrots, WITHOUT the dressing. It’s just the veggie part. If you can’t find a bag of premixed coleslaw veggies, shredding your own cabbage and carrots would work just as well.
This was the perfect base recipe that I was looking for. I made these meatless and added some sesame oil for flavor. My first air fryer egg rolls and my first Air Fryer use. Great instructions, they turned out perfectly, crunchy crust, great flavor. Thank you. I used a mandolin to slice my cabbage thinly and used a julenne peeler for the carrots. Will check out your other recipes because you’ve obviously got it figured out. Thank You!!
Many restaurants are selling Chinese food and they use Chinese Takeout Boxes for quick home deliveries. These sturdy boxes will prevent oil leakage and maintain a constant temperature for keeping the food warm.
Hi Am so glad I found this leave a comment ,,Frist I love your receipts for Air Fryers I just got one and the egg roll was the first I tried they had a great taste and I good them as directed but they came out hard beautiful and hard…lol, The brand I use was Twin Marquis,Please tell me where I went wrong I also sprayed them with Pam before putting them in the air fryer, Thank You for your help. I will be following you,
Looks delicious! I would add some of Bubbies Kosher Dill Pickles in there to add some extra crunch 🙂 https://bubbies.com
Make crispy homemade egg rolls in an air fryer! It is easy to make air fryer egg rolls at home without the mess and hassle of deep frying. These takeout favorites are crispy on the outside and filled tasty pork and cabbage.
Sounds delicious. I think this would really go with some traditional Louisiana-style Jambalaya sauce like this one https://dedescajuncuisine.com/product/jambalaya/
Hi, Looks delicious! I’m going to add a few spices for a Cajun twist using https://dedescajuncuisine.com/product/jambalaya/
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I read a couple of posts that asked if these could be frozen, but never saw a reply. If you freeze these, do you freeze before or after they are cooked? I would like to make these but I am the only one who would eat them.
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In the main recipe section you say 6-8 minutes to cook, turn over halfway through. But on recipe card it says 16 minutes to cook.
In any case love the awesome recipes. I bought a couple of recipe books but mostly no pics.I love that you include pics. Always appetizing!
My oven has a air fryer selection. Will that work for this recipe.