Shrimp Egg Rolls

For so many folks, Egg Rolls are the best part of Chinese takeout! Now you can make them at home with less oil. You can even freeze them and cook them up later, or re-heat them nicely in the air fryer. Check the Asian aisle of your grocery store for the duck sauce, or pick your favorite dipping sauce.

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Homemade Egg Rolls

Everyone loves an egg roll in a Chinese restaurant, so why not make them at home? Don’t say because they are too hard to make, because these Shrimp Egg Rolls are easy and actually a lot of fun to put together. Don’t say because they are too guilty a pleasure to have at home, because this version is air-fried making them a whole lot less guilty!

First step in making shrimp egg rolls - putting the filling on an egg roll wrapper.

How to Roll an Egg Roll

Once you have made the filling and have the egg roll wrappers on hand (look for them in the refrigerated section of the deli department of your grocery store, or if your store has a refrigerated ethnic section, check there too), it’s just a matter of starting with the egg roll wrapper in the right position. That right position is diamond-shaped – put one of the corners of the egg roll wrapper facing you so that the wrapper looks like a diamond. Then, place a little row of filling across the egg roll, making sure to leave at least one inch on either side.

Brushing water on the edges of an egg roll wrapper with a finger.

Brush the outer edge of the wrapper with a little water. I just use my finger, but you could use a basting brush if you prefer. 

Rolling up an egg roll on a counter top, folding in the sides of the egg roll wrapper.

Make a tight first roll around the filling and then start folding in the sides of the egg roll wrapper. When both sides have been folded in, your egg roll should look like an open envelope.

Rolling up an egg roll on a black countertop.

Finally, continue to roll the wrapper up around the filling and make sure it seals to itself. Use a little extra dab of water if it needs some help.

Freezer-Friendly Egg Rolls

At this stage, with all your little egg rolls wrapped up and ready to go, you can postpone your pleasure and freeze them for a rainy day. Place all the egg rolls on a sheet pan in your freezer until they are frozen. Then, transfer them to an airtight freezer bag, squeezing out as much of the air as possible, and return them to the freezer. When it comes time to delight your tastebuds, you can pop these straight into your air fryer, spritzing or brushing with oil and air fry them to perfection, adding an extra 4 minutes because they are frozen. 

Shrimp Egg Rolls – Air Fryer, Stovetop or Oven

This recipe calls for air-frying your egg rolls because it’s honestly the easiest and fastest way to make them. If you don’t have an air-fryer, however, don’t worry. You can also bake these in the oven at 400ºF for about 12 minutes, turning them over halfway through. If you have a cooling rack, even better – place the cooling rack on a cookie sheet and the egg rolls on the cooling rack. Otherwise, just place them directly on the baking sheet. If you want to go with the traditional deep-frying route, heat about 2 inches of cooking oil in a deep pan on the stovetop until it reaches about 375ºF. Deep fry the egg rolls until they are golden brown all over and then drain on some clean kitchen towel. 

Egg Roll Variations

Once you have these shrimp egg rolls down, you can start mixing up your filling ingredients. There’s no end of variations that you can create. You can try these very non-traditional Reuben Egg Rolls for a start!

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Shrimp Egg Rolls

  • Prep Time: 35 m
  • Cook Time: 10 m
  • Total Time: 45 m
  • Servings:
    8

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • ½ head green or savoy cabbage finely shredded
  • 1 cup shredded carrots
  • 1 cup canned bean sprouts drained
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • ½ teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • ¼ cup hoisin sauce
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 pound cooked shrimp diced
  • ¼ cup scallions
  • 8 egg roll wrappers
  • vegetable oil
For Serving
  • Duck Sauce

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the oil and cook the cabbage, carrots and bean sprouts until they start to wilt – about 3 minutes. Add the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, hoisin sauce and black pepper. Sauté for a few more minutes. Stir in the shrimp and scallions and cook until the vegetables are just tender. Transfer the mixture to a colander in a bowl to cool. Press or squeeze out any excess water from the filling so that you don’t end up with soggy egg rolls.
  2. To make the egg rolls, place the egg roll wrappers on a flat surface with one of the points facing towards you so they look like diamonds. Dividing the filling evenly between the eight wrappers, spooning the mixture onto the center of the egg roll wrappers. Spread the filling across the center of the wrappers from the left corner to the right corner, but leave 2 inches from each corner empty. Brush the empty sides of the wrapper with a little water. Fold the bottom corner of the wrapper tightly up over the filling, trying to avoid making any air pockets. Fold the left corner in toward the center and then the right corner toward the center. It should now look like an envelope. Tightly roll the egg roll from the bottom to the top open corner. Press to seal the egg roll together, brushing with a little extra water if need be. Repeat this technique with all 8 egg rolls.
  3. Pre-heat the air fryer to 370ºF.
  4. Spray or brush all sides of the egg rolls with vegetable oil. Air-fry four egg rolls at a time for 10 minutes, turning them over halfway through the cooking time.
  5. Serve hot with duck sauce or your favorite dipping sauce.
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Comments (10)Post a Reply

    1. You can fry the egg rolls on the stovetop in some oil if you prefer. Alternately, you can brush the egg roll wrappers with oil and bake them in the oven (375ºF) until browned, rotating them halfway through.

  1. Hi Meredith, I have a question for you.

    After you prepare and air fry the shrimp egg rolls can you freeze them? If so how should you freeze them and how would you prepare them when you take them out of the freezer? Thanks

    1. Hi Paulette. I prefer to freeze them before air-frying and then air-fry them from frozen as described in the article above. If you want to air fryer them FIRST and then freeze, let them cool first and freeze them on a sheet pan. When they are frozen, put them into a zipper sealable plastic bag. Then, when you’re craving an egg roll, pop it into the air fryer and air-fry at 380 – 400ºF for about 5 to 8 minutes. You might like to spritz them with a little oil to ensure they are crispy.

    1. Hi Deb. You can click on the nutrition info tab next to the recipe title to see all the nutritional stuff, including carbs. The nutritionals are always per serving. This recipe is per egg roll and the carbs are 18g.

  2. 5 stars
    First I made these with shrimp per the recipe but with bagged bean sprouts and the broccoli slaw mix that has cabbage – they were so delicious my Dad even loved them (not a big fan typically of oriental spices/cooking).
    Then I made them with chicken sausages and again they were awesome.
    Definitely a keeper recipe!
    Note: I found 370 for 10 min not quite long enough to brown but 12 was perfect (6+6).

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