Air Fryer Egg Rolls

January 19, 2025

Air Fryer Egg Rolls

These are the American-Chinese takeout egg roll made at home and cooked in an air fryer instead of a deep fryer. The wrapper is the thick, wheat-and-egg kind that bubbles up crisp when it cooks — not the thin, delicate wrapper used for spring rolls, which is a different product entirely and doesn’t behave the same way. The dish itself is a US restaurant invention rather than something from China, built on the same idea as a spring roll but scaled up and Americanized.

The filling is ground pork or chicken, browned and mixed with shredded cabbage and carrot, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil. Everything gets cooked through and cooked dry before it goes anywhere near a wrapper — any leftover liquid in the pan turns the wrapper soggy and makes the rolls fall apart, so the filling is fully cooled before wrapping too.

An air fryer won’t fully replicate deep frying, but a real spritz of oil over every surface of the rolled wrapper is what gets you close: a golden, blistered, genuinely crisp shell with a fraction of the oil. Skimping on the spray is the most common reason air-fried versions come out dry and pale instead of crisp.

Serve them hot, cut in half if you like, with a dipping sauce on the side — sweet chili sauce is the most common choice, but sweet-and-sour, hoisin, duck sauce, or plain soy sauce all work.

Ingredients

Makes 12 egg rolls

The filling

450 g ground pork (or ground chicken)
1 tbsp neutral oil (canola or grapeseed), for the pan
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 g fresh ginger, minced
225 g coleslaw mix (shredded green cabbage and carrot)
35 g green onions, thinly sliced
30 ml soy sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp hoisin sauce (or 1 tsp honey), optional

To assemble

12 egg roll wrappers, 17 cm square, thawed
1 egg, beaten (or a small bowl of water), for sealing
Nonstick or olive-oil spray, for the basket and misting the tops

Directions

The filling

Heat the oil in a wok or large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the ground pork and break it up into small pieces as it cooks, until no pink remains. Season with the black pepper.

Add the garlic and ginger and stir for about 30 seconds, until fragrant.

Add the coleslaw mix and stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes, until the cabbage has wilted down. Keep stirring and cooking until the pan looks dry — any standing liquid needs to cook off here.

Stir in the soy sauce, sesame oil, and green onions, along with the hoisin sauce or honey if using. Cook for another 1 to 2 minutes, until no liquid remains in the pan. Take it off the heat, taste, adjust the seasoning, and let the filling cool completely before you wrap anything — warm filling steams the wrapper and makes it tear.

To assemble

Lay a wrapper on the counter as a diamond, with one point facing you, keeping the rest of the wrappers covered with a damp towel so they don’t dry out and crack. Mound 2 to 3 tablespoons of filling in a line across the lower third of the wrapper. Fold the bottom point up and over the filling, fold the left and right points in toward the center, then roll the whole thing away from you into a tight cylinder. Brush the top point with the beaten egg (or water) and press it down to seal.

Preheat the air fryer to 390°F (200°C) and coat the basket with spray. Arrange the rolls seam-side down in a single layer with space between them, then mist the tops with spray. Air fry for about 11 to 12 minutes total, flipping halfway through, until the rolls are golden and crisp all over. Cook in batches rather than crowding the basket, and hold finished rolls in a 200°F (95°C) oven while the rest cook.

Notes

To freeze homemade rolls uncooked, roll and seal them as usual, freeze in a single layer on a tray until solid, then bag them up. Air fry straight from frozen at 400°F (204°C), adding 1 to 2 minutes to each side.

Store-bought frozen egg rolls go straight into the air fryer with no thawing: 360–380°F (180–190°C) for 7 to 10 minutes, flipping or shaking the basket halfway, with an optional light spray for extra crispness.

To reheat cooked rolls, use the air fryer at 350°F (177°C) for 1 to 2 minutes, or an oven at the same temperature for about 7 minutes. Skip the microwave — it turns the wrapper soft and chewy instead of crisp.

Wrapped, uncooked rolls don’t hold well in the fridge for more than a day, since the filling gradually wets the wrapper from the inside. Cooked rolls keep for 2 to 5 days refrigerated, or up to 3 months frozen.