My mom is a great cook and a very generous person. Her keen sense of taste and relentless persistence allows her to fine-tune recipes until they’re worthy of sharing. It was mom and grandma’s cooking that made their home the gathering point for lunch and dinner multiple times a week.
Additionally, she readily and happily contributes large quantities of home-cooked food for family gatherings. One of the common requests are for chả giò (egg rolls)–the same recipe I’m going to share with you below.
These Vietnamese egg rolls are made with pork, and nicely balanced out with veggies, mung bean thread, and mushrooms. And when you use the right wrappers they come out golden brown, and irresistibly crispy. The typical way to eat these is wrapped with green leaf lettuce, herbs and dipped into fish dipping sauce of course!
Egg roll history in Vietnam
Whether you call them spring rolls, egg rolls, chả giò or nem rán (the Northern Vietnamese term), these are delicious. These deep-fried goodies are traditionally made with rice paper sheets (bánh tráng), but are very commonly made with wheat-based wrappers. It’s likely because the wheat varieties are easier to work with.
The rice paper version doesn’t brown as well, and takes an extra step of soaking before use. Even more importantly, they also do not stay crunchy as long as the wheat version. So, tossing tradition out the window, we’re going with wheat wrappers.
Which egg roll wrapper brands to use
Menlo brand wrappers to be exact. I tried Spring House wrappers and got so-so results. They were fairly crispy, but not really brown when fried. These Menlo wrappers, on the other hand, are MAGICAL. My mom suggested these after my first, soggier, attempt.
I had some flashbacks when spotting these in the store. These were the same ones my parents restaurant used about 20 years ago! Let the package defrost a bit before separating the wrappers so you don’t tear them up.
Start by soaking your mung bean threads in warm tap water and your dried mushrooms in hot water. You can pop the tap water into the microwave to get it hotter. This will speed the absorption for the mushrooms. Soak for about 20-30 minutes or until soft and ready to cut.
Meanwhile, prep jícama and onion. We want both fairly small–you can use a shredder if you want. My mom was very proud to share a pro tip for crispy egg rolls that even her cook buddies didn’t know: we want to remove excess moisture from these water-heavy ingredients so the wrapper has a chance to get crunchy. Just squeeze the onion in your hands after its finely chopped. A LOT of water will come out. Add salt to the jícama and microwave it until it gets slightly soft (maybe 15-25 seconds), then squeeze to remove moisture too. You don’t need to rinse the salt out.
When our ingredients are done soaking, finely chop the mushrooms and cut bean threads into about 1-1.5″ pieces. Grab a large mixing bowl and add all the ingredients except the pork and jícama then mix well. This helps us get a more even distribution of the ingredients into the meat.
Then add the meat and mix until evenly distributed. Jícama is added last because it’s the most fragile and doesn’t need to be broken down any further.
Divide filling for uniform rolls
This recipe makes 25 rolls of the size pictured above. Take your pork mixture and split it into 5 even sections (use a scale for better accuracy). Then split each of those into 5 more even sections.
This will help make the egg rolls more uniform and ensure you don’t run out of wrappers or filling. Once you get the hang of the recipe you can just use a certain size spoon and eyeball the portion for each wrap.
How to wrap egg rolls (step by step)
1. Take a wrapper and place it so one corner points to you (so you’re looking at a diamond shape). Fold the bottom corner up 2/3 of the way towards the top
2. place the egg roll mixture across the bottom leaving a 1/4″ gap between the meat and the bottom edge of the wrapper. The filling should not go over the edges where we have folded up the triangle shape. This ensures a double wall of wrapper so the filling does not leak out into the fry oil and burn.
3. Fold the left corner over about 2/3 of the way, repeat on the right.
4. Roll up and keep it tight as you roll your first layer, closing off the filling. This first revolution determines how tight the roll will be.
5. As you reach the top, put a dab of your flour & water mixture at the top corner of the wrapper and finish rolling. This will seal the roll.
Frying
Use a neutral oil like vegetable or canola. Drop them into the hot oil at 325°F until golden brown and delicious. It will usually take around 12-16 minutes per batch.
Par-frying for freezer storage
To do this, fry at 325°F for about 7 minutes or until just slightly browned. Then, store in the freezer in airtight containers or bags. To finish them, defrost in the fridge overnight and fry at 325°F until golden brown. The color on the wrapper may not get as golden brown with this method.
How to serve these egg rolls
Serve with a side of pickles (đồ chua) in fish sauce (nước chấm). These can be eaten by themselves, or wrapped in lettuce and some herbs too. Yum!
What’s the difference between an egg roll and a spring roll?
The difference between an egg roll and a spring roll is that egg rolls are often made with thicker wrappers and deep-fried, whereas spring rolls are made with thin rice paper wrappers that are not fried. See more on my post exploring egg rolls vs. spring rolls.
How do you make egg rolls stay crispy?
I like to use Menlo brand wrappers to get the crispiest egg rolls while deep frying. To keep these as crispy as possible after frying, place them on a paper towel to cool over a drying rack and don’t stack them–this could make them sog up from excess oil.
Vietnamese Egg Rolls Recipe (Chả Giò)
Ingredients
- 1 package Menlo brand egg roll wrappers
Filling
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 medium jícama (about 1/2 cup)
- 2/3 cup onion chopped
- 1/2 cup bean thread noodle cut into 1″-1.5″ threads
- 1/8 cup wood ear mushrooms chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp sugar
Wrapping Sealer
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp flour
Accompanying sides
- dipping fish sauce (nước chấm)
- green leaf lettuce
- Vietnamese perilla (kinh gioi)
- Vietnamese balm (tia to)
- mint
Instructions
- Soak bean threads in hot tap water and mushrooms in 40-second microwaved hot tap water until soft. About 30 minutes.
- Shred or finely chop onion and squeeze excess moisture out by hand. Add 1/2 tsp salt to jícama, microwave until slightly soft and squeeze excess moisture out by hand.
- When soft, roughly chop bean thread noodles and mushrooms.
- Add bean thread, mushrooms, onion, salt, pepper, and sugar into a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Add pork and mix well. Add jícama last and mix well.
- Cook and taste the filling: put 1/2 tsp of the mixture on a small plate and microwave it for a few seconds until its fully cooked. Taste it and adjust with salt, pepper, or any other adjustments to your liking. Keep in mind these rolls are meant to be dipped in fish dipping sauce.
- Mix together water and flour for egg roll sealer, and microwave until just boiling. Wrap the egg rolls (see photos above for technique).
- Fry at 325 °F until golden brown and fully cooked inside. About 12-16 minutes per batch.
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I was always intimidated by my mom’s egg roll-making endeavors. With your instructions it doesn’t seem so bad. Maybe I’ll attempt them this weekend!
Hey Nhi thanks for stopping by. It really isn’t hard–just takes a trip to the market and a bit of patience. Good luck!
thank you so much for posting this. your egg rolls are the most gorgeous egg rolls i have ever seen. my mom always cut the wrapper in half diagonally (to get the most bang for her buck), and i wondered why we had egg rolls that split when they were fried. can’t wait to try it out with your double wall method! 🙂 thanks again!
Bang for the buck, I hear ya! I remember doing those kinds too. They also work, but it takes more effort to not break em.
please check this out soon. it is awesome!!! THANK YOU:)
I am going to try the wheat-based wrapper. I tried rice paper and they got soggy, didn’t brown, and tore apart. Do you always use ground pork?
Hi Judy, even with the wheat-based wrappers experiment with a few brands if you can–it can change everything. Or just go for the Menlo ones. Good luck! 🙂
You can substitute ground turkey. You almost can’t tell the difference. My mom learned to make them from a Vietnamese woman when she lived on Wake Island in the late ‘ 70’s . Huy, do you make hot sauce to go with them?
Thank you so much for sharing all of these amazing recipes! If there is nothing more than I love about food, it is authentic traditional homestyle Vietnamese dishes. I cannot wait to start cooking up some of my own dishes, beautiful blog!
Hey Jordyn thanks for the kind words! Traditional foods are their own kinda fun right? Yesss..cooking up your own dishes–highly encouraged 🙂
Well done Huy, both blogging and the recipe!
Thank you Isagani!
Thank you for sharing your mother’s egg rolls recipes. I am a foodie myself and always appreciate grandma’s or mom’s cooking, who doesn’t right? I am on a mission to explore and test out different egg rolls recipes to come up with the best one, kinda like the Vietnamese test kitchen…My twist on my recipe is to use 1/2 lb. ground pork and 1/2 lb. ground chicken, this is to “soften” the meat texture and add more flavor to the meat when using this combo.This combo is also good for those cooks want to reduce the amount of pork but don’t want to loose the flavor. Try this out and let me know what you think and until then have a good eat everyone and I am off to my next finding…
what is the difference between Chả Giò and Nemes ? sorry if I messed up spelling.
Hi Lee, chả giò means minced pork sausage but refers to the fried egg rolls you see in this recipe.
Nem is pork sausage and nem rán is fried pork sausage, but is the Northern Vietnamese term for egg rolls. Hope that answers your question! 🙂
Hey,
I was wondering that you didn’t use a shrimp paste at all? Would you happen to know how to make/prepare that?
Hey Dan! I just don’t like shrimp in my egg rolls. I haven’t done it, but I assume you can just pulse it in a blender if you want a paste. Although just chopping it roughly “shows off” the shrimp better.
Can you use a deep fryer?
Absolutely!
How do you use the rice sheets? They just break apart when you try to roll them. Is there a way to make them more flexible?? Also how much oil do I use if I want to pan fry them? Thanks!
For the rice sheets, you have to soak them in warm water for a few seconds so they’re flexible. I actually haven’t pan fried these, but you would just need a few tablespoons of oil if you don’t want to deep fry.
Hi Huy.
The egg rolls are fried to perfection in my book. Can you share your tips for frying (ie low heat, medium heat etc). When i fried my egg rolls, they first batch came out decent .. batches after that has speckles on them and it get worse and worse after each batch … and i hate do drain hot oil after each batch of rolls. I fried in low heat (afraid medium or high heat) will burn the wrapper while the pork is uncooked. Thanks
Hey Ngan, I fried mine at 325F using a thermometer to monitor the temperature (although you can do just fine without it). Black specks are usually from something contaminating the oil. If the rolls aren’t tight, or if they are leaking filling somewhere the oil will become contaminated with black specks.
Stumbled upon your website and just loving it. Definitely going to be the spot to visit for all my cooking needs. Love the pictures! Keep it up!
Thanks Holly, I appreciate it! 🙂
Hey Huy! Thanks for this website! Fortunately I live not far from a great market called Little Saigon. I love Vietnamese food (and you folks are very friendly and are all too happy to propagate your culture). I’m adding your site to my bookmarks menu (you’re that important).
Awesome Ghetto Cat, glad you like the site 🙂
I always have hard times finding the RIGHT wrappers. Loved your Step 3 folding one corner and put meat on top. Small trick makes a big difference.
Thanks, glad you liked the instructions 🙂
Hi Huy,
What a delightful blog!!! I found your blog and recipe when googling how to make cha gio. The recipe is well-written, concise and precise. You include tips and beautiful illustrations. It is likely the best recipe page I have found in the past week. I am going to the store right away to buy the ingredients. My husband and I are celebrating our friend’s birthday this Saturday. I want cha gio to be one of our starters. I intend to practice making cha gio till I get it right. Would you please answer a few questions to help me: Can I use freshly shredded carrot instead of jimaca? What about freshly shredded cabbage or taro root? Did you try ground beef or ground turkey meat instead of ground pork? I will try to stick to your recipe as closely as possible. But jimaca may not be sold at my grocery store. Thank you for your recipe and for reading.
1/5/17
Hello Huy!
I followed this recipe precisely and the egg rolls were amazing! I used the Menlo wrappers as indicating…crispiest rolls ever! I actually used these egg rolls (cut the roll in to 4 smaller bite size pieces) to put in our noodle dish with herbs and fish sauce! So delicious. Thanks so much for your recipes!
Always wondered what an egg roll was…. We call them spring rolls in Australia
Absolutely LOVING and enjoying your recipes… So authentic! Thank you so very much for sharing them!
I just made egg rolls for the first time using your recipe and it was a hit with the family. Thank you so much!
Is jícama common in your family’s recipes? My mom uses carrots rather than the jicama. She doesn’t know what jicama is.
Hi! This recipe looks delicious! Any idea if you can make these in an air fryer? Appreciate the help! 🙂
Hey Sydney! Air fryers don’t really replace deep frying. If you deep fry first, then “air fry” to reheat you can drain some of the oil from the initial cooking.
Huy, this recipe was perfect. Perfect crunch, flavor… my family was in egg roll paradise!
Thanks for sharing it.
Does anyone know if this brand of wrappers is gluten free??
Samantha, Menlo wrappers are made of wheat thus it has gluten and it is NOT gluten free. If anything has wheat then it has gluten. Even some of the other brands that are rice based, if you read the ingredients and it has wheat, then it has NOT gluten free.
First holiday that my mom is out of town, so I thought we wouldn’t have her delicious chả giò for the family dinner until I found this recipe! So easy and delicious! My mom would be proud 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
That would be a serious emergency, I feel ya there haha. Glad it worked out for you–what wrappers did you try?
I live in Minnesota. I was wondering where i could buy Menlo wrappers locally? Hope you can help me out. Thanks.
Hey Dan, I have only seen them in Asian markets if you can search for any near you. I haven’t had luck with this brand in any American markets.
These are SO GOOD. I grew up in Hong Kong and first went to Vietnam in 1996 on a high school trip. I’ve been back three times since and always love it. My oldest daughter is now in high school. Recently she and a friend were lamenting the fact that the things they were learning in their high school culinary class were pretty lame. So I asked them what they wanted to learn how to make and told them I’d teach them whatever they wanted. They chose spring rolls. Cha Gio was my first thought and I’m so glad I came across your website! We made these last week and they couldn’t have turned out better. You know they’re good when your 14 year old says, “I thought they would be good but I didn’t think they’d be THAT good!” We served them with nuoc mam. She’s asking to make them again. I don’t fry foods very often but these will become a special treat in our house from time to time. Thanks for a great recipe!
Ah, appeasing the young eaters is always such a win. I’m glad you liked them Sarah, thank you! I know what ya mean about that love/hate relationship with fried foods–these somehow slip into the guilty-but-ok-lets-eat-em-anyway category.
It is an awesome recipe. I like oily food. Can I add here a little bit more oil in this recipe?
Thank you for sharing your recipe. This is the best egg rolls recipe. I like the tip that you gave about squeezing out water from the jicama. My egg rolls are very crunchy. Also i like that you add sugar to the recipe also. I saw some other people’s recipe does not have sugar only salt and fish sauce. That just seems too salty. It’s good to add some sugar to balance out the taste. You are an excellent cook. Thanks again for your great recipes 👍
Thank you so much Tracie, glad you like the recipe! I learn from the best (Mom) 🙂
I was so nervous to make these but they were freakin delicious and not super difficult to make!! Thank you so much!
I have been in love with Vietnamese spring rolls for more than 30 years. Your recipe is the first one I have ever tried, and I could not believe how easy they were to make with your clear instructions and how delicious they were. I am wondering what kind of salt you used. I used Diamond kosher salt, and 1 tsp was not enough (but Diamond kosher salt is less salty than other kosher salts or table salt). Thanks for sharing your mom’s recipe and technique!
Thanks for sharing Chris! This recipe was developed with regular table salt. You could up it a bit if using Diamond, or you can adjust while eating with the dipping sauce too.
Hi Huy, I just printed your Vietnamese Egg Roll recipe as I want to make it. We have Vietnamese neighbors that shared their recipe with me. I tried to duplicate it, but my version tasted plain. So, i thought i would try your recipe next. Is there a secret ingredient that gives these rolls a unique flavor. Or maybe a special brand or type of pork. I can’t figure out why mine taste so plain.
The version I’m making have shredded carrots in it instead of the mushrooms.
I even thought maybe the oil might be special, but i see you use the same oil as I.
I will be making this recipe and posting my results as well as i’m mkaing the Chicken soup recipe of yours with the clear noodles. Many thanks in advance. Paula
Hey Paula! Let me try to help. Whether we deviate from the recipe with carrots or not, we should taste as often as we can, before the point of no return. For this recipe, after you have all the filling ingredients mixed and ready to wrap, take about 1 tsp of the raw meat mixture and microwave a bit of it and give it a taste. If you think it needs any more salt, pepper, or any other adjustments now would be the time to do it. These egg rolls are meant to be eaten with the dipping fish sauce that I link to in the recipe card–these are rarely eaten alone I would say. Hope that helps!
That’s kind of a bastardized version of the authentic Vietnamese Cha gio. It’s more like Chinese stuff. It’s edible but it’s way off the mark. You need to try the version that is wrapped with rice paper. Anything else is FAKE stuff.
Hey Deane, these are valid points regarding it being “traditional.” This recipe is simply what I grew up eating alongside all the other homecooked Vietnamese foods, and I love it.
Now why would anyone need to be condescending here?
It was clearly stated that this is a recipe the blogger grew up on.
Honest disclaimer by blogger, to say its a good recipe, and nothing by blogger stated it was authentic Vietnamese, only that it was a favorite family recipe.
Kind words go along way—
Lol are you really trying to gatekeep how to eat Vietnamese food to a Vietnamese person? I could see maybe offering an opinion if this was an appropriated version of a recipe that was way off, but I’m also Vietnamese and grew up eating cha gio like this, as well as the rice paper version. No need for your vitriol here, DOC.
Also Huy, I’ve made many of your recipes and they’ve all turned out great – remind me of home! Thankful for your blog, keep it up!
These turned out delicious! I couldn’t find wood ear mushrooms so substituted with enoki. Fried at 325 for 14 minutes and they were perfect! Thank you so much for the recipe!
Ooh good to know about the enoki, I love those too. Thanks Cheryl!
Another AMAZING recipe Huy, thank you!! I made the exactly as the recipe called for although I used fresh wood ear mushrooms and I think yours were dried? I found the menlo wrappers at 99 Ranch and they were perfectly crispy. I made your nuoc Cham and rolled in the lettuce with carrots and mint. Heaven!! I took a pic but my ig account is private so I don’t think I can tag you. Thank you for showing me how to make my favorite foods!
Yess double recipe wins thank you for sharing Lydia!
These are amazing! I made them vegan using impossible meat and liquid aminos. So So yummy! Love your recipe interpretations!
Thank you for a lovely recipe and directions.
not sure how this got 5 stars. not anything like restaurant quality