An Eggroll Stirfry takes all the same ingredients that make up an egg roll and stir-fries them for a complete dinner just by itself or with a side of steamed rice for an eggroll stir-fry rice bowl or tossed with noodles for an eggroll noodle dish or eggroll lo mein. You can switch up the meat too between thinly sliced chicken breast, pork, or beef or use the ground meat versions. Plum sauce, or the sweet chilli sauce for spring rolls, is an excellent sauce to have on the side. It brings together the white steamed rice and eggroll stirfry. Optionally the plum sauce can be added right into the wok to give the eggroll stirfry a saucy, sweet heat.
Eggroll Stirfry Ingredients
Protein (ground or thinly sliced chicken, pork, or beef), Cabbage, Sea Salt, Carrots, Green Onions, Garlic, Ginger, Bean Sprouts (optional), Eggroll Meat Marinade (soy sauce, sake, black pepper, and MSG), and Velveting (cornstarch, water (or shaoxing or sake), sesame oil, sea salt, and baking soda).
2 lbs worth of the bagged coleslaw mix can also be used instead of cabbage & carrots.
Salted Cabbage
Salting the cabbage removes any bitterness and breaks down the exterior while extracting excess water out of the cabbage. It softens the cabbage before it even hits the heat.
Use a mandoline or food processor fitted with a slicing blade and run the cabbage through until you have 2 lbs worth. Optionally slice by hand. You can also use 1 lb of cabbage & 1 lb of napa cabbage.
Once all sliced up, place the cabbage into a bowl and add the 1 Tbl of sea salt. Mix it in really well, crushing and squeezing the salt into the cabbage, and let it sit. When ready to cook, squeeze out all the excess water really well and set aside to await the wok.
Even if you use the pre-cut slaw mix bags you can buy at the stores instead of straight cabbage. Salt the slaw mix to soften it and squeeze the juices out before stir-frying.
Eggroll Stir-fry Vegetables
Put together your mise en place for eggroll stirfry washing and preparing all the vegetables.
- Carrots: The carrots are prepared the same way as they are for eggrolls. Just peel and shred. Optionally, you can julienne them and boil until softened before you start stir-frying them.
- Garlic & Ginger: Garlic and ginger are your aromatics, and these can be minced like you would for eggrolls or julienne like you would for ginger beef or ginger pork.
- Green Onions: Chop the tops off of the green onions and keep the white and light green section separate from the top dark greens. Julienne or slice all the green onions, but only add the top green parts at the very end at the same time you add bean sprouts if using. The white parts can be combined with the garlic and ginger.
- Bean Sprouts: These can be omitted or the desired amount included. Wash and strain the bean sprouts well and toss them in to stir-fry the last few minutes, or at the same time you add the water to soften the vegetables. The top green parts are also added at the same time as the bean sprouts or when you add the water to soften the cabbage.
Velveting Meats
The technique of velveting meats is to tenderize the meat, giving it a silky smooth exterior, and there are a lot of ways of doing it. The below are the velveting ingredients used for this recipe using 1 lb of meat. After the meat has been mixed in, let it rest for about 15 minutes for thinly sliced chicken or any ground meat, and a bit longer for thinly sliced pork or beef, about 30 minutes or longer.
- 1 Tbl Cornstarch & Water (or either Shaoxing Wine or Sake): to provide a protective coating and add moisture or moisture and flavor with either cooking wines
- 2 tsp Oil (Sesame or Neutral Oil): to prevent the meat from sticking or clumping
- 3/4 tsp Sea Salt: to season the meat
- 1/4 tsp Baking Soda: to break down the protein and create that velvety texture
After the meat has been velveted, cook the thinly sliced meat by either simmering in boiling water for 30 seconds or so or flash frying in oil heated to 300°F for about 30 seconds. Strain and then add the marinade ingredients to the meat and set aside until ready for the wok.
For ground meat, no precooking of the meat is needed. Instead, the velveting ingredients above and the marinade ingredients are added to the ground meat to mix through. This is then cooked in the wok until browned through before adding in the cabbage.
Eggroll Meat Marinade
The marinade is made up of all the ingredients that are typically added to the filling to flavor the eggrolls. In this recipe, we are not making a filling but a stir-fry. We take all those same ingredients and use them as an eggroll meat marinade. It does not matter the cut of meat or if it is thinly sliced or ground meat; all of the meat gets marinated. The marinade is added to precooked thinly sliced velveted meat or to raw ground meat.
Chicken Eggroll Stir Fry
Chicken Eggroll Stirfry can be made with thinly sliced chicken breast or ground chicken.
- Ground Chicken: Combine the marinade ingredients with the ground chicken meat and mix well. This will go into the wok to cook through before adding the cabbage.
- Thinly Sliced Chicken Breast: Thinly slice the breast across the grain into thin strips and add the velveting ingredients. Leave it for about 15 minutes before you either simmer the meat in water or flash fry it in hot oil at 300°F for about 30 seconds. Then place into a bowl with the marinade ingredients until ready to cook.
Pork Eggroll Stir Fry
Pork Eggroll Stirfry can be made with thinly sliced pork or ground pork. This can include a 50/50 mix of ground beef and pork.
- Ground Pork: Combine the marinade ingredients with the ground pork meat and mix well. This will go into the wok to cook through before adding the cabbage.
- Thinly Sliced Pork: Thinly slice the pork across the grain into thin strips and add the velveting ingredients. Leave it for about 30 minutes before you either simmer the meat in water or flash fry it in hot oil at 300°F for about 30 seconds. Then place into a bowl with the marinade ingredients until ready to cook.
Beef Eggroll Stir Fry
Beef Eggroll Stirfry can be made with thinly sliced beef or ground beef. This can include a 50/50 mix of ground beef and pork.
- Ground Beef: Combine the marinade ingredients with the ground beef and mix well. This will go into the wok to cook through before adding the cabbage.
- Thinly Sliced Beef: Thinly slice the beef across the grain into thin strips and add the velveting ingredients. Leave it for about 30 minutes or longer before you either simmer the meat in water or flash fry it in hot oil at 300°F for about 30 seconds. Then place into a bowl with the marinade ingredients until ready to cook.
Vegetarian Eggroll Stir Fry
A vegetarian egg roll stir-fry will just use the marinade to add to the wok when adding the cabbage. There is no velveting. Mushrooms can also be seared in fat before adding the cabbage and marinade for a Mushroom Eggroll Stirfry. Add salt to taste if needed.
How to cook velveted meat
Typically, the velveted meat is either boiled in water briefly until the color changes, about 30 seconds or so, or flash fried in oil at about 300°F briefly, about 30 seconds or so, or until the color changes. Then scoop out the meat and marinate.
Parboiling Velveted Meats
Parboiling velveted meats (water velveting) is typically done with white meats or seafood. Such as chicken, pork, or seafood. Fill the wok about halfway with water and bring it to a boil over max heat. Add the meat to simmer until no longer pink. This should only take about 30 seconds or so or until the color has changed. Then scoop out with a spider and strain. Empty the water out from the wok.
For this recipe, the meat is then placed in a bowl with the marinade ingredients. This is really good for pork since pork meat tends to carry a lot of impurities. You will see this as scum rising to the surface when boiling pork. Scoop this off for a cleaner tasting pork or strain and rinse the meat before marinating.
Flash Frying Velveted Meats
Flash frying velveted meats (oil velveting) is typically done with red meats. Such as beef, lamb, or other red meats. Fill the wok about halfway with oil and heat over max heat until about 300°F. Add the meat to flash fry until no longer pink. This should only take about 30 seconds or so or until the color has changed. Then scoop out with a spider and strain. Empty the oil out from the wok into a pot fitted with a sieve. Then add the meat to the marinade.
With flash frying, set up a pot to hold the hot oil fitted with a sieve to strain the oil. When finished with the oil, empty it into the pot and return the wok to the burner that is now coated in oil to start stir-frying. Any additional oil can be taken from the strained hot oil emptied into the pot.
Straight to the Wok
For this recipe, you can also opt to skip the water or oil velveting and go straight to cooking the velveted and marinated meat in the wok with rendered fat or oil.
This, I believe, creates more flavor because the meat will create a fond on the bottom of the wok, which is picked up some, by the cabbage added, and fully picked up when adding water to soften the cabbage and scraping the bottom of the wok while stir-frying the cabbage. The below images show the velveting ingredients and the marinating ingredients mixed together with either beef or pork. This can be done with chicken or ground meats as well.
Eggroll Stirfry with Ground Meat
If using ground meat, then no parboiling or flash frying is done. Instead, the marinade ingredients are added to a bowl with the raw ground meat and mixed well. Optionally with the velveting ingredients to change the texture. This is then cooked in the wok until browned before adding in the cabbage.
Rendered Fat
You’ll get better flavor if you can trim the fat from a fatty pork chop or beef steak and render it out to cook the stir-fry in. For more information, see Rendered Fat.
In short, you slice away the edge of any fat and chop it into small pieces. Then cook it over medium to medium-low heat with heat until crispy and brown and the fat has rendered out. If you don’t quite have enough for 1/4 cup, then top it up with a neutral oil.
How to make Eggroll Stirfry
You can choose to water or oil velvet the meat prior to marinating it or velvet and marinade the meat all in one to go straight to the wok. Then prepare all the vegetables. With everything ready to go, the dish will cook up in no time.
Heat the wok up over max heat with fat and let it get hot. Add your marinated meat to cook until browned through.
Then add the garlic, ginger, and white parts of green onions to cook briefly, 30 seconds.
Add the cabbage and carrots and stir fry for 3 minutes. Toss it around frequently, scraping the bottom of the wok.
After 3 minutes, add 1/4 cup of water with bean sprouts if using and the green onion tops. Continue to stir fry with frequent mixing and scraping the bottom of the wok for an additional 3 minutes. At the very end, you can also add a splash of soy sauce for more flavor or some plum sauce for a sweet heat. That’s it, done and served.
If further softening is desired, then add another 1/4 cup of water and continue stir-frying for another 3 minutes. Some like a crispness to the cabbage, and others like it soft. Entirely preferential, adjust as you see fit.
Eggroll Stirfry with Rice
Start the steamed white rice, and just as it finishes or finishes and rests, start cooking the eggroll stirfry since this will only take about 10 minutes to cook with everything prepared and ready to go.
Plum Sauce
This brand of plum sauce, or sweet chili sauce, is excellent on the side for your white steamed rice and eggroll stir fry. In fact, you can even add a bit of the sauce to the eggroll stirfry just as it is coming off the heat to mix through for a sweet chilli eggroll stirfry dish.
Eggroll Stirfry with steamed white rice and plum sauce or sweet chili sauce is so good!
Sweet Chilli Eggroll Stirfry
Instead of serving the plum sauce (sweet chilli sauce) on the side, it’s used as the sauce to toss the eggroll stir-fry in at the very end. Add as much as desired and toss well before removing from heat.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Cabbage - shredded
- 1 lb Meat - can use ground meat or thinly sliced meat
- 1/2 Tbl Sea Salt - for salting the cabbage
- 3 Cloves Garlic - julienne or minced
- 2-3 Stalks Green Onions - or more, julienne
- 1 Inch Ginger - julienne or minced
- 1 Carrot - shredded
- 1 C Bean Sprouts - washed
- 1/4 C Water - for softening the cabbage. More if further softening is needed.
- 1/4 C Fat - preferably rendered fat of the same meat being used or a neutral oil
Velveting
- 1 Tbl Cornstarch & Water - Shaoxing or sake can also be used in place of water for more flavor
- 2 tsp Sesame Oil - or neutral oil
- 3/4 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
Meat Marinade
- 2 Tbl Soy Sauce & Sake - each
- 3/4 tsp Black Pepper - Use less black pepper if you're sensitive to heat
- 1/2 tsp MSG - Optional
Instructions
- Salted Cabbage: Shred the cabbage and place it into a bowl with 1 Tbl of sea salt. Toss well and crush the salt into the cabbage. Set aside while you prepare everything else.
- Velveting & Marinating: Combine the meat with the velveting and marinade ingredients and leave for 15 minutes. You can go a bit longer with either pork or beef. This is optional; you can opt to just velvet the meat and then either boil in water or flash fry in oil heated to 300°F until no longer pink. Then add the meat to the marinade ingredients while you prepare the vegetables.
- Vegetable Prep: Squeeze out all the juices from the cabbage and set it aside. Prepare all the vegetables, keeping them all separate except for the white parts of the green onions, ginger, and garlic. These can be combined as they are added to the wok at the same time.
- Stir Frying: Heat a wok up over max heat with fat and wait until it starts to smoke. Meat: Add the meat with marinade in and stir-fry until good color, about 30 seconds to a minute for precooked meats or until just cooked through for raw meats. Vegetables: Add in the garlic, ginger, and white parts of the green onions and continue to stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Add the cabbage and carrots and stir-fry for 3 minutes, tossing frequently and scraping the bottom of the wok. Water to soften: Then add 1/4 cup of water with bean sprouts and green onion tops and continue to stir-fry until the cabbage is tender to your liking, 3 more minutes. Keep it moving and scraping the bottom of the wok. If you like the cabbage a bit softer, add another 1/4 cup of water and stir fry another 3 minutes. Optionally add in more soy sauce if you think it needs it.
- Serving: Serve with plum sauce on the side, or the desired amount of plum sauce can be added to the stir-fry to mix in before removing from heat to serve.
Notes
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