Vietnamese Egg Rolls (Chả Giò) – Traditional Recipe
Chả Giò (Vietnamese Egg Rolls), also known as Nem Rán in Northern Vietnam, is a popular Vietnamese dish.
An interesting trait of Chả Giò is that it has many variations in term of the ingredients being used to make the filings. Depending on the regions and individual families, you could see crab meat, shrimps, or chickens being added to the ground meat. For the vegetables, carrots, taros, or jicama roots could be used.
However, throughout all the differences, you’ll noticed that a few key ingredients remain the same: ground pork, eggs, and bean thread noodles. The take-away is that there’s no one right way to do it. It’s totally up to the family’s preference.
Please note that traditional recipes use rice papers, however, many restaurants and cooks outside Vietnam have adopted the use of wheat flour sheets in place of rice papers because they are less fragile and easier to handle.
Because the setup for this dish require a good amount of efforts, when we make it for our family, we usually make a huge batch (up to 100 rolls) and freeze any remaining ones. You can either freeze them cooked or uncooked.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods.
Cooked and freeze:
Con: If you cook before freezing, then when you re-fry it, the wrapping will be wrinkled and the filling is drier.
Pro: The frying process is quicker.
Uncooked and freeze:
Con: If you leave it uncooked, it will take a long time to fry before you can enjoy it.
Pro: It will look nicer and more appetizing.
Now, are you ready to begin? Let’s go!
You can also watch the video instructions on how to make Vietnamese Egg Roll (CHẢ GIÒ) below:
Serving
47 - 50 rolls
Ingredients - Vietnamese Egg Rolls
- 2.5 lbs (1134 g) ground pork
- 1 lb (500 g) shrimp (diced)
- 750 g taro (shredded)
- 90 g carrot (shredded)
- 1 onion (diced)
- 1/2 cup (64 g) wood ear mushroom (shredded)
- 2 tbsp chicken powder
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 3 tsp black pepper
- 6 eggs
- 2 tbsp shallots oil (regular cooking oil is fine)
- 1 roll glass noodle
- 1 package rice paper (Rose brand)
- 1/2 can coconut cream
- 1/2 can of 7 up or clear color soda
Directions
1. Save a handful of shredded taro. Grind the rest into paste in a blender. We want to keep this paste as dry as possible so try your best to squeeze out all the juice.
2. In a large bowl, add pork, shrimp, onion, black pepper. Mix well.
3. Once the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, add the shallots oil in and continue mixing.
3. Next, add carrot, taro (shredded pieces and paste), wood ear mushroom, glass noodle. Mix well.
4. Now, we’ll need to add 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks. Mix well.
Save the egg white in a separate bowl. We’ll use this mixture to seal the rice paper when rolling.
(TIP: You can microwave a small piece to gauge the taste and adjust to your liking)
5. In another bowl, add 2 whole eggs. We’ll use this to brush the rice paper.
6. This step is optional. You can leave the mix in the bowl and scoop out small pieces and mold them on the rice paper as you roll or follow my process to make things faster:
In a flat rectangular pan (17.5 in x 13 in x 1 in or 45 cm x 33 cm x 2.5 cm), spread the mixture evenly.
7. Using a flat/dull blade tool, divide into equal portions, you’ll need to gauge the size of the portions depending on how big you want your egg rolls.
8. It is time to roll. We’ll need 3 components in this process: small bowl of egg white (saved from earlier process), 1 bowl of whisked eggs (2 eggs), 1 bowl of 7 up and coconut cream (mixed well).
9. Before we roll, we need to brush one side of the rice paper with the whisked eggs mix and one side with the soda/coco mix.
It is important to note that the side with the egg brush should be on the inside where we’ll add the filing. The soda/coco mix will be on the outside.
10. Brush a few rice papers and spread them out on a non-stick surface. Then, using a spatula, scope out the divided filings and place them in the middle of each rice paper.
11. Take the end of the paper (facing you) and roll it up half way (not too tight, but too loose either).
12. Fold in the left and right side of the rice paper inward (leave a small gap between the folded edges and the filing).
13. Continue to roll. When we get near the end, dip a bit of egg whites and spread it on remaining edge of the paper to make it sticky and complete the roll.
13. Once we’ve finished rolling all the egg rolls, we can store them in a tray. You’ll need to separate each layer with a plastic wrap so it’s easier to separate them later.
14. At this point you can choose to fry them all or only a few as required and put the rest in a freezer. The pros and cons of each method were discussed in the intro.
16. It’s time for us to fry the egg rolls! Prepare a pan of oil and start on medium heat. After about a minute, add the egg rolls and lower the heat to level 2 or 3 (scale of 9).
(TIP: If you’re re-frying the egg rolls from the freezer, always leave the heat at level 2)
17. Once the skin turns golden brown, take the eggs roll out and place them in a container layered with paper towels (to soak excess oil).
18. Tada!!! Here’s our master piece! It looks so beautiful and tasty right?
I hope that was easy to follow and a fun experience for you. Now, you’ll have all the egg rolls you want for days.
Please let me know if you have any question or feedback. Always keep that cooking passion strong!
If you enjoyed this recipe, please check out my other recipes here:
On the taro root is this cooked first or shredded raw? Just wondering about allergies
Do you soak the vermicelli in water to soften first before adding it to the rest of the mixture or do you add the vermicelli dry into the meat/veggie mixture?
Hi Gina,
Yes you need to soak Glass Noodle in water about 20 – 30minutes to soften it first then cut it and mix it with meat/veggie mixture!
Katy, I am embarrassed to see you did instruct about the glass noodles already and I didn’t need to ask my question. Thank you for replying though. I am actually making your recipe now. I don’t have fungus but I got the dried mushrooms. Both that and the glass noodles are now soaking. I am so excited making these egg rolls with your recipe. I will let you know how they turn out. Love from Houston, Texas but born in Dalat, Vietnam.
Thank you KT
You are the best! 😘❤️
Thank you Chau ❤️❤️❤️
Hi chị, cái máy xay thịt này có bị quấn trục khi mình xay thịt cho nhuyễn không hả chị?
Có bị đó em.
Tôi đã thử nhiều công thức làm chả giò trên mạng với bánh tráng VN. Công thức này là giòn và ngon nhất. Cám ơn chị đã chia xẻ hết bí quyết. Bò lúc lắc, phở áp chảo của chị cũng rất xuất xắc.
Mimi
Cảm ơn Mimi rất nhiều! ❤️❤️❤️ Thank you, Mimi! Have a wonderful evening! ❤️❤️❤️