This chicken spring roll recipe combines a classic chicken pot pie filling with fried spring rolls. Except this time it is upgraded with crispy bacon. It also uses chicken breast leftovers from a whole chicken. These spring rolls are a great finger food and I think this will be so bomb for celebrating on New Year’s Eve. It is so tasty and incredible, you definitely don’t want to miss out on this one.
Making the spring roll filing
The cream-based sauce is much thicker than regular chicken pot pies because this isn’t going into a pastry crust. It has carrots and peas, jalapeños, and chopped cup leftover chicken breast. I’m sure so many of you will have heaps of chicken breast leftovers this holiday season. There isn’t too much seasoning in this because the salt comes from the fried bacon and cooked chicken. So it’s nothing complicated.
- Fry the bacon until crispy and then fry the onions and jalapeños in its fat until golden brown. Highly recommend wearing gloves for dealing with the jalapeños because it sticks to everything and burns afterwards.
- Then add the butter, flour, seasoning and cream and whisk into roux (just like how you make the mac and cheese sauce).
- Then goes in any herbs and then the carrots and peas. Celery is also commonly used in pot pie recipes so you can add that too.
Assembling the spring rolls
The spring roll sheets I used required me to thaw them for one hour to get them at room temperature. So if you have frozen sheets, you need to thaw them first so it gets soft enough to roll. If you leave it too long though, the spring roll sheets will start to dry out. So I recommend starting the thawing process of the sheets before you make the filling. So make sure you have a dry surface to work with.
Frying the spring rolls
Separate the sheets because they are usually stuck together. Then place one sheet with the pointy edge facing you. Add a heaped tablespoon of filling at the bottom edge of the sheet, leaving about 1 inch of space on the sides. Then you fold in the sides inwards and roll the spring roll like a burrito. This took me a few tries so don’t be upset if it doesn’t work out the first time. The length of your spring roll is super important-anything more than 5 inches looks weird I think.
Spring rolls are best deep-fried to get that crispy vibe. I brought out my cast-iron skillet for this recipe because it conducts heat really well. I fried about 6 spring rolls at a time for 3 minutes on each side. You might be able to add more with s bigger sized pan. However, avoid over-crowding your pan because it actually reduces the internal temperature of the oil. Since we want crispy chicken spring rolls, you need your oil to be very hot. So less is more with this recipe. You can serve this with hot sauce, soy sauce, sweet and sour sauce. I don’t recommend storing leftovers because the spring rolls get soggy and wet in the fridge. So these chicken spring rolls are best served on the day they are fried.
If you are still looking for other ways to utilize your chicken breast leftovers, check out my chicken potato salad. Enjoy!
Ingredients
Makes 16-20 spring rolls
10 bacon rashers, chopped
1 cooked whole chicken breast, bones removed and chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1-2 jalapeños, trimmed and seeds removed
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (or other herbs)
1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup heavy cream or half-and-half cream
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
398 ml tinned carrots and peas
20 spring roll pastry sheets, thawed
3 cups cooking oil (I use canola oil)
1 large egg, whisked
1 tablespoon water
Instructions
Making the chicken and bacon pot pie filling
- Wear gloves, dice the jalapeños and set aside.
- Lightly grease a large frying pan (I used a 12-inch frying pan) with oil. Fry the chopped bacon on medium heat until crispy in batches at a time (see notes).
- When the bacon is crispy browned, transfer it to a bowl. Don't worry if the bottom of the pan looks really brown. This will make the filing even tastier and the sauce will absorb the brown stuff.
- Place the butter in the same frying pan and let it melt. Fry the onions and jalapeños on medium heat until golden brown.
- Lower the heat and whisk in the flour and the vegetable broth, cream, salt, black pepper, until smooth. Then stir in the parsley, chicken breast, and carrot and peas.
- Let it simmer for about 5 minutes and then turn off the heat.
Assembling the spring rolls
- Whisk the egg with the tablespoon of water. This is your egg wash.
- Place one spring roll sheet on a dry surface with the point edge directly facing you. It should look like a triangle in your direction.
- Using your finger, brush a thin line of egg wash against the edges of the pastry sheet.
- Using a heaped tablespoon, add the pot pie filling in the bottom center of the spring roll sheets.
- Fold in the sides of the sheet and roll the spring roll like a burrito. Repeat this for the remaining sheets until all the pot pie filling is used up.
Frying the spring rolls
- Heat all the oil in a 10-inch skillet until its internal temperature is 350°F/175°C.
- Fry a few rolls at a time for 3 minutes in each side until golden brown. I fried 6 spring rolls at a time in 3 batches.
- Use a slotted frying spatula to take out the spring rolls and let it cool on a wire rack for ultimate crispiness. You can use paper towels to blot out the excess oil from the spring rolls.
- Serve these warm with your favorite dipping sauce. Throw away any leftovers because they get soggy overnight.
Notes
There isn't a lot of seasoning used in this recipe because this uses cooked chicken, which has already been cooked with spices of its own. You can gradually add more seasoning as you go. Usually, you can fry bacon in its own fat without needing any oil but not in this case when it is chopped.