Sweet & Sour Chicken Stuffed Spring Rolls

closeup shot of sweet and sour chicken filling inside spring roll

5 from 5 votes

Sweet & Sour Chicken Stuffed Spring Rolls

Shredded Chicken drenched in a Homemade Sweet and Sour Sauce, packed with Peppers, Pineapple and Rice - These truly are the BEST Chicken Spring Rolls!

Prep Time25

Cook Time30

Total Time55

Course: Appetizer, Finger Food

Cuisine: Asian, Chinese

Servings: jumbo spring rolls

Author: Chris Collins

Cost: £1.50 / $2

Equipment

Wok or Large/Deep Pot (for deep frying)
Work or Large Fry Pan & Wooden Spoon (to make s&s chicken)
Small Pot or Pan (to make s&s sauce)
Small Ramekin (for cornstarch slurry)
Damp Tea Towel (to rest on spring roll wrappers)
Thermometer (for oil, not a necessity)
Cooling Rack
Sharp Knife & Chopping Board
Tongs

Ingredients

Spring Rolls

8x (10"x10" / 25cmx25cm) Spring Roll Wrappers (see notes)
2 cups Cooked Long Grain Rice (see notes)
1 tbsp Cornflour/Cornstarch (mixed with 2 tbsp Cold Water)
Vegetable/Sunflower Oil, as needed

Sweet & Sour Sauce

1 cup / 250ml Apple Cider Vinegar
1 cup / 240g Light Brown Sugar, or to taste (see notes)
1/2 cup / 125ml Pineapple Juice
1/2 cup / 120g Ketchup
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce (or all purpose Soy Sauce, not Dark)
2 tbsp Cornflour/Cornstarch
Salt, to taste

Sweet & Sour Chicken

1.5 packed cups / 7oz / 200g Cooked Shredded Chicken
1 medium Red Pepper, finely sliced
1 medium Green Pepper, finely sliced
1 medium Carrot, finely sliced
3 Canned Pineapple Rings, diced
2 Green/Spring Onions, sliced
1 tsp Garlic, minced
1 tsp Ginger, minced
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
few pinches of White Pepper, to taste (can sub black pepper)
Salt, to taste

Instructions

Sweet & Sour Sauce

In a small pot over medium heat, add 1cup/250ml apple cider vinegar, 1cup/240g light brown sugar, 1/2cup/120ml pineapple juice, 1/2cup/120g ketchup, stir and bring to a simmer.
In a small pot, mix together 2 tbsp soy sauce with 2 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch until fully blended (add a splash of cold water if lumpy at all, must be completely smooth).
Stir soy sauce mix into sauce and quickly stir to combine. Simmer until the sauce is thick enough to comfortably coat the back of a spoon (you want it nice and thick to coat the chicken). Take off heat and pour into a bowl to cool.

Sweet & Sour Chicken

In a large pan or wok over high heat add 1 tbsp vegetable oil. Once it begins to smoke, add your peppers, carrot and pineapple and begin to stir fry. When they start to brown/soften add your green onion, ginger, garlic and seasoning (to taste) and continue frying for another 2-3mins.
Turn heat down to medium and stir through your chicken. Pour in up to half of your sweet and sour sauce, or enough to lightly coat (you don't want the chicken too saucy or the spring rolls will be soggy). Most will be used as a dip. Stir to combine then take off heat. This is important - filling needs to be cool before making spring rolls or they'll steam open/burst.

Wrapping Spring Rolls

Lay out a wrapper on a flat surface with a corner at the top and bottom (diamond shape). Place 2 heaped tbsp rice between the centre and bottom of the square. Place 2 heaped tbsp sweet and sour chicken on top of that.
Take the bottom corner and tightly fold it over the filling and roll it over once.
Take the two corners either side and tightly fold them in. Roll the spring roll all the way up to the point where a triangle is left at the top. Use your finger to dunk into the cornflour slurry and rub the edges of the triangle. Finish the roll and place seam-side-down. Repeat.
Important you roll tightly (any gaps = big air bubbles when deep frying = burst spring roll) but also carefully so you don't rip the wrapper.

Deep Frying Spring Rolls

Heat up enough oil to comfortably cover your spring rolls in a wok (best option) or large pot. You want the oil to get to 356F/180C. A chopstick should bubble when placed in.
Very carefully place 3-4 spring rolls in the oil (depending on size) and deep fry for 5mins or until deep golden, turning once. The temp might drop slightly when the spring rolls hit the oil, so just try and keep it at a constant heat. If at anytime it gets too hot just turn down the heat and/or pour in a splash more oil. Timings will vary so just be vigilant.
Take out spring rolls one by one with tongs and tilt side to side to let excess oil pour out, then place on cooling rack with paper towels underneath. Serve with leftover sweet and sour sauce as a dip (add a splash of pineapple juice/water if too thick).

Video

Notes

a) Spring Roll Wrappers - You'll find them in the freezer section in some supermarkets and all Asian stores. You don't want them to dry up at any point so rest a damp towel over them when not using. If you bought them frozen, defrost with a damp towel on top.

b) Sugar/Sweetness - If you like a more 'sour' sweet & sour sauce start off with less sugar and adjust accordingly. Brown sugar much better for this sauce, gives a slightly deeper flavour. Caster sugar too sweet.

c) Veg/Spring Roll Filling - You essentially want 3.5oz / 100g pepper, carrot and pineapple. I recommend just getting canned pineapple because you can then use the juice from that in the sauce.

d) Fresh Chicken - If you haven't got rotisserie chicken on hand, 1.5 packed cups / 7oz / 200g is around 10.5oz/300g fresh chicken (2 small breasts). Just fry, cool & shred. I definitely recommend shredded in all instances (not slicing/dicing etc) so it fits neatly in the spring rolls.

e) Sweet and Sour Chicken WITHOUT Spring Rolls - You can absolutely just enjoy the chicken and rice as a meal without stuffing into spring rolls! I recommend only making half a batch of sauce, and frying diced bits of chicken (instead of shredding). Maybe double the rice too (one 1 cup cooked rice per person). Will feed 4.

f) Rice - 2 cups cooked rice is approx just over 1/2 cup uncooked rice. To cook rice I firstly rinse it in cold water a few times to remove the starch, then use a 1:2 / rice:water ratio. So, pour 1 cup water in with 1/2cup rice and place on low-medium heat without the lid and leave to simmer until cooked and fluffy, stirring a few times. Never fails me.

g) Calories - Only an estimate, difficult to calculate (how much oil soaked up etc). Per spring roll without the dip (so half the sauce) assuming 1 tsp oil is soaked up per spring roll. Using half batch of sauce.

Nutrition