Egg Roll Carnitas

The New Year always seems to be a time when I find myself making a lot of appetizer dishes. Lots of sporting events and social gatherings seem to always be happening from January through April prompting me to pull out my favorite small plates for friends and family.

So it seemed only fitting that this months recipe focus would be on appetizers. Having a few tried and true of these recipes always comes in handy. Over the next month I'll be posting my 4 favorite appetizers for you guys. I hope you enjoy todays installment of Egg Rolls. 

Egg Roll Carnitas

Cook time 1hr 30 min

Wonton wrappers

Sesame Garlic sauce – or any other flavor sauce you would like

10 baby carrots, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 small head of broccoli, chopped

About 3-4 cups smoked pork (see recipe below)

You can really use any filler ingredients you want. That is the beauty of this recipe. I used what I had on hand in my kitchen, including leftovers! 

Put a small amount of olive oil in a large frying pan and heat the pan to a medium heat. Add the chopped broccoli, carrots and bell peppers. Add enough sauce to coat the vegetables without them drowning in it. 

Let them cook for about 5-7 minutes then add the pork and stir. Cook until vegetables are at a desired tenderness. I like mine a little more crisp so I cooked everything together just long enough to heat the meat and incorporate everything and make it warm.

Remove from the heat and put into your food processor. Pulse just a few times to get everything shredded down. You don’t want it to be a paste, but you don’t want a huge piece of bell pepper in your egg roll either.

Lay out your wrappers and put your filling towards one corner. Fold and roll as follows:

Use a little water to seal off the ends and make the wrappers stick to themselves.

I wrapped all of mine while my oil heated. This batch made enough filling for about 40 wonton wrappers.

You want the oil to be about 300-350 F. If you are like me, you don't like frying things because the popping oil scares you. Well keeping the oil on the cooler side will help with that. Just make sure the oil isn't too cool or it will just saturate your egg roll and make it really greasy. Also make sure your filling is locked up tight inside the egg roll. If only the wrapper is touching the oil than it's less likely to pop at you. 

I only used enough oil in the bottom of my pan to do one side at a time. Each side cooked for about 60-90 seconds. You are looking for them to turn a golden brown before you start flipping them over. Once they are crispy on all sides remove and set them onto a plate covered with paper towels to drain. 

Enjoy immediately or you can freeze them to enjoy at a later date. 

These make great appetizers for parties and are super easy to make. 

You can use whatever type of meat you would like in your egg rolls, chicken, beef, anything will work, you can even do just veggie rolls. But if you want to make the smoked pork I used this is what I did. 

Smoked Pork

Cook time: 4 hrs

Pork Shoulder

Water

Apple cider

Sea salt

Cumin

Sear the outside of the meat on the stove top and then put in a disposable foil baking tin. Add the water, sea salt, cumin, and apple cider. Place in the smoker and let it go on medium heat until the meat is falling apart when stirred or turned. We usually smoke it for about 4 hours on our Treager. 

This is the Pork we always make for Smoked Carnitas tacos (a different recipe for a different day). We had fed some missionaries serving in our area for our church and had some leftover meat, which is what I used for these egg rolls. 

Enjoy!