Chicken and Cheese Harumaki (egg roll) Recipe

Harumaki egg roll is a deep-fried packet filled with shredded meat and vegetables, and one of the most popular Chinese foods in Japanese cuisine.  In this recipe, instead of shredded meat and vegetables, we stuffed cooked chicken breast, cheese, and fragrant Shiso leaves.  It is so much simpler to make Chicken and Cheese Harumaki time-wise (and also “number of ingredient”-wise). These Harumaki are a perfect entree for everyday dinner as well as a great appetizer item for parties.

As we talked about before in our regular Harumaki recipe, Japanese egg roll wrappers are a little different from the ones you typically can buy at most local supermarkets in the Asian food section.  If you have a choice, try to choose the thinner Japanese ones.  While thicker ones still taste good, the texture we’re looking for is different.  What we want is light and crispy when cooked, not hearty and chewy. You’ll get a nice golden brown sheen, almost translucent, on the surface after it’s been deep-fried.  Since we pre-cook the chicken in the microwave before wrapping with skins, it doesn’t take very long to deep-fry – actually we don’t want to cook too long or have a color as deep as with our original Harumaki recipe.  As a result, when all goes well you can get the elegant green color and shape of Shiso showing through the Harumaki skin.

We used Havarti cheese because of its mild flavor and easy melting nature, but other cheeses will work too, like Monterey Jack or reduced moisture mozzarella (such as string or shredded).  If you want to add a little more Japanese-ness to the dish, Umeboshi pickled plum paste (just pit and chop up a few Umeboshi) can be smeared on cooked chicken before rolling.  The refreshing sourness complements surprisingly well with cheese. With or without the twist, this dish tastes very good and appeals to the young to the old.  It’s very easy to make, so try it for dinner this week!

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Chicken and Cheese Harumaki (egg roll) Recipe

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: harumaki

Servings: 6 pieces

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Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast
• 1/4-1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 Tbsp Sake
• 1 Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 6 egg roll wrappers
• 3 oz mild melting cheese such as Havarti sliced thinly
• 6 Shiso leaves
• oil for deep-frying

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Instructions

• Slice chicken into 3-4 pieces. Sprinkle salt and Sake over chicken, wrap with plastic, and cook in a microwave oven for 2-3 minutes until cooked through. Let cool. Shred into small pieces, and set aside.
• Mix water and flour to make a paste. Set aside.
• Place an egg roll wrapper, one corner facing toward you. Put cheese and chicken on the lower side of the wrapper, starting to fold the front corner. Then place a Shiso leaf on the wrapper and keep folding, tucking in the side corners. Before finishing folding, put some flour paste in the last corner to seal the packet. Repeat to make 5 more.
• Heat oil at medium heat, then fry the egg rolls for 2-3 minutes, turning over a couple of times.

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