Garlic Chicken Spring Rolls (Fresh and Healthy)
These chicken spring rolls are light, flavorful and fantastic. Loaded with fresh vegetables and a light rice paper wrapper, these chicken summer rolls or salad rolls are a great healthy meal. They’re way better than what you can order in a restaurant without added sugar in the marinade.
Chicken Spring Rolls : Fresh & Healthy
I know I’m not the only one who has gone through this, so I thought I’d finally say it publicly after years of food blogging. Food blogging made me chunky-er, pleasantly plump or what ever you want to call it. My jeans didn’t zip anymore. My love of blogging has pretty much changed my life, my obsession with food and everything related. But if I wanted to continue doing this and still stay healthy, I knew I had to make a lifestyle change again. Eating these healthy chicken summer rolls along with regular exercise was the answer.
Video: Garlic Chicken Spring Rolls Recipe
Difference Between Spring Rolls, vs. Summer Rolls?
These words terms to describe these healthy and delicious rice paper rolls are used interchangeably. They are all pretty much describing the same dish. Often times the deep fried crispy rolls are called spring rolls as well so it can be often confusing. But we’ve always used the term fresh spring rolls to differentiate from crispy spring rolls. Summer Rolls are the same as these fresh spring rolls. Rice paper salad wraps are often used as well so there’s another term to remember!
Why We Eat Low Carb Spring Rolls
How to keep my mental spirits happy and my body in check? I started to eat more fresh spring rolls. Fresh vegetables, light proteins and fresh herbs rolled in a rice paper is like a salad in a roll. It kept my meals interesting, versatile and most importantly, spring rolls kept my mental state happy.
I am, after all, Vietnamese and spring rolls are a comfort food that always satisfies. This garlic chicken spring roll is one of the many that I munched on for lunch and dinner. After a few weeks dedicated to the gym, weekly meals of garlic chicken spring rolls and taking care of my body again, I started to shed some pounds. The best news of all this is that my jeans are finally start to zip all the way up again. Yes!! Hope you enjoy these garlic chicken Summer rolls just as much as I do! Here’re more of our How to Roll Spring Roll Tutorials.
Best Rice Paper Wrappers for Chicken Spring Rolls
Garlic Chicken Spring Rolls Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds (907 g) boneless chicken , we prefer thighs but use what you like
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) grape seed oil or vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic , minced or crushed
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) minced or grated ginger (optional)
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) fish sauce or soy sauce (use Tamari for gluten free)
- 12 rice paper
- 1 head fresh lettuce , chopped or torn in small pieces
- 1 bunch fresh basil , mint or other herbs
- carrots, celery, cucumbers, daikon radish or bell peppers , optional – use what you like
For Garlic Soy dip:
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) soy sauce (use Tamari for gluten free)
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) water
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) lime juice
- 1 teaspoon (10 ml) sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) sugar , optional if you like sweeter dips
- 1 clove garlic , minced or crushed
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) minced or grated ginger (optional)
- 1 small chili , minced (optional for spice)
Equipment
- Rice Paper Water Bowl optional
Instructions
- For the Chicken: In a large bowl, combine chicken, 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil, minced garlic, optional minced or grated ginger, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, and 1 Tablespoon fish sauce or soy sauce.
- Cover well and allow to marinade for at least 20 minutes or overnight.
- Heat frying pan on medium-high heat. Cook the chicken until it's cooked through and a nice crust is formed, usually about 3 minutes per side, depending on your heat and chicken thickness.
- Let chicken cool for a few minutes. Slice in chicken in thin slices, about 1/2 inch thick for rolling.
- For the Dip: combine all ingredients well (2 Tablespoons soy sauce, 1 Tablespoon water, 1 Tablespoon lime juice, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1/2 teaspoon optional sugar, minced garlic, optional minced ginger, and optional minced chili). Set aside
For Rolls:
- In fill a large bowl or rice paper dipper with warm water (if should be about bath temp warm). Gently dip each rice paper wrapper in warm water for a few seconds or until damp. Don’t over soak the rice paper. Place rice paper on plate, or working surface. As rice paper begins to absorb the water and become more soft and pliable (about 5 seconds, depending on wrappers and water temp.), begin to add the fillings.
- On the 1/3 section of the rice paper wrapper closest to you, start layering your fillings of lettuce, herbs, and vegetables.
- Add the sliced chicken.
- Start rolling the wrapper over the fillings away from you.
- Tuck and roll the wrapper with your fingers
- Make sure all the fillings remain tight and round within the rice paper wrapper.
- Serve immediately with soy dip, or cover with plastic wrap to eat a few hours later.
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
Traditional Vietnamese Fish Sauce Dip
These chicken spring rolls are great with the garlic soy ginger dip, which is below in the recipe box. But if you want something more traditional, here’s my Vietnamese fish sauce dip recipe. click here for all our popular Vietnamese Recipes that are sometimes traditional and definitely sometimes not.
Our Favorite Fish Sauce Brands:
This has been our house fish sauce for decades. Great stuff! We’ll use it to make our dipping sauces as well as marinades.
100% all-natural first press extra virgin Vietnamese fish sauce. One of the best artisan fish sauce producers.
Another good fish sauce. Clean flavors, good depth. It’s the one Diane’s mom most often uses for cooking.
More Spring Roll & Vietnamese Recipes:
- How to Make and Roll Fresh Rice Paper Spring Rolls
- Turkey Avocado Spring Rolls
- Crispy Chicken Vegetable Egg Rolls (crispy spring rolls)
- Fresh Vietnamese spring rolls with shrimp and/or pork
- crispy shrimp dumplings with rice paper
- This recipe was originally published in 2011.
These chicken spring rolls were a hit at our gathering. Thanks for sharing such a delicious recipe.
I’m in love with the flavor of the garlic chicken in this spring roll recipe. I love the juiciness.
The garlic chicken was absolutely amazing. So flavorful. They were perfect with the spring rolls. I’m in love.