Frozen Egg Rolls Ranked From Worst To Best

What's the best companion to a heap of fried rice, some Mongolian beef, or steamed dumpling? Egg rolls, of course. Whether you're ordering takeout or making food at home, the salty, savory filling of egg rolls perfectly accompanies any other Chinese takeout-style dish, and they're also delicious enough to enjoy on their own. They're challenging to make from scratch, but never fear, home cooks; there are several frozen egg rolls brands offered in grocery stores, so you've got no shortage of options.

The differences in frozen egg rolls range from their filling and size to their wrapping. Interestingly enough, there are rarely any eggs in egg rolls (the consensus for why the name of the dish doesn't reflect its ingredients is that at one point the wraps were made with eggs). Egg rolls are often vegetarian, containing a mix of cabbage, green/spring onions, and carrots. Sometimes a protein like chicken, pork, or beef is added. Another similar Chinese finger food is the spring roll, which is smaller than an egg roll and usually (but not always) only contains vegetables, and is sometimes cased in rice paper instead of fried dough. 

Which filling is superior will depend on your diet and taste buds, but egg roll flavor and quality varies more brand by brand than you might realize. That is why we sought out 11 chicken egg roll brands (two are actually spring rolls, but because they contain chicken, we're considering them part of the egg roll family for now) to compare and discover which brand is best when you want to create a bit of Chinese takeout magic right in your kitchen. 

Mr. Chang, you have some explaining to do. Just look at this egg roll filling; the carrots are thick and blocky, the chicken is pale and pasty (despite it being dark meat, according to the package), and there is no balance in the ingredient mix. In this cross-section of a roll alone, you can see that one bite would be all cabbage, one would be all carrot, and one would be all chicken. But even that wouldn't matter, because the filling is so overloaded with white pepper that you can't taste anything else, even if the filling components were properly dispersed. The P.F. Chang's rolls are also mini rolls, which isn't necessarily an issue, but it isn't disclosed on the package. 

The wrap was as thick as a pancake and as tough as a bicycle tire. It got pretty golden on the outside, but there was no crisp or crunch when biting down. We took issue with the sauce, too. It was too sour with not enough sweetness, and it came in one big bag, forcing you to thaw out all of the sauce even if you're only cooking a portion of the rolls. Eight of these rolls cost $3.99 at Target, an investment we won't be making again. 

The Tai Pei Chicken Egg Rolls were tied for last place with the P.F. Chang's Chicken Egg Rolls. The lackluster filling and truly unpleasant wrap almost dragged Tai Pei to the bottom of the ranks, but a yummy sweet and sour sauce offered some last-minute redemption. The first bite of these rolls was strangely bitter, but every following bite was mostly just bland carrot. Several other brands on this ranking leaned too heavily on cabbage, but we needed more cabbage in this roll's filling to balance out the carrot. There is a reasonable amount of chicken, but it's very sorely underseasoned. The filling is also strangely pasty. It stays clumped together, away from the wrap as pictured, and squeezed out the end like sausage meat when we bit into a roll.

That wrap is a disaster, too. It's got a decent initial crunch, but the inner portion of the wrap was gummy and cakey, a texture that is very unwelcome in an egg roll. We followed the directions precisely for all egg roll brands and cooked them all in the same oven, but this one's wrap just seemed undercooked. Fortunately for Tai Pei, the sauce is tangy and sweet, and many of these rolls' flaws can be overlooked if you dunk them in enough sauce. An eight-count of these rolls is $6.38 at Walmart, which is more than we'd be willing to pay to sacrifice so much flavor. 

Some Great Value products truly live up to the brand's name. If you're shopping at Walmart and want to save a few bucks by opting for the brand's private label, you can do so without compromising too much flavor by choosing Great Value cinnamon rolls or Great Value mac and cheese, to name a few examples. Sadly, the Great Value white meat chicken egg rolls fall into the category of Walmart brand products you'd probably be better off avoiding. The filling here is mostly cabbage, and the flavor is way underwhelming; there's no spice and the veggies seem overcooked and bland. The texture is a miss, too, with veggies soft to the point of disintegration and chicken that was ground into a weird paste-like consistency. 

Plus, the wrap is super flaky and flimsy. It lacks structure to the point that the rolls were splitting open in the oven and they all but fell apart when cut into. These rolls are super cheap at just $2.98 for a four-count, but since there's no sauce and the filling is so flawed, we recommend spending the extra buck or two for a better brand. 

These egg rolls are from the brand Feel Good Foods, and they're the only gluten-free rolls on this ranking. While one of two testers did not know of these rolls' gluten-free status when trying them, it was apparent immediately that something was different about them. For one, you can see in the pictured rolls how different the chicken looks. It appears to be dark meat, which is generally considered more nutritionally dense than white meat. The carrots and veggies clearly look brighter and fresher, but they were way too crunchy, not seeming cooked at all. However, flavor-wise, the filling tasted great and was well-seasoned. 

The wrap is understandably where things went the most haywire. Visually, the Feel Good Foods wrap looks fantastic; it's evenly textured, held up in the oven, and didn't spill any filling. It didn't get that golden brown color you normally see on egg rolls, but we expected this from a gluten-free wrap. The real problem was that the wrap was so dense, tough, and chewy that it seemed too thick for the insides to get properly cooked, which would explain why the veggies were still so hard. Also, the packaging deceptively pictures sauce with the egg rolls, but it isn't actually included. These wraps are $8.39 for three at Target. 

Pagoda is a very popular brand of egg roll, one that we've certainly enjoyed in the past without complaint, but when it's pitted against 10 other egg roll brands, a few surprising weaknesses emerge. While Pagoda's white meat chicken egg rolls are still definitely tasty, compared to its competitors, we'd estimate that the filling is 95% vegetables and 5% chicken. Actually, it would be more like 95% cabbage, 3% other vegetables, and 2% chicken. The filling is well-seasoned with notes of black pepper, green onion, and garlic, but hands down the most forward taste is cabbage. Pagoda is a bit stingy on the filling, too. Many other brands stuffed their rolls as full as possible while, as pictured Pagoda rolls, there's room for plenty more filling in these. 

The wrap wasn't our favorite, either. It was quite flimsy, leaked a lot of liquid during cooking, and got a bit overdone on the ends despite following directions. We flipped the rolls halfway through cooking, but one side of the wrap got much darker than the other. It was still crunchy and tasty, though. And with no sauce included in the box, Pagoda just really didn't stand a chance of getting into the top half of the ranks. This brand offers an eight-count box of egg rolls for $6.28 at Walmart. 

The Minh Mini Chicken Egg Rolls come in boxes of 50 at bulk stores like Costco and Sam's Club. These adorable little rolls are practically bite-sized, perfect for serving at parties (or just for chowing down on when you really, really love egg rolls). The Minh Minis taste exactly like a good, classic egg roll. They're salty and savory, with a strong but pleasant cabbagey taste and finely shredded chicken generously dispersed throughout. The seasoning is very enjoyable — it's nothing that'll blow you out of the water, but still tasty. These are also a bit juicier than you might like; biting into a hot Minh egg roll risks molten grease shooting into your mouth.

As you can see in the pictured rolls, the wrap on these little guys is very thick, but still a bit shy of tough or pancake-y. It subtracts a bit from that satisfying crunch you hope for from an egg roll wrap, but only slightly so, and only when you do something bizarre like eat 11 different egg roll brands one after the other. The Minh Minis don't come with a sauce, but that's more justifiable considering the 50-count box comes with two bags of 25 and you don't want to end up stuck thawing out a big bag of sauce for more egg rolls than you made. 

The Trader Joe's Chicken Spring Rolls and Good & Gather Chicken Thai Basil Spring Rolls are so alike that it wouldn't be outrageous to suspect that the supplier for both private label rolls is the same. Even the packaging of both brands looked the same. Both rolls have big, juicy chunks of white meat chicken and pops of vibrantly fresh basil leaves. We picked up identical flavor profiles of ginger and garlic, and the vegetables in both rolls are incredibly similar in taste and texture. Through and through, the Trader Joe's rolls are very well seasoned — and perhaps the only difference between these Trader Joe's rolls and the Good & Gather option is that we didn't pick up on the faint scallion in these.

The wrap is light and crunchy, and develops a perfect golden color in the oven. Unfortunately, TJ's didn't give us any sauce with these rolls, which did bump it down a rank or two. However, they are cheaper than Target's rolls at $4.49 for a box of five (the same amount of rolls in the Good & Gather box). 

The chicken egg rolls from Hy-Vee private label Crav'n are insanely scrumptious. They're huge, for starters — just look at how much filling is packed into those rolls — with a perfectly homogenous mix of finely-cut vegetables and chicken. The carrots and cabbage are firm without being overly crunchy. Overall, the filling might be a little bit too salty for some palates, which is why we couldn't rank Crav'n higher. 

This is also one of the only brands whose wraps seemed to cook unevenly, which unfortunately cost it a rank; both Crav'n rolls cooked were browner in some spots and paler in others. Crav'n includes a yummy sweet chili sauce, but it's a notoriously stingy amount. The pictured bowl of sauce is all that's provided for four large egg rolls, and despite being conservative, it was gone after eating just two. However, four of these giant rolls plus the sauce are just $4.29 at our local Hy-Vee, which is definitely an appealing value.

Fusia White Meat Chicken Egg Rolls are sold at Aldi for $2.39 — an unbeatable price for four big egg rolls. Looking at the filling of these rolls, the lack of bright, vibrantly-colored veggies may suggest that these rolls will taste bland, but this Aldi product will surprise you. We noticed immediately that, for the price, these rolls are pretty generous in size and amount of filling; the rolls are packed practically to bursting. The flavor is such an exquisite conglomeration of ginger, garlic, white pepper, and other spices that the Fusia rolls almost deserved to rank higher than this, but the mixture leans a bit too hard on carrots for the vegetable component of the filling. 

Aldi's rolls were another strong contender in the wrap department. As pictured, these wraps are flakier than other brands, and are probably the thinnest wraps on the list — almost phyllo-like — but still delightfully golden and crisp. Although we'd hoped to have some sauce included with the Fusia rolls, all in all, this is a brand we'd absolutely purchase again, given its flavor and steal of a price.

Chung's Chicken Egg Rolls packaging might not look like much, but there is quite the underdog waiting inside. The first bite of this roll exploded into a burst of dynamic flavor and juicy texture. The chicken is beautifully seasoned with loads of white pepper, but not too much. This roll's softer veggies make it more enjoyable for people who prefer a more homogenous texture and less crunch, but it doesn't venture into being soggy or sodden. 

The wrap and sauce are the most standout components of the Chung's rolls. While nearly paper-thin and just as delicate, the wrap held up surprisingly well in the oven, developing a few cracks but not losing any of its contents. It is a nice golden color when cooked and lets out a big crunch when bit into. The included sweet and sour sauce is among the best we tried, with a tangy sweetness that softened the peppery chicken. As a bonus, the sauce is individually packaged, one per each roll in the box. Chung's Chicken Egg Rolls are $4.69 at our local Target, a price that seems fair for four good-sized egg rolls and sauce for each. 

Good & Gather is the private label brand for Target. These Good & Gather Chicken Thai Basil Spring Rolls are the winner of this ranking. There is an excellent balance of ingredients in the filling, creating a consistent texture and even mix of chicken and vegetables in bite after bite. Speaking of the protein, this was definitely quality chicken; it was juicy without being runny, and cut into perfectly-sized pieces, too. When the chicken meets the bright, fresh taste of the basil, the taste combination of salty and sweet can't be beat. The ginger brings a nice zing to the filling, and while there are plenty of veggies in this roll, there aren't so many that the delicate flavors of basil and scallion are overpowered. 

The spring roll wrap is light, browned up nicely in the oven, and gives a nice crunch when bit into. Unlike many egg roll brands, Good & Gather includes a generous amount of the tangy sweet chili sauce, more than enough for the five rolls in the box. At $5.79 per box at our local Target, we'd ordinarily argue that a store-brand box of only five rolls for this much is kind of a rip-off, but these are so scrumptious we'd happily pay nearly $6 to munch on them again.