Last weekend, I made chicken lumpia — Not you traditional Filipino spring rolls. If your mom is anything like mine, veering from the original recipe is sacrilegious. Instead of using ground pork, I used ground chicken and ground turkey. The only reason I did that was because our local grocery store didn’t have any ground pork that day. I also substituted the raisins with dried cranberries, because I thought I had raisins in my pantry, but only had dried cranberries. There seems to be a great divide when it comes to adding raisins to lumpia. Some people love the combination of sweet and savoury, while for others, it’s a hard no for adding raisins into anything (especially when it comes to adding raisins to anything with meat)! 
- 1 package spring roll wrappers (medium size, 50 sheets per package)
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 small carrot, chopped or grated
- ⅓ cup dried cranberries
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3-4 green onions/spring onions, chopped
- 8-10 water chestnuts, chopped
- 3 Tbsp sesame oil
- salt & pepper to taste
- water to seal the ends of the spring rolls
- oil for frying
- In a bowl, add ground chicken, ground turkey, garlic, chopped green onion, chopped water chestnuts, dried cranberries, sesame oil, salt, and pepper, and combine well. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. I actually let mine refrigerate overnight so the flavours have time to develop.
- Take thawed and separated spring roll wrappers and place damp cloth over to keep from drying out as you work. To make spring rolls, start one at a time by taking one spring roll wrapper pointy side facing up and other pointy side facing down in front of you on your work surface. Take a tablespoon full of meat filling and place about an inch above the bottom of your diamond shaped wrapper. Shape meat filling into a log and fold the bottom pointy part of the wrapper over the meat filling. Roll another time and fold in both sides. Roll tightly. Once you get to the other pointy side. Have a small dish for water to use to seal the spring rolls. Dip your finger into water and wet along the edge of the wrapper to seal the spring roll.
- Repeat until all 50 wrappers are used. I cover my spring rolls with a damp cloth to prevent them from drying out.
- Heat oil in a large heavy pot, wok, or deep fryer. When the temperature reaches 365 degrees, fry spring rolls in batches of six. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until spring rolls are golden brown.
- Transfer fried spring rolls to a colander lined with paper towel to drain oil. Place them upright.
- Serve hot and with a dipping sauce of your preference. We sometimes use my mom's Filipino lumpia dipping sauce and other times we just use Thai sweet chili sauce.
My Lola (grandma) used to always tell me that we have to roll/wrap the lumpia tightly like a cigarillo (little cigar)! I have been wrapping lumpia my Lola’s way ever since I can remember. Doing it her way makes me feel like she is still with me. I did find a few videos of different ways of wrapping spring rolls.
Chicken lumpia and Filipino BBQ are two of my husband’s and Little One’s favourite foods! I have been teaching Little One how to make these recipes so that she can pass them onto her kids when she gets older.
This looks very good thanks for the recipe I have never made spring rolls.