🧀🫑🌽 Southwestern Egg Rolls combine juicy chicken, melted Pepper Jack cheese, black beans, bell peppers, and corn seasoned with southwest-inspired seasonings and are fried to crispy PERFECTION! You can fry, air fry, or bake these EASY egg rolls, which are a Chili’s Restaurant copycat. Then, the quick creamy mashed avocado ranch dipping sauce is the perfect final touch!
Easy Southwestern Chicken Egg Rolls with Avocado Ranch
If you’re thinking that these egg rolls sound familiar or are a restaurant copycat recipe, you’re right. They’re inspired by the Chili’s Restaurant Southwestern Eggrolls. But I always think homemade tastes even better.
- My homemade southwest egg rolls are made with juicy seasoned chicken, melted cheese, black beans, bell peppers, corn, and more, all wrapped up and fried to crispy perfection!
- More details below, but you can “fry” these southwest egg rolls in an air fryer, bake them in the oven, or fry them the good old-fashioned way.
- I’ve also got an easy creamy avocado ranch dipping sauce that’s made with – you guessed it mashed avocado and ranch dressing, plus sour cream, cilantro, and lime juice.
- Whether you want to serve these chicken and black bean southwestern egg rolls as a favorite appetizer, as a snack at your next game day party of casual get-together, or as an easy and satisfying weeknight dinner recipe, everyone is going to beg you for the great recipe.
Love copycat recipes?
Try my copycat Applebee’s chicken wonton tacos, P.F. Chang’s lettuce wraps, and Panera-inspired broccoli cheese soup, too!
Ingredients and Notes
For the egg rolls, you’ll want to have the following easy-to-find and common fridge and pantry ingredients, including the following:
- Shredded or diced cooked chicken breast – To save time and make this recipe as easy as possible, store-bought rotisserie chicken is a no-brainer. You can also make my easy Poached Chicken recipe and either shred or cube it. Another great one is 20-Minute Perfect Oven Baked Chicken, or this 20-Minute Baked Lime Cilantro Chicken has a perfect flavor profile for the southwestern-inspired ingredients. Most any leftover chicken you have on hand will also work. You only need 1 1/2 cups. You can also use shredded or cubed cooked turkey if you have leftover turkey on hand
- Spices – Cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika or smoked paprika, chili powder, and salt. Adjust the spices to taste. If you want to kick up the heat, add more chili powder or even a pinch of cayenne pepper to the filling mixture
- Pepper Jack or Monterey Jack shredded cheese
- Fresh spinach – Feel free to omit it if needed, but it shrinks down to very little
- Corn – I prefer fresh sweet corn, but frozen or canned corn will also work. Just make sure to thaw and drain it first, or your eggrolls will be soggy
- Black beans
- Red bell peppers
- Lime juice
- Flour tortillas or egg roll wrappers – For these easy egg rolls. I suggest using flour tortillas. Make sure to select small, street taco-size tortillas, about 4 to 5 inches in diameter. Do not use bigger burrito-sized tortillas. I don’t like corn tortillas for the recipe as much – both in terms of flavor and because they’re harder to work with and will be more prone to tearing or ripping as you’re filling and assembling them. Do not use rice paper wrappers, which are thin, transparent, and what you’d use to make Fresh Spring Rolls, but they aren’t suitable for frying
- Vegetable oil or canola oil, for frying
- Avocado ranch dip – Combine avocado, Ranch dressing, cilantro, sour cream or Greek yogurt, lime juice, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Southwest Egg Rolls
Making these crave-worthy copycat chicken egg rolls is fast and easy. Follow my straightforward instructions for perfect crispy egg rolls every time.
Step 1: In a large bowl, combine the chicken and all the spices, and stir to combine.
Step 2: Stir in the shredded cheese, spinach, corn, black beans, red bell peppers, and lime juice.
Step 3: Place about 1/4-cup of filling in the center of each tortilla, fold it up, and brush water on the top edge to help seal them up.
Step 4: You want to heat your oil to 375ºF. You should use a digital clip on thermometer and not guess the temperature. The homemade southwest egg rolls will take just a few minutes to fry. Then, fry the egg rolls in a pan with oil for about 2 minutes, flipping halfway through, and place on a paper-towel-lined plate. Cook time will vary, so watch your egg rolls for doneness. (See below for alternate cooking methods.)
Step 5: Combine all ingredients for the avocado ranch dip, stir or whisk, taste to check for seasoning balance, and serve with the freshly made southwestern chicken egg rolls.
Want a Really Smooth Avocado Ranch Sauce?
If you want your avocado ranch dipping sauce to be silky smooth, you can run it through your high speed blender, or if you have an immersion blender, whiz it with that. If you like a little bit of texture, no need to blend!
Frying, Air Frying, or Baking Egg Rolls
There are a few ways to cook these southwestern egg rolls, and you can select the option that’s right for you!
- Frying – Traditional frying, with either vegetable or canola oil in a large skillet that’s heated to 375°F. It’ll only take a couple of minutes to fry the egg rolls. This method produces the crispiest and best-tasting egg rolls, in my opinion. No, it’s not as healthy, but it sure tastes good, and the crispy factor is out of this world. You just really want to sink your teeth into these egg rolls. TIP: Avoid overcrowding! Place 4 egg rolls into the oil, and fry for about 1 minute, flip, and fry for 1 more minute, or until golden brown.
- Air Frying – This method is a runner-up for me. Not quite as crispy, but definitely healthier, and your house won’t smell as profusely of fried food after the fact. Heat an air fryer with an XL basket to 375°F, place the egg rolls in the air fryer basket, spray them with nonstick cooking spray, and air fry for 5 minutes. Flip, spray again, and air fry for 5 more minutes, or until golden brown and ready.
- Oven Baking – This method doesn’t produce very crispy egg rolls; however, it’s the same “healthiness level” as air frying since you’re only spritzing with cooking spray, like in the above method. Preheat your oven to 475°F, place the egg rolls on a baking sheet, spray them with nonstick cooking spray, and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Flip, spray again, and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown and ready.
What to Serve with Copycat Chili’s Southwestern Egg Rolls
Southwestern Egg Rolls
Equipment
- 1 Medium Bowl
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 ½ cups cooked chicken breast*, shredded or diced
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika or smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 2 cups shredded Pepper Jack cheese, or shredded Monterey Jack
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- ½ cup corn, thaw it if using frozen and drain, drain it if using canned
- ½ cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed (I use no-salt added)
- ⅓ cup red bell peppers, diced small
- 2 teaspoon lime juice
Wrappers
- 12 taco size flour tortillas, about 4 to 5-inches in diameter OR egg roll wrappers
Avocado Ranch
- ½ cup mashed avocado, from about half of a large ripe avocado
- ½ cup ranch salad dressing
- 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, finely minced
- 2 ½ tablespoons sour cream, plain Greek yogurt may be substituted
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Filling
- To a large bowl, add the chicken, all the spices, salt, and stir to combine.
- Add the cheese, spinach, corn, beans, bell peppers, lime juice, and stir to combine.
Assembly
- If you're using tortillas rather than egg roll wrappers, place them on a microwave-safe plate, and heat on high power for 30 seconds to soften them and make them more pliable and less prone to tearing.
- Place about 1/4 cup of the filling in the center of the tortilla or egg roll wrapper.
- Fold the outsider sides toward the middle and then roll up. Repeat the process until the filling has been used, or about 12 egg rolls
- Brush the top edge of each with a bit of water to seal.
- After all tortillas are rolled, let them sit for 1 minute before frying to allow the water to stick the edges together. Meanwhile whisk together the dip.
Avocado Ranch Dipping Sauce
- In a medium bowl, mash the avocado with a fork, add all remaining ingredients, and stir to incorporate. Tip – For a very smooth sauce you can add it to the canister of a high speed blender or blend it with an immersion blender, but this is optional. Set sauce aside.
Cooking
- Frying – Traditional frying, with either vegetable or canola oil. This method produces the crispiest and best tasting egg rolls in my opinion. No, it’s not as healthy but they sure taste good and the crispy factor is out of this world. You just really want to sink your teeth into these egg rolls! Add enough oil to a large skillet so it's about 3 deep, and heat it to 375F. You should use a digital clip on thermometer and not guess the temperature. Place 4 egg rolls into the oil, and fry for about 1 minute, flip, and fry for 1 more minute, or until golden brown. Repeat the process in two more batches. Don't overcrowd the pan. Place cooked egg rolls on paper towels.
- Air Frying – This method is a runner up for me. Not quite as crispy, but definitely healthier, and your house won’t smell as profusely of fried food after the fact. Heat an air fryer with an XL basket to 375F, place the egg rolls in the air fryer basket, spray them generously with nonstick cooking spray, and air fry for 5 minutes. Flip them over, spray again, and air fry for about 5 more minutes, or until golden brown and ready.
- Oven Baking – This method doesn’t produce very crispy egg rolls, however it’s the same “healthiness level” as air frying since you’re only spritzing with cooking spray like in the above method. Preheat your oven to 475F, place the egg rolls on a nonstick baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray them. Also spritz the egg rolls with the nonstick spray and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Flip them over, spray again, and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown and ready.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This sounds yummy!
Can I make these with corn tortillas? My husband is gluten-intolerant. Thanks
Yes you can however corn tortillas are more prone to ripping and tearing. I suggest softening them in the microwave for 15 seconds or so before you roll them.