Buffalo Turkey Egg Rolls

Buffalo Turkey Egg Rolls ... crispy on the outside .... (photo by A. Mayberry)

... and super delicious on the inside! :0) (photo by A. Mayberry)

After quite the hiatus, I am back in the blogosphere, doing what I do best -- talking about food. (YAY!)

Tonight's dish was actually an ORIGINAL. Okay, so perhaps someone else has thought of it, but I created this dish from scratch, with no recipe to follow. Though I will admit I had a little inspiration from "Hungry Girl" ... I tried a recipe last week for chicken pot pie ... but you put the filling in an egg roll. But I needed to figure out a way that would help me use the rest of the egg roll sheets without having a ton of filling left over. This was my solution ..... Considering my recent obsession with hot wings (and also the title of the blog itself) this shouldn't be a surprise ....

Buffalo Turkey Egg Rolls.

I used 6 egg roll sheets (exactly how many were left over after the pot pie egg rolls .... but the filling still made a little left over .... so you can use 8 or 10 egg roll sheets). I started with 1lb. of lean turkey and browned it with: 1T of cajun seasoning, 1t of red pepper flakes, 1/2c of Franks Hot Wing Sauce and Salt and Pepper to taste. I added a little corn starch to thicken the juice a little, but you may not find this necessary. (I was down to the last of the Wing sauce and used the water trick to rinse out the last of the sauce .... might of had a bit much of the H2O ...)

While the meat was browning, I preheated the oven to 375 degrees.

Then I took 2 pieces of celery stalk, and 2 carrots and diced them fairly small, for egg roll friendliness.

Once the meat was completely cooked, I took 2T of meat and laid it on a dry egg roll sheet. I sprinkled some of the carrots and celery on top, then topped THAT off with about 1 1/2t of blue cheese crumbles (per egg roll). I folded in the sides, dampened the edge of one end, folded and then rolled the egg roll ... using the first flap to tuck in the filling, then rolling it to the dampened edge. The water used to dampen the edge of the egg roll sheet will help to seal the egg roll closed.

I repeated until I had filled all of my egg roll sheets.

I placed each of the egg rolls on a foil covered, lightly sprayed cookie sheet. Bake the egg rolls for about 10 minutes .... remove from the oven and turn them over .... cook for about another 10 minutes or until the egg rolls are crispy and golden brown.

I've learned from Hungry Girl that the egg rolls can be made in the oven, thus nixing the need to deep fry them. They still get nice and crispy ... and, since there is no excess oil, they stay crispier than the deep fried stuff when it comes to left overs. (BONUS!!!)

And for the taste test .... yum! Next time, I think I would do 2 things .... add a pinch more blue cheese and perhaps concoct some sort of light dipping sauce. What's awesome is that these could be served with rice, mashed potatoes or even a la carte as an appetizer. You can even cut up some spare veggies and a little blue cheese dressing.

The combination I've got for these egg rolls has just a little kick. But if you like more heat, you can add Tabasco sauce, perhaps a hotter wing sauce or cayenne pepper sauce, more pepper flakes or Cajun seasoning. Either way you make it, it will be delicious! Not too shabby for a 30-minute dinner experiment from my laboratory ... er ... I mean ... kitchen. :0)

After several attempts at having made egg rolls, I'd say I've got the technique pretty well mastered. (Now if only I were half as crafty at making sushi ...)

Until next time, Buon Appetito!