Air Fryer Cheeseburger Egg Rolls

We love a good fried finger food like these restaurant style cheeseburger egg rolls. So when we can make them a little healthier at home using our air fryer, they’re a no-brainer for football Sundays and nights when we’re craving snacks for dinner.

They’re the perfect mix of gooey, creamy, and cheesy on the inside, yet crispy and crunchy on the outside. Dipped in sriracha mayo, they really just get better with every bite! Pair them with other game day favorites like bacon jalapeno popper dip, buffalo chicken rangoons, and pulled pork nachos for an impressive Sunday football spread.

What This Recipe Entails

• Ready in: 35 minutes
• Serves: 4 people (makes 12 egg rolls)
• Great for: Football Sundays and parties
• Flavor profile: Savory and juicy like your favorite cheeseburger, with a bit of kick from the sriracha mayo
• Why we love it: This is one of our favorite restaurant appetizers, so being able to make them at home is a game changer! They’re surprisingly easy to throw together for a game day party with friends.

Ingredients

• Ground beef – We like to use either 80/20 or 90/10 for this recipe. You’ll drain out the excess grease from the pan either way, so it doesn’t matter too much.
• Aromatics and seasonings – We like to add minced garlic, red onion, Worcestershire sauce, and salt to the ground beef for an extra pop of flavor. The Worcestershire goes a long way in giving these their cheeseburger flavor!
• Cream cheese – This adds moisture to the egg rolls so they don’t dry out when cooking in the air fryer. It also acts as a binder to hold the filling together, so it’s easy to wrap the egg rolls. Any brand works, but we’re partial to Philadelphia.
• Shredded cheddar cheese – Cheddar is our go-to for cheeseburgers, so that’s what we use in this recipe. We think it has the best flavor and melts nicely with the cream cheese, but you can absolutely swap in other cheeses like pepper jack, Monterey jack, or even Mexican cheese!
• Egg roll wrappers – You can usually find these in a refrigerated section of your grocery store, often near the tofu and other vegan ingredients. Make sure to specifically use egg roll wrappers, not spring roll wrappers. Spring roll wrappers don’t contain egg, which is what makes egg rolls thick, crispy, and bubbly on the outside.
• Sriracha mayo – This is our preferred dip for these egg rolls! All you need for it is mayo and sriracha. There are also tons of other dips that would taste great, see the section below on Serving Suggestions for ideas.

How To Make Air Fryer Cheeseburger Egg Rolls

All you need to make these savory cheeseburger egg rolls is a frying pan and an air fryer:

1. Make the cheeseburger filling. Brown the ground beef in a frying pan, then drain the excess grease before adding onion, garlic, Worcestershire, and salt. Once that’s cooked, transfer it to a bowl with cream cheese and shredded cheddar and mix thoroughly to combine.
2. Wrap the egg rolls. This is the fun part! Spoon your cheeseburger filling onto the egg roll wrappers and roll them tightly (see detailed instructions and photos below, in the How To Wrap Egg Rolls section).
3. Air fry. Preheat your air fryer to 375 degrees F, then grease the basket and add a few egg rolls, seam side down. Grease the tops of the egg rolls with cooking spray, then cook for 4 minutes, flip, spray again, and cook for another 4 minutes until they’re crispy, golden brown, and bubbly. Work in batches as needed so as not to overcrowd the air fryer.
4. Make the dipping sauce. In a small bowl, stir together mayo and sriracha until well combined.
5. Let cool and serve. These egg rolls get really hot inside, so we recommend letting them cool for at least 5 minutes before serving. Optionally garnish with minced chives and enjoy!

How To Wrap Egg Rolls

Before tackling this recipe, we learned how to properly wrap egg rolls from The Woks of Life. We’ve briefly summarized the steps below to help you make this recipe, along with labeled photos:

1. Set up a workstation with a sheet of parchment paper to work on, a parchment lined baking sheet for the wrapped egg rolls, and a small bowl of water. Lay an egg roll wrapper flat on your work surface with one corner pointing towards you. Spoon the cheeseburger filling into the lower third of the wrapper and shape it into a rough log.
2. Fold the corner of the wrapper facing you over the filling, then gently tuck it under the filling.
3. Press down on the wrapper on both sides of the filling to begin sealing the ends.
4. Fold each of the side corners in towards the middle, one at a time.
5. Wet your fingers with a little bit of water and spread it over the exposed inside face of the egg roll wrapper, towards the top. This will help it seal once it’s rolled.
6. Tightly roll towards the top corner and place the egg roll seam side down on the parchment-lined baking sheet.

Having a baking sheet to place the egg rolls on has saved us some headaches, especially when our air fryer is all the way on the other side of the kitchen! This allows us to transport them over for cooking, or easily freeze them if we’re making them ahead of time.

Make Ahead Options

If you want to make these for a party or simply prep ahead, you have a few options:

1. Make the filling ahead of time – Mix up the filling, then let it cool a bit before storing in the fridge until later. You’ll want to reheat the filling in the microwave until it’s warm before wrapping and air frying the egg rolls to ensure that they heat all the way through during cooking.
2. Wrap the egg rolls and freeze – Alternatively, mix the filling and wrap all the egg rolls, but don’t cook them. Instead, freeze them in a single layer on a sheet pan for about an hour, then seal them tight in a zip-top bag and freeze for up to 1 month. To cook from frozen, air fry at 375 for 10 minutes, flipping halfway through. Remember to grease them and the air fryer basket, like you would when cooking fresh, so they get extra crispy.
3. Cook ahead of time – You can air fry a few batches of these and then pop them in a foil tray and cover to keep warm if you’re planning to serve them within a half hour or so of cooking. If you need to warm them up again, you can reheat the whole batch in the oven at 350, but note that they may lose some of their crispy texture this way.

Serving Suggestions

While our favorite dip for these egg rolls is the creamy sriracha mayo recipe we’ve included, some other great dips include:

• Classics like ketchup, barbecue sauce, or honey mustard
• Chipotle mayo
• Avocado lime crema

Cheeseburger egg rolls are a great appetizer for game days. Some of our favorite snacks to serve alongside them are popcorn chicken, bacon cream cheese jalapeno poppers, and buffalo chicken dip sliders. We also love having an egg roll smorgasbord, featuring these and our southwest egg rolls. 

Oh, and don’t forget an ice cold beer!

We hope you love this recipe as much as we do. If you try it, let us know what you think by leaving a review below – we read and reply to every single one!

Love this recipe? You may enjoy these recipes, too:

• Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Taquitos
• Buffalo Chicken Dip Bites
• Southwest Egg Rolls
• Easy Soft Pretzel Bites & Beer Cheese Dip