NYC Diner Recreates Chili's Southwestern Eggrolls

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I have a quite a few memories of eating at Chili's.

I distinctly remember getting the Southwest eggrolls

because my family was not an appetizer family.

Like you got water when we went out to eat

and you got your entree and that was it.

I do remember one time we got the Southwest eggrolls

and it was like, you know,

such an occasion and they were so good.

I really love these

and that's why I wanted to make my own version

of the Southwestern eggroll

as the special of the week here.

The Southwest eggroll is a really magical concoction

of lakey dough stuffed with black beans, corn,

bell peppers, melty cheese,

and everything you would want in eggroll

that was born in New Mexico.

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That's pretty good.

So we're at Kellogg's Diner in Williamsburg.

It's a 97-year-old diner.

Though we're gonna take the Southwestern eggroll

and make it a Northeastern eggroll.

It felt appropriate to do a Reuben,

that's such a classic New York diner sandwich.

There are a few key points

you wanna hit when making an eggroll.

The first being a nice flaky exterior.

It's really important for an eggroll

that you have this like kind of nice balance

between crispy crunchy

and then like that nice chewy pull from the dough

that's like slightly less cooked on the inside.

The second thing that you really want

is a nice substantial filling that is far too hot

when you bite into it.

You wanna make sure that

there's like a nice balance between the filling

and the exterior,

so that your eggroll isn't too dry or too doughy.

Once these set the table,

you want them to hold their structural integrity

and keep their crisp.

It's really important that the fillings are not too wet.

A wet filling is gonna make

your exterior soggy really quickly.

All of the components that make a great eggroll

also make a great Ruben.

We wanna take all the elements

that make a Southwest eggroll really great,

infuse that with all of the flavors of a Ruben

and make it more true to New York.

When I set out to make this filling,

I wanted you to be able to distinguish each component

when you bit into it.

In a Reuben, you have this really nice braised corn beef,

bright, crunchy sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese

and Russian dressing.

A New York deli would make their corn beef from scratch,

so that's the way we're gonna do it too.

I'm making the brine right now.

I have about seven quarts of water.

Corn beef is a brined brisket.

We're gonna use equal parts sugar and securing salt,

sodium nitrite to help preserve the meat.

The sodium nitrite is going to help the corn beef

keep that nice pink color.

And then the kosher salt that we're using

is gonna help break down connective tissue

and the protein,

so you have a tender cut of meat.

Peppercorns, bay leaf and mustard seed.

I'm just gonna give this a quick mix.

We have our trimmed brisket here.

Brisket is like on the chest portion of the cow.

It's like a really worked muscle,

the more tough cut of beef,

which is why it's important to cook it slowly.

It just gives it time for the connective tissue

and the protein to like break down and tenderize.

So take some ice.

I'm really trying to prevent bacteria from forming

since it is gonna be a long brining process

and ensuring that the meat stays cold

is a really safe way to do that.

Over the next five to seven days,

the brine is gonna infuse into the meat,

break down the connective tissue,

give it a lot more flavor.

All of the spices and the salt

are going to be penetrated into the meat.

But movie magic, I have one prepared.

I started burning this one a week ago

and we're ready to pop it in the oven.

We actually want to use hot water this time

as opposed to cold

because the goal is to bring the internal temperature

of the brisket up

so that it's cooking evenly in the oven

and pop it into a 275 degree oven

for like three to four hours.

Brisket is out of the oven and cooled down.

It feels pretty tender,

I'm gonna cut into it and make sure that that is the case.

That looks good.

The brine has penetrated all the way through the brisket,

which you can see the colors all the way through.

And you can see here all this like connective tissue

that runs throughout the brisket has broken down,

so this is gonna be a nice tender piece of meat.

For our purposes,

we're just gonna like chop the [beep] out of it.

Chopping up the beef is gonna give you more

of a homogenous texture.

You're gonna get a little bit of everything

through every bite,

but really I can almost even just break it up with my hands

because it's so tender.

The salinity has really penetrated the meat.

It's really flavorful.

You can taste the mustard seed and the peppercorn in there.

There's a little bit of sweetness too from the sugar.

It's a really nice balance of flavors.

You guys want some? Sure, great.

Everyone should say yes.

Next up I'm gonna chop up all of this Swiss cheese.

This is gonna give a nice fatty, creamy, unctuous flavor

to our eggrolls.

In the Chili's eggroll,

the cheese acted as a little bit of a binder.

I'm putting all my ingredients into one bowl,

the chopped beef, the cheese, the kraut, and the mustard.

We're gonna mix those all together,

so it's a more of a homogenous bite.

Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage.

It's just shredded cabbage and salt that's been fermented.

It's nice and bright,

gives a nice acidity to different foods

and it's honestly one of my favorite foods,

I could like eat it right out of a jar.

Something really important when making these eggrolls

is to make sure that there's not too much liquid

incorporated into the filling.

So something I'm gonna do is to squeeze out

all of this sauerkraut brine.

So we're looking for a balance of flavors.

The meat's gonna bring the fattiness, the umami,

the cheese is gonna bring that creaminess,

the mustard seed and the kraut

are gonna bring the acidity

to help balance both of those things out.

That's delicious.

I could literally eat this by the spoonful,

it's so good.

So it's kind of like if a Ruben

was meant for a baby. [laughs]

It's got a great balance between flavors and textures.

There's a little texture from the mustard seed and kraut.

It's bright and it's acidic.

It doesn't feel too heavy,

but I think it's gonna work really nicely

as an eggroll filling.

I'm going to set this aside

and then I'm going to go ahead

and mix my dough and get my wrappers ready.

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Typically for an eggroll, people use wonton wrappers.

I don't think this is a classic wonton dough.

It's like a little bit denser.

Something that resembles more of like a chimichanga,

you know, like a fried flour tortilla.

The difference between a wonton dough

and a flour tortilla is that

there's a lot more fat incorporated into a flour tortilla,

whether that's like pork fat, or butter, or oil.

The goal is to get a crispy exterior

that maintains once it hits the table

and sits for a little while,

as well as like that balance of chewiness

when you bite into it.

Traditionally a Reuben is made with rye bread,

usually toasted.

It's just got an earthier flavor,

a definitely more distinct flavor than all-purpose flour.

So we're basically making

a rye flour wanton wrapper right now.

What we're going to do

is do a split between all purpose flour and rye flour.

Rye flour is a less glutenous flour,

at least compared to all purpose,

and we really wanted to use it

because it has that distinct like woodsy nutty flavor.

I also didn't sift out any of the germ

in the rye flour,

so it's got a little bit more texture to it as well.

You wanna make sure your dough has flavor,

so we're gonna add some salt in here

and just a little bit of baking powder

to add a little bit more airiness to the dough.

And when we fry it,

it'll create those little bubbles that we're looking for.

We're adding in our egg yolk.

These are gonna act as your binder for the dough.

One and a half cups of ice cold water.

We're looking to create a shaggy dough,

very similar to making pasta.

Working and resting the dough is really important because

that will ensure that my wrappers are sturdy

and that they can hold up to the wet ingredients.

The Chili's eggrolls have a really substantial filling,

a lot of wet ingredients

and the wrapper is still able to hold up to that.

The doughs come together and when you press it,

it bounces back.

I have a damp towel here

that I'm just gonna cover my dough with

and let it rest for about an hour.

Okay, so we're gonna portion this dough out.

The corn starch is gonna keep the layers

of the dough from sticking to each other.

So I'm trying to roll this out in eighth of an inch thick.

Pretty much as thin as possible.

That ensures that the dough is going to be like nice

and crispy when it fries up

and it's not gonna be too thick or toothsome.

You want a strong dough that's not gonna burst open

when you're filling it

and this one looks really solid.

So for one eggroll,

I'm really happy with this.

It's looking really good.

I'm gonna set this aside

and roll out the rest of my dough.

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These are gonna stay raw until they're filled

and wrapped and then deep fried.

In the meantime,

I wanna keep them covered from drying out.

They're gonna go into the refrigerator

and I'm ready to make the dipping sauce.

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This is the avocado ranch

that comes with the Southwestern eggrolls.

It's got a really nice minty color

light avocado, if you will.

It doesn't taste like ranch,

it tastes like avocado and some form of dairy,

like sour cream or something.

But when you eat it with the Southwestern eggrolls,

it definitely like adds a little bit of coolness to,

you know, the like the hot eggroll, which is great.

[tape whizzing]

That's pretty good.

I wanted to create a Russian dressing style dipping sauce,

you know, would be an homage to a Ruben,

but also bring some brightness and acidity.

The star of the show in Russian dressing,

just like in ranch is mayonnaise

and that's gonna be the bulk of our base of the sauce.

Mayonnaise is gonna bring the creamy fattiness to the party.

Ketchup is gonna bring a little bit more acidity

and vegetal notes from the tomato.

And to really kick up the brightness even more,

I'm gonna add some lemon juice.

Traditionally Russian dressing called for worcestershire,

but we use Maggie a lot.

It's great in a michelada,

but basically it's just like umami seasoning.

So this is fresh horseradish.

Horseradish is a root,

is used in imitation wasabi,

if that helps you understand like what the spice level is.

We're just gonna give this a quick mix.

That's good. That's right where I want it.

It's gonna help to balance out the fattiness of the meat,

and the fried dough, and the cheese,

and bring a level of complexity beyond the mustard seed

and the kraut that's inside the filling.

All of the ingredients are ready.

I think it's time that we get these bad boys filled,

and fried, and eaten.

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Unlike an eggroll that you would get at a restaurant,

the Chili's eggrolls are really filled and fat

and we love that about them.

And so I wanna recreate that,

which means that

I'm gonna use a really solid handful of filling.

I'm gonna try to compact it a little bit,

so that it makes it easier to roll.

So I'm just gonna go around the edge of the eggroll

with a little bit of water,

fold this over one time

and press and seal on the edges.

This is where I'm really gonna get the first solid shape

and form of the eggroll.

You really wanna make sure that your eggroll

is solid and compact,

and there's not a lot of air in there

because what will happen is when you're frying it,

you're gonna end up with like a loose floppy eggroll.

Moving from like your table to the fryer,

it's just not gonna be structurally a sound.

So now I'm tucking in the edges

and adding a little bit more water as I go

to make sure that it stays sealed.

As you can tell,

it's already like a monster of an eggroll,

which is good. [chuckles]

Here's my baby.

I think it looks good and it feels secure

and structurally sound.

The fact that this is filled with mostly meat

and not beans

is gonna make it a little bit hardier.

So I don't know how many

you'd realistically be able to put down,

but you know, that's like an open challenge.

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I'm gonna go ahead and finish rolling out the rest

and then we can fry them all in one go.

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They're massive, they're absolute honkers,

but that's okay.

I mean, you know, who could be mad at that?

More filling is more pleasure.

So I'm just gonna drop them into a 350 degree fryer

for about three to four minutes

or until they're like nice and golden, brown and crispy

and like kind of bubbly on the outside.

You don't want to fry too hot or too cold.

Frying too hot is gonna mean that

your outside crisps really quickly gets really dark

before maybe your filling is hot.

And frying too low might mean that

your eggroll is gonna be taking on too much grease

or like won't get crispy fast enough.

It might give you a tougher dough.

Look how pretty they're, [chuckles]

I'm so happy with the bubbles.

Really crispy, golden brown, nice bubbling,

which is like classic wonton reaction to frying.

I'm gonna cut these on a very hard bias

to replicate the ones at Chili's.

We wanna be able to see all of the filling

and all of the guts, the kraut, and the mustard seed,

and the corn beef and the cheese,

I think that'll offer for a really nice distinctive bite.

I'm gonna fan these out on the plate

in a nice little pinwheel.

I'm gonna throw the Russian dipping sauce in here,

heavy on the horseradish.

There's my dinner, they're beautiful.

I'm gonna take these out to the diner and try them.

And let's see if all my hard work paid off.

I'm gonna go with this one.

I think this is the winner.

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That's pretty good.

That's pretty very good.

Right off the bat,

there's just like a lot more brightness

compared to the Southwestern eggrolls,

which I really like about it.

The meat is really tender and juicy.

The flavor of the cheese still comes through.

The crisp on the dough has held up.

If somebody just shoved a bite of this into your mouth,

you would think you were eating a Ruben.

I really think that we hit the mark with the ratio

of filling to dough.

I'm really happy with how crispy the exterior is.

You can see like it's nice and crispy.

They've been sitting here for a second.

They haven't like steamed and gotten soggy.

Good structural integrity

and I'm really happy with them.

I think I did a pretty good job of encompassing the spirit

of the Southwest eggroll.

I obviously went a little bit bigger,

but you know, New York's a big city, right?

We've got big appetites out here.

I'm so stoked on these.

I decided to put them on the menu as a special.

You can come to Kellogg's Diner,

518 Metropolitan in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

You can have these, they can be yours.

We're serving them up for two days only.

These are the dates right here.

Come get them while they're hot, and molten and filled.

I think we can mark this as a win.

I did what I set out to do,

which was make a nice crispy,

full delicious eggroll based on a Ruben

and an homage to Chili's Southwest eggrolls.

So come to Kellogg's and have some for yourself.

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