Chicken Cabbage Rolls

These chicken cabbage rolls are stuffed with savory chicken, mushroom, carrot, and green onion filling wrapped in napa cabbage leaves. They're delicious as a meal or snack and well balanced with protein and vegetables. If you're looking for more ways to use up napa cabbage, you'll also love our classic kimchi, mille feuille nabe, and jjamppong (Korean spicy seafood noodle soup) recipe!

Jump to:

• Ingredients and substitutes
• How to make these chicken cabbage rolls
• Alternative way to blanch napa cabbage
• Storage and reheating
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Feedback

Ingredients and substitutes

Please scroll down to the recipe card for the ingredient quantities!

• Ground chicken - This is our protein and filling base, and if you prefer, ground pork is a good substitute.
• Dried shiitake mushrooms - We usually opt for dried shiitake because we always have it available in our pantry. But if you have fresh shiitake available, feel free to use those. You can also substitute the shiitake mushrooms for mushrooms of your chioce or skip it altogether.
• Grated carrot and green onions - Adds flavor, color, and texture to the filling
• Ginger and garlic - Both of these add flavor and make the filling more aromatic.
• Soy sauce and oyster sauce - These two are the main seasonings used. The measurement provided is based on regular soy sauce. So if you're using low sodium, you may need to supplement with some salt. If you need a substitute for the oyster sauce, you can use this mushroom vegetarian stir-fry sauce with an additional pinch of salt.
• Shaoxing rice wine and white pepper - Adding both of these make the filling more aromatic and flavorful. Shaoxing rice wine is available at most Asian markets, some large grocery stores, and online. If needed, you can substitute it with equal amounts of sake, dry sherry half diluted with water, or just water. The white pepper can also be substituted for cracked black pepper.
• Toasted sesame oil - Adds a lovely nutty, toasted flavor to the filling.
• Napa cabbage - We recommend picking a cabbage that doesn't have super thick stems because it contains a lot of water, which dilutes the flavor of the filling when you eat them together. Also, when separating the cabbage leaves, try to keep the leaves whole for easier assembly.
• Sauce - You can make a quick sauce with some soy sauce, rice vinegar, water, and sugar. We also love adding some of our Chinese chili oil to the mix. Super delicious!
• Neutral oil - Just a little for cooking.
• Water - A couple of tablespoons for cooking/steaming the cabbage rolls.

How to make these chicken cabbage rolls

Please scroll down to the recipe card for the full recipe and instructions!

1. Rehydrate the shiitake mushrooms. Bring a pot of water to a boil. You'll use this for both the mushrooms and later the cabbage.

Place the dried mushrooms in a heatproof bowl and cover with at least an inch of hot water. Let them rehydrate for about 15 minutes or you can let them soak overnight in the fridge. Once they are rehydrated, cut and discard the woody stems and finely chop the caps.

2. Blanch and cool the napa cabbage. To the pot of boiling water, add the cabbage leaves and let them cook for 20-30 seconds or until the stems are flexible. Blanch in batches if needed. Once ready, remove them immediately and place them in a heatproof bowl. Run cold water over the blanched cabbage until the stems are no longer hot. Drain well then very gently squeeze the leaf parts of the cabbage to remove some excess water. No need to dry completely. Set them aside until needed.

🌟 Pro tip: Be gentle with your napa cabbage during the entire process and especially after they're blanched. Keeping the leaves whole and will make the assembly/wrapping process easier.

3. Make the filling. In a mixing bowl, add the ground chicken, chopped shiitake mushrooms, carrot, green onion, ginger, garlic, and all the seasonings. Mix until well combined then mix vigorously until it is paste-like. This is important because the filling needs to be tacky to hold everything together and act like a glue for the cabbage rolls.

4. Assembly. Place a cabbage leaf in front of you vertically with stem closest to you. Spread the leafy parts out so that it's even and flat. Place about 2 tablespoons of filling 2-3 inches (5-7cm) from the bottom of the stem.

Roll the bottom of the stem over then tuck to compact the filling.

Roll the cabbage up once more then fold the side flaps towards the middle to seal the ends.

Then continue rolling the cabbage upwards and keep the seam face down. Repeat with remaining filling and cabbage.

5. Cook. Add enough oil in a large sauté pan to lightly coat the bottom. Place the pan over medium high heat and arrange the cabbage rolls in the pan.

Once the cabbage rolls are sizzling, add the water and cover with a lid. Reduce the heat to medium low to keep it at a simmer. Let the cabbage rolls cook for 10 minutes then uncover and increase the heat to medium high.

Let the remaining cooking liquid evaporate, about 2-5 minutes. At this point, the chicken cabbage roll should be cooked through and the bottoms golden brown as well.

Alternative way to blanch napa cabbage

The main purpose we are blanching our napa cabbage leaves is to make them pliable so that you can fill and roll them up. So if you'd rather, you can soften them in the microwave instead of a pot of water.

To do so, separate the napa cabbage leaves, trim the ends if needed, rinse them well with water, drain the leaves but still leave some water, then spread the leaves evenly on a microwave safe plate. Cover or wrap the plate with plastic wrap and microwave for about 3-6 minutes or until the cabbage stems have softened. The time needed depends on how much cabbage there are and how thick the cabbage stems are.

Once the cabbage has softened, carefully remove the plate and move the cabbage into a big bowl or strainer and rinse with cold water until the stems are not longer hot. Be careful when you move the plate because it'll be very hot and there'll be water in the plate.

Storage and reheating

These chicken cabbage rolls can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. To reheat you can simply microwave it in a microwave safe container. Alternative, you can place them in a pan over medium to medium low heat with a couple tablespoons of water. Cover and let steam until reheated throughly.

📖 Recipe