Toddler-Friendly Smashed Eggroll (Easy Viral Recipe for Kids)

If ever there was a viral TikTok trend that speaks/appeals to toddlers, it is the smashed burger taco. It’s a hamburger; it’s a taco. It’s a crispy, meaty, basically ratchet combo of grease and joy–exactly what kids want to eat.

Now, if your child is already a fan of quesadillas, by all means just rub some ground beef on a tortilla and get to work (see ‘Adapt’ section on how); ours, though just kinda shrugged the first time we did that. Maybe it was the size of the thing, as small children can’t really wield a taco well, and you can’t really cut it in half; maybe it was the pairing of burger taste with a slightly crisped tortilla that felt out of sorts texturally. You know how small children are with their routines. He ate it, mind you–but he didn’t love it.

Challenge accepted, we figured, and went back to the lab: what if we ditch the burger route altogether and lean more towards spring rolls and dumplings, which our child already prefers crispy? Goodbye tortilla and hello egg roll wrapper, we said; pork subbed in for beef; Asian flavors replaced Americana. Voila, the smashed eggroll. To make them easier to hold, we tried folding one half of the egg roll skin over the other during cooking, creating a small pocket that a toddler can hold with one or two hands–or, more important, set down and pick up as needed. Reader, it worked.

But that’s the beauty of the smashed eggroll template: almost anything can. You can change the filling, both the kind of meat you use and the seasonings you put in it; you can change the delivery mechanism–Pita? Flatbread? Dumpling wrapper?--underneath. Top how you want; dip you’d like. The variations are endless. See below for how to pull it off.

Tips For Making Smashed Tacos and Smashed Eggroll

• Go easy on liquid marinades. If your meat is too wet, it will leech out during cooking and basically steam the meat and eggroll wrapper, causing it to be a damp mess. As you’ll see in our base recipe, use just a bit of something something–say, soy or barbecue sauce–and rely on dry seasonings to carry most of the lift. You can always add sauce on top after cooking.

• Move quickly: it’ll only take about 75-90 seconds for the meat side to not only develop a crust but cook through; you’ll want to keep it moving so it doesn’t dry out.

• Try different forms to suit your child: our approach is to make a flat pocket that can be held easily, but we’ve had good success tweaking the shape. If your child can hold and handle it, the simplest approach is to cover most of the surface with your meat mixture and fry it up; you can also put a concentrated amount of meat right in the center and let it fry up around it, sort of like a crab rangoon or beggars purse. You can also roll up like an egg roll by lining meat at one edge from end to end; cook meat side as described, flip, then cook the other side for about 20-30 seconds before rolling up. Rotated roll so uncooked sides crisp up.

Check out our other great toddler ground beef recipes!