Serve as an appetizer or as a main dish, these chicken lettuce wraps are sure to please. Filled with tasty chicken, crunchy water chestnuts and crisp green onions and topped with a savory sauce.
Lettuce wraps
Oh my goodness - these lettuce wraps! Talk about flavor!!! Eat as an appetizer or as a main dish, these flavor packed wraps are sure to please everyone.
There's something so satisfying about eating these lettuce wraps. They remind me of an appetizer we always get when going to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants, PF Chang's. We only get to go there on rare occasions, since the nearest is 100 miles away.
Now we can have one of our favorites, without ever leaving our house! The only drawback, someone has to do the dishes when we make them ourselves!
Key ingredients
The main part of these wraps is quite simple consisting of just a few ingredients. The sauce that adds all the flavor does contain a few more, but don't be intimidated by the longer list. This is where all the flavor comes from and is well worth putting them all together.
- Ground chicken
- Bibb lettuce
- Water chestnuts
- Green onions
- Hoisin sauce
- Soy sauce
- Sesame oil
- Fresh ginger
To make the wraps
- Create sauce by combining hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, siracha sauce, sesame oil, ginger and garlic together in a bowl. Divide the sauce in half - part will be used with the chicken mixture, part will be used as a sauce to drizzle over the wraps.
- Cook the chicken
- Sautee onions
- Add chestnuts and prepared sauce
- Cook until sauce has evaporated
- Allow mixture to cool briefly
- Spoon into lettuce leaves and drizzle on reserved sauce
Substitutions and Variations
- Use ground turkey or ground pork in place of the ground chicken
- Add finely chopped sautéed mushrooms
- Omit the siracha sauce if you prefer a milder sauce
- Chop unsalted cashews and sprinkle on top of wraps
- Sprinkle freshly chopped cilantro on cooked mixture
- Use butter lettuce or ice berg lettuce - anything that has a nice rounded leaf to hold the filling.
Tips
- Can be made ahead of time and reheated
- Add filling to lettuce wraps only when ready to eat
- These are fun to serve unassembled and let everyone create their own
- Use one or two leaves to hold the filling. Double up with small leaves or leaves with a small tear.
- Drizzle additional sauce over filled wraps before eating
More Asian inspired recipes
If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment below and snap a picture and tag me on Instagram @beyondthechickencoop
Be sure to check out all my main dish recipes!
Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Equipment
Ingredients
Sauce
- ½ cup hoisin sauce
- ⅓ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon siracha sauce (optional)
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons ginger (freshly grated)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
Filling
- 1 pound ground chicken (or turkey)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ onion (finely diced, about ½ cup)
- 8 ounces water chestnuts (1 can, drained and chopped)
- 8 green onions (chopped, whites and green)
- 1 head bibb lettuce (washed and leaves separated)
- salt and pepper (if needed)
Instructions
Sauce
- Combine hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, siracha sauce, sesame oil, ginger and garlic together in a bowl.
- Divide sauce into two containers- 1 for the chicken mixture, 1 for drizzling over the wraps
Filling
- Heat a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add 1-2 tablespoons of the olive oil so the pan is lightly covered. Add chicken and cook until no more pink is showing. Be certain to break meat up into small pieces while cooking.
- Remove cooked chicken from pan. In the same pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and then the onions. Sauté until onions are soft and lightly golden, approximately 3-5 minutes.
- Reduce heat to medium and add the water chestnuts, cooked chicken and half of the prepared sauce (keeping other half for drizzling over the wraps).
- Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add green onions and stir until well incorporated. Remove from heat and place in a serving bowl.
Wraps
- Take one to two leaves of lettuce and place filling in the center of the lettuce.
- Drizzle on a small amount of reserved sauce
Video
Notes
- Use ground turkey or ground pork in place of the ground chicken
- Add finely chopped sautéed mushrooms
- Omit the siracha sauce if you prefer a milder sauce
- Chop unsalted cashews and sprinkle on top of wraps
- Sprinkle freshly chopped cilantro on cooked mixture
- Use butter lettuce or ice berg lettuce - anything that has a nice rounded leaf to hold the filling.
- Can be made ahead of time and reheated
- Add filling to lettuce wraps only when ready to eat
- These are fun to serve unassembled and let everyone create their own
- Use one or two leaves to hold the filling. Double up with small leaves or leaves with a small tear.
- Drizzle additional sauce over filled wraps before eating
Nutrition
Recipe adapted from Damn Delicious.
David @ Spiced says
100 miles away! Holy cow, that certainly is good inspiration for making your own version at home. These lettuce wraps look amazing, too. Talk about a great way to start off the new year!!
Kathy says
Yep...nothing's close when you live way out in the country. But that particular restaurant is a bit further away than most.
Valentina says
Kathy, I really wish this was right in front of me -- in real life! Seriously, it looks so delicious and love that all of the deliciousness is wrapped up in lettuce. Perfect!
Happy New Year to you and your family. 🙂 ~Valentina
Kathy says
They are super tasty and didn't last long after we made them! Luckily they are easy to make so we could whip up another batch for everyone else.