Did you know it's super easy to make chicken lettuce wraps at home? This Chicken Lettuce Wrap Recipe takes 28 minutes or less and only requires ONE pan. The meal is chock-full of veggies. And the best part: our kids seriously LOVED it!
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If you love the the lettuce wrap appetizer at P.F. Changs, you're going to love this delicious homemade recipe! Like P.F. Chang's version, our chicken lettuce wrap recipe also uses a savory chicken-veggie mixture with a delicious sauce and nested in lettuce leaves. It's so simple to bring this yumminess to your very own kitchen and in under 30 minutes!
💚 Why this Chicken Lettuce Wrap is the Best!
Quick & simple- Minimal steps and can be made in 28 minutes or less!
Kid-friendly- Not only do our kids love these lettuce wraps, they also have fun assembling and eating them!
Hidden veggies: These lettuce wraps contain five different veggies, woven into your kids' meal creatively and deliciously (much like our Turkey Spaghetti with Hidden Veggies recipe)!
One pan! You'll only need ONE pot for this chicken lettuce wrap recipe. Minimal mess, minimal cleanup!
Customizable- You can be super creative with your lettuce wrap fillers, changing up the meat and veggies based on your family's preferences.
🛒 Ingredients
Notes on Ingredients:
Ground chicken- Finely diced chicken breast will also work, or ground turkey or beef.
Veggies- Dice veggies very small for faster cooking and the perfect texture. Other veggies to consider adding/subbing in: diced mushrooms & water chestnuts.
Garlic and ginger- Finely minced is ideal. Jarred minced garlic and ginger are great time savers.
Hoisin sauce- The most important ingredient, both sweet and salty, which gives the lettuce wraps their incredible pop of flavor!
Butterhead lettuce- We love the shape, smooth texture and flavor of butter lettuce, which also happens to be very high in Vitamin A. Iceberg and romaine are also great options.
Peanuts- Totally optional, but we think crushed peanuts give these lettuce wraps some crunch and extra pop of flavor! Fried rice noodles are also a nice touch.
Cilantro- To brighten the meal and add some extra flavor.
Sriracha- Optional, for those who like some extra spice!
👩🏽🍳 How to Make Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Step 1: Make the Filling
Brown chicken in sesame oil until fully cooked! Add onion, carrots, celery, garlic, and ginger to chicken, and cook for 5-6 mins (or until onions are translucent).
🥄 Kid Step: Help chop veggies! We're big fans of these Curious Chef kid-safe knives.
Step 2: Add the Sauce
Add hoisin sauce and soy sauce to chicken and stir until mixed in. Keep heat on low until ready to serve.
🥄 Kid Step: Mix sauce into the filling! Kids will love seeing it all comes together.
Step 3: Assemble Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Scoop filling into open lettuce leaves. Crush a handful of peanuts in a plastic bag and sprinkle atop the chicken wraps. Optional: Sprinkle wraps with a few pieces of torn cilantro and sriracha.
🥄 Kid Step: Crush peanuts! We love this reversible Meat Mallet for the job. Kids can also cut cilantro using these adorable kids kitchen snippers.
✔️ Expert Tips & Tricks
- Keep this meal gluten-free by using gluten-free Soy Sauce and Hoisin.
- Add spice by topping chicken lettuce wraps with Sriracha.
- Make chicken filling ahead of time. Keep in mind you may need to add some extra sauce/liquid when reheating on the stove as the filling may have soaked up all the sauce.
- If you want your veggies cooked even more, you can adjust step 1 so that you are cooking your veggies before adding and browning the chicken.
- Store chicken mixture separate from lettuce to prevent sogginess.
- If you don't care for lettuce, you can wrap the filling in tortillas
Note: If you live in the Portland area, check out Tan Tan's delicious Vietnamese Hoisin sauce. It's made in Oregon, GF, vegan, and so amazing. Available online or at Uwajimaya in Beaverton and a bunch of other local Portland grocers. Shop local!
❓FAQ
Butter lettuce is our lettuce of choice for lettuce wraps, as its leaves are easy to pull apart, are the perfect size, and have a sweet, mild and succulent flavor. Iceberg lettuce is a crispier lettuce that also works nicely, though it can be more difficult to take the leaves apart. Romaine hearts are also a great option but have a little bit of a longer "taco" shape to them.
To remove leaves from your butterhead lettuce, gently pull a leaf away from the crown down to the butt of the head. Be sure to rinse and dry each leaf before adding the chicken filling.
The filling for our chicken lettuce wraps will keep stored in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-5 days. Just be sure to store the chicken mixture separate from the lettuce leaves. You can also freeze the chicken filling in a freezer-safe, airtight container for up to 3 months.
🍴How to Serve these Lettuce Wraps
We prefer eating this dish as lettuce wraps, but you can also serve the chicken filling over rice or noodles. These chicken lettuce wraps also make great appetizers for some of our favorite Asian meals, like our Cauliflower Egg Fried Rice with Orange Chicken , Teriyaki Salmon, or Cashew Chicken with Broccoli.
Note: We serve our chicken lettuce wraps with edamame, which our kids absolutely LOVE. By the way, it's super simple and effective to steam frozen edamame. Sometimes it's hard to find fresh at the store.
✅ Customize this Dish
- Make it Gluten Free! Be sure to use GF versions of Soy Sauce and Hoisin. The product I always see is San-J's Tamari Gluten Free Soy Sauce. In fact, I'm not gluten-intolerant and I always buy the San-J brand anyway. Kikkoman also now makes a GF soy sauce, but I haven't seen this one around quite as much.
- Make it Vegan/Vegetarian! Replace the meat with ground tofu or pea protein crumbles. I'm a huge fan of Beyond Meat Beefy Crumbles. I've used them for years to make vegetarian chili and it is soooo delicious. Worth noting is that these crumbles are high in protein and also GF.
👶🏽 Tips for Picky Eaters
- Kids choose the meat. If your kids don't like ground chicken, you can swap the chicken for beef, pork or turkey.
- Separate the parts. If your kids aren't into the meat being on top of lettuce, simply serve the meat on the side. Kids can treat the lettuce like a salad and add their favorite dressing.
- Serve the meat over rice or rice noodles. As an alternative to making lettuce wraps, you can have the meat and veggie mixture over rice or noodles!
🧶 Craft for this Recipe
Hold onto those extra lettuce leafs and make a Butter Lettuce Necklace out of them! Grab some string, beads and lettuce, and get creative! My daughter loves this craft!
🍽 Other Delicious Wraps & Sandwiches
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🥬 Chicken Lettuce Wrap Recipe
Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Large frying pan or wok
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 Pound ground chicken
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 1 cup carrots finely chopped
- 2 ribs celery finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 inch fresh ginger finely chopped
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce
- 2 Tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 handful peanuts crushed
- 1 head butterhead lettuce (Bibb, Boston, or Butter) rinsed and full leaves torn off
- fresh cilantro (optional)
- Sriracha hot sauce (optional)
Instructions
- Heat sesame oil in a large pan on medium heat. Add ground chicken and cook, breaking apart into small pieces, until chicken is no longer pink (about 5 minutes).
- Add onion, carrots, celery, garlic, and ginger to chicken, and cook for 5-6 minutes more (or until onions are translucent).
- Add Hoisin sauce and Soy Sauce to chicken and stir until heated throughout (about 3 minutes). Keep heat on low until ready to serve.
- Scoop chicken mixture onto open lettuce leaves. Crush a handful of peanuts in a plastic bag and sprinkle atop the chicken wraps. OPTIONAL: Sprinkle wraps with a few pieces of torn cilantro and Sriracha.
Notes
- Keep this meal gluten-free by using gluten-free Soy Sauce and Hoisin.
- Add spice by topping chicken lettuce wraps with Sriracha.
- Make chicken filling ahead of time. Keep in mind you may need to add some extra sauce/liquid when reheating on the stove as the filling may have soaked up all the sauce.
- If you want your veggies cooked even more, you can adjust step 1 so that you are cooking your veggies before adding and browning the chicken.
- Store chicken mixture separate from lettuce to prevent sogginess.
- If you don't care for lettuce, you can wrap the filling in tortillas
Nutrition
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. While we are not certified nutritionists, we work with a WordPress-integrated nutrition API to calculate our recipes' ingredient values.
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