I’m a busy lady, and I don’t have a lot of time to spare. I run my own business and I’m a busy mom to an almost 8-month old. As much as I would love to stave over a hot fire and spend hours in the kitchen, I just don’t have that kind of time. So I’m always on the lookout for easy meals that I can make within 30 minutes. Something that I can quickly whip up, have dinner on the table, and relax with my family.
So I make lettuce wraps A LOT. My husband prefers to eat a Paleo diet, and this definitely fits in that category. There are literally no carbs. It’s meat, vegetables, and sauce. And lettuce wraps are AMAZING and so, so, so easy to make for a quick weekday dinner. It literally takes 10 minutes to cook and you’re done.
I always have lettuce on hand and ground meat of some kind. Many people make lettuce wraps with ground chicken. You can also use ground turkey or even ground beef if that’s what’s in your freezer. Personally, I’ve always used ground turkey or ground chicken because they’re leaner and healthier meats.
If you have fresh ginger on hand, chop it up into tiny pieces and sauté it with the meat. If you don’t have it on hand, just use powder ginger like I do in this recipe. It adds a nice Asiany flavor.
To make the sauce, you’ll need to pick up some Hoisin Sauce, Soy Sauce, and Rice Wine vinegar at your local supermarket. If your grocery store doesn’t carry it, swing by the Asian grocery. Hoisin is a staple for Pho, so any grocery store that carries Vietnamese ingredients will have it.
Butter lettuce or bib are ideal for Asian lettuce wraps, but I had romaine on hand, so I used that. Eating lettuce wraps is a little messy – you’ll have to (gasp) use your hands. It’s super delicious though and so filling.
Enjoy this easy Asian Chicken Wrap recipe. Happy eating!
Yummy Asian Lettuce Wraps
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 lb ground chicken or turkey
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can (8 oz) whole water chestnuts, drained and chopped
- 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 2 tsp ginger powder (or small knob of chopped ginger)
- Sriracha sauce, to taste
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 1 head lettuce (butter or Bibb lettuce is best)
Instructions
- Over medium heat, heat cooking oil in a non-stick pan. Add ground chicken (or turkey) and minced garlic. Cook until browned and meat is crumbly. (About 4-5 minutes.)
- Add the water chestnuts. Stir in the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and ginger powder. Add Sriracha sauce (if desired), Mix together until well combined. Cook for 2-3 minutes until everything looks delicious and saucy.
- Before removing from heat, stir in the green onions and cook for 1 minute.
- Spoon the meat mixture onto a lettuce leaf and enjoy. At our house, we eat family style. The lettuce leaves go on a platter, and the ground meat mixture goes into a bowl. It’s yummy and so much fun.
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