The filling is full of veggies, protein and a delicious thai/sweet chili/peanut sauce everyone that will leave everyone at the table feeling satisfied. You can watch your hungry family load their plates with seconds, thirds, or even fourths and smile that they’re not only loving these Thai chicken lettuce wraps, but they’re eating healthy!
Start by chopping your chicken into very small pieces, and chopping all of your veggies.
Add the chicken, onion, garlic, salt and pepper to a large skillet and cook until no longer pink. Add the chopped veggies and saute until tender.
Make the sauce (this can be made in advance and stored in the fridge). Fresh chopped ginger really tastes the very best in the sauce (you can buy a small piece of ginger root for this recipe, and store the extra in your freezer for another day).
Add the sauce and cilantro to the skillet and toss everything to combine.
What is the best lettuce to use for lettuce wraps?
You can use any type of green leafy lettuce for lettuce wraps, but popular types of lettuce include Boston bib lettuce and romaine hearts. The great thing about lettuce wraps is that they are easily modifiable when it comes to the filling and the wrapping. Cabbage leaves would also be a yummy substitute.
A few tips for this recipe:
Substitutions:
This recipe is easily adaptable to use what you have in your fridge. You could add other chopped veggies, like celery, bok choy, bean sprouts, shredded Brussels sprouts, zucchini or summer squash. Saute the veggies until tender, when you add them to the skillet. If you add a lot of extra veggies to this recipe, you may want to make a little more sauce.
You could also substitute the chicken for ground turkey, pork, or tofu, or leave it out completely for a vegetarian option, adding extra veggies instead.
Ingredient prep:
I use a box grater to shred my carrot. Then I use a paper towel to scoop up the pile of shredded carrot and squeeze the liquid out of it.
I also pat the chicken dry with paper towels after I’ve chopped it into small pieces. Removing the excess liquid helps the chicken brown better when you saute it in step 2.
The sauce for these lettuce wraps can be made 2-3 days in advance, making for even faster dinner prep!
Consider trying these delicious lettuce wrap recipes:
- Avocado Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps
- Cashew Chicken Lettuce Wraps
- Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps
- Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps
- Spicy Chicken Lettuce Wraps
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Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Video
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts (or tenders), chopped into very small pieces*
- 4 cloves garlic , minced
- 1/2 cup yellow onion , chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 carrot , shredded
- 1/2 cup cabbage , finely shredded (red, green, or napa)
- 3 green onions , chopped
For the sauce:
- 1/3 cup sweet chili sauce
- 1 heaping Tablespoon peanut butter , smooth or crunchy
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger (or 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger)
- 2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro , chopped
- crushed red pepper flakes to taste
- 1 head Boston Bib lettuce (or romaine)
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium.
- Add chicken, garlic, onions, salt and pepper and cook, tossing occasionally, until chicken is cooked through.
- Add the carrots, cabbage, and green onions, and cook for 2 more minutes.
- In a small bowl combine the sweet chili sauce, ginger, peanut butter, soy sauce, and crushed red pepper. Stir until smooth.
- Add sauce to the pan. Add cilantro. toss everything until combined.
- Spoon mixture into individual lettuce cups. Should fill about 8 lettuce cups.
- You might also like Cashew Chicken Lettuce Wraps!
Notes
Nutrition
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Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE this recipe and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
I originally shared this recipe in January 2014. Updated January 2018
Gail Becker says
My lovely Asian neighbor gifted me a case of the freshest young green leaf lettuce I’ve ever seen. She mentioned that she uses it for lettuce wraps. After re-gifting many heads to neighbors and friends, I searched for a recipe, and found this one. It was so much better than expected, and honored the beautiful lettuce. We will definitely have them again!
Donna G says
Wish I could give this 10 stars!!!!! Absolutely delicious and so easy I thought I missed steps. It my go to meal now! Have got my sister, brother and mother hooked as well! I usually double the sauce (it’s so good)and put it over rice to round out dinner.
Angela says
Delicious!
I added shitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, rice cooking wine, and extra ginger. I also ran out of peanut butter, so I substituted tahini lol! This was so easy to prep and cook. I’ll definitely be making this again.
Joy says
This is a delicious recipe but it is NOT a 20 minute meal. I spent 2 hours cooking the meat, chopping the veggies, and making the sauce. Even while working on stages simultaneously. This is the 3rd time I have made it and it has been very time consuming each time. I will continue to make the wraps because they are so good but DO NOT go into it with only 20 minutes to get a meal on the table.
Sara says
Super delicious and fast! But please do yourselves a favor, at least double if not triple the recipe. I doubled it for three people (no way 1/2# of chicken was going to be enough) and even with doubling, it was demolished! Restaurant quality!
Jessica W says
I use coleslaw ready mix that has cabbage, carrots etc. This makes it quicker for our family. They do sell shredded carrots as well if one wanted to cut down prep time. My whole family loves this meal even a picky teen eater that only likes chicken tenders 😉 This is always in our dinner rotation!
Sherilynn says
First time I have ever liked anything in a leaf of lettuce!