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!
Video Tutorial:
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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Healthy food has never tasted so AMAZING! These Thai chicken lettuce wraps are bursting with bold flavor, and fresh ingredients. They can be enjoyed as a main dish or served as an appetizer.
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/2 lb chicken breasts or tenders chopped into very small pieces*
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 carrots shredded
- 1/2 cup finely shredded cabbage , red, green, or napa
- 3 green onions chopped
- 1/3 cup sweet chili sauce
- 1 heaping Tablespoon peanut butter , smooth or crunchy
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly chopped ginger , or 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- Crushed red pepper to taste
- 1 head butter lettuce or romaine heart
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!
*You could substitute 1/2 pound ground chicken or turkey
Tips for this recipe are listed in the post above!
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
Sarah says
YUM Lauren! Those look amazing. I love chicken recipes that are a little bit different like this one, cause we eat a lot of the basic chicken dishes and lately I am just not in the mood for the same old!
Lauren Allen says
Thanks Sarah! Hope you like them 🙂
Jessica says
WOW these look amazing! I can’t wait to try them out, thanks for sharing!!
Lauren Allen says
Thanks Jess! They are tasty! I just loooovvvveee lettuce wraps! 🙂
Kathleen says
Oh yum! This sounds so fantastic! I’m so making these, when my husband goes out of town because he won’t eat them. They look to healthy. Rotten man.
Lauren Allen says
Hahaha I hear ya, my husband would call it bird food! But they really are filling and delicious!
April G says
These are amazing! I was also looking for a different “chicken” recipe. I made these for my husband on Friday evening and – as I type- I am standing in my kitchen on Sunday evening making them again! They are so delish
Lauren Allen says
I’m so glad you and your husband liked them! Thanks for your comment!
monica says
These were very good! Quick & easy too.
monica says
Very good! Quick & easy too.
Becky Newton says
We really liked these! If you didn’t want to go carb free you could totally serve this over brown rice. We found that it could have used an extra chicken breast to make the meal go farther, and there is plenty of sauce that would of covered it. Thanks for sharing, we enjoyed it!
Lauren Allen says
Thanks for your comment Becky! Glad you liked it!
Debbie Keady says
any tips on cutting up the chicken in little bits?
Lauren Allen says
Hi Debbie,
You could try chopping the breasts into large chunks and then sticking them in your food processor. Just pulse 3-4 times until you get small little bits of chicken.
Hannah says
Liked this a lot! Only change, I made was to use Sriracha instead of red pepper. Wasn’t super spicy, could have been hotter for my taste but my sister is a bit of a spice wimp.
mary says
Sounds like a great recipe. I would suggest substituting the canola oil with coconut oil as it is much better for your body than canola oil.
Will try it soon
Thanks for posting
Lisa says
How many calories are in these lettuce wraps?
Lauren Allen says
They are about 100 calories per serving http://myrecipemagic.com/recipe/nutrition/38402
Amber says
Made these for dinner last night…was looking for something a little different than our usual lettuce wraps. These were great! That peanut butter sauce was really something special. Can’t wait for left overs for lunch today.
Sommers40 says
These Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps are fabulous! With only minor modifications, I was able to serve this to my multiple food allergy kid. We had to leave out the peanut butter, but they were so good anyway. Next time I might add a peanut sauce dip on the side for those who want to add it later. This will definitely be added to our “favorite dinners” list.
Patti says
How are these counted on the 21 Day Fix plan?
Deborah W. says
This is my family’s favorite Thai lettuce wrap recipe. I ‘lost’ track of the recipe one time and was in big trouble, ha. I finally found it again and have made multiple copies on multiple devices so as not to lose it ever again. The ingredients are so simple but the sauce is so delicious and gets better with multiple warmings even though it doesn’t last that long around here. Love it so much!
Maryse Gagnon Ruest says
wow….we made those last night…the wrap was just so delicious….Thanks for sharing this recipe….can’t wait to make them again….Probably next week !
Stephanie says
These were great. My only ‘complaint’ would be about serving quantities. I tripled the recipe to feed 5 people (2 men, 3 women), with leftovers for lunch. It fed us with a couple of us getting seconds but I expected there to be leftovers. Perhaps they were just too good and we ate too much 🙂
Allison says
Can you boil the chicken and shred it first? If I had chicken breasts what would be the best way? These look great!
Lauren Allen says
Sure, that would work great!
Shamshad Taj says
I tried it …..it is delicious…….especially the peanut butter sauce……and its easy to make ………my husband loved it !shan
Shamshad Taj says
I tried it …..it is delicious…….especially the peanut butter sauce……and its easy to make ………my husband loved it!
Heather Watts says
My family LOVES these lettuce wraps
Brandi says
We love these! This dish has become a family favorite and part of a regular rotation! So yummy! Thank you!
Heather R says
I made these tonight for dinner. The only change was I used ground turkey instead of chicken. They were a huge hit! My kids ages 13 and 16 loved them, they asked to have them for dinner again tomorrow. Thanks for sharing.
Lauren Allen says
Thanks so much for sharing! I’m so happy your family liked them 🙂
Elaine says
Absolutely awesome! Only change wa I used 1/4 cup chili garlic sauce instead of sweet chili sauce because it’s what I had. It gave it a nice kick but warn guests before they automatically add something hot if they usually like it spicy.
Liz says
This is a total keeper! My family loves these!
MeCooks says
Looks very tasty. Will be trying it at home.
http://www.mecooks.com
Kenzie says
These were a great find, thank you so much for sharing! I made a batch on Sunday night to use for my lunches going forward during the week. Normally when I do this after the 2nd or so time I’m tired of the dish but not with these lettuce wraps! I used ground chicken and it was super easy to work with. Doubled the veggies. I also didn’t have sweet chili sauce when it came time to cook so I improvised with some honey and sriracha. Can’t wait to try some of your other dishes!
Lauren Allen says
I agree–this is one of those recipes I never get tired of! So happy you enjoyed it (I love the idea of meal prepping this!), and I hope you get to try some of my other recipes! Thanks 🙂
Jillian says
I made these for my girls last week and tonight for valentine’s day I’m making it again for my husband and daughters..I’m also making the red velvet cookies for dessert…yum ☺
Lauren Allen says
How fun–that’s my kind of Valentine’s dinner 😉 Thanks for sharing Jillian. Hope you loved the red velvet cookies as well 🙂
Trista says
These are incredible! My new favorite healthy meal. I can’t get over how good they are and EASY. Thanks for the great recipe.