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
FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST for more great recipes!
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
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
Eileen says
Hi. Can you serve cold as an appetizer?
Lauren Allen says
Sure, if you don’t mind cold chicken (or you could just rewarm it for a minute before serving). Enjoy!
Scooter says
5 year old loved this, he pretended he was a gorilla while eating.
Jenn says
So very good! I will be passing this recipe around to others! Just be careful of the red pepper. I added too much and it was a bit hot for my kids and I but my husband loved it. But the flavor was amazing. Next time I will just leave the pepper and make a spicy batch for my husband.
Brendan OHara says
Great recipe. We’ve made it several times. Last time we added some cooked rice at the end and it worked well. We have also substituted celery for the cabbage another time. Every time it’s delicious and we never have any left overs go to waste.
Thanks for the very versatile recipe.
Lauren Allen says
I love those ideas! I’m sure they were more filling with rice in them too. Thanks for sharing.
Lynda White says
My husband loved these . He has been sick and said he wasn’t very hungry. He ate 2 and made himself 2 more.
Denise says
Made this with scrambled tofu. Delicious! My husband said i should of made more. He was licking his plate! lol
Christi says
My family loved this. I added a teaspoon of fish sauce and substituted celery for the cabbage since I didn’t have any cabbage. 5 stars
Michael Ayayo says
Every member of my family loved these, even my daughter who complained at first before tasting them. If you really are pressed for time, you could probably use cole slaw mix instead of shredding your own cabbage and carrots,
Crissy says
10 stars! Absolutely delicious, so much flavor! Loved everything about it, didn’t add yellow onion, only green! HEB had these great lettuce scoops, really sturdy and perfect for this recipe! Amazing!
Wanda says
This is very good! I doubled the recipe and it was not too much for my family. I used ground chicken which cut down on chopping time. I added water chestnuts for extra crunch since my family loves them. I served it with quinoa instead of as lettuce wraps. This delivers the Thai food tastes you love in restaurants!