Lettuce Wraps Recipe

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Enjoy an incredibly healthy and flavorful meal with these delicious lettuce wraps. They’re perfect to enjoy for a light and tasty lunch or dinner! Just a few ingredients and a super simple recipe!

If you’re a fan of PF Chang’s lettuce wraps, then you might like to know how to make lettuce wraps. So be sure to give this stress-free and naturally gluten-free recipe a try.

It’s the perfect meal to prepare whenever you want. It contains fresh, flavorful ingredients low in calories. Yet, it is tasty enough to satisfy you when consumed for lunch, dinner, or even a quick appetizer.

You can follow this recipe to make a delicious keto meal. All you need to do is to combine the light, sweet taste of butter lettuce with ground chicken (or vegan mince) and a blend of aromatics. I’m sure you are going to love this recipe.

What Kind of Lettuce to Use for Lettuce Wraps?

When preparing these lettuce wraps, it’s important to use the right type of lettuce to ensure they taste as delicious as possible. The best type of lettuce to use when preparing these healthy lettuce wraps is butterhead lettuce. The tender sweeter leaves are easier to bite through while tasting the ground chicken or vegan mince and incredible lettuce wraps sauce. You could also use romaine lettuce or, in a pinch, iceberg lettuce.

What to Put in Lettuce Wraps

Butterhead lettuce: Before getting started, be sure to have butterhead lettuce to wrap your meat.
Ground chicken or vegan mince: Ground chicken tastes amazing in this recipe. However, if you would like to make vegetarian lettuce wraps or vegan lettuce wraps, you have the option to make vegan mince lettuce wraps.
Aromatics: Bring more flavor to the dish while using assorted aromatics. I love to add fresh garlic, onion, green/spring onion, and a bit of freshly grated ginger. In a pinch, you can use garlic powder and ginger powder.
Bell pepper: The addition of bell peppers adds both a crunch and delicious taste to these lettuce boats without hoisin sauce. I love adding red, but green or yellow will work too.
Sauce ingredients: Vegetable oil (or sesame oil), soy sauce, and rice vinegar. You’ll use this blend to prepare an incredible sauce to go over your chicken or vegan meat, whichever you’ve selected. If preferred, you can use gluten-free or low-sodium soy sauce.
Salt & red chili powder: Enhance the taste of your meat with some salt and red chili powder. Add more or less chili to taste.
Cornstarch and water: I make a cornstarch slurry in order to make the mince a bit saucy.

Optional Add-ins and Variations

Red Pepper Flakes – If you want to make a spicy version of these lettuce wraps, you have the option of adding some red pepper flakes to your meat. Or, you can use some Sriracha sauce or Gochujang sauce.
Hoisin Sauce – While this lettuce wraps recipe has a homemade sauce, you can add some (gluten-free) hoisin sauce to your meat if you’d like.
Ground Turkey/Beef – If you don’t want to use chicken or vegan meat, you can also use ground turkey, ground beef, or ground pork. You can also use diced mushrooms.
Other extras: for more flavor and texture, you could add chopped water chestnuts, daikon, carrots, and even nuts (peanuts or cashews).

How to Make a Lettuce Wrap?

If using uncooked chicken, start by heating the oil in a frying pan. Once hot, cook the ground chicken until it is done (10-15 minutes). Scoop it out onto a separate plate. You will add it back in at the end to prepare lettuce wraps that taste better than PF Chang’s chicken lettuce wraps.

Chop the pepper, green onion, and onion. Mince or grate the garlic and ginger. Then, prepare the starch slurry by mixing the cornstarch in the water.

Heat the oil over medium-high heat (or use the oil from cooking the chicken) in a large skillet, then add the chopped onion. Saute for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic and ginger. Cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add the bell pepper, then the chicken mixture/vegan mince. Cook for a few minutes. Then add the salt, red chili powder, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Stir to incorporate.

Finally, add the cornstarch slurry. Cook on medium until the sauce thickens a bit. Then toss and mix in the green onions.

Once the filling is ready and is cooling down, prepare the lettuce. Separate the leaves and arrange them on a plate.

Then fill each lettuce leaf with a tablespoon or so of the filling. You can keep them arranged on a large plate or serve a few lettuce wraps as individual portions.

How to Make Ahead and Store?

How to make ahead: Prepare the meat for the lettuce wraps in advance and keep your butter lettuce separate. When you’re ready to eat, then you can assemble these lettuce wraps. First, heat your prepared meat in the microwave or on a skillet, and then add it to the lettuce leaves to make flavorful lettuce cups.

Store: Store your meat in an airtight container in the fridge. Keep your lettuce stored in a separate container in the fridge to keep it fresh.

Freeze: Lettuce doesn’t freeze well. However, you can freeze the meat for up to three months before thawing and reheating it.

Reheat: When you’d like to reheat your meat, you can do so in the microwave for several seconds or in a skillet on the stove. It won’t take long to get the meat hot enough to add to your lettuce before enjoying these delicious PF chang lettuce wraps with the best sauce.

FAQs

How to crisp lettuce for lettuce wraps?

Put lettuce leaves in a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge while preparing the filling.

Can you freeze lettuce wraps?

I wouldn’t recommend freezing lettuce wraps because this can alter the taste and texture of the lettuce. You can freeze the filling and then thaw and heat up when needed, using fresh lettuce leaves.

What to serve with lettuce wraps?

You can serve these tasty lettuce wraps with shrimp fried rice, riced cauliflower, or other PF Chang-inspired appetizers!

Hand holding a lettuce wrap with meat filling

Recipe Tips and Notes

Two small scoops of meat would be all you need to fill the butter lettuce. However, you can add as much meat as you’d like to these PF Chang lettuce wraps.
You can swap out different ingredients if you’d like. For example, you can use coconut aminos as a replacement for soy sauce or you can leave out the pepper if you don’t like it.

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A bowl with quinoa chickpea and veggies salad

If you try these PF Chang’s inspired lettuce wraps, I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions below. Also, I’d appreciate a recipe card rating below, and feel free to tag me in your recipe recreations on Instagram @Alphafoodie!