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Thursday, June 16, 2011

Lettuce Wraps

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp canola oil
1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
Pepper
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and sliced
1 8-oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained
1/4 cup cashews, chopped
1 small head lettuce, leaves separated

Combine the soy sauce and honey in a small bowl; set aside.  Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Season the chicken with 1/2 tsp pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown, about 3 minutes.  Lower heat to medium and stir in the garlic and ginger.  Add the scallions and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in the water chestnuts and the soy sauce mixture and continue to cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 4 minutes.  Remove from heat and sprinkle with the cashews.  Divide the lettuce leaves onto plates and spoon the chicken into the leaf.  Wrap up and enjoy!


My husband loves lettuce wraps at PF Chang's so he was excited when he found this recipe in an old magazine he was reading at the doctors office.  So he ripped it out and brought it home and it has been a favorite ever since.  These are just about as good as PF Changs and so super easy.  In fact if you do the prep work before hand and have all of the ingredients chopped and ready to add, when you're ready to start doing the cooking, it takes about 10 minutes, max, start to finish.  And it doesn't heat up your kitchen!

Combine your soy sauce and honey in small bowl and set aside.

I like to do all my prep work before I start cooking so next I would grate my ginger root and mince my garlic cloves.  Perhaps, you could get away with just adding the spice ginger here, I don't know, I've never tried.  The smell of real ginger is so amazing that I love this step.  If you've never used actual ginger root before, it's that funny shaped brown thing in the right hand corner of the picture.  I just peel it with my potato peeler and then grate it like cheese on the finer side of the cheese grater.  I also chopped my scallions before I took the picture below.  Scallions is just another name for green onions.  In this picture you can see that I skimped on the scallions and only did 4 or 5 of them.  A whole bunch is a lot tastier and provides more color to the dish.

Then I diced up my water chestnuts.  You can make them as big or as little as you like.  PF Changs fairly well obliterates all of their ingredients (my speculation is that they don't want people like me to figure out what all is in there so that we can duplicate their crowning recipe and blog about it to the whole world - purely conjecture on my part, of course).

I also put my cashews through the chopper to make them nice and fine.

Then I washed my lettuce head real good, removed the core and separated it into several leaves.  For my family I often divide the leaf in two because a lettuce leaf can be really huge to a 4-year old.  The recipe actually calls for Boston or Bibb lettuce.  I don't know what that is so I just use regular old iceberg lettuce but if that means something to you, knock yourself out.


Now it's time to heat up the skillet.

I chop up the chicken just a bit before I put it in the pan. 


 Then start cooking.  As it cooks, I continue to dice it up a bit with my cooking spoon to make the pieces very small.  I like it that way but its not necessary.  They can be as big as you like.


Once the chicken is easy to chop through with the edge of your cooking utensil and is no longer pink inside, it is time to turn the heat down and start adding the other ingredients.  First, add in the garlic and ginger.


Next come the scallions.



Cook for about 1 minute and then add the water chestnuts and your soy sauce mixture.


It will turn a beautiful golden brown color

Cook just a wee bit longer, doesn't take much at this point, then turn off the heat and sprinkle your chopped cashews over the top and mix in.  You can then serve it in the traditional way wrapped in a lettuce leaf in PF style or some of my family prefers to shred their lettuce like a salad and put it over the top.  The sky is the limit.  Enjoy!

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22 comments:

  1. I am obsessed with lettuce wraps right now! So, so, so yummy. I am going to try this recipe and follow you from now on! Mmmm, mmmm can't wait to see what you have next!
    Jenni
    kissedbyafrog.blogspot.com

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  2. YUM! This recipe is so much easier than the one I have - I can't wait to try it :)

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  3. I love lettuce wraps! I must try this recipe. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. I love your blog! I love lettuce wraps too.

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  5. Its that easy?! Unbelievable! Thanks Andrea. I think even "I" can do it and I burn cold cereal.

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  6. Yum! We've made a few different versions of lettuce wraps and we all love them. I bet the cashews in yours make them delicious!

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  7. I'll have to try this version of the wraps. it looks simple and delish! Thanks for sharing.

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  8. Now that looks delicious!!

    Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
    Hope you have a great week!
    Jill @ Creating my way to Success
    http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

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  9. I've honestly never had lettuce wraps before, but have been dying to try them. Yours look good!

    I'd love for you to stop by and share a recipe at What's Cooking Wednesday (http://thekingscourt4.blogspot.com/search/label/Gardening%20101)! Hope to see you there:)

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  10. I am totally making this for dinner this week~ I love lettuce wraps! This is perfect for the HOT weather that is coming our way! Thanks for sharing! I am pinning this to my Pinterest board!

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  11. We had these for dinner last night, they were delicious!!! Thank you so much for the recipe... these have definitely become a favorite just in one night :D I linked to your post here at my blog :D... thanks again!

    http://jacksonshappenins.blogspot.com/2011/06/cheap-toys-and-good-food.html

    at the end of the post :D

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  12. I've always wanted to recreate this but everytime the lettuce falls apart.
    Any tip on how to keep the lettuce from breaking?

    Would luv for our readers to discover this.
    please add it to our linking party here
    http://www.passionatelyartistic.com/2011/06/beautiful-furniture-redo-pop-up-cards.html
    Have a great week,
    Maggie
    http://passionatelyartistic.com

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  13. I've only had PF Chang's lettuce wraps once, but I LOVED them! They were amazing and I can't wait to try your recipe! I would also LOVE if you would link up your recipe to our {{What I Made Wednesday}} linky party...it's going on now! And, I'm your newest follower! =)

    ~Briana
    sweetpeasandbb.blogspot.com

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  14. OHHH! I cant wait to try this! Love new recipes in the summer!

    Violetpaperwings.blogspot.com

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  15. Oh man! So excited to try this! Been looking for a recipe like this to add to our regular weekly menu and this looks perfect! Thank you so much for sharing!

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  16. We made these for dinner last night. They were totally fast and totally yummy! Plus it was so cute watching my children (2 & 5) spooning the filling into the lettuce to eat them. Thanks again for sharing!

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  17. Oh YUM! I need to make these. I'm your newest follower! I would love it if you followed back!

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  18. MMMmmmmm! I love lettuce wraps.. I get them to share with my girlfriend on our ladies night out at cheesecake factory. Soo Yummy! And soo much cheaper at home! Thanks so much for sharing with the Pink Hippo Party!

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  19. These look great! I always get lettuce wraps at PF Changs but it's great to know how to make them at home now!

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  20. this looks so good...i will be trying these very soon!
    erin
    eatingmywayback.blogspot.com

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  21. We LOVE PF Changs lettuce wraps, so this would be fun to try! Thanks for linking this up!

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