Craving Chicken Lettuce Wraps

From Alicia   |  June 18, 2012
In Kitchen Basics
Featured Recipe: Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I know it’s time to hit the test kitchen to develop a new recipe when I find myself obsessed with one dish. I have been on a chicken lettuce wraps kick lately. Found on numerous Asian restaurants appetizer menus to share, I’ve been ordering the sweetly-hot and perfectly textured treats for dinner and not sharing even one.
Recently I walked into one of my favorite Chinese restaurants here in Wilmington (NC) and the owner said, “Ahhh, lettuce wraps” as soon as she saw me. That’s when I knew I had to master them at home.
Turns out they are unbelievably easy and remind me so much of the chopped meat skillet meals I was the queen of back in the Desperation Dinners, feed-the-hungry-family-of-four-fast-days. Even though those days are long gone for me, I still sized the portion for four because they make great leftovers if your family is smaller.  If you need to feed a larger crowd, it doubles just as easy.
Now that I have my own recipe that I can do in less than 20 minutes, I can move on to the other delicacies at my favorite restaurants. At least until another obsession occurs….

Comments

From Brian Furgison - June 18, 2012

Do you have a special method for storing the leftovers? I've seen a few of these recipes popping up lately but no one has really said much about how they deal with what's left after the meal.

From Alicia - June 18, 2012

As long as the lettuce and filling are stored separately, it should be fine. Just keep the filling in a covered sealed container and re-warm in microwave. Lettuce should be dry and chilled. I have kept the filling for up to 3 days. Hope this helps.

From Alicia - June 18, 2012

via email: Alicia, I love lettuce wraps, but can you make any suggested modifications to today's recipe that would use fewer Asian sauces? I have soy sauce and oyster sauce, and wouldn't mind buying Sriracha sauce - but don't see that I would use duck and Sriracha sauces AND sesame oil before they'd go bad in the refrigerator. Thanks! Flo

From Alicia - June 18, 2012

Flo, You can use regular hot sauce, such as Tabasco instead of the Sriracha. And the sesame oil can be left out, but do buy the duck sauce, it will provide the sweet to the savory counterpoints and can be used with spring rolls, stir fries and as a sweet dipping sauce for the lettuce wraps. Hope this helps.

From Gayle - June 19, 2012

With the temperatures reaching into the 90s, this is the perfect meal. Glad I checked your web site before heading out the door for the grocery store.

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