These chicken lettuce wraps rival the popular PF Chang recipe. In fact, they are even better! Ssssh...don't tell.
I love going out to eat and that has probably been one of the hardest things about money being tighter these past few months. It's so nice to get out without the kids and enjoy time away not having to have kids complain about the vegetables on their plate I'm making them eat, or whining that what I made wasn't one of the favorites...."and DO I have to eat THAT?"
It's really nice to get away and order what I want for a change. No complaints, just someone asking me if I want more water or if I am enjoying my meal.
I love PF Chang's. It's our middle of the road splurge restaurant. We always start with their famous lettuce wraps. My husband and I were craving them and thought we'd try this version we found online out at home. While they weren't the exact version, they come pretty close and will do in a pinch. I loved that I got to "eat out" at home and it took under thirty minutes to get dinner ready. Even our kids enjoyed trying a meal that Mom and Dad would eat on our date nights.
Ingredients
- 3 oz vermicelli rice noodles, cooked
- 1 head butter lettuce, leaves removed, dried and placed on a plate for later assembly
- 1 pound ground chicken (in a pinch you can use 3 cooked chicken breasts--just pulse grind in the food processor until it resembles ground chicken).
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 onion, diced
- ½ tbsp ground ginger
- ½ cup hoisin sauce
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tsp Sriarcha sauce, to taste
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 8 oz can water chestnuts, finely chopped
- 1 5 oz can bamboo shoots, thinly sliced (optional)
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
Instructions
- In a saucepan, cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside for later use.
- Wash and rinse the lettuce, placing the lettuce pieces on a plate. Set aside.
- In a large frying pan, cook the chicken on medium heat until no longer pink. Stir occasionally while cooking. Add in the garlic and onion the last several minutes of cooking. Drain fat, and place chicken back on the stovetop.
- Stir in the ginger, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, Sriarcha sauce, sesame oil and sugar for several minutes until mixture is warm and bubbling. Add in the water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and green onions for several more minutes until onions become tender. (Another 2-3 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in the noodles until well mixed.
- To Serve: Place a scoop of the chicken mixture onto the center of each bed of lettuce and fold lettuce around the meat.
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