Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps (better than P.F. Chang’s)! A quick (less than 30 minutes), easy, and healthy dinner that tastes delicious! Gluten and dairy-free!
I know that’s a pretty bold claim…Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps you can make at home that are better than the beloved dish from P.F. Chang’s?! It may be bold, but it’s true! This Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps recipe is one that took me years of trial and error, and lots of taste-testing, to get it just right.
These Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps wraps are one of my favorite dinners (along with this cashew chicken stir fry). They are quick and easy and my whole family loves them. Even my kids eat them, and have tons of fun doing it!
How to make Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Let’s walk through the process of making this chicken lettuce wraps recipe step-by-step. Don’t forget to watch the video too!
Make the sauce
The first step in this lettuce wrap recipe is making the sauce. The sauce is the key to the flavor of this recipe. And I beg you not to tamper with the sauce. It is the part of this recipe that took me years to perfect, and is absolutely delicious as-is!
It’s really simple to make! Just whisk all the ingredients together. If you use a thicker peanut butter that is solid at room temperature, you may need ot warm it slightly before using it to make this Asian lettuce wraps recipe!
Make the Lettuce Wrap Filling
- Brown the ground chicken! This recipe is very straightforward! There is, however, one very important step and that is to brown the ground chicken. Making sure the chicken is nice and crispy and brown is essential to the overall flavor and texture of this dish!
- Use a Wok, Sauté pan, or a cast iron skillet. For traditional Asian recipes I love pulling out my wok. But as you can see in the photo above, a regular sauté pan or cast iron skillet works perfectly!
- Dice the vegetables very small. This is one of the keys to making sure every bite is bursting with both texture and flavor! Sometimes I even let my food processor do the chopping for me!
What lettuce is best for wraps?
There are three varieties of lettuce that I recommend to use when making these chicken lettuce wraps:
- Butterhead lettuce
- Green Leaf Lettuce
- Romaine Lettuce
Just be sure to choose a head of lettuce that has large and flexible enough leaves to use as a wrap!
How do you cut lettuce for lettuce wraps?
It’s actually very simple! Just cut the bottom part of the head of lettuce off. Then carefully peel away each lettuce leaf! Don’t forget to wash and dry the lettuce leaves before serving!
Serving Suggestions
I prefer to eat them the traditional way…as lettuce wraps! However, I usually serve these Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps to my kids over noodles or rice, or with a side of our favorite homemade fried rice, because it’s much easier for them to eat with a spoon than wrapped in a piece of lettuce!
Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps: Ingredients & Substitutions
As always I recommend making this recipe exactly as it’s written! Like I said, I tested and retested this recipe more times than I can count to achieve lettuce wrap perfection! However, here are a few potential substitutions!
- Ground chicken: Finely diced chicken breasts are a great substitute for ground chicken! You can also use ground turkey or ground beef!
- Peanut Oil: Any oil can be used here if you don’t keep peanut on hand or if you have a peanut allergy. I recommend olive oil or avocado oil!
- Soy Sauce: If you have a soy allergy you can substitute coconut aminos for the soy sauce.
- Peanut Butter: If you have a peanut allergy any nut or seed butter could work here, but peanut butter definitely gives the best results!
IF YOU MAKE SOMETHING FROM JOYFOODSUNSHINE I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOUR CREATIONS! DON’T FORGET TO RATE THIS RECIPE AND LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW! ALSO, FOLLOW ALONG WITH ME ON INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE AND TWITTER FOR MORE RECIPE INSPIRATION AND A GLIMPSE INTO OUR EVERYDAY LIFE!
Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps (better than P.F. Chang's)!
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1 TBS peanut oil
- ½ onion minced
- 1 cup red or green pepper diced
- 1 8 oz can water chestnuts drained and minced
For the Sauce:
- 3 TBS soy sauce*
- 3 TBS hoisin sauce**
- 1 TBS sesame oil
- 1 TBS rice vinegar
- 1 TBS peanut butter
- 1 TBS honey
- 2 tsp sweet chili sauce (Trader Joe’s!)
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp powdered ginger
To serve
- ¼ cup peanuts crushed.
- Lettuce or your favorite Asian salad
Instructions
- Whisk together sauce ingredients until well combined. If you use a firmer peanut butter you may need to microwave the mixture for 30-60 seconds in order to melt it and ensure everything is well-mixed.
- Heat 2 TBS peanut oil in a frying pan. Once hot, add ground chicken.
- Cook until some pieces are starting to brown. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes or until the onion is becoming translucent.
- Add the peppers and water chestnuts and cook about 5 minutes or until peppers are becoming soft.
- Add sauce and simmer on low heat until the chicken and veggies are evenly coated and everything is heated through.
- Serve in lettuce leaves, on top of your favorite Asian salad, or over noodles or rice!
Video
Notes
- Ground chicken: Finely diced chicken breasts are a great substitute for ground chicken!
- Peanut Oil: Any oil can be used here if you don't keep peanut on hand or if you have a peanut allergy. I recommend olive oil or avocado oil!
- Soy Sauce: If you have a soy allergy you can substitute coconut aminos for the soy sauce.
- *be sure to choose a gluten-free soy sauce to keep this asian lettuce wraps recipe gluten-free, like this one.
- Hoisin sauce: **be sure to choose a gluten-free hoisin sauce to keep this recipe gluten-free, like this one.
- Peanut Butter: If you have a peanut allergy any nut or seed butter could work here, but peanut butter definitely gives the best results!
Nutrition
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase a product through a link you clicked on here, I receive a portion of the sale. Thank you for supporting JoyFoodSunshine!
Jennifer R Hicks
Making this for the 3rd time tonight. Each time I’ve made it, my super picky children scarf it down and ask for more. It must be good if they will eat it!! My hubby and I are also Fans! Comes together quickly and is DELICIOUS.
Laurie Berger
I’ve made these a few times since I’ve found your recipe and it came out excellent every time. I do use 2 fresh minced chicken breasts, omit the chili sauce finding it a bit sweet and add in a tsp of hot chilies in oil. I also add 1 tbs of Chinese black vinegar to give it a slightly silky buttery taste.
Thank you for a great recipe!
Judy
We love this recipe! The only thing I changed was slicing the water chestnuts for more crunch.
Will make many many more times
Anne
Really great! Better than others I’ve tried. I eliminated chili sauce and substituted bean sprouts for water chestnuts. (Hate them). Delicious!
Heather Nicole
Is peanut butter 100% necessary? I have a peanut allergy, so I was wondering if sunflower butter would be an OK alternative?
Laura
Sunflower butter works well too!
Alissa
Oh my gracious!! I wanted to post a photo, but they were so delicious, they vanished right before my eyes! I followed the recipe verbatim and wouldn’t change a thing! Thank you for this morsel of a recipe!
Lisa
Just made this and it was delicious!! Exactly the taste we were looking for and super easy to make!
Rosie
Delicious! I followed the recipe with the exception of the meat. I used ground bison.
We also squeezed lime on top.
It was delicious! Thank you!
Kim
I made it exactly as the recipe says and I can definitely say that these Lettuce Wraps are way better than PF Changs! These were amazing and so easy to make! This will definitely be a staple meal in my house now!
Laura
Thank you Kim!
Ugo
I loved this
I cook mostly African Yesterday was my second time trying this out and it came out perfect both times
My family loved it. Perfect way for getting them to eat greens as lettuce. My daughter loved the the leftovers with rice for lunch today.
Really fast to make, very tasty and does not break the bank like making our typical recipes.
Nancy Lamell
The pictures accompanying the recipe clearly include green onions, but they are not mentioned in the ingredients or instructions. I assume they are not cooked but added at the end as garnish. How much do you recommend?
Phyllis
Not the author, but I cook lots of Asian food because we love it! I’d use 2 – 3 green onions as garnish.
Sarah
I wanted to tweak the recipe, but I bit the bullet and made it exactly as written.
And. It. Was. Perfect. 🙂
Mandy House
Great quick meal and my kid is eating it over rice noodles instead of lettuce wraps. Thank you!
Alena Hawkins
This recipe is by far the easy and the best tasting.
Terri Clark-Kveton
Great recipe but I used fresh ginger and garlic for the sauce, just a personal preference. 😋 And since I am not an iceberg lettuce fan and my other lettuce greens are just bulking up again I decided to go slightly “fusion” and used Pallo Rosa radicchio leaves for the wrapper.they need to be trimmed and the spine shaved but then they wrap like little cabbage rols–so cute and tasty, if you like bitter greens as a counterpoint taste.