Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps (Better than P.F. Chang’s)!
Posted Feb 29, 2016, Updated Dec 05, 2023
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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!
FAQs about Lettuce 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!
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!
Store
Store any leftover lettuce wrap filling in an airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Store leftover lettuce separately in the refrigerator, because storing them together will make the lettuce soggy.
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!
They’re also a great appetizer, along with these spring rolls dipped in peanut sauce, to some of our favorite Asian meals, like cashew chicken, vegetable stir fry, Asian quinoa salad, and this baked crispy tofu.
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!
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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
Notes on ingredients:
- 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!
Store
Store any leftover lettuce wrap filling in an airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Store leftover lettuce separately in the refrigerator, because storing them together will make the lettuce soggy.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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By far the tastiest, fastest & easiest chicken lettuce wrap recipe I’ve ever tried. Because my husband cooks Asian noodle soups frequently, we’ve always got most of the ingredients on hand, making this a great choice for dinner when we don’t have a lot of time to go shopping for ingredients. My eight yr old loves them & although he’s not a picky eater, I would think even picky kids would love this.
I made this tonight for myself and my boyfriend. He had never had lettuce wraps before and totally loved these. The crushed peanuts on top added just the right amount of crunch to the wrap! I used rotisserie chicken meat instead of ground chicken/chicken breasts and just heated the meat through. The sauce has just the right amount of KICK/SPICE to it. It was a hit!
This was wonderful! I have never had PF Chang’s version but I loved them when Chili’s had them a million years ago. I have been looking for a familiar tasting recipe ever since and this filled the bill! I served them with a raw shredded coleslaw mix and carrot straws/shreds. We used romaine, but I think the original butter lettuce would be the best. YUM!
The sauce is the best! The only thing I changes was to use fresh ginger and garlic. I’ve made these 3 times now, and they are wonderful! I always sneak in a few extra veggies. Diced zucchini, mushrooms, carrots and celery. Thank you so much for such a fantastic recipe!
YES! I’m all about adding more veggies!
Hi there. Second time making this and it is so delicious. Unfortunately, I think my son has not only peanut and shellfish allergies but he just informed me that he thinks soy is also a problem. And I just made a huge batch of this. Ugh. My question is, have you ever frozen this?
Please let me know as soon as possible… I really do want to eat all of this in one sitting. Lol.
Hey Gloria! You could definitely freeze this! Or store it in the refrigerator to enjoy for lunches for the week!
This looks delicious! Can’t wait to try this recipe! What brand hoisin sauce would you recommend?
I always use Lee Kim Kee http://amzn.to/2z5sCSZ
Yummy. Didn’t fry in oil, used spray. Didn’t have mushroom, nuts or water chestnuts. Used onion, green pepper and carrots. Would be nice over noodles, might add scallions, but didn’t have those either. Lol..i also added a squirt of srirascha sauce. Served with spring rolls (from frozen)
This was a hit at my house.. The only difference was: Pepper on chicken while sautéing, added shredded carrots, shredded cabbage, small can of bamboo shoots, left out bell pepper. Used 1 tsp chili garlic sauce and 1 tsp sweet chili sauce.
Fantastic, even though I used Wowbutter and substituted Oyster-flavoured sauce for Hoisin and mushrooms for the water chestnuts I didn’t have. Still tasted great served over mix if konjak noodles and “courgetti” (vegetti made with zucchini)
Sounds delicious!
I hardly comment but wanted to say that this was really good. Having a food processor def helps. It was declious . Thank you! I did sub gluten free for everything and it was still really good. Makes up for not being able to order in .
Thank you for your comment Lindsay! It means so much to me that you took the time to let me know you enjoyed these Lettuce Wraps!!!