Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps (Better than P.F. Chang’s)!
Posted Feb 29, 2016, Updated Jul 19, 2024
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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!
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!
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. I do not suggest tampering 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
Begin by cooking the onion, minced garlic and ground chicken until the chicken is lightly browned.
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.
Next, add the vegetables and cook until they are soft.
Finely Dice Vegetables
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!
Then, add the sauce and cook until slightly thickened.
Serve
I prefer to enjoy this recipe 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.
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.
Freeze
The lettuce wrap filling can be frozen for up to 2 months in an airtight container. Thaw it by warming it in a pan on the stovetop over low heat.
Lettuce Wraps Recipe FAQs
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!
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Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps (better than P.F. Chang’s)!
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 Tablespoon peanut oil
- ½ onion (finely diced)
- ½ Tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 cup red or green pepper (finely diced)
- 8 ounces water chestnuts (drained & finely diced)
For the Sauce:
- 3 Tablespoons soy sauce*
- 3 Tablespoons hoisin sauce**
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon peanut butter
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 2 teaspoons sweet chili sauce
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon 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 Tablespoons peanut oil in a frying pan. Once hot, add ground chicken, onion and minced garlic.
- Cook until chicken browns and the onions are translucent, cook for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Add the peppers and water chestnuts and cook about 5 minutes or until peppers are slightly soft.
- Add the 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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I tried and it turned out very delicious 😋
Thanks.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Shilpa!
I made this the other night and it was AMAZING! I’m about to make it again. The only thing I did differently was use chicken breast because I didn’t have any ground chicken. This is for sure one of my top 3 favourite recipe’s
Delicious! My husband loves PF Chang’s lettuce wraps and said “that’s one of the best things you’ve ever made.” Only sauce change I made was leaving out the hoisin sauce (I was out). I added finally diced carrots, onions, water chestnuts and celery, and left out the pepper, as hubby is not too keen on them. Great crunch. I browned some chicken tenders, as I was out of ground. So very very good
I’m so glad you and your hubby love this recipe, Michele!
Hello. I have made this 2x. First time, we used lettuce, and it was good, but messy. Today, I made with lo mein noodles. My daughter was very happy. It is a delicious recipe. I found that by cooking the meat first and then adding the aromatics, only caused them to steam in the liquid from the meat. Next time, I will remove the meat to a plate and then cook the aromatics, adding the meat back to the almost finished dish. Maybe I needed higher heat to avoid liquid from the chicken escaping as much, but it cooked very quickly at med. heat.
Thank you for a WINNER recipe. This was made post COVID, so water chestnuts were very hard to find. I only used half of the can so I could make it again. I had a jicama on hand, it crunches just as good! Can’t wait to make it again.!
I’m so glad you love it!
These are sooooo delicious….I wanted to eat it all myself…. Just a slight discrepancy in the recipe where it calls for 1 tablespoon of peanut oil at top and then the directions says to heat 2 tablespoons of peanut oil. I kind of went in between. Soo so good… will definitely be making these again in the near future… Thank you
Fabulous! Have found, also doing it often, that there is lots of flexibility ingredient-wise. Use your imagination. Main thing to me is not to overcook anything, especially chicken. Some crunch is good ie: peanut, carrots, bell peppers, onion.
Also, dice everything smallish. fun and easy!!
Roberto
Tiburon CA
Yes1 Dicing things small is a great tip! Thank you Roberto!
Both soy sauce and hoisin says are not gluten free
Most stores carry gluten-free versions of both of those products.
This turned out really well, but I was a bit salty about the prep work before the actual cooking. I am still exhausted. 😂
LOL Melanie! – it helps to prep the veggies prior to cooking if you’d like!
These are really great! Flavour of sauce is spot on. I wanted extra crunch so I julienned carrots and baby cucumber to stack on top. I also roasted my crushed peanuts in a pan for the topping.
My husband isn’t a fan of lettuce wraps so I cooked up vermicellI rice noodles and made his into a summer rolls in rice paper.
I made this recipe and my whole family loved it. I didn’t save the recipe and found another to make in a rush one evening. It wasn’t anywhere as good! Thankfully, I found this again and bookmarked it. SO delish!!!
Thank you Lori!
These were absolutely outstanding and my grown family said these are our new go to. Well done and thank you!!
Thank you Jaynie!