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!
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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
- 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
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Nicole Litras
Made this tonight for dinner. Didn’t add in peppers as my kids are not fans of them, the recipe was still Absolutely delicious. Packed with flavor! Topped them with bean sprouts. Will definitely be making these again.
Nicole Litras
Made this tonight for dinner. Didn’t add in peppers as my kids are not not fans of them, the recipe was still Absolutely delicious. Will definitely be making these again.
Peggy Keelan
I have a question. Making these tomorrow. You don’t call for Green Onions/Scallions but I see them in the photo. Did you add them in addition to the chopped onion or instead of?
Kim Lott
I also made this exactly as defined in the recipe. They are everything folks seems to agree they are…. 5 Star Freaking DELICIOUS. Even my husband, who is not a ‘lettuce wrap’ kinda guy.. was in Love! Today, I just shredded up the lettuce and ate the meat on top, like a salad.. I’m typing this and watching the last of it disappear… so sad! LOL
Isabelle
I followed the recipe exactly with the exception of peanut oil (I only had rice bran oil). It was amazing. I’ve me this twice and will be making this again soon.
Brandy L.
This recipe was delicious! I forgot to take a picture because we were starving! I’m usually really good about taking phots of the food I make from online recipes too. haha. Oh well. Anyway we loved the flavor! Had two each. We have one more each for lunch tomorrow.
I wanna say.. when I came across your recipe here that I loved SO much that your page was so clean and that I didn’t get bombarded by ads! It ruins my experience every time and I end up leaving as soon as it begins.
Last thing.. I have to laugh now but when I saw the picture of your BEAUTIFUL family, I thought your arm looked oddly long and I had my head tilted for a bit before I finally said to myself.. nah.. and zoomed in to see that it wasn’t your arm extending that far down onto your daughters upper arm. LOL it was yours AND her arm!
Thanks for sharing this yummy Asian chicken lettuce wrap! I’ll sign up for emails!
Marie
Wonderful recipe! I used 2 chicken breasts that I cut into small pieces while still partially frozen and then chopped in the food processor under almost ground. Also substituted Sriracha for the sweet chili. My husband said it was the best he ever tasted. Will be making this again.
Jen
Like any new recipe I try, somehow I manage to use every cooking utensil, bowl and pan in the kitchen…and forget to unscrew all lids from the sauces before whisking. All in all, a great recipe that I’ll be making again. My vital mistake: using ground turkey meat and not draining the excess liquid from the pan prior to adding the sauce. It definitely diluted the sauce unfortunately. I may play around with the sauce mixture a bit in the future as i found it heavy on the peanut flavor – personal preference. Thank you very much for sharing a fairly simple recipe with some good flavors!
Danielle Joyce
We made this tonight with a few modifications, and it was great! Made the sauce as is. It didn’t smell good but we went with it and the flavor was awesome after the cook. We added serrano peppers to the chicken & onions, leaving out the green peppers (can’t digest them and hubby won’t eat them). I added some orange peppers to my lettuce wraps separately. Seriously good and I will make these again! Thank you!
J
This is the first review I have ever left but I needed to tel you that this recipe is AMAZING. It may be the best thing I have ever ate! I followed the recipe as directed but added peppers and spinach cut in small. Truly a great recipe and you nailed the sauce.
Laura
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you love this recipe as much as we do!
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.