Lettuce wraps have been a popular menu item around here for awhile. And thankfully a few friends have made their own version that I’ve had the pleasure to test out. So when I started thinking of ways to cut back on calories, but not flavor, lettuce wraps were one of the first things that came to mind.
Lettuce wraps are a good combination of savory, spicy and crunchy that I just love. Plus they’re easy. And I always like easy.
This is a simple recipe for Chicken Cashew Lettuce Wraps. Top it off with your favorite hot sauce, basil or more cashews and you’ll have a winner for sure. And while most restaurants offer them as appetizers, I think they’re perfect for the main course.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 chicken breasts (about 3/4 lb. total), diced
- 8 leaves of greenleaf or iceburg lettuce
- 3 tablespoons canola oil (or oil of choice)
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/4 cup cashews, chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
For stir fry sauce:
For Cashew Chicken:
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients making sure to dissolve brown sugar. Set aside.
- Heat canola oil in pan over medium to medium high heat. Add diced chicken and brown (about 4-5 minutes). Remove chicken from oil. Add onions, garlic and 1 teaspoon soy sauce to pan; brown. When onions and garlic are brown and tender, add stir fry sauce, browned chicken, and cashews. Saute mixture for a few minutes and remove from heat.
- Spoon chicken mixture into individual lettuce leaves. Add your favorite hot sauce, more cashews or basil.
For stir fry sauce:
For Cashew Chicken:
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Now THIS is the kind of recipe I need in my life. I’m back focusing on Weight Watchers and I need some full flavor but low fat recipes. I’m salivating.
I love lettuce wraps too, nice picture.
This picture is incredible…even edible looking! I was just thinking about how to use the left-over pork tenderloin I fixed for supper last night and you’ve just given me the answer. We love lettuce wraps so I’m going to substitute the pork for chicken. By the way, I’m making a collection of your recipes… my very own Yum Yum cookbook… it will have to do until yours is out! Love your ideas!
Hi Amy, I would love to cook this recipe, however, I am unsure what ground red pepper is. Would it be similar to paprika or is it hot like chili powder and is it a dried powder. I am not from another planet by the way (Australia)!
Hey Ann!
Ground red pepper is hot. It is a dried powder. Paprika will not give you the same result and the heat of ground red pepper is more concentrated than that in chili powder. You could use ground cayenne pepper or even a hot sauce, although I’m not sure what amount of hot sauce would correlate to 1/4 tsp. of ground pepper.
:-] Amy
Lettuce wraps are one of our favorite things around here. Now I’m starving… thanks a lot
We had these for dinner tonight…they rock! 3 of the 4 kids liked it, too! (Too spicy for Carebear!)
Those lettuce wraps look really good!
I have tried 2 previous recipes, but this looks like it will be the best by far…can hardly wait to try it!
I am so happy I made these tonight! They were loaded with flavor and were so easy to make. They had the perfect amount of spice, too. This will definitely be a regular around my house!!! Thanks for the amazing recipe.
These look so easy and yummy! I make a peanut lettuce wrap. I can’t wait to try this one! Thanks for stopping by my blog!
These look so good, I might be trying these tonight!
Just found this recipe on Tastey Kitchen and made them tonight. They are to DIE for. Love them!! They will be in heavy rotation at my house. Kudos!
This recipe was simple and delicious. My only addition was a little bit of oyster sauce added in with the rest of the stir fry sauce ingredients (the restaurant I work at uses oyster sauce in their lettuce wraps, so I figured it would add a nice depth of flavor. Also, I had it in my fridge already
). I will certainly be making these again. Next time I will buy ground chicken or turkey, because all that touching the raw chicken to dice it up into mush kind of grossed me out. I also made a quick fruit salsa from scratch to use as a healthy yet flavorful topping (that’s how we serve it at my work as well!) made of mango, avocado, tomato, cilantro, jalapeno, and a squeeze of lime. Absolutely delicious! Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe!
I didn’t have ground red pepper or ground ginger, so I made this with 1 tsp sriracha and 1 tsp minced fresh ginger… it turned out okay, but next time I need to put a LOT more sriracha. The only other problem I ran into was the sauce part of the filling staying too watery. I added a little cornstarch and a little corn syrup and it turned out perfect. Great recipe!
We diced the chicken pretty finely, added water chestnuts, added honey and green onions, and tripled the sauce and it turned out better than ever! This is the third time we’ve made this recipe, and we’ve finally found the perfect version of it for us! Try it out if you’d like!
I forgot, we tripled the sauce, with the exception of the rice vinegar. It was excellent!
Found this on Pinterest. Made it. Whole family enjoyed it, including a finicky 5YO and 2YO. Thank you for sharing your creation!
I prefer this recipe over the PF Chang lettuce wraps.
Awesome! I love this dish at PF Changs and I’d love to try it at home!
What a wonderful way to enjoy a great meal without all the fat and calories. Love it!
Velva
I just made these, and they’re amazing, easy and healthy. They’ve earned a spot as one of my regular dinners
Just made this recipe tonight after finding in on Pinterest. It was so delicious! We did cut back on the red pepper to suite out tastes though. Next time I think we will, slightly, cut back on the oil as well.
These were terrific, and a big hit! I stir fried some carrots and celery into the mix, served the mixture with butter lettuce, and topped with some chow mein noodles for some extra crunch…..very tasty!
Oooh…chow mein noodles would be a nice addition!
Amy