Tonights Dinner Decided From
I followed the recipe from Damn Delicious. The original author is Chungah Rhee. I normally do not love copy cat recipes, but her P.F. Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps are easily one of my newest favorites. Damn Delicious had hundred of recipes of all sorts. I have dozens of Chungah’s recipes bookmarked as some of my all time favorites. These chicken lettuce wraps are perfect for a healthy change of pace dinner or even a sure fire appetizer.
Growing in a small rural town we definitely didn’t have anything like P.F. Changs around. Years later, when I met my wife she would oven rave about P.F. Chang’s lettuce wraps. Now as we all inevitably get older, I have accepted that I can no longer eat meat and potatoes and other comfort food dishes from my childhood. So when I came across this recipe I knew it was perfect fort both a healthier option and something my wife would love. This should be you next dinner recipe if you are looking for something light, refreshing and guilt-free, yet still packed with flavor.
Probably the biggest variation I made was adjusting the amount of water chestnuts. The original recipe called for an 8 ounce can o whole chestnuts to be drained and diced. At the store I ended up selecting a 5 ounce can of sliced chestnuts. Even then, I ended up only using about half of the can. I made sure to finely dice the chestnut to still get the crunch, without getting a giant bite of just water chestnut. Obviously, if you love water chestnuts and want some extra crunch you could follow the original recipe.
I also only used about half of an onion. In addition, I could not find butter lettuce on that particular day at the grocery store so I had to improvise. The lettuce heads I did end up finding were very similar but quite a bit smaller than the recipe depicts. No worries if you can’t find something exactly like the original recipe, just about and head of lettuce that will hold its shape will work here.
To make these lettuce wraps really shine, make sure to top with green onion and sesame seeds.
These lettuce wraps would make a really tasty appetizer that I am sure would be gobbled up quickly, but if you decide to make them for dinner like we did then I would a vegetable and a carb. We had some carrots on hand, we made some honey roasted carrots and some quick stir fry udon noodles. Of course, just about any vegetable would work here. You could also some the with some fried rice, sticky rice or ramen. Either way this is an amazing refreshing and guilt free week night meal.
