Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This Chicken Lettuce Wrap recipe is filled with flavorful marinated chicken and topped with a homemade peanut sauce and your favorite toppings.  Lettuce wraps make a delicious light lunch or tasty appetizer to go along with all sorts of Asian-inspired favorites.

The chicken for lettuce wraps can be grilled chicken, roasted chicken, or any leftover diced chicken that you might have. I like to add shredded carrots, bean sprouts, sliced cucumbers, and a little sweet chili sauce.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps Recipe

It’s hard to resist these crisp, flavorful, and deliciously light chicken lettuce wraps.  They taste just like the PF Chang chicken lettuce wraps, but can be made right at home and adapted to use your favorite proteins, lettuces, and toppings.

While I often like to serve lettuce wraps as an easy, healthy, and light lunch, they also double as a tasty appetizer to go along with Asian-inspired dinners like this Korean Beef Stir Fry or Slow Cooker Kalua Pork.  Keep reading for more topping ideas, detailed instructions, and answered to your most frequently asked questions. 

And if you love all things thai food, be sure to check out my Peanut Sauce, perfect for drizzling on these lettuce wraps, Thai Chicken Salad and Thai Chicken Marinade too.

Key Ingredients

• Chicken Breasts – I like to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  You could easily substitute chicken thighs, chicken tenders, or even ground chicken.  In fact, you could make this recipe using just about any kind of protein such as pork, ground turkey, or even steak.
• Avocado Oil – you’ll need either avocado oil, or another cooking oil such as olive oil, for both the marinade and for cooking the chicken.  If you want to season with a little sesame oil you can, but I don’t recommend replacing the entire amount with sesame oil as the flavor is very strong.
• Soy Sauce – use your favorite soy sauce or tamari.
• Lime Juice – fresh lime juice has the best flavor.
• Garlic – I like to use fresh minced garlic, however the jarred minced garlic would work.
• Ginger – you can use either ginger powder or fresh grated ginger.
• Green Onions – you’ll want these to be thinly sliced.  If you want to add extra for a topping, feel free.
• Peanut Butter – you can use either creamy or chunky peanut butter depending on what you like.

Other Lettuce Wrap Ingredients

• Lettuce – you’ll need about 2 full heads of lettuce for 6 servings.  You can use butter lettuce, bibb lettuce, romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, or any of your favorites.  It’s a little easier to make the wraps with larger leaves, but otherwise you can use anything you like.
• Shredded Carrots – the easiest thing to do is purchase pre-shredded carrots.  Or, you can shred your own with a cheese grater.
• Bean Sprouts – this is a great topping idea that involves no prep.
• Crispy Rice Noodles – these can be found in the Asian food section at most grocery stores.
• Sweet Chili Sauce – this tastes amazing with the rest of the Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps flavors.

More Topping Ideas

Here are a few more of my favorite toppings to add to lettuce wraps:

• Thin rice noodles
• Thinly sliced bell pepper (green or red peppers)
• Diced celery
• Water Chestnuts
• Crushed peanuts or cashews
• Sliced green onions
• Fresh cilantro

How to Make This Chicken Lettuce Wrap Recipe

1. Marinate your chicken.  In a medium bowl, add the diced chicken, 1 tablespoon of avocado oil, soy sauce, lime juice, minced garlic, ginger, water, thinly sliced green onions, and crushed red pepper flakes. Stir until combined, cover with plastic wrap and let marinate for 20 minutes – 2 hours in the fridge.
2. Cook the chicken. Once finished marinating, remove the chicken mixture from the marinade with a slotted spoon to remove excess sauce. In a large saucepan, add 1 tablespoon of avocado oil.  Heat over medium heat until barely smoking, then add the chicken.  Cook for about 2 minutes before stirring.  Stir gently, then allow the chicken to brown slightly on the bottom before stirring again. Repeat until you have cooked the chicken completely, then set aside.
3. Make the peanut sauce.  In a small pan, add the peanut butter, water, sugar, soy sauce, white wine vinegar, and crushed red pepper flakes.  Heat over medium high heat while whisking and bring to a boil.    Take off the heat and stir again.  When the peanut sauce is cooled a little, add lime juice. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature before stirring in the lime juice.
4. Assemble the lettuce wraps.  Prepare lettuce leaves by peeling back the lettuce leaves and washing.  Set on a paper towel until dry. To each lettuce leaf, add a few tablespoons of cooked chicken, then top with shredded carrots, bean sprouts, and crispy rice noodles.  Drizzle with sweet chili sauce and peanut sauce.  
5. Enjoy!

Frequently Asked Questions

Storing Leftovers

• Refrigerator: leftover Chicken Lettuce Wraps can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.  You can also lay them out on a large platter and wrap the entire thing in plastic wrap.
• Peanut Sauce: peanut sauce can be made up to 2 days in advance and store in the fridge.
• Leftover Chicken: if you have leftover cooked chicken that hasn’t been added to any lettuce wraps, place it in an airtight container in the fridge and store for up to 3 days.  You can build more lettuce wraps, or add to salads, fried rice, or any other lettuce wrap recipes.

More of Our Favorite Asian-Inspired Recipes

• Slow Cooker Kalua Pork
• Easy Ham Fried Rice
• Asian Beef Kabobs
• Korean Beef Stir Fry
• Teriyaki Beef Stir Fry
• Grilled Teriyaki Salmon
• More Chicken Recipes
• More Dinner Ideas

This Asian Lettuce Wraps recipe is an easy and delicious option for a light lunch or dinner appetizer. Based off of the famous PF Chang Chicken Lettuce Wraps, this recipe is just as delicious and much more convenient.