Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Erik and I LOVE P.F. Chang's. Our favorite on their menu, which I think is EVERYONE'S favorite, is their Chicken Lettuce Wraps. I've always wanted to try making them... Tonight I finally did! They were AWESOME! I made enough for us to eat tonight and for Erik to take some to work for lunch tomorrow. However, Erik couldn't stop himself until they were all gone. I think these are going to make it on my menu every week. They are cheap, low cal, and filling.




Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Special Sauce

* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup water
* 2 tablespoons soy sauce
* 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
* 2 tablespoons ketchup
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1 teaspoon sesame oil
* 1 tablespoon hot mustard
* 2 teaspoons water
* 1-2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste

Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil. Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.

Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.

Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.

Filling

* 3 tablespoons oil
* 8 chicken thighs
* 1 cup water chestnut
* 1 cup shitake mushroom
* 6 chopped green onions
* 1 tablespoon minced garlic
* 2 tablespoons soy sauce
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
* 1 head of lettuce (butter lettuce works great)
* Crispy Chinese rice noodles


Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan. Saute chicken for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done. Remove chicken from the pan and cool.

As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.

Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.

When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are.

With the pan on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil. Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan. Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes.

Serve in "lettuce cups" and top with your special sauce and rice noodles.

BUDGET SAVER NOTE - Chicken thighs are cheaper than chicken breasts. For this particular recipe, you could use either, but the thighs are a much better choice. They are more tender and easier to chop into small pieces. Almost any recipe that calls for chicken breasts can use thighs instead. We buy the large bag from the freezer section at Costco. The thigh bag is about $4 cheaper than the breast bag, and it lasts longer. Give it a try sometime!!