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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers 1

Two of my students' mom gave me a bag of lettuce she had grown in her garden. Fresh, organic, tender, and sweet green lettuce. I didn't want to waste it all on just a salad. I used some to wrap around my Gluten-Free Cha Gio (Vietnamese Spring Rolls).

Then, I rummaged around in my freezer and found a few frozen de-boned chicken thighs. Add a red bell pepper and a zucchini for some color, some water chestnuts for crunch, and this was a quick and easy meal. Or you could serve it as an appetizer if you so wish.

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers 2

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers

For 2 servings as a meal or 4 servings as an appetizer, you'll need:
4 lettuce leaves, washed
2 de-boned chicken thighs or breasts, sliced into 1/2-inch by 2 inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 small zucchini, sliced into strips
1 8-oz can water chestnuts, drained and sliced into strips
3 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese hsiao xing rice wine or white wine
Pinch of sugar

Optional: In lieu of the simple marinade I used here, you can also use my Ultimate Stir-Fry Sauce.

Wash lettuce leaves. Set aside. I used green lettuce leaves because that's what I had on hand, but butter lettuce or iceberg lettuce would be better for cupping the stir-fry if you'd like to use those instead.

Wash and cut the chicken into strips. Set aside.

Wash and cut the bell pepper into strips. Set aside.

Wash and cut the water chestnuts into strips. I wanted to make the strips small so that the water chestnuts would add crunch without overpowering the other ingredients. So first slice the water chestnut in half lengthwise.

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers 3

Then, slice again into strips in the other direction.

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers 4

Similarly, slice the zucchini into strips as well.

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers 5

OK, I know my stove looks totally disgusting. We'll just ignore how long it's been since I scrubbed it, shall we?

The chicken, bell pepper, water chestnuts, and zucchini were all cut into strips of somewhat similar size.

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers 6

Turn the heat onto medium-high and add a drizzle of oil to your pan. Add the chicken only and add 3 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp Chinese rice wine, and a pinch of sugar. Stir-fry until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. This should only take a few minutes depending on the size of your meat and the hotness of your stove.

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers 7

Then add the bell peppers, zucchini, and water chestnuts and stir-fry again until the veggies have softened to your liking. Taste and adjust if necessary. I find that soy sauce already has plenty of salt and the vegetables' sweetness doesn't require much else to contrast, but by all means, season according to your taste buds. Alternatively, if this simple marinade is too simple, you can also make this with my ultimate stir-fry sauce.

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers 8

Place a generous spoonful of the stir-fry onto a lettuce leaf. Hmm. Not the best presentation, huh?

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers 9

If you have floppy lettuce, place the lettuce onto a small, shallow bowl. Then, add the stir-fry on top.

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers 10

Much better presentation, yeah?

Chinese Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Water Chestnuts, and Bell Peppers 11

Enjoy!

My other wraps recipes:
Banh Tom (Vietnamese Shrimp and Yam Fritters)
Longan Chicken Radicchio Wraps
Mieng Kham (Thai Leaf-Wrapped Snack)
Peking Duck-Style Roast Turkey with Flour Wrappers, Scallions, Cucumbers, and Cranberry/Plum/Hoisin Sauce

*****
1 year ago today, how to prepare sturgeon.
2 years ago today, tabbouleh cravings.
3 years ago today, Chinese Hot and Sour Soup.

11 comments:

  1. I like the last pic on this post. You have the same ingredients for ultimate stir fry with me. The different, I don't use sriracha hot sauce. I like using fresh chilies or homemade sambal ulek or sambal terasi.

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  2. Yum! Looks light and delicious. Perfect for meals at home, I shall try. :)

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  3. Gorgeous! Too bad these days we're too spooked to eat any raw veggies (from China) here due to the high mercury content T_T
    Do we need to grow our own veggies? Maybe :D

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  4. Funny how the sometimes the simplest things are the most delicious. And I agree, that last shot is beautiful! (You're funny with your dirty stove, I would have been all paranoid and did a super closeup...dirty stove, what dirty stove?!)

    PS Tonight I'm going to fry some vegetarian spring rolls my French(!) neighbor gave me...she sells them at different ecofairs. It'll be my first time eating them veggie-style.

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  5. Pepy,
    Ha! It's called tossing in all the bottles I have on my counter. :P I sometimes use sambal oelek instead of sriracha, just depends on my mood.

    Marie,
    Quick and easy!

    MCR,
    I guess there's not too much space to grow fresh veggies in Hong Kong? :P

    Tammy,
    I thought about cropping it out, but decided I might as well show people my dirty side too. Ha!

    I had some fabulous vegetarian egg rolls with taro inside at my uncle's 49th day death anniversary at the temple that I've been meaning to try and recreate. I do have a recipe for corn egg rolls that are vegetarian.

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  6. I agree with Pepy. Love the presentation and that last shot. Gorgeous! Here in Hong Kong we get a bit paranoid...we're rather scared to eat raw lettuce (normally from China), too many food scares here these days T_T

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  7. Just please keep writing. This is my favorite blog ever. I need you to stay sane. U r the best. Keep writing! (Sorry for the dramatic tone...My federal agency is about to be shut down and I'm hungry!)

    ReplyDelete
  8. MCR,
    Silly woman! Did you look at commenter #3? It's you! Saying virtually the same thing. :P

    Killer,
    Miss me have you? And where you have been all this time? A girl likes comments every once in a while you know. Haha. When I first read your comment, I thought you meant that you needed me to stay sane, that you thought I was going crazy because I hadn't been writing. But then I realized, you probably meant I needed to keep blogging so you had something to read, so you could stay sane. :P And yes, that did sound awfully dramatic! Federal agency getting shut down!

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  9. Whoa, this looks delicious. Reminds me of the times growing up when you order peking duck and they use the leftover duck meat for a stir fry eaten with lettuce wraps.

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  10. Perfect light meal or starter. We always get this with an order Peking Duck at a Chinese restaurant. It's tasty and light and leaves room for more food! I've never made it home with chicken. Only pork. I don't know why. Weird huh?

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  11. JessS,
    Thanks. I love the Peking duck lettuce wraps.

    Bunny Eats Design,
    Pork works great too. And beef. Lettuce wraps are great.

    ReplyDelete

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