Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

There is something so cool about creating your own little lettuce wrap.  It’s probably the same reason we love salad bars or fajitas or Mongolian BBQ; we get to choose what goes on or inside our meal midst a variety of choices.  I was introduce to lettuce wraps at PF Changs, everybody’s favorite Asian restaurant many years ago.  They’ve become popular when we started to reduce the amount of what I refer to as “useless carbs” in our diets, those calorie-filled, nutrient-empty foods that we use to fill our plates mostly because they’re cheap, easy to fix and available.  I’m referring to white rice, processed pasta, tortillas and bread, enriched flour crackers and chips.  Restaurants are notorious for offering these foods at no extra cost as “value-added” items, suggesting that you get more for your money when you dine there.  The truth is you get a lot more than a deal when you indulge in all the “freebies”; you get a heck of a lot more calories than your body really needs.  And besides, those type of calories don’t provide much in the way of nutrient bonus points.  And I’m all about stacking up bonus points every day!  If you want to add healthy complex carbs, I would add brown rice to these wraps for additional nutrients, fiber, texture, flavor, etc.

I enjoy these wraps because of all the delicious flavors in the sauce i.e. oyster, soy, hoisin sauces (super salty!) and red chili paste.  And if you’re not familiar with ground chicken, it’s a relatively new addition to the butcher block; cooks up like ground turkey, is low in fat like ground turkey, but . . . tastes like chicken!  It’s great in Southwestern and Mediterranean recipes, as a pizza crust, in salads, meatballs.  Stay tuned for more uses!