Thrifty Thursday: Asian Lettuce Wraps

Welcome to my annual recipe crush. Each February I choose a theme, and provide one or two recipes each day for the whole month. This year the theme is Weekly Menu Planning. What are the categories, you ask? We have Sunday Special, Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Worldly Wednesday, Thrifty Thursday, Fishy Friday, and Celebrate Saturday.

Who isn’t trying to stretch food dollars these days? Cutting down on meat portions and upping the veggie quotient is a big help in that regard. You will likely be putting some of the Meatless Monday recipes into the Thrifty Thursday menu slot. Or you could put these Asian Lettuce Wraps into your Worldly Wednesday rotation. I told you many of these recipes were moveable. Make your monthly menus delicious, varied, and easy to make.

Another advantage to Asian Lettuce wraps is lowering your daily carb count. No bread is used in the making of this sandwich-like meal. Of course, you can serve it with eggrolls or pot stickers, but a serving of brown rice is a better dietary choice. Though white rice has a similar Glycemic Index to brown rice, the brown rice provides more fiber and nutrients.

As to ingredients, you may not normally have all these on your shelves, but I do. So making this is thrifty for me since I can use up some of these sauces and vinegars. I cook with this flavor profile a lot. A quick fried rice is a vehicle for leftover chicken, for example. Once you have these ingredients, you’ll find lots of ways to use them.

Asian Lettuce Wraps are easy to make, easy to store for a quick leftovers lunch one day the following week. This recipe will have you going out to purchase Chinese Five Spice so you can make it often. Or M-Y-O with this recipe with spices you may already have:

Chinese Five-Spice Blend (makes about ¼ cup)

2 whole star anise

2 teaspoons peppercorns

1 teaspoon fennel

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 cinnamon stick, broken in fourths

Toast the anise, peppercorns, and fennel in small skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Toss in seeds and cinnamon stick. Cool. Grind to a fine powder.

Asian Lettuce Wraps (makes 8-10 wraps)

1 head butter crunch lettuce, leaves rinsed and dried

2 tablespoons fresh ginger (I use Gourmet Garden in the produce section)

4 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

3 tablespoons Chinese Five Spice powder

¼ cup water

1 tablespoon sesame oil (or substitute olive oil or canola)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound ground chicken

Rinse off lettuce leaves and pat dry with paper towels. Set aside in the refrigerator.

Whisk together ginger, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, Chinese Five Spice powder, and water. Set aside.

Cook garlic in sesame oil until softened. Do not brown. Remove from heat and add to the sauce mixture. Stir to blend.

Add chicken to the skillet. Brown chicken, breaking up chunks to smaller pieces. When the chicken is cooked, add sauce and stir thoroughly until all the chicken is coated.

Serve in lettuce leaves and wrap up so you can hand-hold them for eating.

The Asian Lettuce Wraps don’t need it, but, if desired, you can make a sauce to drizzle over the chicken before wrapping them to eat.

Special Sauce

¼ cup brown sugar

½ cup water

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

¼ teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Whisk together to serve with the lettuce wraps.

Serve your Asian Lettuce Wraps with a big bowl of brown rice cooked in broth to fill up tummies nutritiously. And to simulate the tastes of higher fat content fried rice, simply add in sliced green onion, soy sauce, and peas in the last minute of cooking the rice.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up

I make this at least once a month. I serve Asian Lettuce Wraps for both lunch and dinner. It’s a great meal. DH loves the Asian tastes in this dish which is so different from the normal flavors I put with chicken. I think it’s funny that he doesn’t like to eat in Pacific Rim-cuisine restaurants (except for Thai), however he will eat the faux-Asian food I make at home. Go figure!