Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I love love love the chicken lettuce wraps from P.F. Chang's restaurant, so I was thrilled to come across this recipe in my "stack o' recipes".  I found it in Taste of Home magazine a couple years ago and it turns out to be a Katie Lee recipe.  I figure that I like her meatloaf so much, I'd probably like her lettuce wraps, too!  First off, you have to know that she calls these "lettuce cups" and uses a narrow lettuce (like romaine or butter lettuce) for the "cups".  I wanted "wraps" (and I was also in a hurry at the grocery store), so I just purchased a head of iceberg lettuce and carefully pulled the layers apart.  I also thought this would be good as a salad, so I chopped up some iceberg, too, and that's how I ended up eating mine.  It was super good and got an "A" from my hubby, too!  Okay, onto the recipe...

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Yield 6-8 servings (as lettuce cups) --- this pretty much fed my husband and myself as a regular meal.

1 packet stir-fry seasoning powder
1/4 cup water
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. lime juice
1 tsp. sugar
1 T. canola oil
1 lb. ground chicken
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup water chestnuts, diced
2 T. scallions, thinly sliced
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 head of romaine or butter lettuce (inside leaves only) for the cups (or, as I was mentioning before, this is quite a versatile dish so do what you want with it)
For garnish: mint, cilantro, bean sprouts, chopped peanuts


In a small bowl, combine the stir-fry seasoning, water, soy sauce, lime juice and sugar.  Set aside.


Heat oil in skillet over medium heat.  Add chicken meat and cook until browned (breaking the meat up as you cook it), about 10 minutes.  Add red pepper, water chestnuts, scallions and red pepper flakes and cook 5  minutes more.  Stir in stir-fry seasoning mixture, and cook until liquid evaporates (about 2-3 minutes).


Serve in lettuce cups garnished with mint, cilantro, bean sprouts and peanuts.

I would have liked to find bean sprouts for this but as I mentioned before, I was very hurried at the store, so I only bought cilantro.  This also used up a package of ground chicken from my freezer which was awesome.  I had never bought a packet of stir-fry seasoning before and ended up finding it by the ethnic foods section of my grocery store, so keep that in mind as you're looking for it. 

Here's how my "salad"/lettuce wraps turned out and it was SO delicious. 

Can't wait to try this again and it makes a great summer-time dinner.  Enjoy!