The filling for these lettuce wraps is perfect for making ahead and freezing. I see this becoming one of my vacation food recipes.
The chicken is seasoned with garlic, soy sauce and some vinegar. Water chestnuts and green onions add to the flavors. I based the recipe on Spicy Garlic Chicken Pizza, another winning freezer recipe.
The chicken filling would also be great served over rice, but we liked the crunch of the lettuce.
Any recipe that calls for cutting raw chicken will require a sharp knife. My favorite knife comes from Rada Cutlery. It’s called Cook’s Knife and it costs just $9.20. Frugal and sharp – I love it!
Here’s what you’ll need for the Chicken Lettuce Wraps:
Chicken Lettuce Wraps – Freezer Cooking Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs. boneless chicken breast
- pepper and soy sauce for seasoning
- vegetable oil
- 1 bunch green onions chopped
- 1 can water chestnuts chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 5 Tbs. soy sauce
- 5 Tbs. vinegar
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp. sugar
- 2 Tbs. cornstarch
- iceberg lettuce
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into very small pieces.
- Sprinkle with pepper and a couple teaspoons of soy sauce.
- Cook in batches in a large skillet until done.
- Put all the chicken back into the skillet.
- Add the garlic, green onions, and water chestnuts.
- Stir soy sauce, vinegar, cayenne, sugar and cornstarch together.
- Pour into the skillet and cook till hot and bubbly.
- Serve right away in slices of lettuce or over rice.
- To freezer, cool and put in zip top freezer bag. Thaw in the refrigerator and reheat in the microwave.
Rada Cutlery is one of Eat at Home’s sponsors, but I would rave about their knives no matter what. The Cook’s Knife is my favorite, everyday knife but I own many others and love them all. Rada Cutlery mostly sells their products through fundraisers. If you work with a group that needs to raise money, please contact them for info. Their people are just as fabulous as their products.
Psst…I’ll be giving away a Cook’s Knife on Saturday for Virtual Freezer Cooking Day. Be sure you “like” the Eat at Home Facebook page and check in over there on Saturday for the giveaway details.
This looks great!
Any suggestions for substitution for the water chestnuts?
Celery maybe?
Sarah, you could use celery. Or just leave it out and it would still be good.
Peanuts!
I love lettuce wraps. . .this looks very good.
very good! but a touch spicy for my young children. any suggestions for something other than the cayenne?
Hmmm, you could cut back on the cayenne or leave it out. I’m not sure what could be substituted.
So far I have loved every one of the recipes found on this site, Unfortunately, I tried this recipe and for me it came out super salty and for the little one way to spicy. Do you know why it may have come out to salty? Maybe I need to try low sodium soy sauce? Maybe it wouldn’t have seemed so salty if it was a little more mild? 🙂 Thanks for all your work and sharing!
Sandra, I think it would have to be the soy sauce that caused it to taste salty. If you try the recipe again, maybe skip using the extra soy on the chicken and cut back on the cayenne pepper a bit. Sorry this recipe came out that way!
I have an issue with the amount of cornstarch. I thought two tablespoons was waaaay too much but I thought that I should second guess….I should have. It immediately turned everything into a glob with very, very spicy blobs of the soy sauce/vinegar emulsion, which was not pleasant at all. I would say eyeball the cornstarch; a teaspoon or two?