Ready for a quick and healthy lunch? These Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps with hoisin sauce, are loaded with flavor and ready in 15 minutes, start to finish! I promise, your tastebuds will thank you!
These little babies are Thai inspired, for no other reason than my love for Thai food! I went ahead with a little red curry paste along some some sweet hoisin sauce, which gives this dish a perfect balance of sweet and spicy – but not too spicy! I think one of the main reasons I love Thai food is because of all the fresh ingredients and bold flavors.
Every time I make these lettuce wraps I remind myself how incredibly delicious they are! The filling is full of vegetables, protein and a perfect sauce that will leave everyone at the table feeling satisfied. The best part, you can load your plate with seconds, and even thirds, because they’re really healthy and guilt free!
Looking For Something Healthy?
We all know the term “quick and easy”. Well, I give you “quick and healthy!”. I know a lot of us do our best to eat healthy when we can, and while the thought of preparation can be daunting and time consuming, these fast and simple feel good recipes do exist! Super tasty and low calories here we come!
Ingredients
Detailed measurements and instructions can be found on the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Ground chicken – You can use any ground meat you prefer – I recommend chicken or turkey as healthier options.
- Olive oil – Any brand you like to fry with.
- Red curry paste – I’m using red curry paste today, but if you prefer something with more heat you’re welcome to use a green curry paste instead, as they are typically more spicy!
- Ginger – minced, please!
- Garlic – Use as much or little as you like.
- Bell pepper – Sliced thinly. I used a red pepper today, but you can use any color that you like!
- Cabbage – Feel free to chop your own head of cabbage, or to save time you can buy prepackaged coleslaw mix!
- Green onions – Chopped up finely.
- Hoisin sauce – If you can’t find this in your grocery store, you can make a variation with equal parts plum jam and teriyaki sauce or a BBQ sauce of your choice mixed with a little sugar.
- Seasoning – Salt and pepper to taste.
- Lettuce – You should have enough filling for 1/2 an iceberg. This recipe calls for iceberg lettuce, but you can use romaine, leaf, or butter lettuce if you prefer!
- Basil – 5 leaves chopped finely – cilantro would also work for this recipe!
How To Cut Lettuce
This is actually quite simple! Cut the bottom part of the head of lettuce off, and cut in the head in half. Then carefully peel away each layer and you should have “cup-like” pieces, which is where your chicken filing will fit nicely. Don’t forget to wash and dry your lettuce leaves before serving!
How To Make Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps
- In a skillet: Heat the olive oil until it is very hot! Add the ground chicken and cook for about 3 minutes or until it’s starting to brown and no longer pink. Use a wooden spoon to break it up and move around as necessary.
- Add the ingredients: Next up, add the red curry paste, garlic, ginger, bell pepper, coleslaw mix and stir-fry for another 3 minutes. Then stir in hoisin sauce and green onion and toss.
- Assemble: Remove skillet from heat and add the basil, give it a little toss and transfer to a large bowl.
- Serve: Using a spoon, place the chicken into your individual lettuce cups and fold over similar to a taco! Bon appetite!
Other Ingredients That Can Be Used
You can get wild with lettuce wraps, there are just so many variations out there. But for the sake of keeping it simple, let’s start with these options:
| Meat: | Vegetables and more: |
| Pork | Shredded carrots |
| Turkey | Zucchini |
| Beef | Cucumber |
| Shrimp | Mango |
| Bean Sprouts | |
| Radishes | |
| Peanuts | |
| Tomatoes | |
| Avoado |
I could go on forever. But see what I mean? So many variations to make lettuce wraps work and also keeping them a healthy option!
How To Serve
Lettuce wraps make for a great snack but are also very filling if you’d rather have them as a main dish. If preparing for small children, serving over a bed of rice or noodles may make life easier for you and them, as eating with a spoon may be easier than eating a lettuce wrap!
Make Ahead
While you’re not going to want to assemble your wraps ahead of time, you can certainly get your chicken and sauce prepared before hand. If planning to use within the next day or two, once cooked the chicken can be refrigerated up to 3 days, however putting it in the freezer will extend its shelf life up to to 3 months. Then whenever you’re ready for them, all you need is the lettuce!
Looking For More Thai Dishes?
- Pad Thai
- Thai Chicken Salad
- Thai Chicken Bites
- Easy Thai Steak Salad
- Crockpot Thai Chicken
- Thai Meatball Lettuce Wraps
- Thai Red Curry Chicken
- Baked Thai Salmon
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Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp red curry paste
- 1 tbsp ginger minced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 red bell pepper sliced thinly
- 4 green onions chopped
- 1 cup cabbage shredded or coleslaw mix
- 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
- 1/4 tsp salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp pepper or to taste
- 5 leaves basil chopped
- 1/2 head iceberg lettuce cut into half
Instructions
- Add olive oil to a large skillet and heat until oil is very hot. Add ground chicken and cook until no longer pink and starts to brown, break it up with a wooden spoon as necessary. Should take about 3 minutes.
- Add red curry paste, ginger, garlic, peppers, coleslaw mix, and stir-fry for another 3 minutes. Add hoisin sauce and green onions, and toss. Remove from heat then add basil and toss.Transfer cooked chicken to a bowl.
- Serve by placing spoonfuls of chicken into pieces of lettuce, fold lettuce over like small tacos, and eat.
Recipe Notes
- While you’re not going to want to assemble your wraps ahead of time, you can certainly get your chicken and sauce prepared before hand. If planning to use within the next day or two, once cooked the chicken can be refrigerated up to 3 days, however putting it in the freezer will extend its shelf life up to to 3 months. Then whenever you’re ready for them, all you need is the lettuce!
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
Best lettuce wraps!! All my 4 kids love this dish even my 3yr old requests it often.
Amazing, we absolutely loved these! Thanks!
These were soooooooooo good! I made these the other night for my sister and I and we both LOVED them! Can’t wait to look through more recipes on your site. 🙂
Aww thank you, Kass! Let us know what else you try 🙂
Simple and delicious. The whole family loved this recipe, will make it again soon. Love all your recipes we’ve tried!
Simple and delicious. The whole family loved this recipe, will bake it again soon.
I made this recipe today. It was easy and very very delicious. I’m enjoying your recipes. Thank you for the hard work!
Is there a video for this recipe? 😊
Perfect for mother’s day!
There isn’t a video for this one! But they are very simple and delicious, I really encourage you to make them!
Okay, thanks. I did make them today for lunch, my family LOVED them. I used beef instead of chicken, but I did not double the flavoring. They were perfect
This was dinner last night and it was so good. I opted for the ground beef with cucumber. It’s flavorful, has crunch and is so versatile. I served it over rice. Thank you, Jo, for another great and easy recipe.
We loved this recipe! I had green curry paste so we used that. It was pretty spicy but we like that. Didn’t have Hoisin sauce but had some chipotle raspberry sauce…delish!
So glad you liked it! Love the creativity of your substitutions.
YUM! So easy and so delicious! I love your recipes and your site! Thank you!
We’re so glad you loved it!
Made this tonight and had to improvise as we didn’t have Hoisin Sauce, used Oyster Sauce, didn’t have a head of lettuce to “wrap” so used more raw cabbage mixture on the plate with meat mixture on top. Also used peanut oil instead of olive oil. This was easy and delicious!! Thanks!
This recipe is awesome! I add a little honey at the end to round it out just a bit and use dinosaur kale instead of iceberg lettuce for added nutritional value! Thanks so much for this awesome recipe.
How many are considered a serving?
About 2 or 3 wraps.
Delish and my kids loved it and it’s easy enough for them to make, Likely will become a weekly meal in our house! Looking forward to trying more of your recipes :))
So happy to hear this! Glad everyone enjoyed them!