Korean Lettuce Wraps with Peanut Sauce Recipe
Craving a quick, flavorful dinner that doesn’t skimp on taste? These sweet and spicy Korean Lettuce Wraps with peanut sauce and ground chicken (or turkey!) are the perfect weeknight meal for two, ready in under 25 minutes!
Servings: 6 wraps
Ingredients
Lettuce wrap filling:
- 8 ounces ground turkey or ground chicken (½ pound)
- 1 Tablespoon peanut oil or coconut oil
- ½ cup onion ,finely diced
- ½ Tablespoon minced garlic
- ½ Tablespoon minced ginger
- ½ cup red or green pepper, finely diced
- 4 ounces water chestnuts drained & finely diced
Korean pan sauce:
- 1-½ Tablespoons tamari or soy sauce*
- 1-½ Tablespoons hoisin sauce**
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1-½ Tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 Tablespoon peanut sauce – recipe included or substitute peanut butter or use a store-bought peanut sauce.
- 1 Tablespoon honey or brown sugar or more to taste
- 1 teaspoons Gochujang paste
Peanut Sauce for lettuce wraps:
- ½ cup natural-style creamy peanut butter
- 1 ½ tablespoon granulated sugar or honey
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon gochujang or sambal Oelek chili-garlic paste
- 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
- Juice of 1 lime
- ¼ cup water
To serve:
- ¼ cup peanuts crushed
- Lettuce like boston bibb, or butter
- Chili crisp (optional)
Instructions
- Before you begin: Use gochujang paste which comes in a tub and not the sauce that is sold in a bottle.
Make the Peanut Sauce
- Combine all ingredients in a hand blender beaker or blender bowl. Blend until well combined, adding more water to thin the sauce if necessary.
Cook the ground chicken:
- Heat 1 Tablespoons coconut oil in a frying pan. Once hot, it will begin to shimmer, add ground chicken, onion and minced garlic and ginger.
- Cook until chicken browns and the onions are translucent, cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Use the back of a wooden spoon to break apart the chunks of ground chicken into pea-sized chunks.
- Add the peppers and water chestnuts and cook about 5 minutes or until peppers are slightly soft.
Make the Korean pan sauce
- Whisk together sauce ingredients until well combined, in a small bowl. Add the sauce and simmer on low heat until the chicken and veggies are evenly coated and everything is heated through.
Assemble:
- Spoon several tablespoons of the chicken mixture into the center of a lettuce leaf, taco-style, drizzled with peanut sauce, more hoisin sauce and sprinkle with crushed peanuts. If you want more heat, pass siracha. And for a fun twist try chili crisp.
- Serve with rice or fresh fruit.