Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Ginger Dressing

Chicken Lettuce Wraps are exactly what you want after a long, hot day. They’re delicious, very fresh and not too heavy. I used leftover chicken thighs that I smoked the day before, but any chicken will do. You can grab a rotisserie chicken from the deli, shred some cooked chicken breasts (or any part for that matter), use leftover chicken, or throw a chicken on the smoker! 

This is NOT a PF Changs copycat recipe. 

These are MY lettuce wraps.

The dressing is so good – and it’s homemade. It’s the ginger dressing that everybody loves at Japanese hibachi restaurants. Yes, that one. The one that comes on iceberg lettuce in a little bowl with your soup.

It’s so delicious you’ll want to drink it.

I like to marinate chicken in it sometimes. Pork is really good with it, too.

This is a fairly easy dressing to make, and if you make it a day or so early it will be even better. It makes roughly a pint, give or take. One of those plastic, tallish clear cylindrical take out containers (32 oz.) is perfect as far as size, just so you can be prepared.

A note about making the dressing – do not skimp on the onion or celery. They both are critical to get the proper texture and taste.

The small amount of tomato sauce can be subbed. I know this personally because one time I made it and had no tomato sauce in any form except for ketchup, so I used it and we could never tell the difference. 

If you don’t know about OXO and their products, you need to check them out. They send me the best stuff –  and I’m hooked. I have two of these salad dressing mixers – they’re one of my VERY favorites.

How To Make Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I made these after I smoked some chicken thighs for some weekly meal prep. 

Fact: Skinless BONE IN chicken thighs are so much better than boneless. Why? Because there’s flavor in the bones, and that gives the chicken such a deep flavor.

I probably get double the amount of chicken to chop (sans grossness like fat and whatnot) than I usually do with boneless thighs.

Chicken thighs are still lean, and easier to chop than chicken breasts.

Usually I use my stand mixer to shred meats, but sometimes a girl needs to stand in the kitchen and chop just for fun. Honestly, it’s a stress reliever for me, if you don’t already know that. If you’re skeptical just try it; you may surprise yourself.

Because I like to use a spicy wet rub on my chicken thighs, I thought it was appropriate to add mango. It balances everything out and adds more flavor. Nothing wrong with more flavor – and mango works so well here.

As far as the vehicle for all of this, I chose green leaf lettuce. Romaine would definitely work (it’s also a sturdy leaf), iceberg would obviously be good, or you could even get crazy and use cabbage leaves. I, personally, would blanch cabbage leaves if using them for this recipe.

All up to you. To me, the mango really makes these. If you don’t have a fresh mango, canned will work in a pinch, but fresh is best.

Here’s your printable-

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Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Ginger Dressing

Yield: 6-8 Lettuce Wraps

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

A new take on lettuce wraps with chicken thighs, diced fresh mango and a ginger dressing that you'll want to drink. A great warm weather dinner idea!

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Ingredients

Ginger Dressing

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• 1/4 cup white onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 celery stalk, chopped
• 1 inch fresh ginger, grated
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 2 tsp tomato sauce
• 1/3 cup soy sauce (I used gluten free)
• 1 squirt Sriracha

Lettuce Wraps

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• 2 lb. skinless chicken thighs smoked (or grilled) with this rub
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 cup carrots, sliced thin
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced (I used canned, but I smoked them!)
• 1 mango, diced
• 1/2 cup water chestnuts, diced
• Handful Chinese Rice Noodles, crushed
• 1 head green leaf lettuce, washed

Instructions

For the Dressing

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until almost smooth.

Chicken Wraps

1. Debone and chop chicken.

2. Assemble wraps by adding chicken through rice noodles; drizzle with dressing.

Notes

Please keep in mind if looking at the Nutritional Information that it's counting all of the dressing ingredients, which is for more than the lettuce wraps made.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

3

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 904Total Fat: 67gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 58gCholesterol: 184mgSodium: 1975mgCarbohydrates: 37gFiber: 8gSugar: 16gProtein: 44g

The provided nutrition calculated may not always be accurate.

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