Chicken and Lettuce Wraps

The trouble with buying fresh vegetables is that... you gotta use them up. Somehow. Sadly, I end up throwing a lot of my vegetables because they go rotten. :( But not this time around. In keeping with my current health kick (no, seriously!) I have decided to try and actually use them up.

And that's where these come in. Problem with buying lettuce for sandwiches is that you don't really need a lot. Just one, maybe two leafs would be enough. So... what if you were to use the lettuce as the main star of the dish, not just a side show? Of course, a salad would be best but... as I said, I really, really don't like salads so much. But these? These are sort of like a salad, only... not. :D The lettuce is wrapped around flavoursome flavoursome chicken, to form a lettuce sandwich. Sounds awesome. So... here we go. :)



What you need:

Lettuce leaves of your choice.
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
1 boneless, skinless chicken thigh, minced
1 small red onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced (I used ginger powder :P)
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
4 oz. (1/2 can) water chestnuts, chopped (I used much much less)
3 green onions, chopped


What you do:

1. Wash lettuce leaves, drain and set aside. Leave whole. You may cut out the spine if you prefer, though this is not necessary.
2. Heat osome oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes, breaking up the meat into small pieces. Add the sesame oil, onion, garlic, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger, vinegar and chili flakes. Cook until the meat is well browned and the onions are translucent.
3. Add water chestnuts and green onions and cook for 1 minute until well mixed.
4. Spoon meat mixture onto lettuce leaves. Enjoy. :)

Well now. This was a surprise. I really wasn't sure what to expect with the water chestnuts, so I didn't add so much. They kinda smelled like longan, which was a bit off putting, to be honest. But it wasn't too bad, really. They added a nice crunch to the whole thing. :)

To be really really honest, this would have been more fun if it eaten in a group. Of course, eating is always more fun with people but... this one lends itself to group eating particularly well. Only, if you were making this for a whole bunch of people, I would use pre-minced chicken instead of mincing it yourself like I did for this one.

Anyways, all in all, it was delicious. The chicken was flavoursome and I managed to use up almost a whole head of Romaine lettuce with this. :D So aim achieved, yay!

Quote of the day: Lettuce is like conversation; it must be fresh and crisp, so sparkling that you scarcely notice the bitter in it.