P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wraps copycat recipe tastes just like the restaurant's version, but are made a lot healthier, and gluten-free, at home!
I failed to tell you the entire culinary story of Ben’s and my Vegas Vacation…
Our first night there, feeling brave after a rather large can of Sapporo, we each dove face first into a Pinks Hotdog, whose newly opened location was strategically placed right outside our hotel. A Classic Dog for him, and a Rueben Dog for her.
One bite of the snappy casing, sour ‘kraut and salty pastrami and it was lights out. When in Vegas!
The other meal I failed to mention took place late one night after returning home from sipping cocktails and shooting craps at the casinos. I had previously turned up my nose to the P.F. Chang’s located in the lobby of our hotel, preferring to dine at non-chain restaurants for all major-meals while on vacation. But as I looked at the clock, I came to realize that it certainly wasn’t a major-meal hour of the day morning, and the smell wafting from the restaurant’s open doors smelled too good to resist.
Bring on the chain restaurant — and the Lettuce Wraps!
P.F.Chang’s Lettuce Wraps – I am telling you – salty, greasy, PERFECT. If you’ve ever had them, I bet you’ll agree. But sometimes they can be a little too greasy, know what I mean?
That’s why I decided to recreate.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken breast
- 1/2 onion, minced
- salt and pepper
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 inch knob ginger, peeled & minced
- 2-1/2 Tablespoons gluten free reduced-sodium Tamari, or soy sauce if not gluten free
- 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoon smooth peanut butter
- 1/2 Tablespoon water
- 1/2 Tablespoon honey
- 2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce, or more if you like it hotter
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 4 oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped (half of a can)
- 1/4 cup peanuts, chopped
- 10-12 large outer lettuce leaves, rinsed and patted dry
Directions
- Heat a large, non-stick skillet on high. Add chicken, onion, salt & pepper, then cook until chicken is nearly done, stirring often to break up the meat. Add garlic and ginger then continue cooking until chicken is no longer pink.
- Meanwhile, in a microwave safe bowl, combine gluten-free Tamari or soy sauce, rice vinegar, oil, peanut butter, water, honey, chili garlic sauce and pepper. Microwave for 20 seconds, then stir until smooth. Add into the skillet and stir to combine.
- Add green onions and water chestnuts into the skillet then cook for 1-2 minutes until the onions are soft and the water chestnuts are heated through.
- Sprinkle with chopped peanuts, and serve with cold lettuce leaves.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only. Please read our full nutrition information disclaimer.
These easy lettucd wraps are DELISH, and so much ligther than P.F. Chang’s version!
Simply pile the chicken mixture onto a lettuce leaf,
roll,
and chomp. AWESOME. Enjoy!
Your style is so distinctive in comparison to others I have read
through things from. Thanks for posting when you’ve received the opportunity, Guess I’ll just bookmark this page.
I tried this with the boyfriend and it was AMAZING. I love the chicken over beef choice. And I just recently added a link to this page on my blog. Everyone needs to know this recipe!!
I found this recipe on Pinterest and wow, what a hit! My husband wants this at least once a week and double the recipe. ha ha Thanks!
From one Iowa Girl to another. This recipe sounds awesome! I am trying it tonight. I bet way better to PF Changs.
Oh wow. This was INCREDIBLY YUMMY. Having never been to a P.F. Chang’s (the nearest is like 4 hours away) I don’t know how close it is to the original, but I will be making this again.
I did fiddle with the recipe, first because I didn’t have all the required ingredients. No ground chicken – used ground turkey. No green onions – used whole diced onion instead of 1/2. No fresh ginger – used ground ginger while browning meat. No chili garlic sauce – used sweet thai chili sauce & added garlic powder to meat while browning. No water chestnuts – no sub, just skipped it!
After that, it was a matter of fiddling with the sauce before adding it to the meat. Added extra chili sauce, then decided to dash in a little hot sauce. Taste tested the sauce until I thought it was JUST right before adding to meat, then taste tested the meat and ended up adding a little additional soy, sesame, peanut butter, and another dose of chili sauce.
I made a double recipe because that was how much ground turkey I had. Yesterday, I made onigiri stuffed with some of the leftover meat. SO. GOOD. Thank you!
Also, I realized when all was said and done I had forgotten to add any salt at any point. However I never felt it was lacking in salt thanks to the soy sauce!
I tried these with seitan instead of chicken and it was AWESOME! Definitely going into the recipe box!
I cannot wait until the weekend I will defiantly be making these yummy chicken lettuce cups….
made these for dinner and they are so good!
This was excellent! When my husband asked what was for dinner and I described it, he said, “So, like a salad?” and was really confused when I said you roll the stuff up in the lettuce leaves. He thought it sounded terrible. But he loved it!
We didn’t have all the ingredients, so I made some substitutions:
ground chicken -> hamburger
chili sauce -> dried chiles, broken up, + cayenne powder for heat
water chestnuts -> celery (adds a similar crunch for a much lower price.)
Even with all those cheapy changes, it was fantastic.
Found your recipe on pinterest. What a great meal! I shared on my blog tonight. Thanks for recreating such a yummy dish.
Lindsay
I made these today for lunch! They were super yummy! Hard to eat because my lettuce fell apart but that’s ok. It was totally worth it! Thanks for the recipe!
So I know you wrote this a long time ago and probably wont check the comments but what are your thoughts on using the crock pot for this and subbing out the ground chicken for chicken breasts? I know it wont be exactly like PF Changs but it will be so much easier. do you think i would need to add some broth of some sort?
Yum! I LOVE that you didn’t put any hoisin sauce in this recipe – it’s almost impossible to find good lettuce wrap recipes that don’t have refined sugars! Yay! :)