Entrees

Thai Style Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Almond Butter Sauce and Cucumbers

Otherwise known as “the recipe of 1000 ingredients,” these Thai-style ground chicken lettuce wraps are actually so good they don’t even need the additional sauce, but it came in handy to pour over the white rice I made on the side. I also made a little side of seasoned cucumbers. Don’t let the long ingredients list scare you though! It’s definitely worth the effort.

thai lettuce wraps

After being sent a selection of Lindsay Almond butter for free from MomsMeet.com, I was inspired by a Thai lettuce wrap recipe on their website. I made a few tweaks and added a side of cucumbers and rice. I absolutely love the flavor of the almond butter! It’s made with 100% California Almonds, no artificial preservatives, no hydrogenated oils or cane sugar and just tastes really fresh and not overly sweet.

Ingredients

Thai Chicken

  • 1 Tablespoon fish sauce
  • 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 Tablespoons lime juice
  • 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 lb ground chicken
  • 1 shallot – minced
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves – minced
  • 1” piece of ginger – grated
  • 1/2 cup baby bell peppers, chopped (I used the baby peppers because I like the orange, red and yellow colors, but you could also just use a regular red bell pepper)
  • 3 Tablespoons crunchy almond butter
  • 1 Tablespoon chopped mint leaves
  • 2 Tablespoons chopped basil leaves
  • ¼ cup chopped green onions
  • Large lettuce leaves (I used Bibb lettuce)

img_2765

Almond Butter Sauce

  • 1/2 cup creamy almond butter
  • 11/2 Tablespoon fish sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
  • 3 Tablespoons lime juice
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 1 garlic clove – finely minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • Mix everything together, no heating required

Cucumbers

  • Make these first so they have time to soak up the sauce!
  • 1 cucumber – sliced
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup rice vinegar
  • Pinch of brown sugar

asian pickled cucumbers

Cooking Directions for Chicken

  1. For the chicken combine the fish sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, brown sugar and set aside
  2. Heat oil in a skillet, and add shallot. Cook until slightly clear and add chicken.
  3. Cook over medium heat about 5 min, stirring frequently and breaking it up so you have a nice crumbly mix.
  4. Add garlic, ginger, and peppers, cook two minutes.
  5. Add fish sauce mix and cook for a few more minutes.
  6. Remove from the heat and stir in mint, basil, green onions and almond butter.

For dinner I made a couple lettuce cups on the plate with a side of jasmine rice and then set out the lettuce leaves and a bowl of the mix so we could make our own. I used the cucumbers in the lettuce cups and on the side. The mix is so full of flavor it doesn’t really need an additional sauce, but I included it because it tastes good on the rice.

The recipe has a lot of little stuff and chopping prep, but it’s really easy to cook and I guarantee you’ll be impressed with the flavor!

 

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