Thai Lettuce Wraps

Last Year's Post: Holiday Breakfast Strata
Two Years Ago:  The Best Cranberry Relish

Street food is all the rage right now, which basically translates into anything you can eat while walking around, especially without utensils.  I think the popularity of food trucks has a lot to do with it.  The issue is that most food truck food is really high in fat and calories.  I'd put this recipe up against the best Asian food truck in town without hesitation from a taste standpoint, but it gets even better because the wraps are very healthy.  They're made with lettuce and ground turkey, and they're bursting with big flavors and crunch.  Although they're are very good on their own, the dipping sauce elevates them to a whole new level.  I found this recipe who-knows-where about 20 years ago and have been making it ever since, because it's that good.

The recipe makes twelve wraps, enough for six main dish servings, and the meat freezes very well so you can pull these out and warm them up any night of the week for a quick meal.  They're also great for lunch at work the next day. The turkey can be either grilled or broiled which means you can make them any time of the year.  If you're serving them for a party it would be fun to let people assemble their own wraps with the garnishes of their choice - bean sprouts, red bell pepper strips, chopped peanuts, cilantro, and some lime wedges.  I'd even put out some sriracha (Thai chile hot sauce) for those who really like it hot - there's always at least one in every crowd.

Start by making the sauce, which is really easy because you just chop a little cilantro and stir everything together.  The sauce is pungent, slightly sharp, slightly hot, and a perfect counterpoint to the lettuce wraps.

For the turkey filling, you mix aromatics, seasonings and other ingredients with ground turkey (best done using your hands, wearing disposable plastic gloves).

The turkey mixture is shaped into little logs and then grilled or broiled.

For the lettuce wrap, choose relatively large and flexible leaves - leaf lettuce or bibb lettuce work well.  Don't use romaine - it's too stiff and the rib is too big. Pile on the garnishes, fold them up and dip away!

printable recipe

Thai Lettuce Wraps

Makes 6 entrees or 12 appetizers

1 beaten egg

½ cup coarsely chopped water chestnuts

1/3 cup fine dry breadcrumbs

1 green onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

½ teaspoon sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon chili oil or a dash of ground red pepper

20 ounces ground raw turkey

12 large leaves of bibb or leaf lettuce (red or green)

Fresh cilantro sprigs

1 red bell pepper, cut into strips

2 cups fresh bean sprouts

½ cup chopped peanuts for garnish, optional

Dipping Sauce:

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon soy sauce

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Combine all dipping sauce ingredients in a bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl combine the egg, water chestnuts, bread crumbs, green onion, soy sauce, lemon juice, ginger, sugar, salt and chili oil.  Add the turkey and mix well.  Shape into twelve 4 x 1.5 x .75” cigar-shaped logs.  Grill over medium-hot coals or broil 3 inches from heat for 12 to 14 minutes or until juices run clear, turning once.  Place in lettuce leaves and top with pepper strips, bean sprouts, cilantro and peanuts (optional).  Fold lettuce over to form wraps and serve with dipping sauce.

Pad Thai

Last Year's Post: Pork with Fennel and Caper Sauce
Two Years Ago: Salmon with Balsamic Sauce

Pad Thai is one of the most popular Thai dishes in America, which is why you'll find it on virtually every Thai restaurant menu.  It's a stir-fried noodle dish made with cooked egg, bean sprouts and a chopped peanut garnish. The protein can be shrimp, chicken, or tofu for a vegetarian version. In its best form it has bright fresh flavor and a variety of textures ranging from the tender noodles to crunchy bean sprouts and peanuts.  Unfortunately, quality can vary and in its worst form it's often mushy and overly sweet. I recently had a Pad Thai encounter of the worst kind so I resolved to find a recipe for my ideal version.  I discovered that many Pad Thai recipes contain tamarind which is an unusual ingredient that's both sweet and sour, plus dried shrimp (yeck).  I was therefore really happy to find a recipe from a cookbook author who has traveled extensively in Thailand.  She found a simpler and very authentic recipe she convinced the local chef in southern Thailand to give her that contains rice vinegar and lime juice instead of tamarind and no dried shrimp.  Yay!

This is an easy recipe to make but as with any stir fried dish, you should do the chopping before you start to cook because the cooking goes fast.

You might notice the recipe calls for cooking the rice noodles less than the original package may state; that's because you finish cooking the noodles with the other ingredients and the sauce.  You want to let them soak in hot water until flexible but still very firm.

As I mentioned, the protein can be chicken, shrimp, and combination of the two, or firm tofu if you want to go vegetarian.  We've been having a lot of shrimp recipes lately (the big Costco bag o'shrimp) so I decided to go with just chicken.  Regarding the spice level, I would call the recipe medium-spicy as written.  By "medium-spicy" I mean you'll notice the spiciness but it's not really hot.  Your lips will be tingling a little by the time you're done but you won't have to stop eating because of the spiciness.  If in doubt, start with a lesser amount of jalapeno and have more available at the table for people to add to their tastes.

The recipe also calls for white pepper, which is common in Asian cuisine.  I just happened to have some on hand but I wouldn't recommend going out and buying it just for the 1/8 teaspoon the recipe needs.  It has a slightly different flavor than black pepper but you'll never notice it in that small amount.

One last thought - don't worry if you don't have a wok, this recipe works just fine in a large skillet.

printable recipe

Pad Thai

Serves 2-3

Note:  As written, this recipe is moderately spicy.  You can adjust the spiciness by increasing or decreasing the amount of jalapeno you use.

6 ounces Pad Thai rice noodles

1 boneless skinless chicken breast and/or 10-12 medium shelled and deveined shrimp

1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 fresh red or green jalapeno, finely sliced

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

4 green onions, sliced (white parts separated from green)

1 egg

2 cups fresh bean sprouts

1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts, chopped

2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Lime wedges for serving

2 grated radishes, optional garnish

Pad Thai Sauce:

1/3 cup chicken stock

3 tablespoons rice vinegar or white vinegar

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

Chop chicken into bite-sized pieces; toss with 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce in a bowl and set aside.

Combine sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Remove from the heat and add rice noodles.  Cover and allow the noodles to soak approximately 8 minutes until flexible but still firm and undercooked.  Drain and rinse with cold water.  Set aside.

Heat a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat.  Add the oil and swirl to coat the pan, then add the garlic, jalapeno, ginger, and the white parts of the green onion (reserve the green tops for later).  Stir fry one minute.

Add the marinated chicken and stir fry until cooked through, about 3-4 minutes.  If using shrimp, cook for approximately 2-3 minutes until they turn pink.

Push ingredients to the side of the pan and crack an egg into the center, then stir fry quickly to scramble.  Add the noodles plus 3-4 tablespoons of the sauce.  Using two utensils, lift and turn the noodles with the other ingredients.  Continue this way, adding more sauce every minute or two, until all the sauce has been added (4-5 minutes).

Fold in the bean sprouts.  Portion out to individual plates and add a lime wedge on the side.  Top with remaining green onions, peanuts, and optional shredded radishes.

Chicken Chow Mein

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It might sound dorky but I've loved chicken chow mein since I was a little kid.  It was the first "exotic" food we ever had as take-out.  I liked the little white boxes with metal handles but what really sold me was the transluscent paper bag of crunchy noodles.  Chow mein is not chow mein without the crunchy noodles.  I now realize that most takeout chow mein is green goo with little bits of diced meat on the top so I was happy to find a healthy and updated version a few years ago.  In this recipe, the flavors are vibrant and the overall texture is very crunchy from crisp-tender celery, onions, and water chestnuts. Did I mention the shiitake mushrooms? Gourmet chow mein, indeed.

It might seem odd to post a chow mein recipe during the holidays but you can't eat cookies and fruitcake every day for the next month, right?  Do your body a favor and give it something healthy to eat every once in a while.  Six ounces of chicken for four servings doesn't sound like much, but chow mein has lots of vegetables too.  I think you'll be surprised at really how much chicken there is per serving when you're done - much more than in the takeout versions. 

If you haven't made many stir fries from scratch you might not be familiar with oyster sauce and dark sesame oil.  Both are readily available in the Asian section of your grocery store and give the sauce wonderful flavor so don't be tempted to leave them out.  Just be aware that sesame oil comes in two varieties - regular which is pale in color like other oils, and toasted which is dark in color.  The flavors are completely different.  The toasted variety may or may not say "toasted" on the label, so the most reliable way to know is simply to look at the color.

Left to right in the photo above you see oyster sauce, regular sesame oil, and toasted sesame oil.  Oyster sauce is very thick and dark with a mild flavor that I can't describe, you just have to try it. (But it doesn't taste like oysters.)  Regular sesame oil also has a mild flavor and is so pale it almost looks clear in the little glass bowl above.  Toasted sesame oil is much stronger with a rich nutty aroma and flavor, and it's always used sparingly in recipes for that reason.  If  I come across a recipe that specifies sesame oil but not the specific variety, I make a decision regarding which they intended based on the amount called for - toasted sesame oil is rarely specified in amounts greater than a teaspoon or two.  If you're intimidated by the unfamiliar ingredients, don't be.  They come together in a very tasty sauce and you would never guess the specific ingredients.

Like all stir fries, once you start cooking everything goes fast and you can't stop, so prep all your ingredients in advance.  The whole recipe takes maybe a half hour to prepare from start to finish with most of the time spent slicing ingredients, so this could be a great weeknight meal.

* * click here for a printable recipe version * *

Chicken Chow Mein

serves 4

Note: prep all ingredients in advance – cooking goes really fast once you start.

½ cup low-sodium chicken broth
3 T. oyster sauce
1 T. dark soy sauce, plus more for the table
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, about 6 ounces, cut into thin 2” long strips
1 teaspoon dark (toasted) Asian sesame oil
2 T. peanut oil
1 heaping tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 scallions, white and green minced, divided
salt
black pepper
½ medium yellow onion, thin sliced
2 stalks of celery, thin sliced on the diagonal
10 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps thin sliced
1/3 cup thin sliced canned water chestnuts
6 ounce bag of chow mein (rice) noodles
6 ounces fresh bean sprouts


Whisk together the chicken broth, oyster sauce, soy sauce, cornstarch, and sugar in a small bowl and set aside. Season the chicken with the dark sesame oil, salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat a large skillet or wok over high heat. Heat the two tablespoons of peanut oil until hot, then add the ginger, garlic and one minced scallion and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and stir fry until lightly browned, about 90 seconds. Add the onion, celery and mushrooms and stir fry until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Add the water chestnuts and spread the ingredients to the outside of the pan to make a well in the center. Pour the chicken broth mixture into the well, bring to a boil, and stir to coat all ingredients. Remove from the heat and season generously with black pepper.

Place approximately one cup of chow mein noodles on each plate, then top with the chow mein mixture, bean sprouts, and remaining green onions.  Serve with additional soy sauce, if desired.