Lettuce Wraps

I have only been eating lettuce wraps for the past few years. I am a fairly picky eater and sometimes don't give certain foods the attention they deserve. I first tried lettuce wraps at our families favorite Chinese restaurant, Joy Luck, and to my surprise, I loved them. I even thought about them for several days after. 

 This is my mom's recipe for lettuce wraps. It is only fitting to start off this blog with a recipe from her. I grew up in a family of 11 children, so I started cooking at a young age. My mom is an excellent cook and I thank her for teaching me. I am not sure when she found this recipe, I have searched deep into my memory and cannot remember her making them while I lived at home, that's a shame. I doubled the recipe and it fed five of us. These are delicious and pretty easy to make. We finished every last bit and wished there was more.

 I used three boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I cut them into small pieces before I cooked them (this was the most time consuming part of the whole recipe) the rest came together very quickly. I didn't add the oyster sauce that the recipe calls for, no reason why, except my mom never does, so I figured it was one less thing to buy. I cut the sugar in half for the filling. I like it a little less sweet. I am not a big celery fan, so I left that out. I also used iceberg lettuce instead of the others listed. It would be a really good idea to wash the lettuce first and lay out on paper towels to dry, so they are ready when the filling is.

Filling:
1 Tbl sesame oil
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1 Tbl fresh ginger, finely diced
1 pound chicken breast meat
salt and pepper to taste
1 small can sliced water chestnuts, drained and diced
3 Tbl pine nuts (toasted - optional)
3 scallions, chopped (green onions)
2 Tbl sugar
½ cup Hoisin Sauce
2 Tbl soy sauce
½ cup oyster sauce (available at the ethnic food section of grocery store.)
1 Tbl cornstarch
2 Tbl water
Radicchio or Romaine lettuce leaves

Place the sesame oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add the celery, ginger, and chicken and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the chicken is done. Remove chicken from pan and cut into little squares and return to the pan. Add the water chestnuts, pine nuts, scallions, sugar, Hoisin Sauce, soy sauce, and oyster sauce and cook for one minute. Mix the cornstarch and water together and add this mixture to the sauté pan and cook for 3 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat. Place a spoonful of the chicken mixture in the center of each lettuce leaf, drizzle with special sauce. Fold and eat!

Special Sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon hot mustard
2 teaspoons water
1-2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste

Put all ingredients into bowl and mix thoroughly.

*recipe from Cheryl F.