Chinese Chicken lettuce wraps

Recipe name: Chinese chicken lettuce wraps
Source: adapted from Chaos in the Kitchen
Servings: 2-3
Cookbook date: September 27

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

• 2-3 tbsp oil, sesame or peanut are nice
• 1 lb ground chicken
• 4 oz mushrooms
• 1/2 cup water chestnuts (optional)
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp brown sugar, I use dark
• iceberg lettuce leaves

1. Heat the oil in a skillet or wok over high heat.
2. Break up and brown the ground chicken.
   
3. Mince all of the vegetables-mushrooms with garlic. You also might want to run your knife through your cooked chicken as well to get the pieces more uniformly sized, you want everything to be texturally at the same fine mince.
4. In a small bowl whisk together the soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar. You could also add some red pepper flakes if you want a little spice..
5. Add your vegetables to the chicken and saute until onions and garlic soften.
6. Add the sauce and cook and toss for an additional couple minutes. Taste and adjust your salt and seasonings.
7. Serve with plenty of iceberg leaf “cups.”

Thanks to Chaos in the Kitchen for posting such a fun recipe. If anyone has ever been to P.F. Chang's, you know that lettuce wraps is a signature of theirs. We really enjoyed having our own version at home for a fraction of the price.

Our substitutions/additions: We used ground turkey, and the taste was awesome. I also shredded 4 baby carrots and sliced 1 green onion to add a little bit of color. We used water chestnuts which I finely diced, and we left out the mushrooms, because we believe that mushrooms are nasty.

I made this while Tim was out running errands, and I was glad to have the opportunity to sneak in water chestnuts, which he doesn't like, in general. When he tried the wraps he immediately asked, "What is the crunchy stuff in here?" I made him tell me first if he liked it, which he said he did (!) and then I revealed the secret ingredient. He wrinkled his nose up, and then confessed that water chestnuts were a good thing in this dish. Victory for Tiffany!