Easy Asian Garlic Sesame Chicken Lettuce Cups. Sticky Garlic Sesame honey sauce sauteed with ground chicken (or turkey!) and wrapped in green leaf lettuce. These honey and soy sauce Asian chicken wraps are a quick skillet recipe to make for lunch or dinner and perfect to serve as an appetizer or main dish.
For more Asian Garlic Sesame recipes, try this popular Garlic Sesame Chicken, Garlic Sesame Chicken Egg Roll Bowls, Sticky Garlic Sesame Meatballs, and Garlic Sesame Noodle Bowls.
This homemade version is inspired by PF Chang’s Lettuce Wraps and it’s now made with a tastier Asian sauce that boosts a better flavor. They are so easy to make at home and can be ready in 25 minutes! At only 100 calories per serving cup, you’ll be making this Asian Lettuce Wrap recipe over and over again for years to come!
If you’re looking to try a new Asian recipe or eat healthier this year, then try these Asian Chicken Lettuce Cups. Everyone raves how delicious my garlic sesame sauce is! I use this same sauce in a number of my Chinese-American-inspired recipes on the blog. It’s a family favorite to make with baked chicken but I just love how easy it is to use ground chicken with this honey garlic soy sauce.
I always keep chicken wraps on hand for a quick weeknight dinner. I even make it with a side of Vegetable Fried Rice or quick cream cheese Rangoon. Plus, if making extra meat, it can be stored in an airtight container and reheated for lunch the following day.
How to Make Chicken Lettuce Wraps
- Cook the chicken. In a skillet, break up the meat with a spatula and stir the chicken to cook; about 6-9 minutes.
- Make the sauce. Whisk together soy sauce, honey, ketchup, garlic, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and red pepper flakes.
- Combine and cook. Pour the sauce into the skillet. Coat chicken in sauce, stirring occasionally. Simmer sauce to thicken it.
- Serving. Scoop chicken into prepared lettuce cups. Top with diced green onions, and sesame seeds.
Chinese Lettuce Wrap Ingredients
- CHICKEN: Use ground chicken or ground turkey. Using this type of meat adds texture and is incredibly convenient when making dinner for the family. Note that it will cook much faster than breasts. Ground chicken may be a little harder to find in some grocery stores than ground turkey.
- SOY SAUCE: I prefer Kikkoman soy sauce for its bold taste and well-rounded flavor.
- HONEY: Adding a little sweetener such as honey to the sauce adds a delicious taste to an otherwise savory dish.
- SEASONING: Rice vinegar, ketchup, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, green onions, and sesame seeds.
- LETTUCE: Opt to use a type of lettuce that is sturdy. Iceberg lettuce, green leaf lettuce, and butter lettuce are all great choices.
A Healthy Chicken Recipe
Dinner doesn’t have to be complicated. Some of my favorite meals are made in under 30-minutes and right now I can’t get enough of these Garlic Sesame Asian Chicken Lettuce Cups. I make these as a healthy alternative to Chinese take out that we normally order. At the start of the New Year, I decided I wanted to focus on healthier homemade recipes by recreating some of my favorite Asian restaurants inspired recipes and these Chicken Lettuce Wraps were at the top of my list.
This Asian Lettuce Wrap recipe is easy to control with healthier ingredients like ground chicken, and honey in place of processed sugar. Plus, this recipe is SO easy to adapt to your dietary needs or personal taste preferences.
Lettuce Wrap Sauce
THE SECRET SAUCE RECIPE: The secret to making a delicious and flavorful Asian sauce isn’t that hard. My sauce recipe starts with a combination of soy sauce and honey. It’s my favorite flavor combination when it comes to making homemade Chinese American fusion recipes.
ADDITIONAL FLAVORING: From here, I like to add a little ketchup, a lot of minced garlic, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. To give it a little kick, I add red pepper flakes.
To bring this dish together, I always add a generous amount of sesame seeds and green onions. Asian dishes are just not the same without freshly diced green onions and they perfectly complement the garlic sesame sauce on these gluten-free lettuce wraps.
KETO CHICKEN WRAP ALTERNATIVE
To make this recipe even healthier, A few readers have suggested using sugar-free maple syrup in place of the honey and granulated sugar in this recipe. Next, replace the soy sauce with coconut aminos (found in the soy sauce aisle) to keep these keto chicken lettuce wraps on track.
Meal prep these copycat P.F. Chang healthy chicken wraps ahead of time. Pack the ground chicken next to lettuce that’s wrapped in a paper towel in your meal kit lunch box. I like to make a double batch of chicken lettuce wraps on Sunday and portion it out for lunch throughout the week. It makes bringing lunch from home so much more convenient.
Tips
The key to creating a savory lettuce wrap starts by combining soy sauce and honey. Ground chicken works just as well as ground turkey for this recipe. Ground turkey is much easier to find in the grocery store. Be aware that ground chicken can quickly overcook and turn rubbery. Once the ground meat is cooked and combined with the garlic sesame sauce it cooks down, thickens, and coats the ground chicken.
Serving Asian Chicken Lettuce Cups
- Serve the chicken in lettuce – Finally, add a scoop or two of the Garlic Sesame Chicken to a bibe of butter or green leaf lettuce. TIP: If the lettuce leaf is falling apart, just use two!
- Add some heat- For added heat, try fresh peppers such as habanero, jalapeno, or serranos. For extra hot heat, use red chili peppers. Just 1-2 small chili peppers is enough hot spice for the whole chicken skillet recipe. Dried red pepper flakes or hot sauce is also a good alternative that most people already have in the pantry.
- Meal Prep – Add a few scoops of filling to a meal prep container. Don’t forget to pack a few bibs of lettuce, too. To keep the lettuce from wilting, I like to wrap it in a paper towel and store it in a ziplock bag.
- Make it a meal – Serve this Chinese Lettuce Wraps as a main meal or with Vegetable Fried Rice, plain steamed white or brown rice, or 15-minute Vegetable Lo Mein.
Try these Korean Chicken Lettuce Wraps or these Crack Chicken Lettuce Cups next!
Asian Garlic Sesame Chicken Lettuce Cups
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken or ground turkey
- 5 large garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tsp rice vinegar
- ¼ tsp sesame oil
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes, more to taste
- 1 bunch green onions, diced
- 1 head green lettuce, washed and dried (may use butter or iceberg lettuce)
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
Instructions
- Carefully, tear lettuce leaves at the bottom of the root. Rinse under water then allow to completely dry.
- In a large rimmed skillet set over medium heat, cook ground chicken. Break ground chicken up into little pieces using a spatula. Cook until no longer pink and all the liquid has cooked off; about 6-9 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine soy sauce, honey, ketchup, rice vinegar, sesame oil, minced garlic, and red pepper flakes.
- Pour garlic sesame mixture into skillet. Toss the mixture together until chicken takes on the color of the sauce. The skillet should come to a simmer, cook until most of the liquid is thick and absorbed by the chicken.
- Spoon lettuce cups with chicken. Garnish with diced green onions and sesame seeds.
Notes
Nutrition
updated 6/2021
15 Comments
shelby
06/11/2019 at 10:48 amgreat recipe!
Robin
08/21/2019 at 4:04 pmLove this recipe, and my kids devoured it! Thanks!
Lynn
01/13/2020 at 4:23 pmThis recipe is great!
Can you freeze the meat?
Jessica Knott
02/04/2020 at 10:02 amOf course! Just defrost it before using and add a little water to it. It may need a little more sauce but should work perfectly.
Michelle
01/30/2020 at 8:43 pmQuestion: is the nutritional value based on one lettuce cup or ten?
Jessica Knott
02/04/2020 at 9:55 amThis one is based on one. 109 calories per cup, roughly.
Nick
03/20/2020 at 9:17 pmHi Jessica… this looks great and I like to serve it over rice. Is there enough sauce do do this or would I need to increase the sauce ingredients.
Thank you, Nick
Jessica Knott
05/05/2020 at 5:52 pmIf you’d like the rice saucy, yes, double the sauce. That sounds delish!
Rosetta
06/07/2020 at 6:21 pmWas looking for a summer recipe for ground turkey and saw just made it tonight for dinner and it was awesome. Quick easy and tasted great. Will add to me list of favorite meals to make going forward.
Jenny O.
06/16/2020 at 3:54 pmMy whole family loved these, even my husband who is very picky! Used lettuce fresh from our garden. This will definitely be a repeat recipe!
Camille B
07/28/2020 at 8:11 pmDelicious and incredibly easy for a weeknight dinner! We ended up serving the filling over brown rice with a side of broccoli because we didn’t have lettuce on hand. This is definitely a versatile recipe and will be added to our recipe collection. Thanks so much!
Sigrid
08/11/2020 at 9:36 amA new, delicious looking recipe to try.
Beant
01/08/2021 at 8:15 pmSo tasty..definitely make again
Matt
01/25/2021 at 4:54 pmFollowed recipe with ground chicken, wife and I thought it was amazing. It’s going into rotation. Does it cook well with double meat, do I double sauce ingredients?
Faith Alexande
01/27/2021 at 12:38 pmAbsolutely great recipe. Turned out perfect!!