Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Or Salad, or dig in and just eat it with a spoon. You know, so you can shovel as much into your mouth as possible!

This recipe is another Pinterest find. The source recipe can be found here but I use it mainly as a guide. I do use the recipe verbatim to make the sauce.

I like to get as much bang for my grocery buck so when the recipe starts with shitake mushrooms I'm going to use baby portobellos. I like their meaty texture and they help stretch this meal to feed our family. I almost never buy shallots either. I usually play with a combination of onion and garlic. In this case because garlic is already an ingredient and it's an Asian dish I used green onion. I think this is great recipe to use to clean out your fridge. If you think it would be good? Throw it in there.

Another helpful hint I've found when playing with Asian flavors are to keep a few staples in your pantry. Soy Sauce, (I always buy the low sodium) Rice Wine Vinegar, Sesame Oil and Sriracha combined with various amounts of ginger and garlic and usually some kind of sweet element (brown sugar or honey) make up most sauces I come across when dabbling in Asian cooking. All of these play a part in today's recipe.

What you'll need:

1 cup diced mushrooms
1 cup diced bell pepper (I like red)
1/2 cup sliced green onion (just the white and light green parts. Save the tops for later)
1lb ground Chicken
1/2 cup sliced almonds (cashews would be good too)
1tsp fresh ginger or 1/2tsp ground
1tsp fresh or dried, minced garlic
2tbl olive oil
3tbl soy sauce
2tbl brown sugar or honey (or combine the two)
1tbl rice vinegar
1tsp sesame oil
1tbl sriracha (or more if you like it spicy)
Sliced green onion tops for garnish
salt
pepper

What you'll do

Heat the olive oil is a skillet over medium high heat and sauté the mushrooms, bell pepper and green onions for five minutes. Salt and pepper them at the beginning of cooking. Next add the ground chicken and brown for 5-7 minutes. When the chicken is cooked through add the almonds, ginger and garlic and cook for two more minutes. Mix your soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, brown sugar, and sriracha together and pour over chicken and vegetables. Make sure everything is well coated in the sauce and reduce your heat. Let the sauce reduce and the flavors marry. With the heat on low you can sprinkle in the sliced tops of your green onions. Serve on bib lettuce leaves or make lettuce boats from romaine leaves, or just pile it high on a bed of your favorite salad greens.

Enjoy