Ginger chicken lettuce cups
Saucy, gingery chicken spooned into cool, crunchy lettuce leaves tastes like takeout and comes together in twenty minutes.
- 20 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 2
- About $5.39 a serving
- 500 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 3 tbsp gluten-free tamari
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp sriracha (optional)
- 1 head butter lettuce, leaves separated
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated
- 4 green onions, thinly sliced, white and green parts kept apart
- 1 lime, cut into wedges (optional)
- 1 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Each serving has about 500 calories, 45 g protein, 21 g carbs and 28 g fat, and costs about $5.39 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No gluten-free tamari? Soy sauce works.
- No honey? Maple syrup works.
- No sriracha? Hot sauce works.
- No butter lettuce? Iceberg lettuce or green leaf lettuce or romaine lettuce works.
- No ground chicken? Ground turkey works.
- No shredded carrots? Carrots work.
- No green onions? Chives work.
- No limes? Lemons work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the tamari, rice vinegar, honey, sesame oil and sriracha together in a small bowl and set it by the stove.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
the lettuce leaves, them dry with a clean towel, and pick out 8 to 10 cup-shaped ones for serving.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Heat the oil in a large over medium-high heat until it , then add the ground chicken.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Medium-high heat
Break the chicken into small with a spatula and cook for 6 to 7 minutes, until no pink is left and some bits are .
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 6 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Ground chicken looks pale and wet at first. Keep going: the liquid cooks off and then it starts to brown.Food safety: Ground turkey and ground chicken are done at 165°F, with no pink left anywhere in the pan.
to medium, add the carrots, garlic, ginger and green onion whites, and for 2 minutes, and the carrots .
Reduce the heat. It means turning the burner down, usually to medium-low or low, so food cooks gently instead of hard. Electric burners cool slowly, so lift the pan off for a moment if it’s bubbling hard.
How you’ll know: Within a minute the bubbling calms to a gentle simmer, or the sizzle turns quiet.
Sauté. Sautéing means cooking cut-up food in a little oil or butter over medium to medium-high heat, stirring now and then. It cooks things quickly and browns them lightly without burning.
How you’ll know: You hear a steady, lively sizzle, not a hiss and spit, and the edges start to soften and color.
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Softened. For vegetables it means cooked until they bend and lose their crunch; for butter, left out until it dents easily. Soft onions taste sweet, and soft butter mixes in smoothly.
How you’ll know: Onions squash easily against the pan with your spoon, and butter dents under a finger without looking greasy.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min
Pour in the sauce and for 1 to 2 minutes, until it bubbles and clings to the chicken with almost no liquid left in the pan.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Taste it now. Too salty, add a squeeze of lime; a little flat, add a splash more tamari.Spoon the chicken into the lettuce cups and top with the green onion tops, sesame seeds and a squeeze of lime.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
