Spicy Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I've made lettuce wraps a few times but couldn't seem to find the last recipe I used. After 30 minutes of scouring my cookbooks and online recipes, I just decided to wing it and hope for the best. I really love the fresh ginger in these and they have just enough heat. They also have a lot less fat and salt than many restaurant versions like PF Chang's (although those are really good!) and you could easily tweak to suit your tastes. I opted for Iceberg this time for the added crunch. You can also use Romaine which has added nutritional value unlike the Iceberg. The rice can be served inside the wraps or on the side. I used brown rice but white rice would work as well. These are great if you want a fairly easy meal that doesn't weigh you down. They are also budget friendly (minus the peanuts, but you could nix them).

Ingredients

1 head of iceberg lettuce or Romaine

1 lb ground chicken (I just threw some chicken breast I had on hand in the food processor to chop it up)

1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced

1 Serrano pepper, minced

2-3 Tbsp green onions, chopped

small handful of unsalted peanuts

small handful of chow mein noodles

salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

1 cup uncooked Brown or White Rice

Spicy mustard sauce

few spoonfulls of yellow mustard

few drops of sirracha

touch of reduced sodium soy sauce

Directions

1. Start the rice

2. Cook ground chicken with a little bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder until no longer pink

3. While chicken is cooking, carefully peel a few layers off the iceberg so that they form "cups" and then rinse and dry.

4. Add minced ginger and serrano pepper to chicken and cook for about another minute or so.

5. Mix together the spicy mustard sauce (I didn't have specific measurements, I just kept tasting until I liked it)

6. Add a little bit of butter, reduced sodium soy sauce, and pepper to rice if desired.

7. Spoon rice into lettuce cups (or serve on the side), top with chicken mixture, peanuts, spicy sauce, chow mein noodles and green onions.

*Tip: You can add carrots, mushrooms, or bell peppers if desired. There is really so much you can do with these. Just be creative and use whatever you have on hand. If you don't want to use chicken, pork would work too.