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Chinese Style Chicken Lettuce Wraps SERVES : 2 | PREPARATION TIME 10 MINUTES | COOKING TIME 10 MINUTES
I'm often asked: "is Chinese food healthy?"
So do you want to know how you can recreate a healthy Chinese Takeaway?
In this post I'm going to show you how you can now eat your Chinese Takeaway "completely guilt free"
Chinese food especially Chinese takeaway food has been voted on more than one occasion as the most popular takeout food of choice. If you're reading this post i'm pretty sure that at one point in your life you've tucked into a plate of Fried Rice, Sweet and Sour or a Chow Mein. For many it's a weekly treat or a cheat meal. But is Chinese takeaway food really that bad for you?
There is always a lot of head scratching that takes place before I decide which dish I'm going to cook on LIVE TV. As a regular chef on Steph's Packed Lunch my cooking slot is only 6 minutes long, which isn't very long when you've got 8 camera's focused on you and you're having a converstaion with Steph and her other guests. So my Chicken Lettuce Wraps were the perfect dish to cook as everything happens in one wok.
Chris Kamara (Kammy) sat at the end of the kitchen as I cooked and it was only because of a quick conversation in the ad break that I found out Chris is in fact a vegetarian and I was cooking chicken. During the live cook along I joked that you could in fact replace the chicken with cauliflower but i hadn't and therefore Chris wasn't getting any.
Not only is this dish healthy it can easily be adapted to be completely Vegan with a change of a couple of ingredients, I'll list these in the recipe.
Preparation is the key to success in any Chinese kitchen, ensure you gather all of your ingredients and have everything chopped ready for the wok before you begin to cook.
Once all of your ingredients are chopped you've then got to get your wok hot!
Equipment needed
Wok
Chopping Board
Sharp Knife or Chopper
Wooden Spoon
Serving Plate
Chicken Yuk Sung Video
I have an entire series of Chinese Takeaway Cookalong videos on my YouTube Channel, CLICK HERE and don't forget to hit that Subscibe Button
Once your dish is cooked you can either portion into your lettuce leaves or simply transfer the filling to a serving bowl.
Each portion should have around 2 to 3 tablspoons of filling, you don't want to over fill your lettuce leaves as the idea is you roll them up into a lettuce burrito or pancake roll to eat.
Don't forget to add your crushed cashew nuts at the end to give the wraps a little bit of crunch and creaminess.
Finally place your filled wraps on to your serving plate and tuck in.
Recipes I think you'll like!
Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup
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Preparation : 5 minutes
Cooking : 8 minutes
Chicken and Mushroom
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Spicy Hoi Sin Chicken
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Wandering Dragon
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Chicken and Pineapple
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Macanese Style Chicken Curry
Serves : 4
Preparation : 40 minutes
Cooking : 30 minutes
PRO TIP
If you'd like to add more texture to the dish you can fry up a few strands of dried rice vermicelli noodles. To do this heat your wok with 2 to 3cm of vegetable oil, once the temperature has reached 170c add a small pinch of noodles, they should puff up immediately. Using your wok spider or a slotted spoon remove noodles and place on kitchen paper to drain. Repeat this process until you have enough to garnish each wrap with puffed noodles.
Kitchen Hack
Separating the lettuce leaves whilst trying to keep them intact; the best way of doing this is to hold the lettuce under a gently running cold tap, as the leaves fill with water they peel (intact) away from the lettuce.
More fantastic recipes for you to try
Singapore Fried Rice
Serves : 2
Preparation : 5 minutes
Cooking : 8 minutes
Crispy Mini Spring Rolls
Serves : 4
Preparation : 20 minutes
Cooking : 15 minutes
Sweet and Sour Chicken Hong Kong Style
Serves : 2
Preparation : 10 minutes
Cooking : 15 minutes
Chinese Style Chicken Lettuce Wraps (Yuk Sung) SERVES : 2 | PREPARATION TIME 10 MINUTES | COOKING TIME 10 MINUTES
Yuk Sung has been a favourite in Chinese restaurants and takeaways for many years. In this version, the juicy chicken, soft onion and rich aromatic Cantonese sauce is served in the classic ice-cold iceberg lettuce leaf and topped with creamy cashew nuts. Drooooool!
This dish serves 4 as part of a starter. Less than 2 syns per portion!
INGREDIENTS
1 tsp. Sesame oil (2 Syns)
2 Garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. of fresh Ginger, minced
3 Spring onions, finely sliced
1 ½ tbsp. Dark soy sauce
3 tbsp. Oyster Sauce or (Vegetarian: Mushroom Stir Fry Sauce)
1 tbsp. Rice wine (1 Syn)
Spray Oil
1 Iceberg lettuce
300g Chicken Breast (Vegetarian: use Cauliflower)
220g can of Water chestnuts chopped into very small pieces
1 Large carrot, chopped into a small dice
2 Celery sticks, cut into a small dice
1 Medium white onion, chopped into a small dice
2 tsp. Sugar (2 Syns)
25g Roasted Cashew Nuts, roughly crushed - Optional (7 Syns)
METHOD
Chop your chicken breast into a half cm dice.
or (Vegetarian: Cut the hard core and stalk from the cauliflower and separate into thumb nail size florets)
In a small bowl mix the soy sauce, oyster or mushroom stir fry sauce, rice wine and sugar.
Gently heat oil in a wok, add the garlic, ginger and spring onions and fry until aromatic. Add the chicken or cauliflower, onion, carrot, celery and water chestnuts and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until tender and browned. Add the soy sauce mixture and stir in well, continuing to cook on high until the sauce has reduced. Once the mixture becomes quite dry, turn off the heat and drizzle with the sesame oil.
To serve, take a heaped spoonful of the mixture and place in a lettuce leaf, add a pinch of crushed cashew nuts, wrap and eat!
So is Chinese food healthy?
As we are in complete control of what goes into our dish the answer is, I think YES!
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Huge thanks to two amazing photographers
Duncan Cuthbertson (Steph's Packed Lunch) and Sam Folan (Quadrille Publishing)
Hi, I'm Kwoklyn
I literally grew up in the kitchens of my parent's Chinese takeaways and restaurants.
I’m pretty sure if you cut me in half it would say “10 minute” (in a broad Chinese accent), which is pretty much what we told every customer who asked how long their order would be.
Never miss a recipe ever again by subscribing to my Newsletter, plus you can download your FREE copy of my Chinese Soul Food Cookbook
Subscribe to our Newsletter and Download your FREE copy of Chinese Soul Food Cookbook by Kwoklyn Wan
