Barbecued Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I tried a chicken lettuce wrap recipe about a month ago and loved a lot of things about it, BUT it called for ground chicken and I was really unhappy with the texture/moistness/dryness of it.  It was still good, but I am not crazy about ground poultry.  I wanted to try a lettuce wrap recipe that used chicken breasts for comparison.  And I MUCH prefer the whole chicken breasts diced up fine.  And this recipe is delicious and has very few ingredients.  

I did alter the original recipe slightly.  Rach has some canned water chestnuts in her recipe.  Sorrytobeabrat, but I believe canned water chestnuts should be illegal.  And I hate them.  My parents did always put them in our stir-fry.  So, sorry Mom and Dad.  Nast!

I also added some sriracha, which is my one true love.  Just needed a little heat for me.  Otherwise, if you leave it out, the chicken filling for the lettuce wraps is quite mild and sweet.  These modifications are included in the recipe below.

I really loved the orange with the shiitake mushrooms and red bell peppers.  Scot liked squeezing the orange wedges onto the lettuce wraps.  I thought it was good, but really like just liked eating the wedges solo.  

Barbecued Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps

adapted from Rachael Ray via Food Network

2 cups, 4 handfuls, fresh shiitake mushrooms

1 1/3 to 1 1/2 pounds thin cut chicken breast or chicken tenders

2 tablespoons light colored oil, such as vegetable oil or peanut oil

Coarse salt and coarse black pepper

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 inch ginger root, finely chopped or grated, optional

1 orange, zested

1/2 red bell pepper, diced small

3 scallions, chopped

3 tablespoons hoisin

1-3 tsp of sriracha

1/2 large head iceberg lettuce, core removed, head quartered

Wedges of navel orange -- platter garnish

Remove tough stems from mushrooms and brush with damp towel to clean, Slice mushrooms. Chop chicken into small pieces.

Preheat a large skillet or wok to high.

Add oil to hot pan. Add chicken to the pan and sear meat by stir frying a minute or 2. Add mushrooms and cook another minute or two. Add salt and pepper to season, then garlic and ginger. Cook a minute more. Grate zest into pan, add bell

pepper bits and scallions. Cook another minute, continuing to stir fry mixture. Add hoisin Chinese barbecue sauce and sriracha and toss to coat the mixture evenly. Transfer the hot chopped barbecued chicken to serving platter and pile the quartered wedges of crisp iceberg lettuce along side. Add wedged oranges to platter to garnish. To eat, pile spoonfuls into lettuce leaves, wrapping lettuce around fillings and squeeze an orange wedge over.

(Servings: 4, Prep time: 15 min., Cook time: 10 min., Difficulty: Easy)

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