P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wrap Hack

Tonight was really my first foray back into cooking since my shoulder surgery last month. I still have to be a little careful with how I use it, but we are pretty much out of the food that we prepped and froze before the surgery and you can only eat at Panera so many times in a week.

One of my favorite food blogs, for a variety of reasons, is Iowa Girl Eats. Being an Iowa girl myself, I love hearing little tidbits of what's going on in the Des Moines area. She also has a very similar philosophy to mine when it comes to cooking. I read it every week, and have a whole list of her recipes I already use or want to try out.

This one is the hack of P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wraps. Neither my mom or I are huge shoppers, but the times when I'm home and we've needed to head to the mall, we often stop to refill our tanks at the P. F. Chang's in Jordan Creek. Almost every time, we manage to wolf down the lettuce wraps, hot and sour soup, and the honey shrimp. But, as IGE notes on her post about it, the wraps are super greasy. She adapted the recipe to be a little more health friendly, and here's my take.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients
1lb chicken breast, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp dried onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1" knob ginger, peeled and minced
2 1/2 tbsp soy sauce (next time I will use low sodium!)
1 tbsp + 1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp honey
2 tsp chili garlic sauce
dash of pepper
3 chopped baby carrots (original recipe called for water chestnuts and green onions, which I managed to forget when we went to the grocery store. I substituted carrots to try to get some crunch.)
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped
Green leaf lettuce leaves

Directions

1. Spray saute pan with non-stick spray, and add onion, chicken, salt, and pepper and cook over high (Next time, I will exclude the salt. It tasted WAY too salty)
2. Once chicken is nearly done, add ginger, garlic, peanuts, and chopped carrots. Continue cooking until chicken is cooked through. 
3. Mix all but last ingredient into microwave dish. Zap for 20 seconds in a microwave and stir. 
4. Add 3/4 of sauce to chicken, stir to incorporate.
5. Serve chicken wrapped in lettuce leaves, with remaining sauce on top. 

Mr. C took one bite and said "it tastes just like P.F. Chang's!" Granted, I think it has been awhile since either of us actually had the real thing, but it wasn't bad. The only downside was the sodium content was VERY high. Mr. C didn't mind, but I'm on my second glass of water. Next time I'll switch over to low sodium soy sauce and add salt later if it needs it. Otherwise, it turned out pretty darn well!