Stir Fry Chicken Lettuce Wraps

The recipe I am going to share with you today is "Stir-fry Chicken Lettuce Wraps". I got this recipe from Martha Stewart's cook book. This is something new which I tried and came out really good. So thought of sharing the same with you guys...hope you like it too.

I got this cookbook from Library.Here in US, one thing I like is the Library..there will be at least one library in every neighborhood and has a good collection of books, magazines and DVDs. I am not that crazy about reading books but we used to take DVDs from there. You know once we got a malayalam dvd from there!!! (I think some mallus donated it). Last time when we visited the library, my husband asked me "why can't you take some cook books and try some new recipes?". There we saw a good collection of cookbooks and finally i selected 2-3 books. I also chose some baking books too. Actually I am not that good in baking so thought of learning some baking tips too (sure,you can expect some of my new baking experiences in future posts :) ).

We had another version of "Chicken-Lettuce wraps" from one of the famous Chinese restaurant chain in US: "PF Chang's Chinese Bistro". But the filling is not the same as the one which I prepared here. I prepared the Chinese stir-fry chicken as filling.You can buy the lettuce from any grocery shop. There are so many varieties of lettuce are available: Boston lettuce, Iceberg etc .here i got the iceberg lettuce.Lettuce is always a healthy vegetable. Don't get confused it with Cabbage (Yes, When we first tried this at "McDonald's" during our first visit to abroad, we thought it was Cabbage leaf.) 

What the cook says about this dish is that wrapping the stir-fried chicken in lettuce keeps this dish lower in calories & Carbohydrates than it would be if served with rice/roti.The best part i liked about this dish is here we used very less oil for cooking.

OK, here is the details of the recipe
Cooking time:20-25 minutes

Ingredients
Chicken: 1 pound
Pepper: 2 tbsp
OliveOil: 2tbsp
RedBell pepper:1/2 portion(here i used yellow and Red peper)
Onion: 1 big 
Redchilliflakes:1/2 tsp
soysauce: 3 tbsp
Ricevinegar: 3 tbsp
Cornflour: 11/2 tsp
water:1 tbsp
salt: to taste
garlic: 3 pods
Ginger: medium sized
Lettuce leaves:8 leaves( about 1 head)
Preparation:

Step1: prior to cooking

• Cut the chicken (use chicken breast) into very thin pieces. Marinate the chicken with salt and pepper. Keep it for 15- 20 minutes.
• Cut Bell pepper and onion into thin slices.
• Mince the ginger and garlic.
• Mix the corn flour with 1 tbsp of water(do not add more water)

Step2:Cooking Chicken

• Heat 1 tbsp of oil and add half portion of the chicken pieces and fry until the chicken get fully cooked (until opaque throughout).Transfer to a plate. Add the remaining portion of the chicken and repeat the same process.

Step3:cooking vegetables

• Add the remaining oil in the same pan fry the onion until get brown color add the bell pepper and fry it for sometime.
• Reduce the heat and add the ginger garlic and redpepper flakes and stir well and cook for 1 minute

Step4:Adding sauces

• Stir in the cornstarch, soy sauce and rice vinegar. 

Step5:

• Add the chicken and mix with all ingrredients..just heat for 1 minute and switch off the heat

Step6:Making wraps

• Separate the leaves from the lettuce head and take one/two spoonful of stir fried chicken into the lettuce leaves and wrap it

Have it as an appetizer.

Points to ponder

• Do not add excess water into the cornflour.
• You can make the Red chilli flakes at home.just crush the red chilli pepper using Mortar and pestle
• Do not overcook the chicken.just cook it in oil for 4-5 minutes.