Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps - Gluten Free

This Asian chicken lettuce wraps recipe makes a protein-packed fun dinner for the whole family. This is one of my "go to" dinners. You get about 31 grams of lean protein per serving, and plenty of vegetables and fiber all in one fun-to-eat meal. The whole family will love this one.

Crockpot Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I've been making this Asian chicken lettuce wrap recipe for years because it is a family favorite. My daughter Olivia, requested I make this last week.

Matter of fact, I made these healthy chicken lettuce wraps a couple of weeks prior too. I love this recipe because it's easy to make, tastes great, and is so nutritious! I love that my daughter, Olivia (she's 15) loves such a healthy meal.

We've all loved this since I started making it years ago. I hope you love it too!

Gluten Free is Optional

Normally, I don't make this gluten-free, but I know that a lot of you like my gluten-free recipes. So I decided to make this version for you all.

The only things different from making this gluten-free or not is in the Hoisin sauce and the coconut aminos. I bought a gluten-free hoisin sauce from Sprouts (my primary grocery store didn't have a gluten-free version).

The coconut aminos are a 1:1 replacement for soy sauce. Soy sauce has gluten. Coconut aminos do not, and it makes a great substitute for soy sauce. If you use soy sauce, I recommend a low sodium version.

Packed with protein

One reason I LOVE these Asian chicken lettuce wraps is that they're loaded with protein. I'm currently doing heavy weightlifting, and trying to lean out at the same time. So a lean, high protein dish like this is gold to me. One serving is about 31g protein, 41 grams carbs, 17g fat (based on pre-cooked ingredients).

And Olivia loves them too! It's a win/win.

Ingredients for Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This recipe makes 6 very generous servings. If you're cooking for just 2 or 3 people, I suggest cutting the recipe in half (which you can do on the printable recipe card below).

I made this recipe in a 4-quart crockpot. You can use a larger slow cooker if you like (it just happens to be that my 4-quart is my favorite : )

Sauce Ingredients:

• ½ cup gluten-free Hoisin sauce (if not wanting gluten-free then any hoisin sauce is fine)
• ½ cup coconut aminos (if not wanting gluten-free then you can use low-sodium soy sauce)
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (or rice wine vinegar)
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil

Vegetable and Chicken Filling Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground chicken (or ground turkey)
• 1 bunch green onions (5-7 stalks or so)
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms (finely chopped)**
• 2 cups grated carrots (either from a pre-grated pouch, or from 4-5 large carrots)
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 cans (8 ounce) water chestnuts (finely chopped)
• 2 heads green leaf lettuce (your choice iceberg, romaine, or butter lettuce)

** Note on the mushrooms - Once you finely chop 8 ounces of baby bella mushrooms, it will look like a LOT of mushrooms. This might freak out someone who doesn't like mushrooms. Or it just might look like too much. Don't let that scare you. They'll cook down and will barely be visible when you serve. And they make up a soft but "meaty" texture that works will with the chicken. You'll love it - I promise!

How to Make Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps in the Crockpot

Crockpot Size: I made this in my trusty old 4-quart crockpot. The cooker was full to the rim at the beginning of the cook (but things cook down). So don't use anything smaller, but feel free to use a larger cooker (a 5-6 quart cooker would be perfect). I don't think crockpot even makes a 4-quart any longer (sigh).

Step 1: Mix the rice vinegar, coconut aminos, Hoisin sauce and sesame oil together in a bowl and set aside.

Step 2: Prep your veggies. You'll need the garlic, ginger and the white parts of the green onion first because you'll add those to the chicken on the stovetop.

Dice your mushrooms small. Thinly slice the green onion and separate the dark green leafy slices from the white and light green slices.

Step 3: Add the olive oil (or vegetable oil) to a large skillet and cook the chicken on the stove on medium-high heat. Make sure to break it up into small chunks as the chicken cooks, otherwise it'll clump up in the crockpot. Cook until the pink is barely visible - about 10 minutes or so.

Add the ginger, garlic, and white parts of the green onion and cook for another minute.

Step 4: Lightly coat your crockpot with non-stick cooking spray. Add the chicken mixture to the crockpot.

Step 5: Add the carrots and mushrooms. Then add the Asian chicken lettuce wrap sauce.

Step 6: Mix it all together well and cook for about 2 to 2.5 hours. Dice your chestnuts and set aside with the green parts of the green onions for later.

Step 7: Add the rest of the green onion and the water chestnuts. Stir. Cook for another 20-30 minutes.

Step 8: Wash and separate the lettuce leaves. Fill a leaf with a scoop of the filling and you're ready to eat!

How to Serve these Asian Chicken Wraps

Being that these are "lettuce wraps" I probably don't have to go into too much detail on how to serve them. That said, just put a scoop on a lettuce leaf.

1 serving is 3-4 wraps (depending on how you pile it up).

The difference in lettuce (I rotate through all of these):

• Romaine lettuce: This is probably the easiest to work with. The leaves are all pretty uniform size. The shape of the leaf fits the hand well, and the lettuce is firm but not too crunchy. This is my favorite.

• Iceberg lettuce: This is Olivia's favorite because she likes the crunch of Iceberg's crisp lettuce leaves. Iceberg is great, but can be challenging because the shape and sizes of the leaves will vary greatly on one head of lettuce. So you'll have different shape wraps.

• Butter lettuce (or living lettuce): This works great too. Soft and pliable. No crunch.

In the end, which lettuce you use is your own personal preference.

Leftovers: I eat all of the leftovers we have when I make this dish. I don't bother with lettuce and will just eat the filling out of a bowl with a fork. Just store your leftovers in an airtight container and they'll last 3-4 days easily.

Add Rice: White rice like a jasmine or basmati rice goes PERFECT with this dish!

For Visual Impact: Garnish with shredded carrots, sesame seeds, and/or the green parts of the green onions.

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Tips and Tricks

THE MEAT:

As you may have guessed from the recipe title, I use ground chicken. I like it because it's low calorie lean protein. But these Asian lettuce wraps would be AMAZING with ground pork. Ground beef would work too. You can swap that for ground turkey without a problem. Sometimes my store is out of ground chicken, so I'll get the turkey and not give it another thought. All of these are great options.

Cook the meat on the stovetop first! This is important. If you dump 1 or 2 pounds of ground chicken in your crockpot, it'll come out as huge clumps. Your wraps won't look good, nor will the ingredients be evenly mixed.

THE CARROTS:

You can shred the carrots manually by using 5 or 6 large carrots. Because I work all day, I like to find ways to save time in prep. So I buy shredded carrots when in stock at the grocery store. It's a huge time saver!

SPICE & RED PEPPER FLAKES:

This recipe only calls for 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. This is the ONLY spice element in this recipe. I do it that way because Olivia is still a little sensitive to spice at her age.

If you love spice, double the amount of flakes.

If you don't like spice, reduce or omit the flakes.

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More Asian-Inspired Crockpot Dishes

Crockpot Hoisin Chicken

Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

Thai Coconut and Chicken Soup

Crockpot Kung Pao Chicken

Sweet Chili Chicken (a PF Chang's Copycat Recipe)