The end of January is when I start to lose my taste for “winter food.” I’ve had my fill of chilies and stews and all things heavy and homey. (Plus I wouldn’t mind losing a few Holiday LBs.)
That being said, I’m not ready to retire my crockpot for the season. I’ve mentioned here before my love of the A Year of Crockpotting blog. You can pretty much find everything you’re looking for when it comes to creative crockpotting on Stephanie’s site.
She has even put together a recent round up of all her “low fat, low cal” crock pot recipes. The Chicken Lettuce Wraps caught my eye, different and easy, perfect for a Friday night. The original recipe called for chicken breasts cut into tiny pieces. I opted for two pounds ground chicken. I also took the suggestions of the author and added water chestnuts and chopped scallions. And, finally, I topped the chicken with the Wasabi Mayo Sauce that I use for the Asparagus dip. (Yes, I realize the added mayo is not that low fat. Omit if you’re really watching it.) Plum sauce works nicely as a topping too.
INGREDIENTS
–2 lbs. ground chicken
–5 chopped cloves of garlic
–1/2 chopped onion
–1/4 cup soy sauce
–1/4 cup white wine
–1/2 t ginger
–dash of allspice (or a dash each of cloves, cinnamon and black pepper)
–2 T balsamic vinegar (I used white balsamic vinegar) I’m sure rice wine vinegar would be good too)
1/2 can water chestnuts, chopped
2 scallions, sliced thin
2 heads of leafy lettuce, romaine works well.
DIRECTIONS:
Place ground chicken on the bottom of the crockpot. Add onions and garlic on top of meat. Mix the rest of the ingredient up to water chestnuts and pour over meat.
The original recipe recommends cooking on high for 4 to 6 hours or low 8 to 10. My version took 2 hours tops. I started it on high and then in 1 hour stirred it to break up the meat. I noticed it was cooking very fast so I switched the setting to low. One more hour and it was done. This is not a recipe you can start in the morning and come home to at night. 
Toss in your water chestnuts and scallions at the end. Serve in big lettuce leaves.
I have to warn you, this is extremely messy. Today I had leftovers and served it as a salad. I want to explore some kind of Asian wrap for next time. Any suggestions?
Mmmm, this is so up my alley. It looks spectacular! I’m a huge fan of Asian lettuce wraps and never thought of using my crock pot for the filling. Great tip – and thanks, also, for the link to the crock pot blog … I appreciate that!
As for other wraps, I’m also a huge fan of making my own Vietnamese Summer Rolls. Its really more of a spring/summer recipe – but delicious any time. This link is similar to the way I make them:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Vegetable-Summer-Rolls-105012
Enjoy!
We nominated you see our post http://partybluprintsblog.blogspot.com/
I love Asian lettuce wraps, but I’ve never done the filling in the slow cooker. I think I might give it a try and eat it as a salad.
Here’s a recipe that we use to make lettuce wraps. We sub the pork for ground chicken.
It’s really good and it even freezes well!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Asian-Lettuce-Wraps/Detail.aspx
Do you know how many this recipe crockpot Chicken lettuce wrap will feed? I need to make enough for about 25 people.
Hi Charlotte, Check out this recipe that I found. It lets you adjust the portions. I think going with the chicken breasts is the way to go. The meat will stick together better and stay in the wraps. The ground meat didn’t cooperate very well. http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/292/Asian-Chicken-Lettuce-Wraps127657.shtml
Let us know how it turns out.