After two months of holiday indulging, my friend Patrick informed me that he was going to lose weight in the new year, to get ready for his upcoming wedding to his fiancé Kelsey. “How are you planning to do that?” I asked, curious to know how this young man, a former college football player who could probably bench press a Volkswagen, would approach the challenge. “Lettuce wraps,” he replied.
Well Patrick, this one is for you. And it comes from my best pal and blogging buddy, the incredible marvelous Jaden Hair of SteamyKitchen.com, from her newly released cookbook, Steamy Kitchen’s Healthy Asian Favorites. (In fact, all of the recipes in her book would be great for your new year resolution, hmmm, maybe I’ll get you a copy as a pre-wedding gift!) These lettuce wraps are easy, fast, and fresh with stir-fried chicken, green onions, shiitake mushrooms (mushroom flavor bombs), and sweet bits of mango, seasoned with sesame oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce, and served in butter lettuce cups. You can easily whip them up in less than half an hour.
Chicken Mango Lettuce Wraps Recipe
Why the corn starch? It's a cooking trick that you often find in Chinese recipes. The corn starch helps the chicken hold in its moisture and keep it from drying out in the high heat of the stir frying.
Recipe slightly modified from Chicken Mango Lettuce Cups in Steamy Kitchen's Healthy Asian Favorites by Jaden Hair.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken (I use ground chicken thighs for more flavor)
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon corn starch (or potato or rice starch)
- 1 teaspoon cooking oil (a high smoke point oil would be best such as rice bran oil, grapeseed oil, or canola oil)
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
- 2 teaspoons seasoned rice vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 large mango, diced (see How to Cut a Mango)
- 1 head of butter lettuce, rinsed, leaves separated
Method
1 Place the ground chicken, soy sauce, and corn starch in a large bowl. Mix to combine.

2 Heat a wok or a large sauté pan on medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add the oil. Add the green onions and sliced shiitakes. Let cook for about a minute.

3 Increase the heat to high, and add the ground chicken, soy sauce, corn starch mixture. Use a wooden spoon to break up the ground chicken and spread around the pan. Stir fry in this way for 5 to 7 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Add the seasoned rice vinegar, sesame oil, and diced mango. Remove from heat. Adjust seasonings (rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce) to taste.
Scoop spoonfuls into the cups formed by the lettuce leaves to serve.
Options - stir in a small spoonful of chili sauce, or add a few chili pepper flakes to the oil as it is heating. Top with some fresh cilantro leaves. Experiment with other meats such as lamb, turkey, beef, or pork. Try subbing out the mango with mandarin orange slices.
Yield: Serves 4 as a main, 8 as an appetizer.








Ooooh, these look yummy & they’ll work in rather well with our meal plans just now. My husband & I are on a mission to reduce some of the wardrobe shrinkage that has occurred over the last few years!
Just one question – is ground chicken the same as chicken mince? In NZ we don’t have ground beef either, just minced beef. I’ve always assumed them to be pretty much the same thing but now seems like a good time to check?
Yes, mince and ground meat are the same thing.
These do look delicious!
Fabulous, thanks. So could I ask you then, what’s the difference between ground beef & hamburger in the US? Or does it just depend which cook you listen to?
Again, I’ve assumed that gold ol’ mince covers all bases over here!
One makes hamburgers (beef patties) with ground beef. Which is why ground beef is also called hamburger meat.
Thank you. It’s always good to get assumptions confirmed. Especially since there are so many variables.
As a kid, I could never figure out why Americans had biscuits with stew or gravy. Chocolate chip ‘biscuits’ or ginger nuts with gravy just didn’t seem to work somehow. It was many years before I discovered that we call them scones & what we call biscuits, you call cookies. Cooking is an adventure! Keep up the good work. Love the blog.
These look fabulous! Would be such a great light dinner. Thanks for sharing!
This is always a classic dish!
These food photos make even this light dish look very enticing.
These look amazing! My husband really doesn’t care for mushrooms…could I leave them out? What could I substitute?
snow peas, diced carrots, toasted almonds …I don’t care for mushrooms either so I was thinking of some substitutes and these are what I came up with.
Wonderful! Not so much a recipe as a concept — the subbing possibilities are endless, and the dish can go from heartier to lighter as the seasons change. I was thinking sliced water chestnuts or Jerusalem artichoke marinated beforehand in the rice vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil, for anyone who doesn’t care for mushrooms.
We’ve got a mango allergy in our family, anybody got any suggestions on a substitution? It sounds so yummy to me, but I can’t cook with it :(
Try mandarin orange segments, cut in thirds.
Try peaches.
My wife is allergic to corn, so is there an effective substitute for the cornstarch?
Tapioca starch works well, too.
LOL….never mind! It helps to read the whole recipe and NOT just the top!!
I have dried sliced shiitake mushrooms. Can I reconstitute them and then use them or is it best to only use fresh?
I’m thinking that fresh would work best.
I think I will sub seitan for chicken or may be paneer cheese! I don’t see any mangoes anywhere…Did you use the frozen ones? Or is it the green mangoes (I think I see Kent at my stores, not sure)? Is being ripe crucial?…I would really love to try this with Mangoes…
There were dozens of ripe fresh mangos at our local Whole Foods this week.
Just made these tonight.. I added sesame seeds at the end along w/ the mango. So delicious! Thank you for the recipe.
I love these and I’m trying to get rid of a little podge myself so these could be on my menu!
I love Jaden’s idea of using mango in a lettuce wrap! I’ve seen some might tasty looking recipes from the new book, better get one!
P.S. Thanks for mentioning two of my lettuce wrap recipes. I love lettuce wraps!
These look great! Such good pictures. Sprouts would make a great cancer-fighting, crunchy addition to the wraps.
I love lettuce wraps, light and healthy. I’m going to a girl’s lunch this weekend and will take these along…
I tried this last night, exactly as written. I did use chicken thigh meat. I felt it was too bland. I will make it again with a little chili oil or red pepper flakes.
This is so nice of you to share a recipe that will help your friend in his endeavor to lose weight. I was standing in from the butter lettuce yesterday thinking I should buy it, but didn’t. Now I know why I should have picked it up. These look amazingly yummy and nutritious.
I love the look of this recipe but hate mushrooms. Any possible substitutes? Thanks.
I loved the combination of the chicken, mango, and sesame oil; it was delightful! I used ground chicken breast to cut back on the fat, and found that it had plenty of flavor. The filling makes for excellent leftovers. Thanks so much for the recipe!