Peanut Butter Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ground chicken was on sale the other week and I was looking for a way to sass it up beyond burgers or tacos or in a sauce. I had an assortment of veggies on hand and thought that I would try my hand at making lettuce wraps. The main dish was light, really tasty and SO quick to make! And, lo and behold, the toddler version of the meal was enough to make my son forego his nightly request for "just 'nacks" instead of dinner. Wonder of wonders!

Peanut Butter Chicken Lettuce Wraps
*Yields approximately 4 servings of two lettuce wraps
1 lb. of ground chicken
2 tbsp oil
1/2 a large onion, diced
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 heaping tbsp peanut butter
2 tsp sesame oil
1/3 cup chopped cilantro

8 large lettuce leaves [I used red lettuce and held up very well]
1 red, orange or yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
3/4 of an English cucumber, julienned
Optional toppings: bean sprouts, additional cilantro, sliced jalapenos or crushed peanuts

*We served with a side of brown rice. This was a nice way to make the meal very toddler friendly. We added the chicken mixture and chopped veggies to the rice and stirred it up!

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and black pepper and cook until the onion is translucent, roughly five minutes. At that time, add the grated ginger and garlic and stir to combine. *Sidenote, I keep a large piece of fresh ginger wrapped up in my freezer. Whenever I need fresh ginger, I grate a bit of the frozen ginger on a microplane [small side of a grater would be fine as well]. There is no need to peel the frozen ginger, just grate off what you need and put the rest back in the freezer. Before I froze my ginger, I always felt like the ginger root would go bad before I could use it up. 

Add the ground chicken to the onion mixture and cook for approximately five minutes or until the chicken is cooked through, all the while breaking the chicken up into small pieces with a wooden spoon. 

Once the chicken has cooked, add the soy sauce, peanut butter and sesame oil to the pan and stir to combine. Once these condiments are combined with the chicken mixture, turn off the heat and toss in the cilantro.

For serving, place a couple tablespoons into each lettuce cup, top with the sliced cucumbers and peppers, wrap and enjoy!