Asian Lettuce Wraps

Story:
This recipe is a more recent find, but is one of our family's favorites (as well as one of my most frequently requested recipes). And you know where I found it? You know those inserts in the newspaper that have coupons? And you know how, just sometimes, there will be a recipe to go with the ingredient that those marketers are trying to sell? Well this is one of those recipes--and they sold me on their La Choy products. And it is yum-my!

I first "experienced" lettuce wraps years ago while I was on a church mission in South Korea. (That's where Ben and I met... just in case you didn't know that... we were both missionaries in Seoul.) Lettuce wraps are Dee-Lish! This one isn't a Korean style wrap, but eating it with my fingers and taking big ol' bites that I can't even close my mouth around... well, it takes me right back! The original recipe didn't call for the rice, but since we always ate them with rice in Korea, I just couldn't go without. Besides, I'm all about the whole grains thing, and when you're feeding a husband that eats like mine does, you have to bulk up the meal however possible!

Ingredients:
1/4 C water
1 T cornstarch
1/2 C La Choy Teriyaki Sauce
1 to 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
1 can (8oz) whole water chestnuts, coarsely chopped
2 T vegetable oil
La Choy Rice Noodles
shredded carrots
lettuce leaves
cooked brown rice (click to see my brown rice recipe)

Directions:

• Whisk together the water and the cornstarch in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in teriyaki sauce.
• Add chicken and water chestnuts, stir to coat. Marinate for at least 30 minutes.
• Cook and stir small batches of chicken in hot oil in a wok or a large skillet until no longer pink.
• To serve: Take a lettuce leaf in your hand, pile in some rice, then chicken, then rice noodles, then shredded carrots. Try to wrap it closed and take a big bite...

Notes:

• I used to shred the carrots. I must not have the right equipment, because that was always a pain (and I'm sure it didn't help that I usually only had baby carrots on hand, so I ended up shredding my fingernails half the time... just kidding... if you've eaten my lettuce wraps, I promise there were no fingernails in the carrots). Anyway, just buy the bag of matchstick carrots (already shredded!) in the produce section and save yourself the effort. They are great to throw on green salads anyway. And my toddler loves to eat them as a snack (although I think she thinks it's shredded cheese). Oh well...
• This is a dinner I like to take in to others. It is easy to double and it can be fixed ahead. You can put most of the ingredients in little baggies, and your friends can just either cook the meat (or heat it up), and warm up the rice, whenever they are ready to eat.

Pictures coming soon...

(Kate is making this for a lunch appointment tomorrow, so she said I had to get her the recipe ASAP! Hope you like 'em Kate!)