One of my favourite Chinese starters – Lettuce Wraps with pork or chicken, loads of hidden crunchy vegetables in a tasty savoury brown sauce, bundled up in fresh lettuce. Also known as San Choy Bow, it’s arguably the ultimate “just happens to be healthy” food in the whole wide world …..
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
San Choy Bow – Chinese Lettuce Wraps
The Chinese name for Lettuce Wraps is San Choy Bow which is how it’s written in menus at Chinese restaurants here in Sydney, though the spelling varies widely from place to place and I’m yet to find a definitive answer for what the proper spelling is.
I may not know how to spell it, but I do know you’re going to love them!!
How to make Lettuce Wraps
Lettuce wraps are made with ground / mince meat and vegetable filling with a savoury Chinese sauce spooned into lettuce cups, then wrapped into a roll shape to eat.
For a great Lettuce Wrap, it all comes down to the sauce. It takes more than just a splash of soy sauce to make a truly delish Lettuce Wrap.
Get the sauce right and you can pretty much put anything into the filling. And it is one of those rare recipes that is genuinely great made entirely vegetarian. I would just as happily scoff down a meat free version of this as I would a traditional pork version.
What goes in a Lettuce Wrap filling
I don’t think there are definitive rules for what goes in Lettuce Wraps, but the common ingredients I see at Chinese restaurants are:
pork (chicken and turkey are ideal subs)
water chestnuts
onion
After this, things get a bit blurred. Other common ingredients which I’ve included in my recipe are:
Baby corn
Shiitake or other mushrooms
Carrots
And those that border more towards “Western” Chinese have all sorts of other vegetables in it, like normal corn, capsicum etc.
Make it real with water chestnuts!
If you can find them, I really urge you to use Water Chestnuts. It doesn’t have a strong flavour, but the unique thing about Water chestnuts is the texture.
Even canned, it is crunchy and a bit juicy and it’s a quintessential part of the Chinese Lettuce Wrap experience. ☺️ Nowadays in Australia, they are found in both the Asian section and canned vegetable section of supermarkets (Woolies, Coles etc).
Lettuce wraps are a fantastic quick and easy meal that also happens to be healthy. In Chinese restaurants, it’s served with crisp Iceberg Lettuce which tends to crack when folded. For a more practical option, use soft lettuce leaves like Butter Lettuce or Bib Lettuce (US).
Enjoy!– Nagi x
More quick and easy Chinese restaurant favourites
Chop Suey (Chicken Stir Fry)
Browse all Chinese restaurant recipes
Watch How To Make It
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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San Choy Bow (Chinese Lettuce Wraps)
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 1/4 tsp cornflour / cornstarch
- 3 tbsp water, separated
- 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce (Note 1)
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (or sub Mirin or dry sherry, Note 2)
- 1 tsp white sugar (can omit)
Filling (Note 6)
- 1 tbsp peanut oil
- 1 clove large garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp ginger, minced
- 300g / 10oz pork mince (ground pork) (Note 3)
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 1 small carrot, finely chopped
- 100g/ 3.5oz canned water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped (Note 4)
- 5 baby corn, canned or fresh, finely chopped (Note 4)
- 5 mushrooms, finely chopped(shiitake is best, I used Swiss Brown)
Serving
- 8 leaves large or 16 – 20 small lettuce, preferably soft (Note 5)
- Crushed peanuts
- Finely sliced scallions / shallots
Instructions
- Mix cornflour with 1 tbsp water until lump free. Then add remaining Sauce ingredients and mix.
- Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add garlic and ginger, give it a quick stir then add onion.
- Cook for 1 minute then add pork. Cook pork until it turns white.
- Add all the vegetables. Cook for 2 minutes until the carrot is softened and pork is cooked through.
- Add Sauce and cook for 1 1/2 minutes or until it thickens and glossy, coating the Filling.
- Transfer Filling into serving bowl. Lay out lettuce leaves, peanuts and scallions on the side.
- To serve, spoon some Filling into a lettuce leaf. Top with peanuts and scallions, bundle it up and enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
When Dozer ate a lady beetle… 🤣
Redonia Moore says
If you want to see Dozier crack and eat a pecan then crack one in front of him, at his level where he can see what you are doing, then feed him some of the pecan meat. Then crack another one and place it in front of him and let him do the rest! I believe he will get the jest of it rather quickly! Pecans are a natural food of dogs raised with pecan trees.
Redonia Moore says
Love all your recipes! This is wonderful. FYI; Most golden retrievers love pecans but what is unique is some of these dogs crack the shells with their teeth and pick out the meat. Does Doizer? The lady bug incident made me think of it. We had pecan trees and my dog used to eat a few every day.
Nagi says
Woah, I can honestly say Dozer has not eaten a pecan like this 😂
Renee says
Another fantastic recipe. Whole family loved it. I omitted the baby corn and used pork mince. Next time I will double so we can have the leftovers the next day. Delicious.
Lynne says
Thanks so much, Nagi; you are a inspiration. I was wondering what to cook for family dinner tomorrow that will tempt mr 8 yr old gluten and dairy free vegetarian. He will just love this.
Marie T. says
That was delicious!!! My husband was blown away! What an easy recipe to double to have for leftovers or guests.
Cheryl says
So very delicious…finger licking good in fact! I instead used the carrot shredded & raw for extra crunch when I sprinkled on the crushed nuts and shallots. Definitely will make this again. Thank you for sharing.
Kat says
Hi Nagi,
I love your recipe but I need to ask one question. Sometimes in restaurants there’s a very crispy addition to the mince? Could this be bean vermicelli or something like.? Grateful for your advice
Nagi says
Hi Kat, all restaurants have their own recipes – I’ve seen bean sprouts, vermicelli but most commonly water chestnuts for crunch 🙂 N x
Grant says
Loved the recipe followed it exactly and used Chinese cooking wine and it had amazing flavour.
Nagi says
Wahoo, that’s great to hear Grant!
Iva says
Made this with beef mince tonight & it tasted amazing. Thank you for all the amazing & diverse recipes. 💗
Lori says
Hi Nagi! I’ve been eyeing your recipes for some time. I made this tonight and turned out AMAZING! Thanks for all the excellent food!
Tracy says
I have made these several times now and it is absolutely fantastic. Just like how they do it in restaurants. Thank you so much!
Gail says
this looks delicious, just have to ask for a little guidance re: concern for shellfish allergies; this recipe and many others call for either oyster sauce, fish sauce or mirin…my reaction to shellfish is very aggressive so I need to know…can you give suggestions for substitutes that will yield similar flavors or advise if these items are usually not from shellfish? I know sometimes the name of a sauce may not reflect what is actually in it, just being careful. I have never purchased fish or oyster sauce or mirin out of fear, mostly.
Nagi says
Hi Gail, it depends on the individual recipe. You can get a mushroom based “oyster sauce” which is the best sub for oyster – soy is generally a good sub for fish. Mirin doesn’t contain any shellfish 🙂 N x
Gail says
OK, good to know about the mushroom based oyster sauce, I’ll look for it. Thanks! I really want to try these soon.
Peter McDonald says
Made this many times. It is a great hit with our fussy eaters. AND so easy. Thank you
Nagi says
That’s great to hear Peter!!! N x
Wendy Dupont says
The lettuce wraps are the absolute best. They are so fresh and tasty. My 5 Year old granddaughter eats the meat mixture, without the lettuce, and usually has 3 servings! Delicious.
Nagi says
That’s awesome Wendy!! N x
Cindy says
Made these lettuce wraps for dinner last night. They were delicious and so easy to make. Just one of your recipes that we love ❤️. Thank you!!!
Nagi says
Wahoo, thanks so much for letting me know! N x
Becki says
YAY! Thank you for this one, Nagi. I haven’t made it yet but I have everything but the lettuce so will be ASAP I can.
All the other recipes for these have some ingredient that I just can’t find locally. You’re now my bff!
Nagi says
WOOT!! Love this Becki! N x
May says
The flavor was ok with ground chicken, but it was muddy colored and on the watery side.
May says
Ignore my initial comment. I prepared the meat at noon to warm up with dinner, so my review was purely based on appearance. At dinner, I served with the lettuce leaves, rice noodles and cucumber sticks. It was delicious with ground chicken and my family gobbled it up! Learn from my mistake of rating a dish prior to serving!!! I know Nagi will forgive me !
Mary says
Oh my stars, was this fantastic. You are right about the Chinese cooking wine, it did make all of the difference in this dish. Since then I made the egg foo young and that sauce was fabulous also. I cannot wait to try more of your recipes. They all look so delish and not that time consuming. Thank you for helping out a mother stuck indoors trying to make a decent dinner for my family. Your rolls were pretty awesome too. Keep sending out those recipes.
Nagi says
That’s so great to hear Mary – Stay safe (and sane) 🙂 N x
Claire says
I have made this with finely diced firm tofu instead of meat and it was excellent
Jess says
SOOOOOOOOO yummy! Will definitely add it to my regular dinner rotation.
I didn’t use mushrooms (but did use a dark mushroom soy sauce) and no water chestnuts (only because I didn’t have them will be buying them next time!
I was naughty and used a jar satay sauce and also sweet chilli sauce.
Had some leftover the next day and still YUM!!
Nagi says
Wahoo, that’s great Jess!