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Chinese Lettuce Wraps (San Choy Bow )

By:Nagi
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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”!

Close up of Chinese Lettuce Wraps

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!!

Close up of Chinese Lettuce Wrap being held by a hand, about to be eaten

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.

Filling for Chinese Lettuce Wraps made with pork or chicken and vegetables in a savoury brown sauce.

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).

A can of Water Chestnuts

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

Close up of Chinese Lettuce Wrap being held by a hand, about to be eaten

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 on a plate ready to be eaten

San Choy Bow (Chinese Lettuce Wraps)

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 5 mins
Total: 20 mins
Appetizer, Dinner
Chinese
4.98 from 93 votes
Servings3
Tap or hover to scale
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Recipe video above. One of my favourite starters at Chinese restaurants, the ultimate (almost) carb free healthy dish of all time! It all comes down to the Sauce – with a great Sauce, you can change up the filling to your taste. I’ve copied the filling served by Chinese restaurants but feel free to substitute with other vegetables or make it entirely meat free (this is a great recipe to make vegetarian).

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:

1. Light soy sauce adds the salt and the dark soy sauce adds a touch of colour. You can sub the dark soy with more light soy sauce, or just sub both the light and dark with ordinary soy sauce. The filling will just be a bit lighter in colour. Don’t just use all dark soy sauce – flavour is way too strong – or with a thick sweet soy sauce like kecap manis.
2. Chinese cooking wine – sub with Mirin or dry sherry. For a non alcoholic option, use chicken broth/stock (low sodium) in place of the Chinese wine AND water in the Sauce.
3. Protein – Also great with chicken but I prefer pork because it’s not as lean and has slightly more flavour. Chinese restaurants typically use pork. Never seen it with beef or lamb! Can also sub with 2 1/2 cups of chopped veggies of choice.
4. Water chestnuts – see in post for image. These are a key ingredient in San Choy Bow as served at Chinese restaurants here in Australia, but can be skipped. They have a natural light flavour, but it’s the texture that is unique – a fresh crunchiness.
Nowadays these are sold in both the Asian and canned vegetable section of major supermarkets.
5. Lettuce – Typically served at Chinese restaurants using crisp iceberg lettuce leaves which are cut into neat rounds so they are all the same size. My preference is to use soft lettuce leaves like Butter Lettuce or Bibb Lettuce (US) because iceberg has a tendency to crack when rolled to eat, causing juices to run out. I used Baby Gem Lettuce in the photos which come in twin packs at Woolworths.
6. Customise – I use 2 1/2 cups of chopped vegetables. You can substitute with whatever chopped vegetables you want, though I urge you to stick with the onion.
The meat can be substituted with 2 1/2 cups of any vegetable or chopped firm tofu. For a super quick version, make this with pork + frozen diced vegetables. Works a treat!
This recipe makes enough for 3 as a main (4 if it’s 2 adults and 2 kids) or around 6 as a starter.
7. Nutrition per serving, assuming 4 servings. This is a fantastic healthy dinner!
San Choy Bow nutrition* 
* Originally published February 2017, updated for housekeeping matters.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 255gCalories: 253cal (13%)
Keywords: Lettuce wraps, San Choy Bow
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

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267 Comments

  1. Eddie says

    Great recipe – I loaded up on the water chestnuts as I love the crunch – sauce mixture was spot on.

    Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  2. Rachael welch says

    5 stars
    Sung Choi Bao is the original spelling. Ive been to china and this is how it was spelt on the menus haha thankyou for recipe making this now.

    Reply

  3. Libby says

    4 stars
    Hi Nagi, I’m a big fan of your blog. Thankyou.
    I’ve just tried this recipe , thinking of having it as a help yourself starter for a dinner party next week. Would be perfect.
    Baby gem lettuce was ideal.
    The only issue is mine seemed a touch too strong in flavour.
    If I wanted to adjust Slightly, what would you suggest?

    Reply

    • Ash says

      More onion for sweetner, brown or palm sugar. For i bite add ginger before chilli. And if using pork, salt that sob. Just taste test lovely lady

      Reply

    • Nagi says

      Hi Libby! Help yourself starter is a terrific idea 🙂 if the flavour was too strong for your taste, I would reduce the light soy sauce down to 2 tsp. That will reduce the saltiness 🙂 N x

      Reply

  4. Claire Lynch-NZ says

    4 stars
    These were delish and full of flavour. I used iceberg lettuce which held together nicely accompanied with steamed pork buns. Will be searching for more yummy recipes.

    Reply

  5. Maria says

    I might try this recipe tonight. I moved to Ireland last year and it took me months to find out that here it’s called “yuk sung”, i asked the waitress what was the different between this and sun choy bow and she said that it was the same but one was Cantonese and the other mandarin name.

    Reply

  6. Jenny Williams says

    Nice to see it in something other than the ubiquitous boring iceberg lettuce. We often had it in Australia, and love it. Hadn’t seen it in the UK till today, only the restaurant gave it a completely different name – Yok Chom. It certainly looked and tasted the same anyway.

    Reply

  7. Lisa Kelly says

    5 stars
    This was super easy to make and the family gave it a big thumbs up for flavour. I didn’t use strong enough lettuce so it was a bit of a “serving” bust for me first night but second night I served it with rice and it hit all spots!!!!

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      Oh I do that ALL the time 🙂 Or the lettuce is too crisp or so delicate it tears 🙂 Luck of the draw sometimes! N xx

      Reply

  8. Victor says

    Adding to what Bernie and SMT said about the name and origin:

    生菜包, which translates to “lettuce packet”. The transliteration “sang choy bow” is undoubtedly from the Cantonese pronunciation (my family is Cantonese American, and I know some Mandarin), and the dish has the look and taste of a 20th century Hong Kong creation (not an old-time traditional dish.)

    Here in the US, the menus translate the name to “lettuce wraps,” so sang choy bow would puzzle anyone who isn’t Cantonese. The first word should have a “g” at the end.

    If I were trying to explain the pronunciation to someone who has zero familiarity with transcribing Cantonese into (North American) English, I would try this:
    sang (where the “a” has an “ah” sound)
    choy
    bow (as in lowering your upper body as a sign of respect. Rhymes with cow.)

    The last word is pronounced almost the same in Cantonese and Mandarin. The Mandarin pinyin system spells it as “bao”, but I find this completely unhelpful to people who haven’t studied pinyin, because the vowel cluster “ao” appears approximately zero times in English.

    . Since lettuce is not native to Asia, I’m guessing this is a “modern” Chinese dish from Hong Kong.

    Reply

  11. Tamara says

    5 stars
    I love san choy bow! I also love it with chicken, tofu or mushrooms. Deceptively healthy don’t you think, Nagi? I tried your sauce without the wine and it was delicious, haven’t tried it in this combo before.
    I’ll be making my own version in the near future for my vlog/blog and would love your feedback when I do try 🙂
    http://www.foodieverse.net

    Reply

  12. Maggie says

    5 stars
    One of my favourite dishes to order at a Chinese restaurant. ?
    Made this tonight and it was AMAZING!
    Can’t say much more when it’s simply delicious. Lol.

    Thanks again Nagi for another yummy recipe ?

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      So glad you enjoyed it Maggie! Thanks for taking the time to come back and share your thoughts on this recipe! – N x

      Reply

  13. Mandy says

    Yum! Making this tonight. Have been keen to find a good finger-licking sauce, I am sure yours will be fab like all your other recipes! My “must have” ingredient is toasted pine nuts (instead of peanuts). Thinking ill westernise it with some cauliflower rice (hiding the veggies from the kids here…).

    Reply

  17. Tania| My Kitchen Stories says

    OI was going to say ( before I read an expert above) that i think this dish is a little like Spag Bol there are so many versions of it who knows what goes in there and how you spell it!. When i worked at an asian restaurant we used to prepare the iceberg lettuce just like Eha suggests with the kitchen scissors so they were all the same size. i do love iceberg with this kind of thing.

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      OMG I don’t have the patience to trim them into perfect rounds! 🙂 That’s why you’re the REAL chef here Tania! 🙂 N x

      Reply

  18. Gloria | Food Oh Glorious Food says

    You, my dear lady, are my kindred spirit. I ADORE Sang Choy Bao. Adore. If I could only eat ONE dish every day for the rest of my life, this would be it. So many flavours, so much goodness. And it’s wrapped in lettuce – which is a vegetable – so it must be healthy, right?!

    I am a long time “other lettuce leaf” user when it comes to Sang Choy Bao. We use baby cos lettuce leaves, because we like how the leaves make little boats, allowing for maximum filling. So it’s more a “cup” than a “bun” or “wrap”, as the “bao” part suggests. We also drop a dollop of hoisin sauce on top of the meat mix – try it on your next outing. You’re welcome. 🙂

    This is on the menu for next week. Can’t wait!

    Reply

  19. Helen @ Scrummy Lane says

    My goodness, such beautifully colourful photos, Nagi.
    What a gorgeous recipe. I’m afraid I can’t help you with what they should be called as I’ve never heard of them (!!), but they sure do look delicious!

    Reply

  20. Bernie says

    Your recipe sounds good. I suppose shrimps could go into the veggie mix too. In Hanyu Pinyin Mandarin Chinese it is sheng cai bao. Sheng (1st tone) means raw or live or uncooked, while cai (4th tone) means veggie, and bao (1st tone) means packet or wrap. However most Chinese restaurants around the world are run by Cantonese, and in their dialect it’s pronounced sung choy bao ( no “correct” spelling, as there’s no official spelling for Cantonese, unlike Hanyu Pinyin for Mandarin). It doesn’t matter, so long as you can be understood when you order it!

    Reply
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