Thai Lettuce Wraps is one of those meals that will make you forget you’re eating healthy! A traditional Thai dish called Larb Gai, they’re quick to make and full of fresh flavours from herbs and lime, plus a nice hit of chilli. Use chicken mince or pork mince, bundle it up in lettuce or serve it over rice!
Thai Lettuce Wraps – Larb Gai
Thai is one of the most popular Asian foods in Sydney. And there’s so much to love about it – noodles, curries and soups, grilled chicken, fried rice and Thai Fish Cakes. And of course, everybody’s favourite Thai Chicken Satay with peanut sauce!
But when you feel like something lighter (read: lower cal!) but still loaded with Thai flavours, these Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps are fabulous.
Larb Gai, Laab Gai, Lahb Gai, Laap Gai…….searching for a recipe like this where the name has been interpreted in so many different ways is always interesting! Depending on what you search will return a myriad of results!
Thai Lettuce Wraps are a celebration of fresh flavours and textures. The perfect balance of sweet, savoury, sour and spiciness with aromatic herbs and the fresh crunch from lettuce. Utterly addictive!
Larb Gai is the Thai version of everybody’s favourite Chinese Lettuce Wraps, San Choy Bow!
It’s all about the fresh flavours!
Like many South East Asian dishes, these Thai Lettuce Cups are about fresh flavours. There’s few ingredients in the sauce – just lime juice, fish sauce and sugar. Much of the flavour comes from a decent wack of Thai aromatics – ginger, garlic, chilli and lemongrass – which we sauté until golden and the smell drives us crazy before we add the chicken, sauce and fresh herbs.
What goes in Thai Lettuce Wraps
Here’s a visual of what goes in the chicken mince filling for Thai Lettuce Wraps.
I typically default to a chicken filling, but this recipe works just as well with pork mince as well (that’s ground pork for those of you in the States!).
Lettuce for lettuce cups
For the lettuce wraps, don’t get too hung up on finding the perfect lettuce! Once it’s all bundled / scrunched up and you start devouring, nobody remembers whether your lettuce leaves were the perfect size or symmetrical, or a convenient cup shape. All anyone can think about is how divine it tastes!
TIP: Crisp or soft lettuce works just fine, so go with what you prefer or what looks good at the store. Crisp lettuce leaves are mostly in a cup shape – as pictured below (small cos lettuce aka romaine lettuce) – and soft lettuce leaves can be any shape as they are soft enough to wrap around the filling.
How to make Thai Lettuce Wraps
It’s no different to any stir fry – mix up the sauce first, sauté the aromatics first (garlic, ginger, chilli, lemongrass) then add the meat then sauce. You’ll be done cooking in 5 minutes flat!
How to serve
I always serve it in a DIY arrangement because I’m a fan of interactive food – plus I get to skip plating up for everyone! I put the filling in a bowl alongside a pile of lettuce leaves with lime wedges and some peanuts sprinkling.
SAUCE OPTION: Typically I serve it just like that, but when I want to go all out, I make Thai Peanut Sauce as well. It’s the sauce from my Thai Chicken Satay recipe which actually makes more than you need for one batch of Satay. So freeze the leftovers then pull it out when you make Thai Lettuce Wraps!
What to serve with Thai Lettuce Wraps
These are typically offered as a starter at Thai restaurants – one piece per person. As for what main to have, you could really choose any Thai main dish – there’s nothing I wouldn’t choose in my collection of recipes! Here are some favourites:
Thai Main Dish Suggestions
The other option is to make a meal out of these lettuce cups by adding some sides to fill it out – and add some extra greens if you like. If you add one rice side and one salad, that will make quite a substantial meal for 4 people. Here are some suggestions!
Dishes to make a complete meal
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Thai Lettuce Wraps (Larb Gai, Laab Gai)
Ingredients
- 2 tsp cornflour / cornstarch OR 2 tbsp uncooked rice (any rice is fine) (Note 1)
- 3 tbsp water
- 2 1/2 tbsp lime juice (1 to 2 limes)
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp peanut oil (or other high smoke point cooking oil)
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger , grated or very finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves , large, minced
- 1 lemon grass stalk , white and very pale green part only, finely chopped (Note 2)
- 2 Thai or birds eye chilli , deseeded and finely chopped (adjust to taste)
- 1 lb / 500g chicken mince (ground chicken) OR pork
- 1/2 red onion , cut into 4 wedges then finely sliced
- 1/3 cup coriander/cilantro leaves , plus extra to garnish
- 1/3 cup mint leaves , plus extra to garnish
Serving
- 3 tbsp crushed peanuts (optional)
- 6 - 8 small to medium lettuce leaves (I used baby cos / romaine) (Note 3)
- Extra lime wedges, chilli
Instructions
- Sauce: Place water and cornflour OR rice powder into a small bowl. Mix into a slurry. Add lime juice, fish sauce and sugar and mix to combine. Set aside.
- Heat peanut oil in a wok (or heavy based fry pan) over medium high heat. Add ginger, garlic, lemongrass and chilli and sauté for 45 seconds to 1 minute until fragrant. Do not let the garlic burn, it will taste bitter.
- Add the chicken and turn up the heat to high. Cook the chicken, breaking up the mince into small pieces.
- Once the chicken turns white and is almost cooked through (about 3 to 4 minutes), add Sauce. Cook for 45 seconds to 1 minute to coat the chicken and for the sauce to thicken.
- Remove wok from heat. Stir through onion, coriander/cilantro and mint.
- Spoon filling into a bowl, and serve with lettuce, peanuts, extra herbs and lime wedges on the side - leave everyone to make their own. Spoon filling into lettuce cups and garnish with what you want!
- Sauce option: Take it over the top by serving with Thai Peanut Satay Sauce, as pictured in the first photo in post! It's extra amazing (though not traditional!)
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published January 2015. Updated with new photos, new process photos, new video and most importantly, Dozer added!
More Thai Food favourites
Life of Dozer
On auto pilot, I labelled this photo “Dozer guarding front door”.
LOL, what a joke! If a robber ever broke in, he’d lead them straight to all my valuables!
These look yummy. These will be a must try
Thanks Donna! Glad to hear they made the “must try” list! 🙂
Yum, love the flavors. Never had this dish, but want try it soon! Thanks for sharing.
Shinee, you will definitely love these!!
These look absolutely fabulous, Nagi! I love that you added a sprinkle of peanuts on top for extra crunch. I just texted a link to my husband that we HAVE to try these!
Thanks Marissa!! I hope your husband likes them – I’m obsessed with them!! 🙂
I love Thai food and these lettuce cups look so delicious! Very easy to make in no time! Pinned 🙂
Thanks Mira! 🙂
Oh, yes please – Nagi – I love Laab – so will be giving these a try very soon.
I hope you do Rachel!! I think you will like these 🙂 “Our” kind of flavours!
Yeah, healthy eating is definitely on the agenda here. Have to lose all that holiday bloat. 🙁 So this is the perfect dish — healthy, but tons of flavor. Thanks for this.
Same here John…..same here…. 🙂
THANK YOU for this recipe! When I was selling wine, one of my restaurants made these and they were his BEST sellers. I tried to copy the recipe, and it worked a few times, but I could never get it down – each time had a different taste, some better than others- So thank you for putting this up for me- haha. With gluten free being the big thing, and a family member not eating gluten, this will be great also. I cant wait to give it a go. AND I am visiting our neighborhood Asian Store, Lily’s, today- so perfect timing 🙂 .
I had a similar experience! I first came across these maybe 15 years ago before internet recipe sites really imploded so I couldn’t just google for a recipe. So I tried to recreate it and like you, the flavour was always different every time!! Anyway, once I found a great base recipe I just tweaked it slightly to add more sauce and figure out a version using cornflour instead of cornstarch, and it’s a keeper! 🙂
This sounds wonderful! I absolutely adore Thai food, and I think I learned to make something like this when I took a cooking class in Phuket last year. This recipe is definitely worth trying.
Oooh, you probably did make these Susan! These are really popular in Thailand! And it’s actually one of the easier dishes to make – fast and doesn’t require many “special” ingredients like galangal, kaffir lime leaves etc that you need for curries! Hope you do try it Susan! 🙂
These just scream healthy! With all that color! And delicious! With all that spice! And who can resist crushed peanuts on anything? Awesome, awesome recipe!!
Thanks Annie!! And I agree re: crushed nuts on ANYTHING takes it up a notch!! 🙂
This looks amazing Nagi! I definitely need to try it! And your food photography….so amazing! Pinned!
Thanks so much Michelle, you’re so sweet! 🙂
I will take 5 orders of these, please! 😀
By the way, I saw lemon grass stalks at the Asian market the other day and thought to myself.. humm.. how the heck do I cook this thing? They looked firm and I wasn’t sure if the whole thing is edible?
Hi Kayiu! You’re absolutely right, the whole thing is not used. The green parts are tough and stringy, almost like corn husks. So you peel it back and use just the bottom part – about 8 – 10cm / 3 to 4 inches, the white part only. And it must be finely chopped to use in things like this, OR if you use it as a marinade just smash it with the side of your knife then cut into large pieces you can remove later. Lemongrass is one of my favourite herbs!
Nagi this is such a perfect and healthy appetizer!!! Or a meal..I like the way you eat it 🙂 That’s exactly how I would eat it 🙂
Thank you Mila!! 🙂
Oh wow these look great! I think I’ll have to have a go at making them this weekend! Thanks 🙂
Thanks Lucy! I hope you do 🙂 It is so crazy fast and easy to make!!