Grilled Island Chicken Lettuce Wraps

For this week’s recipe, I wanted to try a lettuce wrap. No idea where this urge came from but it seemed like it would make for a great presentation and could hold a full meal inside the wrap versus the entree/side dish in the past recipes.

I spent some time researching the right type of lettuce to use for the wrap and butter lettuce seemed to be the clear winner. Romaine came in as a clear second to the butter variety. I bought an organic, “still alive” head of butter lettuce at Whole Foods and was excited to get my wrap on. Sadly no matter what I tried, the lettuce just would not cooperate! It kept ripping when I tried to wrap the wrap (ha!) and finally I just decided to make “lettuce bowls”. The bowls were perfect and really looked great. I think next time I would use romaine as it seems thicker and a bit more resistant as you fold the wrap.

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I also decided to select my own veggies for the wrap. I used a recipe for the grilled island chicken but the rest is all mine! I think the fruit/veggie combo I selected was really tasty :)

Grilled Island Chicken Lettuce Wraps Recipe

This recipe serves 2 with a prep time of 15 minutes and a cook time of 10 minutes.

Ingredients for chicken and marinade:

  • 1/3 cup oil (original recipe called for vegetable oil but I replaced with extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
  • 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 1-2 lemons)
  • 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce – I used the Tamari variety
  • 1 clove garlic, finely minced
  • half teaspoon dried oregano
  • quarter teaspoon salt – I used pink Himalayan sea salt
  • quarter teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1-2 chicken breasts (depending on size, Whole Foods has huge chicken breasts)

Vegetables for wrap/bowl:

  • lettuce – as noted above, go with butter for bowl, romaine for wrap
  • 1 large lemon
  • 1 package cherry tomatoes
  • 1 english cucumber
  • large handful of green beans with ends trimmed
  • 1 medium red onion
  • 1 pepper – could be green or red although I used a roasted Hatch chili as it appears to be popular here in Austin
  • handful of spinach
  • 1 large Fuji apple

Preparation:

Chicken – Add all of the marinade ingredients into a zip-top bag and mix well. Place chicken into bag and massage the marinade all over the chicken. Place bag in fridge for 3-24 hours (I marinaded for 12 hours). Turn bag over a few times in the fridge. Grill chicken until completely cooked. Set chicken aside to cool.

Fruit/Veggies – Juice the lemon into a bowl. Chop and dice the apple and place into bowl with the lemon juice. This will help the apple keep its color and not go brown from oxidation. Chop and dice all veggies into equal-sized small-ish cubes. Place the veggies into the bowl with the apple and lemon juice and toss with a dash of sea salt and pepper. Drain out any excess lemon juice and liquid so the bowls/wraps stay nice and dry.

Presentation:

Form lettuce into bowl shape or into long strips for wrap. Place a good amount of the veggie mix into the lettuce wrap or bowl. Slice chicken into strips and evenly place on top of veggies. If using the wrap format, carefully wrap the chicken and veggies and use a toothpick or skewer to keep the wrap closed. If you do the bowl format, serve 2 bowls to each guest.

The original grilled island chicken recipe is from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe — thanks to Mel for the inspiration!

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