Restaurant Style Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Chicken wrapped in lettuce leaves is on the appetizer menu at P.F. Changs restaurant.  At the restaurant they fry the rice noodles so they're all white and puffy and crispy, but when they soak up the sauce they become soft anyway.  My simpler at-home version without the fried noodles is here, and it's probably a bit lower fat, too.

Ingredients:
Marinade for chicken:
  • 1 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 tsp dry sherry or rice wine
  • 2 tsp water
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
Cooking Sauce:
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1 tbsp dry sherry or rice wine
  • 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
  • 2 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 1/2 lbs. finely diced chicken breast (or ground chicken; when pressed for time I pulse the chicken breast in the food processor until coarsely ground )
  • 8 oz can sliced water chestnuts
  • 3 scallions, trimmed and sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 6 large dried shiitake mushrooms
  • 4 oz rice cellophane noodles (rice vermicelli)
  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • a head of iceberg lettuce, leaves rinsed and separated
Instructions:
  • Dice or coarsely chop the raw chicken.  Mix all the marinade ingredients together and pour over the chicken, mixing well.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
  • Cover the dried mushrooms in hot water and soak until they are soft.  Squeeze out the water from the mushrooms, trim off the tough stems, and dice into small pieces.  Reserve the soaking liquid from the mushrooms.
  • Dice the canned water chestnuts and slice the green onions into small pieces.  Smash and mince the garlic.
  • Cover the rice noodles with boiling water for 1 minute.  Drain.  Cut up the clump of noodles with a knife or kitchen shears if desired, for easier serving.  Place the noodles in your serving bowl or platter, the chicken will be poured on top of them.
  • In a wok or skillet on medium high heat, add 2 tbsp of cooking oil.  Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, but don't overcook or it will burn.  Quickly add the chicken and stir fry until no longer pink.  Remove the chicken from the pan into a bowl and set aside.
  • In the same pan, add 1 tbsp of cooking oil.  Add the mushrooms and water chestnuts and stir fry until heated.  Add back the chicken.  Add the green onions.  Stir fry mixture for another minute.  Add the cooking sauce and the reserved mushroom soaking liquid and cook until sauce is thickened and mixed thoroughly with the other ingredients.  Pour the stir fry mixture over top of the rice noodles; toss to mix.
  • To serve, scoop some chicken into a lettuce leaf and wrap up like a burrito.  Finger food!  Or, serve the chicken with steamed rice on the side.
Based on a copycat recipe of P.F. Chang's Soothing Chicken Lettuce wraps.
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