These Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps are sure to be your new favorite lunch! A spicy ginger and shallot chicken mixture is layered on to crisp lettuce with mango, crunchy cabbage, and a creamy and spicy sauce inspired by a Thai peanut sauce.
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How to Make Thai Lettuce Wraps
As the temps rise, I find myself gravitating to more salads and more light dishes like these amazing Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps.
They are full of protein and healthy fats, which gives them satiating power, without any heavy carbs weighing you down.
The magic of a good lettuce wrap is flavorful ingredients, a creamy sauce, and something crunchy (here, it’s the cabbage and sunflower seeds!).
Why this recipe works:
- The spicy chicken mixture packs a huge flavor punch! Shallots and ginger are prominent flavors in Thai cooking and give this dish an authentic flavor.
- Crunchy lettuce leaves, sweet mango, and bright cilantro give these tons of texture and visual appeal.
- A magical nut butter and coconut milk sauce, inspired by Thai peanut sauce. I make it with almond butter or sunflower seed butter, but use peanut butter if that’s more your style!
- If you love this dipping sauce as much as I do, you’re going to want to make a jar of it to our on all your salads — find the recipe for the “pourable” version here — Thai Almond Salad Dressing
*This post is sponsored by SunButter, a sunflower seed spread perfect for allergy-safe baking and cooking! Thanks for supporting the brands that keep Sunkissed Kitchen running.
The VERY Best Thai Lettuce Wrap Dipping Sauce
If you like peanut sauce, this nut free version is for you! I fell in love with this sauce years ago, and now use it for a variety of Thai inspired recipes. It’s creamy and sweet from the coconut milk, and almond butter or sunflower seed butter give it a nutty flavor. It gets some zing from rice wine vinegar and lime juice, and some spice from sriracha. I use coconut aminos to keep this recipe soy free and make them Whole30 lettuce wraps. They are so satisfying because of the fresh burst of flavor! 
How to Make Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Step 1: First, prepare the lettuce wrap dipping sauce by adding all the ingredients to a blender and processing until smooth. This can be done by hand, but the sauce doesn’t get as creamy. The sauce thickens when it’s chilled so if you make it ahead of time, just allow it to warm up gently and then stir it to make it more of a sauce again.
Step 2: Prepare the spicy chicken mixture by first sautéing the shallots and ginger, and then adding the chicken, coconut aminos, salt and sriracha. Cook until the chicken is fully cooked, without drying out the mixture. Step 3: Prepare the lettuce wrap ingredients, including washing large lettuce leaves (butter lettuce and romaine work the best for these), slicing the mango, chopping the cabbage, and toasting almonds or sesame seeds to top them. I also sometimes use toasted cashews for topping.
Step 3: Wash your lettuce to use as the wraps, and gather the rest of your ingredients (like the mango, seeds or nuts, and red cabbage).
Step 4: For a fun family style dinner, set the lettuce leaves and all the fillings in separate bowls in the center of the table, and allow everyone to assemble their own lettuce wraps. Be sure to serve with lots of the spicy Thai dipping sauce!
Variations for Whole30 Lettuce Wraps
Meal Prep these: Thai lettuce wraps are a great meal prep option. Once you have your chicken and sauce made, you can prep additional ingredients, like cutting bell peppers, mangos, and cabbage, or toasting sunflower and sesame seeds to sprinkle on top. When you’re ready for a meal, pull out the ingredients and fill some crisp lettuce leaves! If you’ve prepped these, the sauce will thicken when refrigerated. Allow the sauce to come back to room temperature and whisk it until it’s light and creamy again.
Make these Nut Free: These are nut free is you use sunflower seed butter in the Thai lettuce wrap dipping sauce and top them with toasted sunflower seeds.
Lower the Carbs: Make these Whole30 Lettuce Wraps low carb or keto by omitting the mango.
How to Serve Lettuce Wraps (or prep them for the week!)
Once you have your chicken and sauce prepared, decide on your toppings! To top these, I suggest:
- Crunchy toasted sunflower seeds and sesame seeds (or almond or cashews, if a part of your diet!)
- Sweet slices of mango
- Crunch veggies, like purple cabbage, red pepper, or julienned carrots
- Cilantro, Thai basil, or green onions
Other Thai Inspired Recipes
- Thai Noodles, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Thai Curry with Chicken, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Thai Spring Rolls, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Tom Kha Gai, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Thai Steak Salad Wraps, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Thai Chicken Pasta Salad, by Sunkissed Kitchen
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Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps (Whole30)
Ingredients
Lettuce Wraps
- 1 head romaine lettuce
- 1 cup red cabbage shredded
- 1 mango sliced
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds roasted, or sub cashews or almonds
- cilantro and Thai basil to garnish
- red chillis optional
Spicy Ginger Chicken
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 pound ground chicken can sub ground turkey
- 1/4 cup fresh ginger grated
- 1/4 cup Thai shallots minced
- 2 tablespoons coconut aminos (can sub Tamari or soy sauce)
- 1/2 tablespoon chilli sauce (or more, to taste)
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt (or more, to taste)
Thai Almond Sauce
- 1/4 cup almond butter or sunflower seed butter, no sugar added
- 1/4 cup coconut milk (full fat, from the can)
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut aminos
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh lime juice (half a large lime)
- 1/2 teaspoon chilli sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- pinch of salt to taste
Instructions
- Prepare the chicken by heating sesame oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, and adding ginger and shallots. Cook for 7-10 minutes, until very soft and fragrant.
- Add ground chicken, and brown. Add sea salt, coconut aminos, and chili sauce to taste.
- To make the SunButter sauce, add all ingredients to a blender, and process. You can also do it with a bowl and a small whisk, but it takes a while and it gets smoother in a blender. Chill the SunButter sauce until ready to use.
- To assemble the wraps, add cabbage, mango, and chicken, and then top with toasted seeds and herbs.
- Drizzle with spicy Thai SunButter sauce or serve on the side.
These look delicious and I love all of the suggestions you included for making this recipe gluten free, vegan, etc! I am going to have to try these soon because they look so good! Thanks for sharing! Luci’s Morsels | fashion. food. frivolity.
Thanks Luci– I make lettuce wraps a variety of ways, and of course a recipe like this is really just a guideline! Such an easy healthy meal.
These look SOOO delicious! Totally wishing I had these for dinner tonight!
So many people are afraid of doing this diet because they think that their meals will be bland. This recipe proves that this certainly isn’t the case! It looks delicious!
The Whole30 is great for anyone to do just to push them to do interesting things with really healthy ingredients– because no one could get bored eating these!
The perfect Whole 30 recipe. These wraps look so yummy!
Totally had to Pin this gorgeous, colorful and healthy recipe so I can make it ASAP! Love all the fresh and delicious ingredients that you used. It looks like such a tasty and healthy meal
Thanks Silvia! So sweet. I hope you do try them, they are a favorite. Chicken cooked this way has so much flavor.
These look fantastic! I have done two rounds of Whole 30 and am always on the lookout for new ideas to incorporate into my menu planning that are compliant! Can’t wait to try these!
These are a great thing to add- a meal that doesn’t feel like you’re doing the Whole30, just delicious.
I am thinking of all the things I can cover with the Thai Almond Sauce!!!
Exactly! I have a really popular recipe on my site that uses the Thai Almond Sauce plus some extra vinegar and lime, and it turns it into the most addictive salad dressing!
This looks delicious!! Pinning for later!
That Thai almond sauce is just the icing on the cake so to speak. I would love these for lunch today!
I could just eat these everyday! Delicious!
Ooooh yes. This is thee perfect low carb, high flavor lunch
Yes, exactly how I like my dinners! And that sauce (and the spices on the chicken) are so flavorful and delicious!
These are really good. This is what I do for dishes that requires a wrap, use lettuce instead for a low carb version. Using lettuce as a wrap is very southeast Asia style.
We love these! I love lettuce wraps– so refreshing, and you still get all the good stuff inside 🙂
What chili sauce are you using that is Whole30? Thank you.
I live in Asia, where we can buy chili sauce that is just chilis, salt and vinegar, so that is what I am using. It’s actually much better than Sriracha. I am sure you could find something similar at an Asian import store, but I am sorry, I don’t have a brand for you!
What an amazingly flavorful recipe! A restaurant worthy dish, indeed!
My husband really loved this! It was so tasty and easy to make!
Love these for a light and healthy dish! Great for lunch or dinner! Thai is always a good choice!
I love the sauce in this recipe! Great for a lunch or light dinner
This looks marvelous and so flavorful. That Thai Almond Sauce sounds so delicious, I want to put it on everything.
I loved your post, its really good thanks for sharing
This looks absolutely amazing! The Thai almond sauce is so good
These look tasty! Can’t wait to try these out for dinner.