Meals · Sandwiches, burgers & wraps

Chicken lettuce wraps

Name: Chicken lettuce wraps
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 2 breasts chicken breast, finely chopped; 1 tbsp canola oil; 1/2 yellow onions, diced fine; 3 cloves garlic, minced; 1 can water chestnuts, drained, diced; 3 tbsp hoisin sauce; 4 tsp soy sauce; 1 tbsp rice vinegar; 1 tsp sesame oil; 2 green onion, sliced; 12 cup-shaped leaves iceberg lettuce

The appetizer that outgrew its chain-restaurant fame: gingery hoisin chicken with water chestnuts in cold lettuce cups. A full dinner that eats like finger food.

Time: 25 min (15 prep + 10 cook)
Servings: 4
Per serving: 265 kcal
Protein: 30 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

2 breasts chicken breast, finely chopped500 g
1 tbsp canola oil15 g
1/2 yellow onions, diced fine80 g
3 cloves garlic, minced10 g
1 can water chestnuts, drained, diced140 g
3 tbsp hoisin sauce50 g
4 tsp soy sauce20 g
1 tbsp rice vinegar15 g
1 tsp sesame oil5 g
2 green onion, sliced20 g
12 cup-shaped leaves iceberg lettuce200 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Chop the chicken small — pea-sized. This is five minutes of knife work that makes the whole dish.
Stir-fry it in the oil over high heat until cooked, then the onion and garlic for 2 minutes.
Add the water chestnuts, hoisin, soy, vinegar and sesame oil; toss 1 minute. The chestnuts are non-negotiable — they're the crunch the dish is famous for.
Scallions in, then spoon into cold, dry lettuce cups at the table.

Why this score

solidly filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

47% of kcal

76% water

9 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

Nothing here converges the way engineered food does — no sugar, no savoury and no alcohol penalty.

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 1058 kcal goes into the pot, 1055 g of ingredients comes out as ~900 g of food → 118 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 118
Protein: (47%); 13 g
Fat: (31%); 4 g
Carbohydrates: (23%); 6 g
of which sugar: 3 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 247 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.