Chicken and Mango Lettuce Wraps

Now that Bon Appétit is moving east and losing the wonderful Barbara Fairchild as editor (she didn’t want to relocate), I’m hoping the magazine won’t suffer a slow decline. New York is the heartbeat of the universe, of course, but you can’t deny the innovation of the California food scene. Hopefully, that will still be reflected in Bon Appétit.

I told you awhile ago that the Food Network Magazine was not at all bad. In fact, it’s pretty good. I like the thumbnail pictures of every recipe in the index and the pullout booklets – this month was 50 panini, one month was 50 kebabs. It’s not that you will actually cook 50 variations of whatever it is, but it does give great ideas for changing things up.

The October issue had a good recipe from Guy Fieri - Asian chicken in lettuce cups. His sauce was way too salty, so I changed it up a bit. Plus whenever I have a mango around I can’t help using it, so that went in too. I also added some gorgeous black rice (from Eataly) underneath the chicken mixture, to "beef" up the dish a bit.

The ingredients for the stir fry DO take ages to chop, but then the cooking and assembling is really fast. BTW, Guy says his recipe serves 6 to 8. No way.

Chicken and Mango Lettuce Wraps (serves 3)

Adapted from Guy Fieri’s Asian Chicken Lettuce Cups

Printable recipe here

Sauce:

3 oz. light soy sauce

2 tbls. water

2 tbls. red wine vinegar

1 tbl. red hot sauce

3 tbls. plum sauce

1 tbl. hoisin sauce

1 tbl. dry sherry

½ tsp. sesame oil

1 clove garlic, minced

For frying:

1 tbl. vegetable oil

2 large slices ginger, unpeeled

Filling:

1 lb. boneless chicken breast, diced

2 small carrots, diced

½ red or orange pepper, diced

Handful snow peas, halved lengthwise and cut into dice

½ red onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ cup nuts, chopped

2 scallions, sliced

½ cup diced mango

For serving:

3 large Iceberg lettuce leaves

1 cup cooked black or brown rice, heated up

Mix all ingredients together for sauce. Set aside.

Heat oil and ginger in wok or sauté pan over medium high heat. Add chicken and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add carrots, peppers, snow peas, red onion, garlic and nuts. Stir fry for 3 to 4 minutes, making sure chicken is cooked. Take out ginger slices.

Add 1/3 cup of sauce to mixture and cook, stirring, for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sliced scallions and mango. Place 3 large lettuce leaves on 3 plates. Spoon 1/3 cup rice on top of each lettuce leaf. Top with chicken and mango mixture. Serve remaining sauce separately.