If Mary Poppins made Asian food, it would be a little like this.

I'm going to go ahead and thank Sam again for a quick and easy dinner base. Stuff in a wok takes a little bit of time to prep, but this doesn't really have that many ingredients, and it came together really easily.

Since both of these use similar ingredients, I did all the prep work ahead of time, arranged all my little prep bowls in two areas, and actually cooked them both at the same time. I felt a little like Mary Poppins; organized and efficient and a little bit of a rock star. And I am totally going to pretend that I didn't mix up the garlic/ginger bowls in the midst of my awesomeness. (I intended for the rice to have less ginger than the wraps...but it worked, so whatever.)

Oh, and if you just want to mix any leftover chicken mixture into the rice for lunch the next day, it makes a great chicken fried rice.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Peanut Oil (or canola)
2 garlic cloves, minced
About 1 inch fresh peeled ginger, minced
12oz chicken breast pieces, cut into thin strips
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained and sliced again
1/4 cup hoisin sauce (I like Lee Kum Kee brand)
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
One bunch green onion, sliced thinly (trim off a lot of the dark green tops first)
About 8 butter lettuce leaves, washed

Heat a bit of oil over medium high heat in large saute pan. When hot, add chicken and stir fry about 3 minutes until mostly white. Add garlic and ginger and keep cooking until chicken is done. Stir in half of the green onion, soy sauce and hoisin. Turn off heat and cover.

Serve in lettuce leaves like a taco. Top with more green onion and sriracha if you like hot sauce. So. Freaking. Good.


Fried Rice
2 cups broth (chicken, etc.)
1 cup white rice
1 tbsp peanut oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
About 1.5 inch piece of peeled ginger, minced
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped carrot
a couple green onion stalks, chopped
small handful of cilantro, chopped
3-4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or you can substitute in some fish sauce)

Bring broth to a boil, then add rice. Cover, reduce to very low, and cook about 15 minutes or until done. Remove from heat, uncover, and fluff with a fork. Let cool for 20 minutes or more. (It can be cold, actually, if you want to do this ahead of time.)

In large wok or saute pan, heat oil over high heat. Add ginger and garlic and cook about a minute, stir frying the whole time. Add egg, and let sit just a minute to cook, then scramble. Keep moving everything around the whole time. When egg is cooked, add carrot and 1 tbsp of soy sauce. Stir-fry another 4-5 minutes, then add rice and heat another minute or two. Add in rest of soy sauce, and cook another minute or until hot and well combined. Mix in green onion and cilantro.