One of my favourite Chinese starters – Lettuce Wraps with pork or chicken, loads of hidden crunchy vegetables in a tasty savoury brown sauce, bundled up in fresh lettuce. Also known as San Choy Bow, it’s arguably the ultimate “just happens to be healthy” food in the whole wide world …..
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
San Choy Bow – Chinese Lettuce Wraps
The Chinese name for Lettuce Wraps is San Choy Bow which is how it’s written in menus at Chinese restaurants here in Sydney, though the spelling varies widely from place to place and I’m yet to find a definitive answer for what the proper spelling is.
I may not know how to spell it, but I do know you’re going to love them!!
How to make Lettuce Wraps
Lettuce wraps are made with ground / mince meat and vegetable filling with a savoury Chinese sauce spooned into lettuce cups, then wrapped into a roll shape to eat.
For a great Lettuce Wrap, it all comes down to the sauce. It takes more than just a splash of soy sauce to make a truly delish Lettuce Wrap.
Get the sauce right and you can pretty much put anything into the filling. And it is one of those rare recipes that is genuinely great made entirely vegetarian. I would just as happily scoff down a meat free version of this as I would a traditional pork version.
What goes in a Lettuce Wrap filling
I don’t think there are definitive rules for what goes in Lettuce Wraps, but the common ingredients I see at Chinese restaurants are:
pork (chicken and turkey are ideal subs)
water chestnuts
onion
After this, things get a bit blurred. Other common ingredients which I’ve included in my recipe are:
Baby corn
Shiitake or other mushrooms
Carrots
And those that border more towards “Western” Chinese have all sorts of other vegetables in it, like normal corn, capsicum etc.
Make it real with water chestnuts!
If you can find them, I really urge you to use Water Chestnuts. It doesn’t have a strong flavour, but the unique thing about Water chestnuts is the texture.
Even canned, it is crunchy and a bit juicy and it’s a quintessential part of the Chinese Lettuce Wrap experience. ☺️ Nowadays in Australia, they are found in both the Asian section and canned vegetable section of supermarkets (Woolies, Coles etc).
Lettuce wraps are a fantastic quick and easy meal that also happens to be healthy. In Chinese restaurants, it’s served with crisp Iceberg Lettuce which tends to crack when folded. For a more practical option, use soft lettuce leaves like Butter Lettuce or Bib Lettuce (US).
Enjoy!– Nagi x
More quick and easy Chinese restaurant favourites
Chop Suey (Chicken Stir Fry)
Browse all Chinese restaurant recipes
Watch How To Make It
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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San Choy Bow (Chinese Lettuce Wraps)
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 1/4 tsp cornflour / cornstarch
- 3 tbsp water, separated
- 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce (Note 1)
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (or sub Mirin or dry sherry, Note 2)
- 1 tsp white sugar (can omit)
Filling (Note 6)
- 1 tbsp peanut oil
- 1 clove large garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp ginger, minced
- 300g / 10oz pork mince (ground pork) (Note 3)
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 1 small carrot, finely chopped
- 100g/ 3.5oz canned water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped (Note 4)
- 5 baby corn, canned or fresh, finely chopped (Note 4)
- 5 mushrooms, finely chopped(shiitake is best, I used Swiss Brown)
Serving
- 8 leaves large or 16 – 20 small lettuce, preferably soft (Note 5)
- Crushed peanuts
- Finely sliced scallions / shallots
Instructions
- Mix cornflour with 1 tbsp water until lump free. Then add remaining Sauce ingredients and mix.
- Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add garlic and ginger, give it a quick stir then add onion.
- Cook for 1 minute then add pork. Cook pork until it turns white.
- Add all the vegetables. Cook for 2 minutes until the carrot is softened and pork is cooked through.
- Add Sauce and cook for 1 1/2 minutes or until it thickens and glossy, coating the Filling.
- Transfer Filling into serving bowl. Lay out lettuce leaves, peanuts and scallions on the side.
- To serve, spoon some Filling into a lettuce leaf. Top with peanuts and scallions, bundle it up and enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
*
* Originally published February 2017, updated for housekeeping matters.Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
When Dozer ate a lady beetle… 🤣
made this last night, just love it can not stop eating, did not have water chestnuts so used chopped celery instead at the end loved the crunch
That’s so great to hear Carol! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed this! N x
This is my first go at recipes on this blog…and oh my! I am a HUGE FAN! I made these with ground chicken, just as the recipe states. I added the water chestnuts. Served with the Bibb Lettuce leaves as recommended and a little squirt of Sriracha. Perfection. Husband and I are fighting over who gets to take the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Thank you a million times over!
Glad you enjoyed this Beth!!! Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback! N x
Love the San Choy Bow. Never had it with water chestnuts though, how do the chestnuts affect the flavour?
Hi Alex! They don’t really, they don’t actually have much flavour at all, but they add great texture 🙂 Juicy soft crunch!
I found a recipe sheet for this in Coles last week(an MKR recipe). I was googling to see the country it’s from and stumbled on your recipe. so glad i did before making it. You have better ingredients.Only thing i might use from their recipe is thinly sliced pork steak instead of mince 🙂
I hope you love it Cindy!! This is truly a personal favourite. So healthy too! N xx
Fab recipe – so easy to create and v tasty, Thank you for sharing.
Love hearing that Elizabeth! So pleased you enjoyed this 🙂 N x
I just made this, amazing I am so glad I stumbled across your website, All the recipes looks so easy. I have a shopping list ready to go and get all the that is needed for the week of cooking great tasty food
Thankyou so much for sharing your recipes
I use to have a san choy bow recipe (in one of my 245 cookbooks) but couldn’t find it 🙁 so I decided to google a recipe hoping to find one similar and I stumbled across your website….AND OH MY GOD – I’M OBSESSED!!!
Everything I make = amazing. I’ve told everyone at my work, my friends my family!
I’ve gone veggo since I first made this, so looking forward to trying it with the ‘veggie mince’!
PS – This recipe is SO MUCH better than the original one I was looking for!!
Thanks! xx
WHOOT WHOOT WHOOT!!! 🙌🏻
This. Was. Awesome!!!
There were three of us and I set the recipe for 8 (1.5lbs of ground pork)… we ate every last spoonful. This is an absolutely wonderful meal. We look at carbs and gluten-free recipes because we have a T1D and celiac kiddo, and this recipe is absolutely spot-on on both counts while also being fantastically delicious, easy, and enjoyable to prepare.
I used ground pork, and used chicken broth instead of Chinese cooking wine (didn’t have any, but will try next time). We used the onions, carrots, shiitakes, and water chestnuts for veggies. I forgot the peanuts but did use some scallions on top; we also used Bibb (or Boston) lettuce which was perfect… it was just a superb dinner.
My teens said it was the best dinner they’ve had recently!
Nagi, I’ve made both your crispy buffalo wings (amazing) and now San Choy Bow in the last few days… this is now my absolute favorite food blog.
Thank you so much for sharing your unique, healthy, and delicious take on these recipes!!!
Great recipe – I loaded up on the water chestnuts as I love the crunch – sauce mixture was spot on.
Thanks for sharing!
🙌🏻🙌🏻 N xx
Sung Choi Bao is the original spelling. Ive been to china and this is how it was spelt on the menus haha thankyou for recipe making this now.
I think both spellings can be correct. San choy bow sounds like the Cantonese name for this dish. you can find this dish in served in most Cantonese restaurants.
Ah ha!!! Thanks!
Hi Nagi, I’m a big fan of your blog. Thankyou.
I’ve just tried this recipe , thinking of having it as a help yourself starter for a dinner party next week. Would be perfect.
Baby gem lettuce was ideal.
The only issue is mine seemed a touch too strong in flavour.
If I wanted to adjust Slightly, what would you suggest?
More onion for sweetner, brown or palm sugar. For i bite add ginger before chilli. And if using pork, salt that sob. Just taste test lovely lady
Hi Libby! Help yourself starter is a terrific idea 🙂 if the flavour was too strong for your taste, I would reduce the light soy sauce down to 2 tsp. That will reduce the saltiness 🙂 N x
These were delish and full of flavour. I used iceberg lettuce which held together nicely accompanied with steamed pork buns. Will be searching for more yummy recipes.
That’s terrific to hear Claire! I’m so pleased to hear that. 🙂 N xx
I might try this recipe tonight. I moved to Ireland last year and it took me months to find out that here it’s called “yuk sung”, i asked the waitress what was the different between this and sun choy bow and she said that it was the same but one was Cantonese and the other mandarin name.
Hope you enjoy it Maria! 🙂 N xx
Nice to see it in something other than the ubiquitous boring iceberg lettuce. We often had it in Australia, and love it. Hadn’t seen it in the UK till today, only the restaurant gave it a completely different name – Yok Chom. It certainly looked and tasted the same anyway.
I don’t know that name! I must look it up! N xx
This was super easy to make and the family gave it a big thumbs up for flavour. I didn’t use strong enough lettuce so it was a bit of a “serving” bust for me first night but second night I served it with rice and it hit all spots!!!!
Oh I do that ALL the time 🙂 Or the lettuce is too crisp or so delicate it tears 🙂 Luck of the draw sometimes! N xx
Adding to what Bernie and SMT said about the name and origin:
生菜包, which translates to “lettuce packet”. The transliteration “sang choy bow” is undoubtedly from the Cantonese pronunciation (my family is Cantonese American, and I know some Mandarin), and the dish has the look and taste of a 20th century Hong Kong creation (not an old-time traditional dish.)
Here in the US, the menus translate the name to “lettuce wraps,” so sang choy bow would puzzle anyone who isn’t Cantonese. The first word should have a “g” at the end.
If I were trying to explain the pronunciation to someone who has zero familiarity with transcribing Cantonese into (North American) English, I would try this:
sang (where the “a” has an “ah” sound)
choy
bow (as in lowering your upper body as a sign of respect. Rhymes with cow.)
The last word is pronounced almost the same in Cantonese and Mandarin. The Mandarin pinyin system spells it as “bao”, but I find this completely unhelpful to people who haven’t studied pinyin, because the vowel cluster “ao” appears approximately zero times in English.
. Since lettuce is not native to Asia, I’m guessing this is a “modern” Chinese dish from Hong Kong.
Thanks for sharing that Victor, that’s really interesting! 🙂 N x
Love your recipes I shall try this one.
Hope you do Paty! I love love LOVE this!
Excellent recipe, easy and so delicious.
Fantastic to hear Deb! So glad you enjoyed it! N xx
I love san choy bow! I also love it with chicken, tofu or mushrooms. Deceptively healthy don’t you think, Nagi? I tried your sauce without the wine and it was delicious, haven’t tried it in this combo before.
I’ll be making my own version in the near future for my vlog/blog and would love your feedback when I do try 🙂
http://www.foodieverse.net
YES! I total agree!!! Love to know when you make your version, please share it here and I’ll share it!
Thanks, Nagi! I’ve gotten around to my version of San Choy Bow and wanted to share it with you, as promised! Would love your feedback 🙂 Have a great weekend, and thanks!
https://www.foodieverse.net/single-post/2017/03/28/San-Choy-Bow
I’ll pop over now! 🙂
And would certainly appreciate it immensely if you did share it! 🙂
One of my favourite dishes to order at a Chinese restaurant. ?
Made this tonight and it was AMAZING!
Can’t say much more when it’s simply delicious. Lol.
Thanks again Nagi for another yummy recipe ?
So glad you enjoyed it Maggie! Thanks for taking the time to come back and share your thoughts on this recipe! – N x