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… 🤣
Oh wow! I have made San Choy Bow in the past, however this recipe is the best. My whole family loved it. Winner! Thank you!
I added chicken mince and tsp of Chinese 5 spice.
The iceberg lettuce unwrapped while leaving in iced water was easier
My family loves this recipe. I have 2 hungry teenage boys who devour this. I use turkey instead so it’s not oily. If my son had his way, he would eat this every week. I do 2x a month. Thank you for sharing.
Please tell me – how do chinese restaurants make the lettuce cups – they are so crispy and cut in a circle
how do chinese restaurants make the lettuce cups – they are so crispy and cut in a circle
Judith,
Nagi shows in the video that she uses a round cutter to get the perfect circle of lettuce.
Absolutely delicious & simple to cook!
Thanks! N x
Hi Nagi, I have never had a fail with your recipes and this was no exception. I made one little addition in a sprinkle of Chinese Five Spice. Delicious.
Hi Nagi, just finished making your san chow bow, it was delicious. I’m looking forward to your book, but I am just wondering how you are going to add different serving sizes in recipes in the book, thanks Claire
Hi Nagi, made this for friends last night, followed the recipe to the letter and it absolutely had the thumbs up from some very fussy eaters! Thanks.
Hi Nagi,
Hope you’re keeping well in lockdown 🙁
Just wondering, I would like to make this with extra sauce. Can I just simply double or triple the sauce ingredients?
Wow, just like take out. So good just as written. I had 2 different lettuce, Roman and iceberg. Iceberg was pretty hard to peel nice large leaves, so I just made a salad using the iceberg.
Winner Winner, San Choy Bow Dinner!
Quick, easy and delicious. Thanks again Nagi
Dear Nagios
Have never had a fail with your recipes. Tried your San Chow Bow today for an entree with friends. Total Winner.
Is the meat mixture suitable to freeze?
Yes 100% Karen! N x
Made this tonight for my two fussy eaters… Older teenage kids. They loved it! Super easy. I used chicken mince instead of pork. Had run out of sesame oil and substituted peanut oil with rice bran oil and it was brilliant . Thank you so much
I’m so glad it was a hit Sophie, they sound like the toughest critics!! N x
This was another total winner from Nagi !
Unbelievable flavour from such little produce, cost or effort – Amazing!…
I added toasted cashew nuts which I crushed into a similar texture to the rest of the ingredients and used celery rather than carrot .. but this would taste great whatever you add I’m sure, and it can be either made as a quick (really) tasty snack, or a nutritious meal depending how many wraps you decide on.
I have started growing a mixture of fresh salad, lettuce, mixed leaf and herbs in the greenhouse, which is what led me to look for other ways to use lettuce, other than salads – And this made great use of my home-grown lettuce – which if you haven’t tried to grow .. you should do as fresh homegrown is way better than supermarkets… and the perfect compliment to this excellent recipe by Nagi.
Just made this the taste was perfect and was super easy to make for beginners (like all your recipe’s) it was a touch dry for me but that may be down to personal preference and I will just make a tad more sauce next time.
Thank you so much!! This will be a permanent go to for weekly dinners
Winner winner veggie dinner! I used the sauce recipe with a random mix of leftover fridge veg and some veggie soy mince and shredded “chicken”. It was ace. Ace. Get involved.
Hit with the family no leftovers! So quick and easy with heaps of flavour.
Would highly recommend for kids
Love this recipe esp the sauce. We use iceberg lettuce as it’s v crispy giving a texture enjoyable ‘crunch’.