Man, there's so much description around those ingredients it's hard to tell what you need! Just make sure you have:3 chicken breastsgarlicginger root (1 inch)1 orangered bell pepperwater chestnutsgreen onionsHoisin SauceIceburg Lettuce
Okay, on to the recipe! :)
2 cups, (4 handfuls) fresh shiitake mushrooms
(Kathleen didn't use these and neither did I, but they would be good in here if you like mushrooms)1 1/3 to 1 1/2 pounds thin cut chicken breast or chicken tenders
(cut them into a large dice)2 TB lightly colored oil, such as vegetable oil or peanut oil
(LouAnn's Coconut Oil)coarse salt and coarse black pepper
3 cloves garlic, chopped
(minced garlic from the fridge)1 inch ginger root, finely chopped or grated, optional
(first cut off the skin, then grate using a microplane grater)1 orange zested
(using a microplane grater)1/2 red bell pepper, diced small
small tin, 6-8 ounces, sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped
2 scallions, chopped
(green onions, white and green part)3 TB hoisin, Chinese barbecue sauce (available on Asian foods aisle)
1/2 large head iceberg lettuce, core removed, head quartered
wedges of navel orange--platter garnish
(Here are good instructions on how to do this. You could just use mandarin oranges if you want to, but if you're going to zest an orange, you might as well section the orange.)Remove tough stems from mushrooms and brush with damp towel to clean. Slice mushrooms. Chop chicken in small pieces. Preheat a large skillet or wok to high.
(Okay, this cooks so fast, unless you are super fast at chopping and grating and don't have any children/pets/husband/phone/wandering mind to distract you, you'd better do all the chopping and grating before heating up the pan.)Add oil to hot pan.
Add chicken to the pan and sear meat by stir frying a minute or two.
Add mushrooms and cook another minute or two.
Add salt and pepper to season, then add garlic and ginger. Cook a minute more.
Grate zest into pan
(Since I did all the grating before the cooking began, my ginger and orange zest were all mixed together and I added them with the garlic. It was all good.), add bell pepper bits, chopped water chestnuts and scallions. Cook another minute, continuing to stir fry mixture.
Add hoisin sauce and toss to coat the mixture evenly.
Transfer the hot chopped barbecued chicken
(that's what this dish is really called, but I'll never remember that name, hence, Asian Lettuce Wraps) to serving platter and pile the quartered wedges of crisp iceberg lettuce along side.
(Believe it or not, both Mat and I ate almost an entire wedge of lettuce with dinner--we thought for sure a whole quarter wedge would be too much, but it wasn't--and it was delish!)Add wedged oranges to platter to garnish.
To eat, pile spoonfuls into lettuce leaves, wrapping lettuce around fillings and squeeze an orange wedge over.
(There's juice that drips as you wedge your orange so catch that into a bowl and squeeze the leftover orange into the bowl as well. During the demonstration, the chicken browned a little too much and Kathleen used some orange juice to deglaze the pan which I thought was a fabulous idea.)
Warm up a can (or two--however much you need) of refried beans. Then add the toppings you like. Grab a bag of chips and you're done, unless you want to make it all pretty like a sunflower. :)
