Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps

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This is such a fun recipe to make for a quick lunch, appetizer, or cook it in larger quantities for a hearty dinner. The classic Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps, which are otherwise known as San Choy Bow in certain parts of the world, are a true treat to eat. A delicious filling of Ground Pork that has been flavored with wonderful Asian spices and Sauces all wrapped up in a Lettuce Wrap for easy eating. It’s not only fun to eat, but tastes amazing

The flavor in these Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps comes from this magnificent, rich sauce

This is a wonderfully simple recipe to create yet packs an unbelievable amount of flavor. The flavor comes from the amazing sauce which is made with very traditional ingredients from Chinese cuisine

Like a lot of Chinese dishes, the sauce for our Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps has a lot of ingredients in it. Don’t let the amount of ingredients deter you though, it’s simply a matter of adding them all into a pot and letting them do their thing!

The ingredients in this sauce consist of common household items such as Soy Sauce, Sugar, Garlic, Ginger, and Vinegar. Most households should have these in the pantry as they’re such staples in not only Asian cooking but cooking in general! (Ever tried a Steak marinade with Soy Sauce? It’s phenomenal!)

Find these ingredients in Asian Grocery Stores if you can’t find them at the Supermarket

The perhaps less common ingredients in this sauce are some that you can easily pick up at any Asian Grocery Store, and a lot of general Supermarkets these days. These ingredients are Oyster Sauce, Mirin, and Szechuan Peppercorns. If you don’t use these ingredients that often, we highly encourage you to pick them up for this recipe

Once you cook this recipe you’ll fall in love with the sweet, salty, richness of this sauce as much as we have. It’ll end up being used in loads of your home cooking. Trust us, it’s that good!

Charring the Ground Pork in the frying pan adds a lovely texture and beautiful caramelization

We’ve picked up a lovely little trick for charring the Ground Pork that works wonders in this recipe. It’s a trick adopted from Spain how they prepare a classic Paella. When the cooked rice is first added to the Paella, it is left to cook directly exposed to the bottom of the pan. Basically, where all the heat is coming from

Leaving the rice there, without stirring it for 5-7 minutes or so begins to char it. What that does is creates a wonderful flavor that you simply do not get by cooking rice normally. It gives the rice that has been exposed to the pan a crunchier texture which is wonderful to eat

So, we’ve adopted that exact same technique for cooking the ground Pork. Place the ground pork in the pan, directly exposing as much of it as you can to the pans surface. Leave it to cook, charring that part of the Pork and caramelizing it. This technique adds so much more flavor and texture to the dish. It’s easy to do, and we highly recommend it!

Double the quantity of the Sauce so you can retain it for future dishes

In all transparency, when we made this dish we made about 3 times the quantity of sauce that the recipe below requires. The sauce is just that good and it can be used in so many dishes. We suggest using what you need for this recipe then storing the rest in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to a couple of weeks given how Salty and Sugary it is, so you’ve got plenty of time to make more dishes with it

This sauce truly shines in stir fries. Cooking meat and vegetables on high heat over the flame and adding a few tbsp. of this sauce will guarantee to yield you great results. The only watch out we’ll give you is the sauce is quite powerful

As with this recipe, we suggest adding smaller quantities and taste the dish as you go. Like how you would season with Salt and Pepper. You can always add more sauce to get a stronger flavor. But if you’ve added too much you’re stuck with it!

Large Lettuce Leaves are key for the best Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps

It goes without saying that if you’re making lettuce wraps, you’ll need big lettuce leaves to hold all that delicious filling. The last thing you want when eating a lettuce wrap is for all the ingredients to fall out when you pick it up! So, perhaps give Arugula a miss for this one!

The two most common types of lettuce for this dish are the classic Iceberg Lettuce, or Romaine / Cos Lettuce. Iceberg is good because you can get some huge pieces of Lettuce. Honestly, if you’re wanting to make a dinner sized portion for some hungry eaters, you could feel them very well by filling 1 large Iceberg lettuce leaf with this delicious filling!

We’ve opted for Romaine Lettuce in our recipe below and is the lettuce that we’ve featured in our photos on this page. Romaine Lettuce has a little bit more flavor than iceberg, and it’s also a bit heartier. Both lettuces will hold the filling well, however we find Romaine just edges out Iceberg on the structural integrity scale for making great Lettuce Wraps

Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. Ground Pork
• 3 ½ tbsp. Soy Sauce
• 2 tbsp. Chinese Black Vinegar
• 2 tsp. Water
• 1 tsp. Oyster Sauce
• 1 tsp. Mirin
• ½ tsp. Szechuan Peppercorns
• ½ tsp. White Sugar
• ½ tsp. Fennel Seeds
• 2 thin slices of fresh Ginger
• 2 Garlic Cloves, peeled and smashed
• ½ Red Onion, finely diced
• 8 large Romaine Lettuce leaves
• 1 cup Button / White Mushrooms, roughly chopped
• ½ cup Scallions, finely chopped
• ¼ cup Peanuts, chopped
• ½ cup Cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp. Chili Crisp in Oil
  
  

Instructions

1. Place a medium saucepan on the stovetop over medium / high heat. Add the Soy Sauce, Chinese Black Vinegar, Water, Oyster Sauce, Mirin, Szechuan Peppercorns, White Sugar, Fennel Seeds, Ginger, and Garlic
2. Bring to a boil then turn off the heat and cover the pot. Leave the sauce to steep for 15 minutes. Strain the sauce and discard the solids, retain the sauce, and set aside
3. Heat a large frying pan with a little bit of neutral Oil over medium heat. Once hot, add the Mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until all their liquid has evaporated. Set aside
4. In the same pan, add the Red Onions and cook for 5 minutes until tender. Add the Ground Pork with as much of the Pork mixture exposed directly to the pan. Leave for 5 minutes to char before breaking up and stirring through the Onions
5. Once the Pork has cooked through and is no longer pink, add the Sauce that you prepared earlier. We recommend adding about half the sauce and tasting before adding any more to achieve your desired taste. Try to save some of the Sauce for dipping
6. Cook sauce for 2 minutes while mixing constantly then turn off the heat. Add the Scallions and mix through
   
   

Prepare your Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps

7. Wash the Lettuce Leaves to ensure they don’t have any dirt on them. Place individual lettuce cups with their natural curls facing upwards on a flat surface. Carefully spoon as much mixture as you can comfortably fit in the cups. Be careful not to overload them
8. Sprinkle the chopped Peanuts and Cilantro over the top of the Lettuce Wraps. Finish by adding the Chili Crisps and serve with some of the remaining Sauce in a separate bowl for dipping
   
   

We hope you’ve enjoyed making these yummy Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps. They’re such a fun dish to make and eat

We love making Asian recipes here at Dinnertime Somewhere. If you’ve enjoyed this recipe why not try some of out favorite Asian dishes such as these:

• Homemade Tuna Tartare
• Bang Bang Chicken
• Teriyaki Salmon on Rice
• Chinese 5 Spice Duck
• Sticky Wings
• Tom Kha Gai
  
  

Happy Cooking!