Cynical Parent
It’s time for another healthy recipe that probably tastes too good to be healthy. But I promise, it is.
We’re continuing along our journey of healthy recipes in an effort to lose weight AND get paid for it (which we wrote all about here).
This delectable dish works well as either an appetizer or main course. It’s sweet and savory, with a refreshing flavor that also leaves you feeling like you ate a real meal. Because we’re using lettuce instead of tortilla or rice, you will probably find yourself extremely satisfied without the full “I’m going to sleep now” feeling.
The crunch of the lettuce and peanuts adds a nice texture that allows you to really appreciate the soft, sweet chunks of mango.
Writing this makes me want to close my laptop and make it again!
Let’s get to the recipe…
Here’s What You’ll Need:
- 2 medium sized chicken breasts, sliced into small cubes
- 2 mangos, cubed
- 1 red onion, chopped into small to medium sized pieces (1/2″ to 1″ long)
- 1 head of lettuce
- 1-2 cups of peanuts, depending on how much you want to add
- 2 avocados, cubed
- 1 lemon
- Soy sauce (I prefer low sodium)
- Pepper
If you want to make this even more of a low carb meal, you can reduce or completely eliminate the mangoes. Honestly, I think the mangoes add the perfect touch to make this a delicious meal or appetizer, but I’m sure it’s still tasty without them.
Here’s How to Make It
First, slice the chicken into small cubes. I personally like the pieces to be smaller, as it’s a bit easier to work with when we’re finally putting together the lettuce wrap.
Next, move your chicken pieces to your preferred marinating container. I like to use a glass baking dish, but a large Ziploc bag would work just as well.
Sprinkle pepper on the chicken (I like a lot of pepper, but it’s not necessary) and add soy sauce to your marinade container.
Add enough soy sauce so that the chicken is reasonably covered (see the picture below). Put the chicken in the fridge for at least 15-20 minutes.
While the chicken is marinading, you can begin chopping up your onion, mangoes, and avocados.
Reserve some of the chopped onion (perhaps a 1/4 or so) to use for when you fry the chicken over the stove. Here’s what mine looked like when it was all chopped up.
Move your chopped avocado, mango, and onion into a mixing bowl and squeeze the juice of approximately 1/2 a lemon into the mixture (you can add more if you really like lemon). This will help keep the avocado from browning and will help add some even more refreshing flavor to the meal.
Gently stir the mixture. You want to keep the avocado in its “chunk” form (i.e. you don’t want to accidentally make guacamole!).
Cover with plastic wrap and put the bowl back into the fridge. You want to let it sit and stay cool until you’re ready to serve the lettuce wraps.
Cook the chicken with a little bit of the soy sauce marinade and add some of the onions you set aside.
Cook on medium-high for 3-4 minutes or until chicken begins to brown. Stir frequently, then simmer on low for another 10-15 minutes or so.
While the chicken is cooking, it’s time to crush some peanuts! If you don’t have a mortar and pestle (I don’t), you can simply put some peanuts in a bowl and use the bottom of a glass to crush them. You’re looking to crush them into fairly small pieces, but don’t get too carried away and create a bowl of peanut dust.
Next, carefully tear pieces of lettuce off of the lettuce head. This is something I had some difficulty with.
Although several of the pieces were fine, I probably wasted a fair amount of the lettuce by tearing some pieces too small to use for these wraps. (Feel free to save the leftover/unusable lettuce for a salad.)
Once the chicken is done cooking, it’s time to assemble your lettuce wraps! I like to first spoon a little bit of the chicken into the lettuce, followed by a generous amount of the mango/onion/avocado mixture. Finally, top it off with the crushed peanuts, and you’re good to go!
Please let us know in the comments if there’s any modifications you’ve made to this recipe that you’d like to share. And if you enjoyed this recipe, we’d love for you pin it on Pinterest or share this post on Twitter/Facebook. Thanks! 
