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Chicken larb gai

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A fun weeknight meal ready to eat in 30 minutes, the whole family will love digging into these quick and easy chicken larb lettuce wraps.

  • Serves4
  • Cook time10 minutes
  • Prep time20 minutes
5 lettuce cups filled with marinated chicken mince, bean sprouts, rice and chilli.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbs lime juice
  • 1 1/2 tbs fish sauce
  • 1 1/2 tbs brown sugar
  • 2 tbs jasmine or long-grain rice
  • 2 tsp peanut or vegetable oil
  • 500g Coles RSPCA Approved Australian Chicken Breast Mince
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 long red chilli, finely chopped
  • 1/2 lemongrass stem, finely chopped, or 2 tsp lemongrass paste
  • 1 1/2 cups (80g) bean sprouts
  • 1/4 cup mint leaves
  • 1/4 cup Thai basil or regular basil leaves
  • 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
  • 12 small or 8 large lettuce leaves and lime wedges, to serve
  • Extra basil and mint leaves, to garnish

Check ingredient labels to make sure they meet your specific dietary requirements and always consult a health professional before changing your diet. View dietary information here.

Percentage Daily Intake information on our recipes is calculated using the nutrition reference values for an average Australian adult.

Method

  1. Step 1

    Stir the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar in a small bowl or jug until sugar dissolves. Set aside.

  2. Step 2

    Heat a wok over medium-low heat. Add rice and cook, stirring and tossing for about 4-5 mins or until golden brown. Cool completely. Grind with a pestle and mortar or in a spice grinder to form a coarse powder.

  3. Step 3

    Heat oil in the same wok over medium heat. Add chicken, garlic, chilli and lemongrass. Cook, stirring and breaking up chicken, for about 5 mins or until lightly browned and cooked through.

  4. Step 4

    Transfer to a bowl and stir in half the ground rice. Stir in lime juice mixture. Then stir in bean sprouts, mint and basil leaves.

  5. Step 5

    Serve chicken mixture with red onion, lettuce leaves and lime wedges. Garnish with extra basil and mint leaves.

Asian chicken lettuce wraps recipe

Larb is a meat salad consisting of a minced protein, which sits on a bed of fresh mint, basil, lemongrass, onion and chilli. The cooked and fresh elements of the salad are harmoniously tied together with a savoury-sweet dressing made of fish sauce, lime juice and sugar. To top it all off, roasted ground rice powder is sprinkled generously over the top of the salad. It’s no wonder that larb is the national dish of Laos. You may be wondering, if it’s a Laotian dish, why are chicken lettuce wraps on almost every Thai restaurant menu in Australia? This is because Thailand has its own version of larb, thanks to the Laotians who brought their beloved dish with them when they migrated to other countries.

How to roast rice for larb gai

Here are some tips when roasting the rice for your chicken larb gai:

  • Do not leave the stove while roasting – watch the rice closely so it doesn’t burn.
  • If you want to add extra flair to your roasted rice powder, add some lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves to the wok while roasting.
  • Toss the rice until golden on the outside. Some grains may end up blackened, but this is nothing to be concerned about.
  • Let the rice cool completely before grinding with your mortar and pestle or spice grinder.
  • The powder should resemble large grains of sand.

How to serve larb gai

Because larb gai in Thailand also includes dried chillies, the final dish can be very spicy. For this reason, people don’t usually eat this salad on its own. Larb is often a dish that a family might share at the dinner table, scooped onto individual plates of sticky rice or regular rice. Other cooling sides are served alongside this typically fiery dish, such as crisp lettuce and long beans.

Now get cooking

Follow this recipe and treat your family and friends to this delicious dish that symbolises luck and prosperity. Love Asian flavours and have mastered how to make chicken lettuce wraps? Check out these ideas that use chicken mince, such as Sichuan-style noodle soup with chicken mince, chilli naan breads with chicken and Vietnamese spicy pork noodle bowl. Wondering how else you can use chicken mince? Try these recipes for chicken nachos, chicken parmigiana rissoles and chicken and two-grain stuffed capsicums.

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