Chicken Satay Lettuce Wraps

I wasn't meant to blog about this lunch. It kind of just happened. I had some leftover ingredients from a shoot, ingredients I don't normally cook with on a daily basis. Bean sprouts, pickled ginger and mountains of baby cos lettuce. 

Then this happened, a beautiful lunch of leftovers. These kind of lunches are my favourite. Lunches that come together in less than half an hour, lunches that are colourful like a child's painting, lunches that clean out your fridge. That's the kind of lunch this was. An unplanned lunch. 

And you know what's even more amazing? I ate this today, I photographed it today, edited the images today and wrote this post today as well. That has never happened before. There is always something that stops me from hitting the publish button- recipe not written down whilst cooking, food not photographed before it is eaten. A lot of the the time I'm unhappy with the images. And the biggest issue has always been that the words just don't flow. Often, all I want to write is- Eat this, it's good. That's all!

But I'm really glad it all came together for this post. I really love this recipe that is heavily inspired by a meal I had at a popular American chain restaurant. It's a recipe where every member of the family finds something they like and can enjoy. And something to dislike as well. 

Hassan only ate the noodles with carrots and cucumbers. He kept wanting to lick the peanut butter sauce even though it was so spicy. The expression that followed was priceless. Maryam devoured the noodles and bean sprouts on her lettuce leaves. I as usual, had a bit of everything. I do hope you will try this and that everyone in your family will find something to like about it. 

Chicken Satay Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:

125 ml crunchy peanut butter

200 ml coconut milk, warmed in the microwave

4 cloves garlic

juice of 1 lime

3- red chillies (deseeded if you want to decrease the heat)

1 tbsp honey

500 g chicken breast, cut into 3/4 inch strips

2 tbsp sunflower oil

20 g rice noodles

200 ml coconut milk

1 tbsp Thai green curry paste

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp fish sauce

1 tbsp lime juice

2 spring onions

handful cilantro

1 tbsp tamarind paste

1 clove garlic

1 tsp honey

To serve: 

4 baby cos lettuce, stems removed

1 carrot, cut into matchsticks

1 cucumber, deseeded and cut into strips

105 g pickled ginger, cut into strips (optional)- you can drain the pickling juice or add it to your spring            onion sauce

75 g bean sprouts

handful coriander leaves

1 red chilli, thinly sliced (optional)

Directions:

In a bowl, mix together the first 6 ingredients until well incorporated and season with salt. Marinate the chicken strips with 3/4 of the marinade, leaving aside the rest to use as a dipping sauce (the sauce may thicken after a while so just use hot water to loosen as needed). Heat oil in a skillet on high heat. Grill the chicken on both sides, turning, once, until cooked through (about 3 minutes). Set aside.

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, drain and set aside. In a saucepan, add the coconut milk. Once it comes to a simmer, add the curry paste and the rest of the ingredients. Add the cooked noodles and season well with salt. Set aside. 

Make the cilantro dipping sauce by blending together the spring onions, cilantro, tamarind paste, garlic, honey and season with salt. You may use a little bit of water to loosen the paste. 

To serve, layer the ingredients as follows. Lay the lettuce leaves on a platter, Top with the noodles followed by the chicken strips. top with the carrot and cucumber strips followed by the pickled ginger if using. Top with beans sprouts, coriander leaves and sliced chilli. Drizzle over the cilantro suace and peanut sauce and serve immediately. 

Serves 6-7.