These beef lettuce wraps contain ground beef and plenty of veggies, cooked in a savory sauce and served in crisp butter lettuce leaves. A restaurant style recipe that’s super easy to make!
If you love the traditional chicken lettuce wraps, you’ll love this beefy version! Serve your beef wraps with other Asian food recipes such as bang bang shrimp and veggie fried rice for a complete meal.
Everyone knows about PF Chang’s famous chicken lettuce wraps, but sometimes I like to mix things up a bit and use a different type of protein. These beef lettuce wraps are hearty, simple to make and always a hit.
Beef Lettuce Wraps ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need vegetable oil, ground beef, shiitake mushrooms, onion, water chestnuts, garlic, ginger, salt, black pepper, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, green onions and butter lettuce leaves.
how Do You make beef Lettuce Wraps?
Heat the oil in a pan or large skillet. Add the ground beef and brown it, breaking it into smaller pieces with a spatula. Stir in the mushrooms and onions, then cook until the veggies are tender. Next, add the water chestnuts, garlic and ginger. Whisk the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Pour the sauce over the beef and vegetables, then stir to combine. Add green onions to the beef, then spoon the mixture into lettuce cups and serve.
Tips For The Perfect Dish
- I typically use 90% lean ground beef for this recipe, as it is flavorful but does not contain a lot of grease. If you use meat with a higher fat content, you will want to spoon any excess grease out of the pan after the beef cooks.
- Hoisin sauce is an Asian condiment with a sweet and savory flavor. You can find it in the international foods aisle of most grocery stores.
- The beef mixture will stay fresh in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- You can also serve the ground beef mixture over a bed of chopped lettuce as a main course salad offering for a different take on this dish!
quick tip
Use shiitake mushrooms for the most authentic flavor. If you can’t find this mushroom variety, it’s fine to use button mushrooms instead.
Recipe FAQs
Lettuce wraps are typically an appetizer offering, but they also make a great main course. You can serve beef lettuce wraps with rice to turn it into a hearty meal. It’s also a great choice to offer appetizer wraps with other snacks such as crab rangoon or homemade egg rolls.
Choose sturdy lettuce leaves for your wraps. My favorite choice is butter lettuce, also called Boston lettuce as it has a crispy texture and mild flavor. Other great choices are iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, or even cabbage leaves.
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Flavor Variations
This recipe is delicious as-is, but you can easily customize some of the ingredients to suit your tastes.
- Protein: Swap out the ground beef for ground chicken, pork or turkey.
- Vegetables: You can add some more finely chopped veggies along with the mushrooms and onions such as carrots, celery or thinly sliced snow peas.
- Sauce: Feel free to add other flavorings to the sauce such as sesame seeds, sriracha, chili garlic sauce or oyster sauce.
You simply can’t go wrong with beef lettuce wraps – they’re simple to make, but loaded with savory flavors!
More Beef Recipes You’ll Love
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Beef Lettuce Wraps
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- 5 ounces shiitake mushrooms stems discarded, caps finely diced
- ½ cup onion finely diced
- 8 ounce can water chestnuts drained and finely diced
- 1½ teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- salt and pepper to taste
- 5 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- ⅓ cup sliced green onions
- 1 head butter lettuce leaves separated
Instructions
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the ground beef and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Cook the beef for 5-6 minutes, breaking up the meat into smaller pieces with a spatula, until mostly cooked through.
- Add the mushrooms and onion to the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
- Stir in the water chestnuts, garlic and ginger. Cook for 1 more minute.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil.
- Pour the sauce over the beef mixture and toss to coat evenly.
- Sprinkle the green onions over the beef and vegetables.
- Spoon the beef mixture into the lettuce leaves and serve immediately.
Notes
- I typically use 90% lean ground beef in this recipe, which has plenty of flavor but is not overly greasy. If you use ground beef with a higher fat content, you’ll want to drain any excess grease from the pan after the meat cooks.
- Hoisin sauce is a sweet and savory Asian condiment that is available in the international foods aisle of most grocery stores.
The combination of savory beef, crunchy veggies, and fresh lettuce created a perfect harmony of flavors and textures. I highly recommend giving this quick and healthy dish a try for a refreshing and satisfying meal.
These Beef Lettuce Wraps are amazing! The flavors are wonderfully balanced and the wraps are so refreshing. Perfect for a quick and healthy summer meal. We loved them, thank you!
Great recipe. Perfect for my gluten and dairy-free diet needs.
Something about these beef lettuce wraps makes it so satisfying! I compared to the ones that they serve at cheesecake factory – and these were so much better!
Love this recipe, will this this soon. thanks for sharing
I love lettuce wraps and what a pretty idea is this? Fresh produce makes everything sing-but then so do your pics!
Love how fresh, light and vibrant these lettuce wraps are! Definitely a must make and so perfect for the weather now.
Yay for farmers markets!!! I love using Bibb lettuce to make a fun finger-food meal! This recipe looks excellent.
I just had lettuce wraps today. So good. These look perfect to me. I could eat these all day long.
Beautiful fresh produce… I also frequent my local Farmer’s Market for great fresh produce!
I would eat these everyday of the week too! Love your recipe and found the information about California’s agrulculture fascinating. Beautiful photos with those fresh crips vegetables 🙂
Beautiful lettuce wraps! The fresh produce looks amazing.
Seriously drooling over these – they look so fresh and amazing. Pinned to try!
These are gloriously fresh looking, and what a novel idea to use steak instead of chicken. You are so right about California — the diversity is awesome 🙂 It’s probably the best foodie state, for sure.
We had lettuce wraps last week and loved them. These look delicious to try out next.
Hi Sara,
What a beautiful combination of flavours you have assembled here! I’m with you on farmers’ markets. I spend all my time there during the summer and love the inspiration it brings! I need this on my dinner plate ASAP!
This is superb… Love the ingredients you use for this scrumptious looking beef wrap… I just got home from my farmer local market, Strawberries are on sale! Love your picts!
This looks wonderful, so fresh and inviting! It’s definitely my kind of dinner. Sharing and pinning!
First, these are beautiful! But also, love the collection of ingredients and any food that it’s acceptable to pick up and eat 🙂