Why did the chicken lettuce wrap cross the road?

One evening I started looking for recipes online and realized I had almost everything I needed to make chicken lettuce wraps like the ones we buy from our favorite Chinese restaurant.

I even had sesame oil and rice wine vinegar. And how important could that hoisin sauce be?
So I got to work—substituting a little teriyaki sauce for the hoisin sauce—and served chicken lettuce wraps for dinner. And my family licked the platter clean. Not everyone raved about the lettuce, but everyone liked the filling.

I have some good eaters in this house, but it’s still exciting to find a simple meal that works for all four of us. So we tried it again this week—this time with the hoisin sauce—and again it was a hit. We used romaine lettuce because it’s so crunchy and balances the filling well.

I also used ground ginger rather than fresh (I hope you’re not horrified) and skipped the water chestnuts, even though the person who created this recipe apparently adores them. For some reason, water chestnuts are the kind of thing I think I should like, and I want to like, but I don’t actually like all that much. I feel the same way about artichokes.

So I didn’t miss the water chestnuts. And, as far as I could tell from the clean plates, neither did anyone else.
What’s your favorite, go-to dinner when you don’t have anything planned?

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The Catholic Review is the official publication of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

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