This dish taught me once and for all about the brilliance of a food processor. If you just pulse your veggies, they’re diced small in literally seconds. And you can mince your garlic and ginger in about the same time. Seriously, use that food processor with the blade setting to get finely chopped carrots, celery, red bell pepper, and water chestnuts with almost no effort at all. You can even use it to chop up the green onions, though it’s more of a shred than a chop.
Allergy-friendly hoisin sauce is a new concept, because the traditional version is dependent on soy and wheat/gluten. This fresh, sweet, and savory version will have you dipping all your favorite Chinese foods in sauce again, only now it’ll have a lot less sodium and lots more safe-for-you hoisin flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- ½ cup small-dice carrot
- ½ cup small-dice celery heart
- ½ cup small-dice red bell pepper
- 3 green onions, white and green parts, chopped
- 1 (5-ounce) can water chestnuts, chopped to pea size
- 1½ pounds ground dark meat chicken
- 2 tablespoons chicken broth
- Salt
- 6 tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- Freshly ground pepper
- Butter or iceberg lettuce leaves
- Sriracha sauce (optional)
- Heat the canola oil in a nonstick wok or skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds, until fragrant and golden.
- Add the carrot, celery, bell pepper, green onions, and water chestnuts and cook for 4 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the ground chicken and broth and increase the heat to high. Sprinkle with a large pinch of salt. Cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon or spatula and breaking up the chicken into crumbles, for 4 minutes, until no longer pink and starting to brown.
- Add 3 tablespoons of the Hoisin Sauce, reserving the rest for serving alongside the lettuce cups. Stir in the rice vinegar, bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, and cook at a slow simmer for 3 minutes. Adjust the salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve with the lettuce leaves. Each diner makes his or her own bundles by spooning about 2 tablespoons of chicken into each leaf, toping with a little of the remaining 3 tablespoons Hoisin Sauce, wrapping it up, and eating! (I like to add a little Sriracha sauce to mine, too.) Hoisin Sauce
- Ingredients:
- ¼ cup coconut amino acids
- ⅔ cup orange juice
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
- ¼ cup cold water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch or tapioca starch
- Combine the coconut amino acids, orange juice, garlic, ginger, cayenne, five-spice powder, and salt in a small heavy pot and stir well.
- Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the sugar and molasses and stir well. Add the vinegar. In a small bowl, whisk together the cold water with the cornstarch until smooth, then add it to the pot.
- Bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until thickened up a bit, about 4 minutes. Makes 1¼ cups that will keep for 1 to 2 weeks, covered, in the refrigerator.