Back when I was a young buck with limited food knowledge and resources, a trip with friends to California Pizza Kitchen in Boston’s Prudential Center Mall was a guaranteed good time. The restaurant chain was new on the scene, its clientele were young and attractive, and the place was always bustling; I’d order a Tostada pizza (who’d ever eaten beans, chicken, ranch dressing and tortilla strips on a pizza before??) and be set for the night.

Fast forward many years later; the coolness factor of CPK may be gone, and yeah, it’s a chain that’s easy to poo-poo, but I still like the place… the pizzas taste as good to me as they did 15 years ago.

Another favorite at CPK are their chicken lettuce wraps. Everyone does lettuce wraps these days, including that overrated faux-Asian P.F. Chang’s, but CPK’s taste better. Minced chicken with diced vegetables in a savory brown sauce; it’s an appetizer you usually order with other people, meaning you end up only getting one wrap when really, you’d like to finish the entire plate.

I’m rambling, but the point is, I enjoy CPK’s lettuce wraps, and I don’t like sharing them, so I decided to make a batch at home where I could hoard them all for myself.

This recipe is from Michael Tong’s The Shun Lee Cookbook; I modified a few steps and ingredients to make things quicker and healthier.  Here’s what you need:

8 oz chicken breast, minced
1 egg white
1 tsp cornstarch

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp sherry
2 tsp hoisin sauce
1/2 tsp sriracha (optional)
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch

4 celery ribs, diced
4 scallions, minced
3 carrots, diced
1 tsp sesame oil
Iceberg or bibb lettuce leaves

Mix together the chicken, egg white and cornstarch.

Whisk together the soy sauce through the sugar.  Sriracha wasn’t part of the original recipe but I added it because I like the flavor.

In a separate cup, dissolve the cornstarch in 1 tbsp of water.

Heat up a wok, add a couple tbsps of vegetable oil, and stir fry the chicken mixture until it loses its pink color.  Set aside.

Add another tbsp of veg oil to the hot wok and stir fry the celery, scallions and celery for about a minute.  Add in the sauce, then the cornstarch mixture, then the chicken, and give it a good stir until everything is cooked through.  Turn off the heat and drizzle in the sesame oil.

Now you can get your lettuce leaves ready.  I didn’t have Bibb lettuce so I used iceberg instead.  It works okay but Bibb has a more delicate, softer texture.

Spoon the chicken mixture into the center of each leaf.  Fold up the leaf and eat.

Makes for a light dinner or a nice appetizer.  You can also play around with the filling — I might try adding mushrooms and water chestnuts for texture, plus garlic and ginger for more flavor.

So thanks to CPK, my old restaurant friend, for inspiring me to make lettuce wraps. Tostada pizza… you’re up next.