Chicken Lettuce Wraps

It's a wonderful thing when you find the perfect meal to match your mood. You know: warm stew for a cozy or cold night, cool salad on a hot night. But I think it's even more wonderful when you find a meal that works for you during any season or state of being. We found a dish last night that's so "us" it was funny: Chicken wraps with mango, rice, cucumber in carrots with lime dressing and a soy dipping sauce.

How is this dish perfect for us? Let me count the ways. First of all, it's do it yourself, and easily customizable. As we mentioned here (and demonstrated here and here), we love that kind of thing. Also, two key ingredients are lime (see previous two links and also here) and mango (see here and here), which we love. And furthermore, the whole concept is a wrap, and we adore wraps (too many recipes to link to, so just trust). In fact, we even eat but don't blog turkey wraps at least 3x per week for lunch. Add dipping sauce to the equation, and it's our dream dinner.

Fortunately, our dream dinner tasted as delicious as we thought it would -- how could it not? We spent a significant amount of time prepping so that our strips of mango and cucumber would look uniform, but the meal could probably come together in less than 45 minutes if you work quickly. The combination of the two sauces is unbelievably tasty, and these are healthy enough that you don't feel guilty popping five or six of them. You could serve these as an appetizer or snack, but be warned that you may not be able to halt consumption. They're that good.

Find the original recipe from Epicurious here, or see our adapted version below.

Ingredients (serves 4):
(wraps)
1 cup jasmine rice, rinsed
2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 head Boston lettuce, leaves separated
1/2 cucumber, cut into matchstick-size slices
3 scallions, thinly sliced into 3-inch strips
3 carrots, shredded (in the food processor) or cut into matchstick-size slices
1 mango, peeled and cut into matchstick-sized slices
1/2 cup cilantro

(lime vinaigrette)
1/4 cup lime juice
3 tbsp oil
2 tbsp honey
pinch of salt

(soy dipping sauce)
1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
6 tbsp mayonnaise
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup ginger, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil

Instructions:
Bring 1 3/4 cups water to boil add rice and a pinch of salt. Cook covered until rice absorbs water, about 20 minutes. While rice is cooking, heat olive oil in a large pan. Add chicken and cook through, about 5 minutes per side. You can also grill the chicken if you prefer. Once chicken is cooked, shred it into small pieces by pulling it apart with two forks. Make lime vinaigrette by whisking together all ingredients, and soy dipping sauce by combining all ingredients in a food processor and blending until smooth. Dress the shredded chicken with the lime vinaigrette. Lay out all ingredients, stuff lettuce leaves with chicken and vegetables, dip in soy dipping sauce or add it into the wraps.