Ground Meats
$1.59per plate
Prep
10 min
Ground Meats · Ground Turkey
Ground Turkey Lettuce Wraps
Ground turkey lettuce wraps are the whole dinner in a crisp lettuce cup: a pound of turkey browned with garlic and ginger, glossed in a soy-brown sugar sauce, and spooned straight into leaves. They feed four for about $1.71 a plate. Unlike our ground turkey tacos, there is no tortilla here and nothing else to cook, which makes this the only dinner on the site where the meat does not sit on a starch. Lean turkey and a hot pan are the whole technique: get the skillet properly hot, do not crowd it, and pull the meat the moment it is cooked through. It sits with the rest of our ground turkey recipes, all built on a single pound.
$1.71per plate
Estimated recipe total
$6.83 · serves 4
Cook
15 min
Total
25 min
Serves
4
Recipe from Budget Plates · https://www.budgetplates.com/ground-turkey-lettuce-wraps
Equipment
- Large skillet
Variations
- Use ground chicken in place of the turkey, or ground pork with the oil cut to a teaspoon and the pan drained before saucing.
- Use iceberg lettuce for the cheapest, crunchiest cup, or romaine for the sturdiest hold.
- Use a teaspoon of ground ginger stirred in with the sauce if you do not have fresh ginger on hand.
1 How to make it
1
Prep the lettuce and sauce
Separate the lettuce into whole cups, rinse and dry them well, and keep them cold until you serve. Wet leaves make a soggy wrap. Stir the soy sauce, brown sugar and vinegar together in a mug so the sugar is dissolved before it hits the pan.
2
Brown the turkey hard
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high until it shimmers. Add the ground turkey and press it flat, then leave it alone for 3 minutes before breaking it up. Lean turkey releases almost no fat of its own, so the oil and a properly hot pan are what give you browning instead of steaming.
3
Add the aromatics
When the turkey is broken up and no longer pink, about 5 minutes total, stir in the garlic and ginger and cook 1 minute more, until fragrant. Add the carrots and the white parts of the green onions and cook 2 minutes, so they soften but keep some bite.
4
Sauce it
Pour in the soy mixture and simmer 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until it reduces to a glaze that coats the meat and there is no loose liquid in the pan. The turkey must reach 165 degrees F; check the thickest clump with an instant-read thermometer. Season with salt and pepper, going easy on the salt because the soy is already salty.
5
Build the wraps
Spoon the hot turkey into the cold lettuce cups and scatter the green onion tops over. Serve immediately, while the contrast between the hot filling and the cold crisp leaf is the whole point.
2 Cheaper ingredient swaps
- Ground chicken or pork for the turkey. Ground chicken behaves identically and swaps one for one. Ground pork is fattier and more traditional here, so cut the oil to a teaspoon and drain the pan before saucing.
- Iceberg for the butter lettuce. Iceberg is the cheapest option and the crunchiest; cut the head in half and peel off cup-shaped layers. Butter lettuce folds more easily but tears; romaine is the sturdiest for holding a full spoonful.
- No fresh ginger. A teaspoon of ground ginger stirred in with the garlic gets you most of the way. Add it with the sauce rather than the aromatics so it does not scorch.
3 Budget tips
- Ground turkey is the cheapest part of this plate at $3.99 a pound, and because there is no rice, pasta or tortilla to buy, the lettuce is the only other real cost.
- A head of iceberg is often half the price of butter lettuce and works better as a cup. Buy whichever head looks heaviest for its size.
- Fresh ginger freezes whole and grates straight from frozen, so a single knob covers this recipe a dozen times over instead of going soft in the drawer.
- See more recipes priced per serving in the Budget Plates Index.
4 Storage, freezing & reheating
Fridge
Refrigerate the turkey filling in an airtight container for up to 4 days, always separate from the lettuce. Store washed leaves in a bag with a dry paper towel so they stay crisp.
Freezer
Freeze the cooked filling alone for up to 3 months in portions; it thaws overnight and reheats in a skillet. Never freeze the lettuce, which collapses to water when thawed.
Reheating
Reheat the filling in a skillet over medium with a splash of water to loosen the glaze, then spoon it into fresh cold leaves. Microwaving works but leaves the meat softer.
5 Nutrition (per serving)
Calories
265
Protein
24g
Fat
13g
Carbs
10g
Estimates per serving, calculated from standard ingredient data. Not a substitute for medical advice.
6 Frequently asked questions
What is the best lettuce for lettuce wraps?
Butter lettuce for the classic cup shape, iceberg for the loudest crunch and the lowest price, romaine for strength if you are piling the filling high. All three work; keep them cold and dry them properly, because water is what makes a wrap fall apart.
How do you keep ground turkey lettuce wraps from being watery?
Two things: dry the leaves thoroughly after washing, and reduce the sauce until it glazes the meat rather than pooling in the pan. If there is loose liquid in the skillet, keep simmering; it will run straight through the leaf otherwise.
Do lettuce wraps need a side?
They do not, but a scoop of rice turns four servings into six if you are feeding more people, and it catches the extra sauce. Serving them without rice is what keeps the plate at 10g of carbohydrate a serving.
What temperature should ground turkey be cooked to?
165 degrees F. Ground poultry has no safe pink stage the way beef does, so use an instant-read thermometer on the thickest clump rather than judging by colour.
Helpful Tools for This Recipe
As an Amazon Associate, Budget Plates may earn from qualifying purchases.
- 12-inch nonstick skillet. A wide nonstick skillet browns ground meat, fries rice, and builds a one-pan sauce with less oil and easier cleanup. Best for everyday stovetop dinners like skillet meals, fried rice, pasta sauces, and patties.
- Cast iron skillet. Cast iron holds heat for a deep sear and moves from stovetop to oven, and it lasts for decades with basic care. Best for searing chops and chicken, and recipes that start on the stove and finish in the oven.
- Chef's knife. One sharp chef's knife handles almost all the chopping, from onions to chicken, and replaces a drawer of gadgets. Best for all-purpose prep in essentially every recipe on the site.
- Cutting board. A large, stable cutting board makes prep faster and safer, which matters when you cook most nights. Best for everyday chopping of onion, garlic, and vegetables across nearly every recipe.
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