All You Need Is Lettuce To Upgrade Your Frozen Orange Chicken

Frozen meals can get a bad rap. Lots of people scapegoat frozen foods because they're "too easy," bland, and often a bit unhealthy. 

There are lots of ways to make frozen dinners more exciting, trendy, and better for you, however. All you have to do is think of your frozen entrees as ingredients rather than the finished product. From there, you can add all kinds of wholesome ingredients to make an entirely different dinner than what's on the box or the bag. 

Take bags of frozen orange chicken, for example. The breaded, sweet, and spicy chicken chunks are a favorite at Chinese restaurants, and you can get them in the freezer section at most grocery stores these days. Instead of serving it over a bowl of white rice, which adds a lot of carbs, you can roll them up with a few extra ingredients in lettuce leaves to make trendy lettuce wraps.

With just a couple of extra fresh vegetables, a little chopping, and prep, you can have an easy, healthy dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes, which is perfect for a weeknight. Plus, you won't feel like you're settling for "just" frozen food for dinner — you'll be having something restaurant-worthy.

To make a decent lettuce wrap with frozen orange chicken, the most important ingredient you need (in addition to the chicken itself) is a good head or two of lettuce with leaves that are strong enough to contain a filling. Most fresh lettuces sold by the head in any grocery store will probably do the job; but butter or Bibb lettuce is a good choice, as is red or green leaf lettuce. Iceberg works, too. Just be sure you can get good-sized, intact leaves off of the head for wrapping. You'll need leaves that are about the same size as small tortillas (at least four inches in diameter).

In addition to chicken and lettuce, it's nice to have a few extra toppings to add to your wraps to give them extra texture and taste. Even if you're pressed for time, there are a couple of options that are easy to prep in just a few minutes. Crushed or chopped peanuts, pine nuts, and cashews are great additions, and bamboo shoots and bean sprouts don't require any prep at all. If you've got decent knife skills you might like to chop up some matchstick carrots and cucumbers, or diced bell peppers. In fact, almost any fresh vegetable in season will probably taste great, including some sprigs of fresh herbs for a little flavor, like cilantro and parsley. If you'd like a little bit of starch in your wraps, add soba noodles for some substance; and even leftover plain spaghetti noodles work great.

Orange chicken comes ready-made with sauce, but that doesn't mean you can't improvise a little here as well. If your chicken chunks are pre-sauced in the package, go ahead and make the chicken according to the package directions; and add some extras like citrus juice; fresh ginger; cilantro; garlic; and hot chili flakes, paste, or sauce to spice things up.

It's nice to also have a dipping sauce for after you've constructed your lettuce wraps, which can be as easy as a ponzu made with soy sauce and citrus juice. You can also take a shortcut and use a pre-made salad vinaigrette from the bottle — just add some chili oil, soy, or rice vinegar and fresh herbs to make an original flavor.

Once you have your chicken cooked, lettuce prepped, and some extras chopped, go ahead and fill your lettuce leaves just like you would for tortillas and wrap them like a little fresh taco or burrito. If you're making extra food for meal prep, you can store your components separately, or try rolling your wraps in pieces of parchment paper like a wrap sandwich at the deli to keep them together for storage. Once you have your orange chicken lettuce wraps down, you can try experimenting with other frozen entrees to find other combinations that you like.