Sriracha Beef Lettuce Wraps
There are lots of beef lettuce wraps in the cooking world, but these Sriracha Beef Lettuce Wraps are the ones I make over and over! And this is one of my favorite quick low-carb dinners, and anyone who enjoys Sriracha is going to love this tasty idea.
PIN the Beef Lettuce Wraps to try them later!
I have quite a few variations of lettuce wraps on this blog, and they’re on the menu often at my house. But despite the abundance of lettuce wrap recipes to choose from, these Sriracha Beef Lettuce Wraps are a quick low-carb dinner that I find myself making over and over.
There are so many favorite flavors here that go perfectly with the beef and Sriracha Sauce, like fish sauce, lime, green onion, and cilantro, and if you like Thai flavors at all, you’re going to love this recipe as much as I do.
And one day recently when I was making these lettuce wraps again I decided to snap some new photos. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while but have never tried this yet, I hope the new photos will get you to try it. It can be on the table in well under 30 minutes, and Sriracha Beef Lettuce Wraps just might become your new favorite dinner!
What ingredients do you need?
(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- cooking oil
- ground beef
- Red Boat Fish Sauce (affiliate link)
- Sriracha Sauce (affiliate link)
- water
- zest from lime
- juice from lime
- green onion
- cilantro
- iceberg lettuce
What is Sriracha Sauce?
Sriracha Sauce is a type of red chile sauce that’s used in Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. It’s made from chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt, and is popular all over the world.
What gives these beef lettuce wraps the Thai flavors?
I’m not claiming this is an authentic Thai recipe, but ingredients such as fish sauce, Sriracha Sauce, and lime juice give Sriracha Beef Lettuce Wraps the combination of spicy, sour, and salty flavors that’s so common in Thai cuisine.
Can you make Sriracha Beef Lettuce Wraps without cilantro?
If you have the tastebuds that don’t enjoy cilantro I recommend just doubling the amount of green onions and this will still be amazing,
Want a bowl meal variation with these flavors?
A few years after I first made this recipe I came up with Sriracha Beef Cabbage Bowls, which are a fun bowl meal variation of this recipe.
Want more tasty ideas for lettuce wraps?
- Slow Cooker Lettuce Wraps ~ Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker
- Low-Carb and Keto Lettuce Wraps ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
- Instant Pot Lettuce Wraps ~ Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker
How to make Sriracha Beef Lettuce Wraps:
(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- Cook one pound of lean ground beef until it’s completely done and starting to lightly brown.
- While the beef cooks, mix together the fish sauce, Sriracha Sauce (affiliate link), and water. I like Red Boat Fish Sauce (affiliate link) which is gluten-free and Paleo.
- Also zest one large lime and squeeze the juice, slice the green onions and chop the cilantro (or double the amount of green onions if you don’t want cilantro.)
- Prepare the lettuce cups in the size you prefer.
- When the beef is nicely browned, stir in the Sriracha sauce mixture and cook until the water evaporates.
- Turn off heat and stir in the lime zest, lime juice, green onions, and cilantro (if using).
- That’s it! Put it inside a lettuce wrap and devour!
More Lettuce Wraps to Enjoy:
- Asian Lettuce Cups with Spicy Ground Turkey
- Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps
- Spicy Shredded Chicken Lettuce Wrap Tacos
- Ground Beef Gyro Meatball Lettuce Wraps
- Buffalo Turkey Lettuce Wraps
Sriracha Beef Lettuce Wraps
Sriracha Beef Lettuce Wraps are a quick and easy for a tasty low-carb weeknight dinner.
Ingredients
- 2 tsp. cooking oil of your choice
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 T fish sauce (see notes)
- 1-2 Tย Sriracha Sauceย (depending on how much heat you want)
- 2 T water
- zest from one large lime
- juice from one large lime (see notes)
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro (see notes)
- 2 small heads iceberg lettuce, washed and cut into cups
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan over medium-high heat, then cook the beef until it’s cooked through and starting to brown, breaking apart with a turner as it cooks.
- While beef cooks, mix together the fish sauce, Sriracha Sauce (affiliate link), and water in a small bowl.
- Zest the skin of the lime and squeeze the juice. (You may need two limes to get enough juice, but only use the zest from one lime.)
- Thinly slice the green onions and chop the cilantro.
- Most iceberg lettuce doesn’t need washing, but remove the outer leaves. Cut out the core and cut the lettuce into quarters to make “cups” to hold the beef mixture.
- When the beef is done, add the Sriracha Sauce mixture and let it sizzle until the water has evaporated, stirring a few times to get the flavor mixed through the meat.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the lime zest, lime juice, sliced green onions, and chopped cilantro.
- Serve meat mixture with iceberg lettuce leaves to fill with meat and wrap around it, to be eaten with your hands.
Notes
I use Red Boat Fish Sauce (affiliate link) for this recipe, which is gluten-free and Paleo. You want about 1 1/2 T lime juice, so use two limes if needed. If you're not a cilantro fan, use more thinly sliced green onion.This was definitely still good when the meat mixture was kept in the fridge and reheated for a very short time in the microwave, but I liked it best freshly made.
This recipe adapted fromย Nigella Fresh.
Nutrition Information
Yield
4Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 396Total Fat 22gSaturated Fat 8gUnsaturated Fat 11gCholesterol 101mgSodium 711mgCarbohydrates 8gFiber 2gSugar 11gProtein 32g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This beef lettuce wraps recipe would be great for low-carb or Keto diet plans which may prefer higher-fat ground beef. If you use ground beef with less than 10% fat, Sriracha Beef Lettuce Wraps are a great recipe for any phase of the original South Beach Diet.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Lettuce Wraps to see more recipes like this one! Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalynโs Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes Iโm sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This recipe was posted in 2012 and I’ve made it for many dinner guests since then. It was last updated with more information in 2023.
59 Comments on “Sriracha Beef Lettuce Wraps”
These were fabulous! I used ground moose instead of beef and a good heaping 3 T of sriracha. Everything else was prepared as directed. Loved the heat and the Thai flavors. Thank you for the great recipe- this one is a keeper.
So glad to hear you enjoyed it!
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Whoa! These were rocking! I added a couple TBS of peanut butter. My husband and teens liked them so much I had to make more for seconds.
Thank you for another speedy and tasty meal to add to my repertoire!
So glad you enjoyed it! I like the peanut butter idea.
Wow! My husband made this tonight, changing the fish sauce to Worcester sauce ( he doesn’t like fish sauce)! and adding some garlic. Super delicious! I lost count of how many lettuce leaves I filled. I’m happy and very full, and I’m headed to Kalyn’s site to look for other leaf wrapped delights. Such a healthy way to eat.ย
So glad you enjoyed it. And I think using Worcestershire sauce was a brilliant idea!
This was such a great recipe! ๐คฏ๐คค Although, I omitted the cilantro (donโt like it) I replaced it with Basil & Parsley. I didnโt have Fish sauce so I used soy sauce! It turned out delicious although I would use just 1 lime next time!๐ค
Glad you enjoyed it! This is one of my favorites!
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Made these tonight for dinner!! They were amazing!! Thank you for the wonderful recipe!!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Big hit! ย Just made this tonight using ground turkey. Thank you!ย
So glad it was a hit!
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We absolutely loved this! Thank you so much!!!
So glad you liked it!
I just made it for lunch and it’s super tasty!! What are the keto macros? Protein? Carbs? Fats? Calories?
Iโm not able to provide nutritional information for the recipes for several reason, including the additional time it takes, the difficulty in doing it accurately, and the sheer number of recipes on my site. If you look after the recipe itself, I give two links (where it says โNutritional Informationโ) for suggestions of two ways to get that information. Thatโs all I can do at this time. Thanks for understanding.
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been making for a couple years now and it's always a hit. we use boston lettuce and i make two batches…..with 2 different spice levels for me and the kids. yum yum
Brian, so glad everyone has been enjoying it! Great idea to make a less spicy batch for the kids.
I tried this recipe tonight and it was very good. I especially like how quick it was to make. I thought I had a bottle of fish sauce but I didn't, so I had to think up a quick substitution and ended up using a teaspoon of sesame oil and a few dashes of soy sauce. Next time I will make sure I have everything. It was still very delicious. I've been following you for 7 or 8 years and I'm amazed at how much your sight has grown and how I keep using your recipes over and over. Thanks for all the kitchen inspiration.
Glenna, so happy I could inspire you. And it sounds like you're pretty creative; that sounds like a good substitute for the fish sauce. This is something I could eat once a week and I don't think I'd ever get tired of it!
What a great idea! I'm allergic to fish sauce and was wondering what would be a good substitute!
If you can have soy sauce or coconut aminos, I think either of those would work! Hope that helps. Also check the comment directly above; she substituted.
Kalyn, your pictures are beautiful! What is the name and model of your wonderful new camera? I am looking to up-date mine. Thank you!
Also, the recipe looks yummy!
Thanks Lisa. I completely splurged and got the new Canon 5D Mark IV, it's expensive but I am in love with it. ( It's this one. Before that I had the Canon 6D, which is also a wonderful camera for quite a bit less money!
Yes, please.
I've had a really hard time getting dinner on the table in the last 10 days or so (well, besides Thanksgiving.) I'm adding this to the menu for tomorrow. Quick, easy and GOOD. Thank you.
Hope you enjoy this as much as I have Denise! Glad you like it.
I am allergic to fish. Do you think this would be good without the fish sauce?
The fish sauce does add a lot of flavor. There are recipes on the web for "vegan fish sauce" that doesn't have fish, or if you don't want to bother with that I'd replace it with soy sauce.
You never mention draining the beef. I've never added oil to cook beef either though so I did not drain it. Is that correct?
This recipe uses really lean beef and only 2 tsp. of oil, so there won't be much to drain if you use that. If you have fattier beer you might want to drain off some of the fat.
I have been making this recipe since last year and I have come back to say THANK YOU for this amazing dish! My husband and I go crazy for it! I have made it many times now and experimented with different ingredients. We've found that adding ginger and sometimes substituting oyster sauce for the fish sauce give it a new twist. Sometimes we'll saute some mushrooms and zucchini with the beef before we add in all the condiments. No matter what, it is always so delicious! Thanks again and know you have two adoring fans!
Hi Tracy, so happy to hear this has been a favorite for you. I'm a big fan of this recipe as well; I will have to try some of your experiments! Thanks for the nice thoughts!
Laura, what a good idea!
I made this using chick peas instead of ground beef, and it was delicious! I mashed them up slightly when I added the sauce mix.
Try Boston lettuce with this, they are much more lettuce wrap friendly than the iceberg stuff.
Thank you for the feedback! Maybe my lime was just really tart. And in retrospect, I realized it did render a lot more juice than 1.5 T as indicated in the recipe, so I probably shouldn't have used as much as I did. I did use 2 T of sriracha. Anyways, thanks again! I am going to try this again later this week and I'll report back! ๐
Shelly, This made me wonder if you bought a key lime rather than a regular lime. Key limes are very tart.
I'm surprised, as it thought this tasted much more like Sriracha than it did lime. I even squeezed more lime on it when I ate it! Did you use the 2 T of Sriracha?
Definitely you could omit the lime though if you prefer it that way. I would add only about 2 T of stock.
I wanted to love this. I made it tonight but unfortunately the lime flavor was really overpowering, and I couldn't taste any of the other ingredients (I was really looking forward to tasting the sriracha :). Do you think it's ok to omit the lime zest and juice completely? Is there anything I can use to substitute for the moisture of the lime juice, like 1/4 cup beef stock or something? I definitely want to try this again, with maybe only a sprinkle of lime juice. Thanks! ๐
Yes. If you look in South Beach Suggestions (after the recipe) it tells what phase each recipe is suitable for.
Is this a phase 1 recipe?
Jess, so glad you guys enjoyed them!
Diana, the inspiring recipe had Thai chiles, sauteed before the beef. I never have those on hand and they're a little hard to work with so I subbed Sriracha and loved the results!
What a creative use of Sriracha! I bet they'll get gobbled up in any group setting.
ABSOLUTELY delicious. my boyfriend have been making your lettuce wraps a lot lately and thought we would try this one for a little change. Has a delicious *zing*!!! We added some canned tomatoes that had soaked in oregano, garlic and basil, and also kept in the avocado from the other recipe. 5 stars!!! Wish I was brilliant enough to come up with these on my own too! ๐
This is so yummy looking! You are so talented! I just started my own recipe blog and I look to yours for inspiration! Keep up the good work! Stop by mine and give me feedback if you can!
Sounds delicious! I bet mint would taste great in there as well.
This is completely my style, my flavors, and I always have fish sauce and Sriracha in the pantry. Going to make this one immediately!
Thanks everyone. So glad people are liking the sound of this. I loved all the flavors in them.
Lettuce wraps are so much fun to eat and I love all the flavors in this recipe – a quick and easy dinner!
I am SUCH a thai food fanatic and you're right…these wraps sound great! Full of so much flavor!
Love these, Kalyn. They might give the Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps a good run for their money! ๐ Shared on my gfe Facebook page. ๐
Happy Friday!
Shirley
I love iceberg lettuce. A lovely simple recipe Kalyn. I make a similar dish but have never added siracha sauce to it.