Ginger Scallion Chicken Wraps

5 from 2 votes

Ginger Scallion Chicken Wraps loaded with crunchy cabbage, sautéed shiitake mushrooms, and the most addictive ginger scallion dipping sauce. Ready in 25 minutess

Prep Time15

Cook Time10

Total Time25

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: American, Asian, Fusion

Servings: people

Author: Gaby Dalkin

Ingredients

½ head napa cabbage shredded
½ head purple cabbage shredded
1 yellow bell pepper cut into matchsticks
1 red bell pepper cut into matchsticks
½ english cucumber cut into matchsticks
6 ounces shitake mushrooms sliced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cooked chicken breasts shredded

For the Ginger/Scallion sauce:

1 bunch scallions thinly sliced (about 1 ¼ cup total)
1 3- inch piece of ginger peeled and very finely minced
4 cloves garlic minced
4 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
8 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
⅓ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

To Wrap

4 Large Spinach tortilla wraps

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine the napa cabbage, purple cabbage, yellow and red bell peppers, and cucumber. Set aside.
Heat the vegetable oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shiitake mushrooms in a single layer and sauté, stirring occasionally, until deeply golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the pan and add to the cabbage mixture along with the shredded rotisserie chicken.
In a separate bowl, whisk together all of the ginger scallion sauce ingredients until combined. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes to allow the flavors to meld. Set half of the sauce aside for dipping. Pour the remaining sauce over the cabbage and chicken mixture and toss until everything is evenly coated.
Lay the warmed tortillas on a clean work surface. Divide the filling evenly among the four wraps, placing it in the center of each. Fold the sides in and roll tightly from the bottom up, burrito style, to seal. Cut each wrap in half and serve immediately with the reserved ginger scallion sauce alongside for dipping.

Notes

Shred your chicken while it's still warm. Warm chicken pulls apart along natural muscle fibers much more easily than cold chicken. If you're using leftover chicken straight from the fridge, microwave it for 60 to 90 seconds first to loosen it up.
Salt your shredded cabbage and let it sit for 10 minutes before assembling. Salting draws out excess moisture through osmosis, which prevents the cabbage from releasing liquid into your wrap and turning the tortilla soggy. Squeeze out any pooled liquid before tossing with the sauce.
Cut your bell peppers and cucumber into uniform matchsticks no wider than a quarter inch. Consistent sizing ensures every bite has a balanced ratio of vegetables to chicken. It also makes rolling the wrap tighter and cleaner without lumpy spots that cause blowouts.
Mince the ginger as finely as possible, almost to a paste. Coarsely chopped ginger delivers uneven, sharp bursts of heat. A fine mince or paste distributes the ginger evenly throughout the sauce so every bite is balanced rather than occasionally overpowering.
Toast the sesame oil separately from everything else and add it last to the sauce. Toasted sesame oil is a finishing oil, not a cooking oil. Its delicate aromatic compounds degrade under heat and can be overpowered if mixed too aggressively. Stirring it in last preserves its nutty fragrance.
Cook the shiitake mushrooms in a single layer without crowding the pan. Overcrowding traps steam, which causes the mushrooms to braise rather than brown. A golden sear on the mushrooms builds savory umami depth that raw or steamed mushrooms simply cannot match.
Reserve exactly half the sauce before tossing it with the filling. The reserved sauce serves as a concentrated dipping sauce that has not been diluted by vegetable moisture. Once combined with the filling, the sauce weakens in flavor, so keeping it separate preserves its punchy intensity for dipping.
Warm your spinach tortillas in a dry skillet for 20 seconds per side before rolling. A warm tortilla is far more pliable than a cold one straight from the bag. Cold tortillas crack along the fold lines when you try to roll them tightly, which leads to tears and filling spills.
Roll the wrap like a burrito with the sides folded in first before rolling forward. Tucking the sides in before rolling forward traps the filling and prevents it from sliding out the ends. Rolling straight forward without tucking is the number one reason wraps fall apart on the first bite.
Pack the dipping sauce separately if you are making these for lunch. Sauce sitting against a tortilla for hours creates steam that turns the wrap limp and breaks down the cabbage texture. A small sealed container keeps the sauce at full potency and the wrap structurally intact until you eat.
Add the red pepper flakes to the warm vegetable oil before mixing the sauce. Briefly blooming chili flakes in warm oil extracts their fat-soluble capsaicin and color more effectively than simply stirring them into a cold sauce. This gives the entire dressing a deeper, more evenly distributed heat.
Use napa cabbage as the bulk of your filling and purple cabbage as the accent. Napa cabbage is more tender and has a higher water content, making it easier to bite through cleanly in a wrap. Purple cabbage is denser and slightly more bitter, so using less of it keeps the texture manageable and the flavor balanced.

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