These easy Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps make the best low-carb lunch or dinner! This super flavorful recipe is naturally keto-friendly, gluten-free, healthy, and easy to make ahead of time.
Keto Lettuce Wraps with Buffalo Chicken
This delicious Buffalo Chicken Wrap recipe is going to be your new favorite go-to meal! It tastes as good as a basket full of your favorite wings slathered in sauce, but it’s actually a perfectly healthy meal prep recipe you can feel good eating. You can easily double or triple this recipe to feed a crowd, and it’s a great lunchtime potluck recipe!
You can quickly make these on a busy weeknight for dinner, and they make great leftover lunches! Whether you choose to warm up the chicken or eat it cold, this is a healthy meal that satisfies all your salty, spicy food cravings.
Ingredients for Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll need for this recipe. For exact measurements, keep scrolling down to the printable recipe card.
- Ground chicken – You can often find ground chicken on sale, so this can be an excellent inexpensive meal! The texture keeps buffalo chicken salad nice and juicy instead of dried out. Feel free to swap with ground turkey if you prefer.
- Celery, Carrots – These pair perfectly with the ranch and buffalo sauce! This also helps stretch the chicken further, makes the dish more filling, and adds loads of nutrients to the meal.
- Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning packet – Such an easy way of seasoning! It also has thickening ingredients that help keep the sauce creamy and rich. Feel free to use a store brand version if you like that better.
- Chicken broth or water, Cream cheese, Buffalo sauce – These create a deliciously flavorful sauce! Homemade chicken stock adds more flavor than water, but water will work in a pinch. Softened, room temperature cream cheese melts into a smoother consistency, so remember to take it out of the fridge ahead of time.
- Bleu cheese crumbles – The perfect cheese to pair with buffalo sauce! The tangy flavor cuts through the sauce and works well with the ranch seasoning, too.
- Butter lettuce – This is a natural choice for lettuce cups because they already form the perfect size cup for filling! There’s a good crunch and mild flavor that goes with everything as well.
- Optional garnish: Green onions, celery, shredded carrots, additional ranch dressing
How to Make Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps
These easy chicken lettuce wraps are simple to throw together. Here’s a step-by-step guide for making this chicken meal prep recipe.
Brown the chicken & sauté veggies
Heat a large, greased skillet to medium heat. Brown the ground chicken, breaking it up into bite-sized pieces as it cooks. Drain off any grease, then add in the celery and carrots. Sauté until softened, about 3-4 minutes.
Season & simmer
Add the ranch seasoning packet to the skillet and stir in the broth or water. Continue stirring until seasonings are well incorporated. Cook for 4-5 minutes while the liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally to prevent things from sticking.
Add creamy sauce
In a small bowl, combine the room temperature cream cheese and buffalo sauce, stirring until smooth. If it’s difficult to stir out the clumps, microwave in 15-second increments to help soften and smooth it out. Pour this buffalo sauce mixture into the skillet and toss to coat. Spoon into lettuce wraps and top with bleu cheese as well as green onions, shredded carrots, and extra ranch.
Serve
These tasty Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps are great with crunchy keto chips (or these Ranch Zucchini Chips to add a little more nutrition). Sides you can eat with your hands always win when pairing with lettuce wraps… Think Keto Fries, Crispy Green Bean Fries, or Baked Zucchini Fries for easy low-carb recipes you can dip. If you like ranch but want more spice, try this Jalapeno Ranch Dip instead!
More great low-carb sides you could pair with lettuce wraps:
- Zucchini Fritters
- Keto Jalapeno Poppers
- Air Fryer Keto Mozzarella Sticks
- Grilled Zucchini Mozzarella Wraps
Storing & Reheating
This recipe is best stored in the fridge in an airtight container WITHOUT the lettuce wraps. When kept separate, the buffalo chicken filling can last up to 4 days. If you store them together, the moisture in the filling will ruin the lettuce wraps within a day. To keep lettuce fresh, store with a few paper towels to soak up moisture that could wilt the leaves.
To reheat, transfer the chicken filling to a microwave-safe dish and heat on 50% power for 45-60 second increments, stirring between each blast. This helps ensure the center gets hot without overheating the cream cheese mixture. If you don’t have a microwave, simply transfer back to the skillet and heat (covered with lid) on low, stirring occasionally.
Can you freeze lettuce wraps?
The crisp butter lettuce leaves cannot survive the freezing and defrosting process, so it’s not recommended to freeze these. However, you could freeze the chicken filling. Simply scoop into a freezer-safe container and enjoy within 3 months for the best flavor and texture. When ready to eat, thaw overnight in the fridge and give a good stir before reheating. Sometimes the texture of cream cheese can change a bit after freezing/thawing, so make sure to stir well.
If you love these chicken lettuce wraps, you’ll love these other keto wrap ideas:
- Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps – These are very similar but with a delicious mix of Asian inspired flavors! So easy to make ahead of time and great scooped onto celery and cucumbers slices, too!
- Turkey Wrap – This one is super easy and no cooking necessary! Instead of wrapping everything up in lettuce, a tasty cheese wrap holds everything together.
- Thai Chicken Collard Wrap – Blanched collard greens make durable burrito-style wraps that are super healthy! This is a big favorite in our house, and the dipping sauce is unbelievable.
- Chicken Bacon Wrap – If you enjoy keto tortillas, this TikTok-inspired recipe will work great for you! This creative wrap is folded and seared in a skillet for a delicious twist.
- Keto Italian Lettuce Wrap – This is another no-cook wrap, but it works best with super crunchy lettuce like Iceberg or Romaine!
Lettuce Wraps FAQs
This depends on your personal preference and the type of wrap you want. To hold this buffalo chicken salad, butter lettuce is perfect because it’s already the correct shape! If you want a more hotdog-style meal, romaine lettuce is great. When you want to roll up fillings as if the lettuce was a tortilla, blanched collard greens are perfect.
Most wraps can be made keto by simply swapping out a tortilla with a low-carb substitute like lettuce, cheese, homemade Zucchini Tortillas, or even keto-friendly store-bought tortillas. Make sure to leave out high-carb foods like beans, hummus, or sugar-filled dressings, and you should be good to go!
Yes, MOST brands of buffalo sauce are low in carbs and don’t include added sugars! Double check the label, but this is one flavor you can generally trust to lower in carbs (versus traditional barbecue sauce that does include added sugar).
Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1/4 cup celery chopped
- 1/4 cup carrots chopped
- 1 1 ounce Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning packet
- 1/3 cup water or chicken broth
- 2 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1/4 cup buffalo sauce
- 1/4 cup bleu cheese crumbles
- 1 large head of butter lettuce
- Garnish with chopped green onions celery, shredded carrots, and
- additional Ranch dressing if desired
Instructions
- Heat a large, greased skillet to medium heat. Brown the ground
chicken and drain off any grease. - Add the celery and carrots and sauté 3-4 minutes until softened.
- Add the Ranch seasoning and water, stir well to incorporate the seasonings. Allow the mixture to cook, stirring occasionally for 4-5 minutes until the liquid has evaporated.
- 4. In a small bowl combine the softened cream cheese and buffalo sauce and stir until smooth. (You may need to microwave the mixture in 15-second increments until the mixture is smooth)
- Pour the buffalo sauce mixture into the skillet and toss to coat.
- Serve the buffalo chicken mixture in butter lettuce wraps and sprinkle with the Bleu cheese crumbles. Garnish with chopped green onions, celery, shredded carrots, and additional ranch if desired.
