Burger Deluxe Lettuce Wraps Recipe

It seems that whenever I commit myself to eating slightly lighter, healty-ish meals, hamburgers are the only thing on my mind. I'd love to say that turkey burgers are a sufficient enough swap, but the lean, white poultry is never the same as a juicy, buttery beef patty. More than that, the best hamburgers (to me, at least) are piled high with melty cheese, crispy bacon, and fried onions — so something closer to a comfort food than a nutritional powerhouse. That's why recipes like burger bowls are such a staple in my weekly routines, but sometimes, I still want that handheld aspect.

Another way to enjoy a hamburger in a lighter format is as a lettuce wrap. If you've ever been to P.F. Chang's, you'll likely recognize the leafy serving style from one of the restaurant's most popular appetizers. This burger deluxe version, which is served in a similar way with crumbled seasoned beef, crunchy lettuce, diced tomatoes, and burger sauce, captures the flavors of a burger deluxe without needing any bread. Great for gluten-free and low-glycemic diets, these lettuce wraps are a fun way to enjoy a burger deluxe without compromising any of those comforting flavors.

Making burger lettuce wraps requires a very similar grocery list to making standard deluxe hamburgers. For the burger meat, you'll need ground beef (you can use lean ground beef here, since you'll drain the grease anyway), Worcestershire sauce, oil, salt, and pepper. For the burger sauce, you'll need ketchup, mayonnaise, yellow mustard, pickle relish, garlic powder, and paprika. From there, you just need lettuce leaves and tomatoes to build the wraps. For lettuce, I recommend finding a head of romaine with mostly green leaves around the size you'd like to serve, keeping in mind that the inner leaves will be smaller than the large outer leaves.

Combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, relish, garlic powder, and paprika in a bowl. Set aside.

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.

Add ground beef and crumble until browned.

Drain the grease, then season the beef with salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce.

Assemble the burger wraps by filling each lettuce leaf with ground beef.

Top the lettuce wraps with chopped tomato and burger sauce before serving.

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This recipe directs you to make all of the burger wraps at once, but you can also serve it family-style so that everyone can build their own. This is useful for meal prepping, too, where you can separate and store the ingredients from each other for easier reheating. To serve family style, simply serve each element — the lettuce leaves, beef, sauce, and tomato — in different bowls, then assemble one-by-one at the table.

You can also serve lettuce wraps with other topping ingredients. You can use similar ingredients to a mushroom and Swiss burger bowl and add (or swap in) mushrooms, caramelized onions, and Swiss cheese. You could also go Cali-style with avocado, sprouts, and bacon bits, or swap the burger sauce for BBQ and add jalapeños for a cowboy-style lettuce wrap burger. The options are endless, but choose your serving style based on your crowd (or how many leftovers you expect to have).

Another way to serve burger lettuce wraps is by making the ground beef into patties and serving as burgers with lettuce buns. This doesn't take much longer, but does require shaping the meat into patties by hand. It's also recommended to use ground beef with a higher fat ratio, which produces a juicier burger — but you can also mix chopped mushrooms into leaner beef to get similarly juicy results.

To make the burger patties, add the salt, pepper, and Worcestershire into the beef and combine with your hands, being careful not to overmix. Shape the beef into patties and sear on a hot cast-iron skillet until browned, then flip and brown the second side. Cook through, then remove from the heat and let cool slightly. Once just cooled, slide the burger patty between two large lettuce leaves, top with sliced tomato, and finish with burger sauce. The flavor will be similar to the crumbled beef version, but the mouthfeel will be more akin to that of an actual burger, ideal for those who specifically want to enjoy burgers without the buns.

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